Dancing in the sky! My first skydiving...

"You okay?" my tandem master asked when noticing that I have been staring blankly to the shrinking view over the plane windows.

"Yeap, cool" I replied, trying to look calm and solid.

I remembered that I've been wanting to this for the past few years, flying up in the sky, feel the breeze gently swept my face and finally the adrenalin rush, but I was actually thinking about paragliding and certainly not skydiving! And there I was, just few minutes from jumping from 12,000 feet high. The view beneath was all white clouds.

The camera-jumper lifted up the roller door, looked down and gave signal that the weather was not good.

"So we're gonna take another round. If the weather is still not good, we will have to cancel it and back to the ground. But let's hope for the best", said my tandem master. I felt a bit disappointed and yet kept on hoping that we could finally do the jump.

Allleluya! My prayer was answered. The "camera-man" gave his thumb, signaling that all was good! Phewwww...so relieved, but yet still nervous. Later on we found out that due to weather condition, the next group was not allowed to do the jump, so we could say we were so damn lucky! :-)

My cousin went first and it was time for me afterward. I couldn't feel anything nor think about anything. We shuffled towards the door and I was told to put my feet over the edge, turn my head to left for an exit camera snap, lay back my head to the shoulder of my tandem master, and....

"HERE WE GOOOO!! WE'RE FALLING!!,"

An exhilarating scream arose from my chest from the initial drop as we jumped out of the plane. It took a moment to realize we're facing the ground and I could see the ground below. The air rushed thunderously past my ears and although I knew we're dropping, it felt more like we were hovering. Floating in space while the wind roared.

"WHOOHOOOOOOO.....!!!" I tried to scream out to release the adrenalin rush and felt a bit better.
Check out my video and enjoy my super silly expression :-)

Another skydiver with camera suddenly was right in front of me with his camera facing to my face. I tried to look cool and give my best smile, though it was extremely difficult. How could you smile when the wind was strongly stretching your face! Many asked me a question if I could still breath properly. The answer is yes! I didn't have any problem in breathing while flying down. Yes, the weather was quite cool, but that's all. Probably I got too busy in enjoying it.

And then, after around 40 seconds, pppppffttttt....! I felt like we were springing upwards, and left the camera skydiver waaay downward and gradually disappeared. That was the time when the parachute was activated.

And now, there was only quite. I was sitting (or hanging to be exact) comfortably in the harness, and I finally had time to look around me.

I asked my tandem master about several places that I've seen up there, like which one was the Mount Ruapehu (or Mount Doom in the LoTR movie). He pointed one big mountain which was quite far away. So I felt more or less like Gandalf, flying on the big bird and picking up Frodo after he threw the ring at Mount Doom, haha...

"How many times have you done this?" I asked this to my tandem master. I knoooow... I should've asked this before getting on the plane.

"Hmmm... around 1400 times" he replied.

"Oh okay, then I'm really in good hands" I felt relieve.

"But I'm still not good at landing....haha...we'll see...," he mentioned, after asking if I were nervous.

"Ouch! That really helps!!" But somehow I knew that I would be ok. Then I countinued to enjoy the magical view of the great Lake Taupo, the city of Taupo, several mountains, etc. It was really amazing view!

My tandem master made some acrobatic actions, which made me scream a bit. He suddenly manuvered in speed and then release it so it felt like we're falling down without anything holding us from speeding, and it was cool! I like it!

The landing came all too soon. I touched down on the green grass, still feeling nauseous with adrenalin, but wanting to do it all over again....soon, not now! Hahaha...