Entirely World Famous - NZONE Skydive

Nicquel from Australia won the job to promote New Zealand for three months! Nicquel Tandem Skydived with NZONE in Rotorua on her Entirely World Famous Tour

Why wouldn't you jump out of a perfectly good plane, 15,000ft above the beautiful lakes of Rotorua just for fun?  Sounds like a very reasonable and sane activity to me... 

I left the faith of my life in the hands of a very experienced skydiving instructor, Paul.  The personal challenge of being strapped to nothing but a parachute and hurling towards the ground at 130 miles/hour is immense.

As I started to prepare for my jump, the sign-your-life away forms were a bit of a reality check.  Every paragraph stressed that there is a possibility (however miniscule) that you can die from jumping out of a plane. 

Okay, palms starting to sweat a little bit... However Paul reassured me that this is just a precautionary procedure and the chances of something actually going wrong is very slim.

After watching an instructional video on what to do and what not to do, Sarah the sales and marketing manager helped me get into my very attractive jump suit and harness.

All geared up I was ready for my flight high above the Rotorua thermal region, where I had a birds eye view of the dramatic geothermal activity and forests. 

As we were climbing Paul shared his vast knowledge about the region pointing out iconic features of Rotorua.

Trying very hard to take in all the information he was sharing, my brain started to conjure up the `what if' scenarios. 

`What if' my parachute doesn't open, `What if' my harness isn't done up properly, `What if'...

"Right we're at 15,000ft" Paul yelled over the noise of the engine.  What?? OMG. 

No turning back now I thought as I was hanging out of the plane, legs dangling in the air.  ONE, TWO, THREE...

No words can describe the feeling of free falling to what seems like your death.  I didn't know whether to scream or smile so I just did both.  I hope Paul has regained his hearing.

After freefalling for the longest 60 seconds of my life, Paul deployed the parachute and we screamed to a halt (literally - I hadn't stopped screaming by this point).

Taking in the view we slowly glided back to earth.  The canopy ride took about 5 minutes and Paul let me have a bit of fun by pulling down hard on one of the cords. 

Consequently we went round in circles extremely fast and any sense of orientation I had recovered instantaneously disappeared.

The first thing I said once we safely landed was "can I do it again?!". 

The whole experience was amazing and I'm so glad my first jump was in Rotorua - the scenery is just spectacular.

Prices start from $269 per person.  For more information on prices and altitudes please visit their website at:  www.nzone.biz

Travel story provided by Nicquel Rhoden on the `Entirely World Famous Tour'.