Skydiving!

I went to Taupo (middle of the North Island) for a week-long course for work a few weeks ago, and while we were there, my coworker Lekshmi and I decided we wanted to go skydiving. (We were on the course with four male coworkers, all of whom were too scared to join us. Hee hee hee.)

We jumped out of the plane at 15,000 feet and had 90 seconds of freefall. We tandem jumped (strapped to an instructor) and after 90 seconds the instructor opened the parachute so we could sail the rest of the way down to the ground.

I liked the parachuting part the best. The freefall wasn't scary like I thought it would be--we were too high up for my brain to be able to figure out I was falling. (My stomach turned over for a very brief moment just as we jumped out of the plane, but once the airplane was out of my peripheral vision, the feeling of falling went away.) But I felt like I couldn't breathe because the air was moving by so fast, and it felt like water was rushing up my nose. Lekshmi had some serious ear pain. But the parachuting part was really pretty--it felt like we could see the whole country.

This is me and Lekshmi waiting for our turn to get on the plane.

Another coworker took a video of us landing, but I can't seem to get it to upload--it keeps hanging when it's about 85% finished. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

There was a video service available but it cost an extra $150. It wasn't worth it to me. But someone else, who went to the same skydiving place I did, posted their $150 video on YouTube. So just pretend one of those people is me. What do you think--is the video worth the money?