Day 46/72: Skydiving!!! And seals

Early in the morning I got a call to say that my Skydiving would be pushed back to 1000, which made us both fear for a day like the previous day of waiting for the jump. Fortunately, at 1000 we showed up and I got into my gear. I was the only one on my plane (apart from the instructor person and the photographer) and it was so nervewracking flying up above the clouds. At 13000ft we jumped out and had about 50 seconds of free falling time (the video is hilarious- just me desperately trying to breathe while slightly hyperventilating, while wearing a very attractive hat and goggles) and at 7000ft we pulled our parachute and the photographer continued his fall down to greet us on the ground. (he pulled his parachute at about 5000ft). The soft journey down to the ground was amazing, the views - even though it was slightly cloudy - were incredible, of golden beaches and cliffs and sparkly sea. We landed safely and it was absolutely amazing.

The rest of the day involved a drive up to the most northern tip of the island, and we stayed at Wharariki beach. We had a lovely walk to the beach across white sand dunes and spotted loads of seals all sat on the rocks around the edge. We climbed into caves and through limestone arches on the beach for a while, then enjoyed the sunny walk back to the campsite.

An evening of reading and relaxing followed (in which I started and finished a particularly captivating book) and an early night for Tom (while I stayed up to finish said book).Read more