Big Foot

The Christmas dinner we were invited to was nice, the food was great and the people were nice, we even played a game of croquet which we lost against John (the guy who gave us the lift and invited us). But despite all the nice people and the good food it didn't feel like Christmas at all. Christmas is supposed to be cold and dark, not sitting outside with clear skies and 28 degrees. This doesn't mean I didn't appreciate the party though; hell me and Jasper even got a present (two black beanies). When we got back to our tent that night I took off my boots and found Santa had left me another Christmas present; while the wound that was initially infected was starting to heal I now found that one of the other wounds had started to get infected as well. My foot had swollen to twice the size of my left and it was all red with the exception of the black crust that had formed over the wound. The next morning we decided we'd stay another day, as there was no way I could walk with a foot like that, my boots wouldn't even fit. There were some slight difficulties when we tried to book another night because there was someone else booked on our spot, but the lady behind the reception was nice enough to find a way for them to go to another spot, so we didn't have to move our tent.
We spent most of the day in the TV lounge, with me occasionally cleaning my foot with an antiseptic solution. Turns out midday is not the best time to be sitting in the TV lounge though; every 5 seconds a kid would slam open the door, stare at the TV and shout "WHAT MOVIE IS THIS?", it was very tiring.
The next day my foot didn't look any better, but I didn't want to stay in Napier any longer so we decided to move on. I still couldn't fit in my boots so I walked on my sandals and it was grueling, the sandals offered no support at all and their straps cut into my sore foot. I was glad when after not too long we got picked up and driven to the exit towards Taupo, and soon after that straight to Taupo. After we arrived in Taupo it was still about a 40 minute walk to the campsite and by the end of the day I was dead tired. My feet were covered in a sticky black substance, which after further investigation turned out to be molten rubber from my sandals. We tried to book a drift diving trip for the next day, but when the lady behind the reception tried to call them it turned out neither of the companies still existed. The next day my foot looked and felt the same as it did the day before and I was seriously considering going to a doctor, but decided I’d give it one more day and try soaking it in an antiseptic for a few minutes. That evening we went to the cinema for lack of anything better to do. We watched Avatar and it was pretty good, though the story wasn’t very original. The next day my foot looked considerably better and I decided I’d give it a days rest to be sure it healed fully, while Jasper spent the day in town, at the local internet café to be precise, I spent my day reading and watching TV. Because the skydive we’d booked for that day was cancelled due to heavy winds I had more than enough time to rest.
The next day we woke up at 8, fresh and ready for our suicidal jump out of an airplane. I had had plenty of time to think about it the day before and I was pretty nervous. They picked us up in a minivan and drove us to the airport. There were 3 other girls in the van and seeing how nervous they were helped to calm me down. We arrived at a big hangar where we were given a choice as to what extras we’d like with our skydive, DVDs and pictures and all that, but since it cost at least $150 extra to get a DVD of your jump I figured I’d skip all the extras. The girls were on a plane earlier us, so we had to wait a bit longer. Finally we were all suited up and met our instructor, or tandem master as they called them, who did a final check on our gear. When after the check I could still move my shoulder out of the straps quite easily I got just a tad nervous, but Joel (my instructor) assured me everything was alright. Me and Joel were last to jump out and so were the first to get in the plane, we shuffled to the front of the plane (you jump out the back) and pretty soon the entire plane was packed. The take-off was smooth, but seeing as it was a small aircraft there was quite a lot of turbulence, and when we leveled out at 12.000 ft. to let two guys jump out it felt as if we were suddenly plummeting to the earth; but this was only because our ascend had been so steep. When we were level, the two guys jumped out and when they did the plane would rock back and forth quite heavily. We then continued to 15.000 ft. and one by one the people in front of me jumped out until it was just me and Joel left. We slowly scooted over to the back of the plane and he had me sit on the edge with my legs tucked under the plane. A quick wave at the camera and we were off! Or so I thought anyway, for some reason he had me hang out of the plane for a second or two before we jumped and the suspense was killing me. I tried my best not jump down and not to think about the fact that I was about to jump out of an airplane in mid-air. Then finally we jumped and my entire body tensed as I realized I just jumped out of an airplane 15.000 ft. in the sky and there was nothing below me but the hard ground. It took me a few seconds to calm myself down and force the falling feeling to go away, and soon I was enjoying it immensely. When Joel tapped me on the shoulder to indicate I could hold out my hands (We were told to keep them close to our body until tapped on the shoulder) I held out my arms and immediately they were pulled back by the sheer force of the air we were moving through. The feeling of falling was so surreal that at first I did nothing but stare around me, probably with my mouth open judging by how dry it was towards the end, eventually I started to get used to it and did the superman pose and pretended to be swimming through the sky. Then, after what seemed like only 10 seconds, Joel pulled the chord and the parachute opened. With a shock we were pulled from a horizontal to a vertical position and Joel started to loosen some of the straps to make it more comfortable for me. It was a bit of a shock to feel yourself not secured as tightly anymore, but that soon passed. The parachute ride was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the ride. As we circled through the sky the parachute howled in the wind and at times we reached an almost horizontal position. I now also had the time to look at the scenery and because the sky was so clear you could see for miles and miles. Too soon we were approaching the ground again and I was told to pull up my legs while we landed. Afterwards we watched the DVD that they compiled from all the footage they shot and went back to our campsite. The rest of the day I spent in a daze, still in shock from the jump I guess. We booked our trip through the Tongariro Valley for the next day, and we had to get up at 5 am for that. Unfortunately it was New Years Eve so going to bed early probably wasn’t going to be an option. We were planning to have a drink with the people from the park and then head to bed right after, but at 10pm we were devastated and decided to just go to bed. There was a concert close to the campsite so we could enjoy the loud music while we tried to sleep. We got woken up at about 12pm because jasper set his alarm to send some texts back home, but the network was too busy so he ended up not being able to send them. Soon after I was called by my family who wanted to wish me a happy new year, I probably sounded like I wasn’t completely paying attention because I was still half asleep.

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