15.000ft

I put it to the test
I'm in second gear
I get it of my chest
I won't quit or rest
I will feel no fear, no fear!

Let it go, let it flow
Through my mind and through my soul
It's all adrenaline, yeah yeah yeah yeah
Let it go, let it blow
From my vains up to my brain
I need adrenaline
To take control

And I wonder
How far I'll go
But it kills me
I need to know

I put to the test
I'm in second gear
I get it of my chest
I won't quit or rest
I will feel no fear, no fear!

Di-Rect - Adrenaline
[record label unknown] 2002

Adrenaline. This is what Wiki says: "Epinephrine (adrenaline) is a hormone and neurotransmitter. When secreted into the bloodstream, it rapidly prepares the body for action in emergency situations.

The hormone boosts the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles, while suppressing other non-emergency bodily processes (digestion in particular). It increases heart rate and stroke volume, dilates the pupils, and constricts arterioles in the skin and gut while dilating arterioles in skeletal muscles."

Okay, you still here? Hope so! Arterioles, neurotransmitters? Whatever. That Wiki stuff didn't really help me out, the only thing I know is that adrenaline feels good. Real Goood!! (Capital G, triple O's, two exclamation marks, now that is really, really good!) And skydiving gets you lots of it.

I chose to skydive over Taupo as it's the cheapest in the whole of New Zealand and one of the last opportunities on the way North. We arrived in Taupo around noon and went straight to the skydive centre.

I was afraid that we couldn't jump because of the wind conditions, but that posed no problem at all. We got whisked over to a TV room to watch a skydiving video, which made me a bit nervous but also added to my anticipation to jump. I had really been looking forward to skydive as opposed to bungy jumping, of which I wasn't sure I would do in New Zealand.

To be honest, I didn't feel strange about skydiving at all, it just didn't seem that scary to me. Surreal. After the video, we suited up and got to the plane. Me and a Swiss guy bought the DVD and photo package, and the camera guys were happily snapping away. I posed some with my instructor - lets call him 'Thumb' - then climbed into the aircraft. The eight of us (me, two Swiss friends, our instructors and two camera guys) barely fitted in there, and we after some taxing we took off.

I sat between the legs of my instructor next to the glass door, so I had a kings view on Lake Taupo and the surrounding forests. I also had a good view on one of the Swiss guys, who was scared shitless. It was too funny really, to see him peeking out the window, then quickly averting his eyes again, sweating. I felt great, couldn't get the grin of my face at the prospect of what I was about to do, jump out of a plane, 15.000 feet up in the sky. Sick!

The moment is drawing nearer and nearer. We're piercing through the clouds, turning towards to lakes. I get an oxygen mask from my instructor. A bit odd, as the stuff that I'm breathing through it doesn't taste any different than the air in the plane, which I can still breath easily. Ah well. Behind me I hear "Doors open", and the wall on my right slides back.

Even more cold air rushes into the aircraft. Thumb has attached me to his harnass by now, and is busy checking and securing all the straps and locks on my harnass. The sweating and panting Swiss guy shuffles to the exit together with his intructor. I salute him, he salutes back. He dangles his legs over the edge, the intructor yells something in his ear, he lays his head back in his neck, and a second later they've disappeared. Gone with the wind. Just like that. It also means, it's now my turn.

My cameraman heads for the exit and swings himself outside to make room for me and Thumb strapped to my back. I stand on the ridge mounted on the outside of the aircraft and Thumb yells in my ear to tilt my head back over his shoulder. I do as he says, then feel him edging forward. Wait a second.

Aren't you supposed to tell me what to do? Where to keep my feet, how to shape my body during the fall? None of that. Out of the plane, and fast! Thumb steadies himself, then pushes himself out of the plane, as my cameraman does the same. We're off. We're free. We did it.

The first second is utter terror. Part of your mind knows everything is going to be alright, the other part is paralysed with fear. I think "I don't like this at all", but then the adrenaline kicks in. It rushes through my body, from my head to my toes, from my pinky finger to my arse. I'm falling but it doesn't feel like it. I can see the whole world from up here, I'm king. It's awesome. Sweet as. Super. Choice. Primo. Wicked. On top. Incomparable to anything I've ever felt in my whole life.

After what felt like 10 seconds but would have been closer to a minute Thumb pulls the parachute and I can catch my breath. I'm laughing out loud up there in the sky, so much energy in my body that needed to get out. We steer to the ground real fast, real steep. Thumb was in a bit of a hurry I reckon. No way that his little parachute tricks could impress me now that I just jumped out of a friggin airplane. Don't try to insult me, mate.

Things to do before I die: skydiving: check

Back on the ground and waited for the Swedish girl to finish their jumps, then had some well deserved beers back at the hostel. Skydiving is the sickest thing I've ever done, and it was worth every penny. I couldn't stop laughing all night. Even when I was lying in my bed, staring at the bunk above me, shaking my head, reliving my jump, and smiling.

Let it go, let it blow
From my vains up to my brain
I need adrenaline
To take control

I won't quit or rest
I will feel no fear, NO FEAR! 

Wow.