Our Far Away Tales

Hi everyone,

We have been travelling for about 10 months now and during this time we have kept a blog - our destinations are Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Our next destinaitons are Bolivia and Peru.

We just wanted to put a link to our blog on here: www.farawaytales.blogspot.com it is always nice to get comments, as we love getting messages!

Here is an example of our blogposts, it's about skydiving in New Zealand!

“If they said you could do it today, would you do it?” Andrew asked. “Yes, I’d just want to get it over and done with”. I replied. We got in the car, our plan for the day being to at least find out how much it would cost and to see Mount Doom. “Shall we go to Taupo or Mount Doom first?” Andrew asked. “Taupo?” I replied and we smiled knowingly at each other. We seemed to have made a silent pact and so we headed for Taupo, neither of us willing to utter the dreaded word skydive, but knowing in our hearts that we would jump that day, no matter what.

I’d never told anyone I was going to do it, I didn’t want the pressure, but Andrew had precisely because he knew that there’d be no backing out then. The only problem for me, however, was that I’m pressure enough for myself and in reality there was no way I was going to let myself get away with not jumping, especially if Andrew was and even if I was terrified just thinking about it. I’d been terrified since Andrew mentioned it last year and I was convinced I’d be terrified until it was over! For months leading up to that day I’d been worrying about all the things that could go wrong: getting caught up on the plane, hitting the wing on the way out, getting my feet tangled in the parachute, becoming detached from the tandem master, having a heart attack on the way down and last but certainly not least, the parachute not opening!

We arrived at the Freefall skydive centre to be greeted by two lovely ladies who answered all my safety questions with patience and invited us to watch the DvD of some people who’d just landed and as we watch every part of my body was shaking. We walk back to the desk “what’s the verdict?” one of the girls asks, “I think we are going to do it” I reluctantly admit and within ten minutes we’re into our jump suites and harnesses and climbing 15,000 feet into the air. Juddy, my tandem partner was really kind and so I felt comfortable enough to ask him too many questions, such as “am I strapped in properly?” He made fun of my being nervous saying things like “if we do happen to become detached, I just want you to know, I’ll be fine!”

I knew it would soon be time to jump when everyone started to shake hands. I reluctantly let go of Andrew and the next thing I knew my legs were dangling from the plane and we were out, head first and free falling through the sky! I think I screamed and I remember smiling and frowning at the same time at the sheer ridiculousness of the occasion. I could see all around - the countryside and Lake Taupo, I was like a bird (a very terrified bird with pinned cheeks) flying through the sky! Then suddenly we jolted upwards and that’s when the wonderful parachute opened and I burst out laughing. “How was that?” Juddy disturbed the silence with small talk as we floated through the air. “Amazing!” I exclaimed. “Would you do it again?” He asked “Um, maybe” I said (a big maybe!). “So what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” He asked. “I don’t care”. I said. “I’ve just done this!” After doing some loops we land and I’m hugging everyone in sight and I still can’t stop giggling! A grinning Andrew lands shortly after and soon we’re watching our own skydive DvD!

I felt so brave and it was the first time in my life I have been able to say that and really believed it! That day we made a leap of faith and felt alive, and it taught me that sometimes when you think something bad is going to happen, it often doesn’t, even when you feel danger is starring you in the face! The only problem then was, what were we going to do with the rest of the day?!

Hope it's helpful!

Ria and Andrew