SkyJump Auckland - Oct 16th 2016

October 16th...8 years ago, on this day, my Mum passed away from her battle with Pancreatic Cancer. She was one of my major inspirations for embarking on my bucket list journey. After losing my Dad when I was 9 (he was just 34) and my Mum 8 years previously (she was just 58), it highlighted to me just how short life is, and you have to make the most of every day. My Mum died with things she wished she had done, so my goal is to do as many things as I can in life and never turn down the opportunity to do something if the opportunity arises. 

So this year I wanted to turn this anniversary into something to celebrate living life and celebrating my Mum's life. Anyone who knew my Mum knew how much she loved going to the Skycity casino...so why not celebrate life and her love for SkyCity by jumping off it with my 15 year old daughter of course!!! And of course the opportunity arose when a friend of mine gave me a voucher to do it...never say no to an opportunity right?? 

In honour of my Mum xx

The night before our jump, we were heading out for the evening - and drove past the sky tower. It suddenly dawned on me - my daughter and I were going to JUMP OFF that tomorrow. Jump off a perfectly stable building - what!! Falling 192m and speeds of 85km per hour - were we insane?? 

The morning of the 16th came, and I woke up feeling HUGELY nervous. This is crazy, I thought, I have walked around the sky tower and jumped out of a plane, why am I so nervous about this one? So over breakfast I thought I would watch a couple of videos of others doing it - couldn't be too bad, right? But I was in such a nervous state and it was quite an emotional day for me anyway, it just made me so much worse. So, I went and got in the shower, bawled my eyes out, shook myself off, got out of the shower, told myself to put on my big girl pants, and felt much better (but still highly anxious). Everyone tells me - wow, I couldn't ever do some of the things you've done - but honestly, you often only see the end result - sometimes there is a lot of anxiety and things I have to do to be able to even get to doing it - I'm just a regular woman with high anxieties like anyone else. But back to the jump - it was time to put one foot in front of the other and get in the car and go.

I don't look nervous at all!

The trick to doing a lot of these things when you are scared is to just put one foot in front of the other - don't think about the end result, but just what the next step is. So off I went, found the reception, signed my life away (on a form that was entitled "Toe Tag" I might add - eek!), got suited up, followed the guy up to the jump area, and then sat down and waited my turn. And then get REALLY nervous. They asked whether they wanted my daughter to go first or me...ummm I better go first I thought - if I watch my daughter plummet off a building first I won't be able to do it. Come on in then...

It was time to do this. The staff were AMAZING. They put you right at ease and could see I was super anxious. They asked what I was worried about, and then reassured me that you do NOT get a feeling of falling (a feeling which I can not stand), because it was a controlled fall. OK - maybe I could do this then. And out the doors we went. 

So you get the choice of jumping off yourself (forwards) or if you are feeling a bit chicken (like I was), you go backwards, where they hold you and then let you go. That was the option I went for - although in hindsight, I wished I'd had just that extra bit of courage to go forwards and do it myself (next time, right?) I was super proud of my daughter, who did have the courage to go forwards - you're awesome! 

Here's a link to the video of my fall for your entertainment :) Excuse the screaming...

https://youtu.be/6J8deNyxn0Y

And I did it! And it was excellent! The sensation was the same sensation as I got free-falling in my skydive...which was truly amazing (I'll blog about that one soon ;) )...to celebrate we got a ticket to go up the Skytower and look back down again, without any fear this time, and anyone who knows me knows - you have to celebrate with a bubbles!

 The two questions I always ask myself at the end:

Am I glad I did it?
Yes, absolutely. It was an awesome experience, the staff were amazing, and I'm so proud of my daughter who did it with me :)

Would I do it again?
To be honest, I would if the opportunity arose - but wouldn't pay to do it again. Only because it's one of those experiences that you probably don't need to do numerous times. The reason I would do it again, if the opportunity arose, would be just to have the confidence to let myself go forward this time, but that's the only reason I'd do it again. But, of course, if someone offered me a jump for free, I'd definitely go again. It's an experience you should do once in your lifetime. For the money it costs to do it, I would probably be more inclined to do more skydives, as they aren't that much more expensive and you get a much longer period of free falling (which was the same feeling) followed by a parachute. But that's just my opinion :)

So that's my SkyJump adventure for you. If I have actually inspired you to want to give it a try next time you are in Auckland you can check out the details at SkyJump - the jump was $225 for an adult and $175 for a child (ages 10-15) but you can combine with the SkyWalk (another thing I have done) for $290 for both. The minimum age for the SkyJump is 10.