Having never sky-dove before, I was pretty excited to give it a try. Lake Taupo, near the center of the North island of New Zealand, is one of the most popular skydive locations in the world. Known for its beauty and adventurous travelers (and locals), New Zealand seemed the perfect place to take the plunge.

There must be hundreds of skydive operators in New Zealand, and everywhere you go, you are blasted with skydiving and bungee jumping flyers. There are 3 main ones in Lake Taupo(Taupo Tandem Skydiving, Freefall, and Skydive Taupo), and because it is so popular (they say it is the most jumped place in the world) it consequently is also one of the cheapest (awesome if you are a poor or broke budget traveler).

Prices depend on your photo package and jump height. I opted for the basic package from Freefall (no photos or video) and went with the 12,000 foot drop rather than the 15,000 foot drop. I was told I would get about 45 seconds of freefall with the 12,000 foot jump as opposed to just over a minute with the 15,000 foot jump.

There really isn’t much to it either, you just show up, watch a quick DVD that gets you all psyched up, they suit you up, and then BAM! you are on the plane. Since they had an opening right away, I drove right over to the hangar and within 20 minutes of booking, I was in the air.

Being the Winter/ early Spring, it was going to be cold, so they provided a hat and gloves along with the jumpsuit, which ended up being crucial, cause it was cold up there! I climbed into the plane and we ascended quite quickly. The view of the trees, lake and surrounding mountains was amazing, although it’s hard to take it all in with all the noise excitement and anticipation.

Once you hit the jump altitude, they open the ‘garage door’ on the side of the plane. They inch you to the edge and you kind of hang off while your tandem parachutist gets situated. I was the last to jump, so I got to see everybody else disappear out the door (and i do mean disappear, they just vanish). The plane wiggles and jumps a bit after each skydiver leaves the plane, only adding to the anticipation.

Finally it was my turn and we inched to the edge and I began to hang over, held only by a few straps to the guy behind me in the plane. The feeling is a bit surreal as you are so high up, it feels like you are in a windstorm with only an aerial photo below you. Then you fall.

You spin for a few seconds and completely lose your bearings while at the same time feeling the weightlessness of the freefall. You come to face the earth and begin to acclimate to the falling sensation, although the wind stays intense. You take a look around, enjoy the scenery for what feels like 10 seconds, and then the chute is pulled at 5,000 feet.

Once you hit 5,000 feet, you begin to regain that falling sensation as you can now perceive distances better. My spotter let me take the controls for awhile so I was able to turn and spin and really enjoy the glide down. We landed in a field next to the lake, about 20 feet from where we took off and it was over.

They put us in a room so we could see the jump DVD, which was pretty entertaining while we all just tried to wrap our heads around what just happened. What an experience! I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The whole experience is over so fast, you really need to try and be calm and just enjoy it. I can see why the recommend the 15,000 foot jump, although I would probably just do the 12,000 foot dive twice for a more full experience.