We’ll pick up well into the day today. The last of the hermitocity was still working it’s way through my system. But, like I said yesterday, I did put one thing on today’s itinerary - jumping off the Sky Tower!
The Sky Tower is a Space-Needle-esque building in Auckland. It is 1,076 ft tall, almost twice as tall as the Space Needle. On NewZealand.com, I found a suggested itinerary for a two-week stay in New Zealand, working from Auckland at the northernmost end of the North Island to somewhere in the south of the South Island.
In Auckland, one of the suggested activities was doing the SkyWalk or SkyJump at the SkyTower. I watched YouTube videos of both and decided that the walk (a guided 100-meter walk on a 1m-wide platform encircling the outside of the building at about 600 ft off of the ground) looked unnerving, so I chose the option where you just step out to that same platform and jump off.
I still didn’t book it until this afternoon, about two hours ahead of my jump time. That worked out nicely, because I didn’t have too much time to dwell on the fact that I was about to hurl myself off of the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere (it sounds way more dramatic when you put it that way).
I walked the 10-15 minutes from my apartment to the tower. During check in, they weighed me, put me in a jumpsuit and harness, and sent me up the elevator. Every employee with whom I came into contact from the check-in desk to looking out over Auckland from 600 ft up asked whether I had done anything like this before and how I was feeling. The answers were, “Nope. Never have!” and “I’m terrified.”
One of the things that motivated this, actually, is that I’ve been feeling a little nervous about heights lately. This is a new thing for me and I don’t at all approve. So, I decided that this was a good way to handle that situation - find the tallest building in the hemisphere and jump off it (see, very dramatic).
They make sure that you’re all harnessed in, then have you stand on the platform with your toes over the edge and your hands holding onto a pole on either side of you. Actually, those poles were right at the edge of my reach. I don’t know what a shorter person would do. So, now you’re leaning out over the city. Then, they count to three and you jump.
They counted to three and I jumped.
It was scary, but super fun. I just trusted that I wouldn’t die regardless of what anything my brain was trying to convince me. The cable attached to your harness keeps enough tension that it wasn’t actually a free fall, but it’s still a fall at 50 mph. I survived and even decided that maybe I should add a couple of more experiences like this to my trip. I hear good things about Queenstown on the South Island…
I paid for photos and video, but I need to be at an actual computer before I can do anything with those, so, until then, this single collage will have to suffice.
The rest of the day was basically just finally making a New Zealand plan. I used that website I mentioned before to identify places and experiences that looked interesting. This gave me a rough idea of how much time I would spend in which parts of the islands. The BIGGEST question was deciding my mode of transportation. I think that will be a bit more blog-relevant tomorrow morning, so I’ll save it for then.
But now I have a plan! Sort of. For the next couple of days.