Things to do before you die

This weekend watched back to back episodes of "Things to do before you die" in Nat Geo Adventure featuring Australia and New Zealand. Surprisingly I have covered more activities in New Zealand than in Australia.

My personal top 10 things to do which I highly recommend are

10. Mud Bath and Spa in Rotorura, NZ: Start of the adventure trip in NZ, Dec 2008. The very first activity was to have a day long session in the Rotorura mineral mud bath and spa. A relaxing start to a great trip.

9.  Zorbing in Rotorura, NZ: It is an amazing experience when you get into a sphere filled with water and you are rolled over down a hill.  Rotorua is the place where zorbing first started and hold the records for the longest zorbing experience.

Zorbing at Rotorua, New Zealand

8. White water rafting, Grade 5, Shotover river, NZ: Awesome start to the new year 2009 with a grade 5 white water rafting.  Queenstown is the best adventure and holiday destination. The trip to the shotover river was equally adventurous.

7. Theme park and Surfer's paradise in Gold Coast, AU: During winter 2007, took off to the warmer parts of the country. Surfer’s paradise is truly a paradise for beach lovers, regretted the fact that I could not surf. However, the theme parks Movie world, Sea world and Wet and wild were pretty amazing. Superman escape and Police academy were unforgettable.

6. Maori Hakka Dance, Rotorura, NZ: Booked a dinner in one of the maori villages in Rotorura. The highlight was the hakka dance, which is a tradition by the kiwi to mentally break and scare off their enemies. This is made more famous by the All Blacks, Kiwi Rugby team. Learning the hakka was fun, kammate kammate ….

Hakka dance, maori village, New Zealand

5. Great Ocean Drive, Victoria, AU: This one is a beauty, have driven several times and will drive several more times on the great ocean road. The best trip was with my parents in 2011 because we had an overnight stay and I didn’t had to share the wheels with anyone else.

4. Sydney New Year Celebrations, AU: Had an amazing new year’s eve during 2010 new year with my parents. Got a seat just outside the opera house and witnessed the most beautiful new year celebrations after a wait time of 14 hrs. Absolutely worth it.

Sydney New Year 2010

3. Scuba Diving and Snorkelling in Great Barrier Reef, AU: One of the seven natural wonders of the world, Great Barrier Reef is famous for its scuba diving and snorkelling. This is also made famous through “The best job in the world campaign”. It was an out of the world experience diving in the reef and swimming with the colourful fishes and reefs. It was so excited that my mask went off and had to be rescued from underwater by the tour operator. Snorkelling was another interesting story, I knew I was a poor swimmer but jumped into the ocean with a floating noodle. Could not manage it so just clung to the boat . However one of the tour guides jumped into the water with a floating tube and asked me and 3 of my friends who could not swim to cling to it and she took us around the reef. Amazing woman could not stop thanking her for the wonderful experience.

Photo taken by our tour operator's photographer

2. Bungee Jumping over Kawarau river, NZ: New year 2009, after white water rafting in the morning. Came down to Kawarau river for bungee jumping. This is the place where bungee jumping started and it one of the busiest bungee jumping sites in the world. So if you don’t book in advance you will not get a slot. As usual, only the married guys were not given the permission so they just had to watch us. Didn’t feel much excited as I thought 200ft of bungee jumping should be easy. However, it all changed soon, the feeling when you get to the spot and your legs are tied and you are standing on the edge waiting to jump. Your instincts stay don’t do it you crazy fellow but your brain says do it look at the 12 yr old kid who jumped before you. Finally I jumped and it is all about that that few seconds before you hit the water. Amazing experience, you can’t describe it in words. I knew my jump wasn’t as smooth but am sure I will make it perfect next time and will jump tandem in the only place where you can jump along with your loved one.

Bungee Jumping @ Kuwarau river, NZ

                                         
1. Sky Diving over Great Barrier Reef, AU: The wait is over and the number one spot goes to Sky Diving. This was something I never planned or aspired to do but ended my being my best experience. After scuba diving, we were roaming in the streets of cairns looking around for activities for the next couple of days. My friend found out about white water rafting and wanted us to do it, my other friend was asked why not sky diving, he was kidding and myself and my other friend said let’s do it. My married friends didn’t get the approvals and my first friend went for white water rafting. So it was three of us, all excited but didn’t know whether it was really safe. So my friend called up his dad who is a doctor and asked if it is medically safe to do a sky dive? Surprisingly his father said it is safe go and jump. So we all booked for the next day’s slot.

                I didn’t feel much when I booked it but the more I thought about it I more scared I got and it was the longest night of my life. I called up family and friends and everyone was asking why I have become so nice suddenly. Next day got picked up from our cottage and it was a 2 hr drive to the destination. The plan was to fly in a flight to an altitude of 12k ft and jump. However, the weather was not that great so they had cancelled all jumps in the morning. We were pretty sad and spoke to the operator telling them we are tourists from india and came all over from india for sky diving. So he said he will put us in the first batch if they got the clearance. Finally @ 3pm we got the clearance and that is when it started to get strange. First they got my signature stating they are not responsible if something happens to me. Then the guy who was taking the video asked us to tell our last prayers.

I jumped from this plane ...

                After some training, we boarded the flight with parachutes and each one of us were tied to an instructor. In no time we were flying in a plane which had no seats, no doors and the pilot was sitting just ahead of us. We reached 12k feet and the pilot signalled the instructors and quickly the first guy jumped out, it looked as if he was sucked out into a turbine. Then my chance came and it was scary sitting on the door and viewing down at an altitude of 12k feet. He instructor gave a push and I was falling freeing from the plane, I was still in the state of shock. Forgot all the training lessons and the instructor had to forcibly open my arms. It became fun after a few seconds and It was an amazing feeling freely falling. The view was awesome as we jumped over the great barrier reef and plan was to land on the beach. Suddenly @ 3k ft felt something strange, the parachute had opened and the instructor gave me control to guide the parachute. Finally we landed on the beach and overall it was an amazing experience which I think I will do it again..

Other things which got added to my do list after watching the show

5. Drive a Lamborghini, AU

4. Trip to Uluru, AU

3. Learn to Surf, AU

2. Tasmania, AU

1. Aussie Road Trip - Outback , AU

"Fear is temporary, regret is permanent. Go take the plunge"