As part of our conference/family visit/holiday around New Zealand earlier this year, Matt and I spent a couple of nights in Queenstown. The main thing we were planning to do there was the gondola and luge. We'd seen lots of people paragliding, since our accommodation was not far from the base of the mountain.
When we were up on the mountain, I commented to Matt that it looked fun, and I was tempted to have a go. Matt said I should, and it could be my 30th birthday present. I deliberated for quite awhile - should I do it? Will I be too scared? Am I too heavy? Is it too expensive? Aw, but it would be fun! But I'm scared! This went on for quite awhile, but Matt is very good and knows me very well, and knew just how much encouragement was appropriate without pushing me into something I didn't really want to do. So I did it. And it was awesome!
While we were waiting for my turn, I was going to SMS my parents to tell them I was about to go paragliding, but I thought I'd better wait until I was down safely! It turned out they didn't think it was too bad (although when we were in NZ for a family holiday years earlier Mum wasn't keen for my brother to go parasailing) - Mum was apparently jealous!
One of my PhD friends had gone skydiving while we were both still working on our theses, and she said it was a great boost to her confidence - if she could jump out of a plane, she could do anything! Paragliding is not quite jumping out of a plane - not even jumping off a mountain as much as just getting blown off the mountain!
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