Christchurch My first order of business in Christchurch was to sign up for more skydiving. I asked at the tourist information center and was on my way to skydive only 20 minutes later. They drove me out to the airport where I waited for a group of kids celebrating a birthday to finish taking turns. The way it worked was that everyone went up one at a time and the plane would land and the guy would fold up his chute again and the next jumper would go. A very slow process. I waited 4 hours before I was finally watching the last person ahead of me jump from the plane 8000 feet above. I watched her chute open, and then she and the instructor glide right out of the airfield where they were supposed to land. The van was sent out to retrieve them. When the instructor returned to the airport he said to me, "Wow, it's pretty windy up there!" So I asked, "Well, when does it get too windy?" "It's too windy", he replied. I was next! I figured it was a bad omen so I didn't reschedule another jump. Just as well. On my trip out to go whale watching the plane only went to 3000 feet and that was high enough for me! I don't know how I would have handled going up 8000 or 12000 feet, let alone jump out of the plane at that height. The picture above is from the cesna that took us out to go whale watching outside Christchurch. You are here...