Student Bloggers

In the great city of Wellington there's quite a lot to do year round. If you remember my last post, I talked about the Farmer's Market, a produce market available year round rain or shine on the Sunday of every week; I also mentioned the fantastic Te Papa Museum, New Zealand's largest, and, in my biased opinion, greatest free national museum and art gallery opened 365 days a year from 10 am to 6 pm; and also, for those braver few, there is the (also free) Wellington waterfront diving board also opened year round.

It is this famous diving board I so graciously flew off of on the chilly evening of July 31. To start from the beginning the city of Wellington had been graced with the presence of a pop-up sauna, memorably named the NZ Pop-up Sauna. As detailed in the name, it popped up at the beginning of July and was planned (and now already executed) to leave on the 31st of July, probably to pop-up elsewhere. My friends and I, having seen this sauna many times as we passed by the area, told each other, promised even, that we had to try it at least once.

But a promise couldn't be made so easily over just sitting in a steamy sauna for $5.

The sauna was strategically placed. Placed by that waterfront diving board I mentioned.

So, what did that mean for our promise?

Yes, you guessed it. Before the end of the month we promised that we all had to jump into that cold, dark turquoise sea water, so that we could just as quickly jump into the sauna afterwards. Sort of like working for our reward.

You can check on the web for more pictures and see that this is a little sectioned off pool from the rest of the waterfront, with the main staircase diving board at the front and ladders on the opposite walls leading into and or out of the water. The water is very deep so that even if you jump from the highest diving board (the one I jumped from) you still won't hit the bottom – which is a good thing! Although, believe me when I say that there is no stigma if you jump from the second tallest diving board also connected to the tallest one, or from the sides of the walls looking over the water, or even from just slowly dipping down into the water via one of the readily available, and much less frightening ladders.

So, talking about the jump itself, my experience as a whole was great! Out of my friend group I was the only one to tackle the tallest diving board, which was a choice I willingly and happily made. The rest of my friends jumped from the sides of the walls. Actually, one good friend of mine who joined in on this jump is another blogger here, Austin G., so definitely check him out among the other Arcadia Blogs! But honestly even as willing as I was to make the jump, it took a couple countdowns before I actually made it in, as you can see in my snippet video. If we're being completely honest, I think my friend Brina took 3 or 4 videos of her counting down and me saying "Wait start over," or "I'm not ready" and the like, before we finally got the very one posted. But as I said, I was very excited to do it, and was very grateful for that sauna waiting for me not even 5 feet away from the ladder. (And let me tell ya', I very hastily climbed back up that ladder after my dive and jumped into that sauna). And now as a veteran jumper, I would recommend anyone to try it at least once.

And even if it's not for you, that's totally fine! I still would recommend that you go check it out and watch those who do want to do it. As you may notice from my video I had an audience who thought my frequent hesitance was pretty funny – and I don't blame them! Its really entertaining watching people try it, especially if its their first time! Anyway, here's to another month of jumping into the rest of New Zealand culture, life, food, people, and other bodies of water!

Thanks for watching me take the plunge!