People will go to great lengths to get great views of a city--and our Traveler of the Week is no exception--except she went to great heights. BeckyX had some extra time in New Zealand while visiting for a friend’s wedding and decided to fill it with a walk on top of Auckland’s Sky Tower. The resulting story about her SkyWalk experience comes to us in three parts and is thrilling, hilarious--and yes--a little bit scary.
Before her trip to the top began, beckyX took comfort in knowing that her friends' camera, while fabulous, could not possibly capture any looks of fear on her face from down on solid ground. She was wrong, and says, “my friends got to laugh themselves silly at my expense as they snapped some of the most terrified expressions I've ever seen.” Part II describes the cause of her terror in enough detail to concern anyone with a moderate to severe fear of heights--so reader discretion is advised--but do know that "the people look like ants, and, for that matter, the cars look like ants, too." She describes the 53 stories as the long way that will see whether she is a (wo)man or a (wo)mouse.
Part III
is proof that she is indeed brave--or at least can appear so in the accompanying shot of her "dangling backwards over the edge and looking amazingly cool and unutterably brave."
BeckyX also includes an informative Q and A session about the experience,
answering important questions like, “Would you recommend it?” and including a quick summary of why on earth--or not on earth--someone would ever walk around the outside of the Sky Tower: "See the sights of Auckland! Get dressed in Guantanamo bay chic! Amaze your friends and confound your enemies! Try to overcome that fear of heights in a safe environment. Go do the Skywalk. It's completely crazy, massively expensive, but fun. Sort of. A little bit. Once you've overcome the anguish and are looking back at the pictures several weeks later anyway." We just have one more question for beckyX: “Does that X stand for extreme?”
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Posted by eyesoftheworld (Anna Welch)