A US tourist who travelled around New Zealand has opened up about the moment she was asked a confronting question while skydiving.
Taylor Spinelli uploaded a video to TikTok, describing her disappointing first skydiving experience.
Spinelli said she'd told the skydiver she was a schoolteacher, which then led to a surprising question.
"I had just done the free fall and we were in a parachute," she explained. "I had the guy strapped to my back and he started asking questions about myself."
After telling the instructor she's a schoolteacher, "he stops and pauses and I was thinking, 'Hmm, what is he going to say next?'
"He goes, 'Aren't you terrified to go to work every day?'"
Taylor said she was shocked the instructor would ask her that while they were falling thousands of metres from the sky.
"I was skydiving, falling out of the air with this man who jumps out of a plane like nine to 14 times a day and he was the one asking me, as a teacher in the United States, if I was terrified to go to work every day," she exclaimed.
"We were having this conversation and, obviously, I was not happy about it."
She went on to say she wasn't happy with her first experience of skydiving due to his question.
Taylor said she would have preferred to enjoy looking at the "beautiful mountains and glaciers in the distance" instead of being questioned about the US' gun problems.
"It was the worst timing I could ever imagine," she said.
"It's jarring for us having grown up being told, 'We are the greatest place in the world, no country ever comes close to us,' and then meeting these people who will throw you for a loop and be like, 'No, we actually think you guys are so messed up over there.'
"And he's not wrong but, like, do you have to do it when I'm skydiving for the first time, having one of the most magical experiences of my life?"
Several people took to the comments to share their opinions.
"Why did he start to ask questions in the first place? You are skydiving, enjoying the view! No time for small talk," one woman said.
"Skydiver should totally have just let you have that moment. I've done a skydive and it was amazing. Sorry yours got tainted," another added.
"I'm more surprised by the fact you can have conversations mid-air skydiving," one man said.
One American said she tells people she's Canadian just to avoid getting the "confronting questions".
"I'm Canadian and am always so scared people will think I'm American when travelling," another added.
Several others sided with the instructor, saying they felt the US was unsafe.
"He is right! I could never live in the States. You guys have some serious problems with guns," one woman said.
"I'm Australian. I would have asked you the same question. I'm a teacher, I've never ever thought I could be killed at work," another added.
"I could never be a teacher in America or send my child to any school there," one woman said. "I don't even want to travel there for a holiday. Terrifying."
One woman said she was asked the same question while "trying to relax" on a beach in Malta.
"Americans are asked things like that all the time, it's shocking."
