Cowa-bungy!

Queenstown is essentially the outdoor capitol of the South Island, and you have everything available to you: white water rafting, skydiving, hang gliding, motor boating, and of course bungy jumping. New Zealand, and Queenstown in particular, is the birth place of the bungy jump: a company called AJ Hackett first started the bungy jumping from a bridge about 30 minutes east of Queenstown.

My original thought was to go skydiving as the scenery around here is amazing, but yesterday was a touch on the cloudy side and my thoughts began to drift towards a bungy jump. AJ Hackett has 3 jumps in the Queenstown area: the orginal 43 meter jump off of a bridge, a new 30 meter jump from the giant hill overlooking Queenstown into trees and The Nevis, a 134 meter jump from a suspended enclosure, the 3rd highest jump in the world. Well, I didn't travel all this way not to go big.

I went for The Nevis.

Amy (Michelle's sister, who I am currently traveling with) and I booked a trip to The Nevis. Amy would just be spectating and I would be jumping. We made the noon booking and were on a bus with 18 other jumper/spectators for a 45 minute ride up to the jump site. The last 15 minutes of the ride were on a winding dirt road that essentially took us up the face of a mountain. As we reached the plateau, we were treated to a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains, a river winding through them, and were staring right at the suspended structure we would be jumping from. Basically, cables are run between the two mountains that border the river and in the middle of these cables, what could best be described as a hut is in the middle. The hut is probably 20 feet by 20 feet or so and sways with the wind. Yikes!

So, as we disembark from the bus, we get into our harnesses get some brief instructions, and start getting shuttled out to the launch site in groups of 4 or 5. The jump order is determined by weight, and as I weighed in at 91 KG (about 198 pounds for those that don't like metric (which puts be back below 200 pounds (thank goodness!!))) I would be the third jumper of the day. I am not in the first group that goes out and as we are about halfway between the safety of solid ground and the mystery of this suspended hut, the first guy of the day launches out of the buidling and we are under way. As we arrive in the hut, I am told that I will be jumping next as they ready the Irish guy going before me. The Irish guy has a very worried look on his face and after edging towards the launch pad decides to chicken out and take a seat, meaning that I will be jumping next having never seen anyone actually jump from the hut. Double yikes!!

I have a harness that wraps over my shoulders and connects to the straps wrapped around my leg and waist. The straps are about two inches wide, but basically as thick as any normal strap. There is a clip at the center of my chest. To this get up, they add leg wraps which effectively feel like really thick ankle braces. I guess this is all I get! As the chicken Irish guy walks dejectedly back to his friends I want to tell him that everything is fine, who cares, but frankly I need to be worrying about myself at the moment.

They have me walk over to a chair where I am checked over by the head instructor, Jase. Once checking that everything is secure he attaches the bungy to my feet and clips in my chest straps. He has me smile for the AJ Hackett camera and then asks if I want to say anything for the DVD. Still feeling quite brave, I give a "Its go time!" and my feet are back on the floor moving to the launch pad. Amy is positioned well, snapping lots of pictures with my camera and I start to waddle over to towards the open air and river below.

With my legs strapped in, all I can manage are baby steps, which makes the process much harder and more nerve racking. The launch pad is actually called the "meat pad" and consists of a grated platform sticking out of the hut, about two or three feet. And I am supposed to walk out onto this thing, except that I can only waddle, so I am doing what Jase refers to as "the bungy shuffle". I get my feet to the meat pad and reach for something to grab, but there is nothing. Just mountains ahead and a river below. Jase assures me that he is holding my straps and I continue with the bungy shuffle. Amy later told me that my face was white as I got out on the platform.

So, I get my feet to the edge of the ledge, and Jase has me wave to Amy for what must be a great photo. He tells me to jump when he says "one" and to try to grab the mountains ahead (i.e. get my body out of the platform as much as I can). Then Jase starts to count down. (Do I only have three seconds to decide if I, two seconds?! I know what comes next...) "One!"




And I am off...an 8.5 second free fall to within 10 meters of the river below (or so they say) I let out a yell mid way down but I have no idea if noise came out of my mouth. The rush was amazing, and as I reached the end of my fall, I bounced back towards the suspended hut as advertised. As a I bounced a second time I gave a "woo hoo" type howl and reached to undo my legs which put me back into a sitting position. I was pulled back into the hut and, shaking noticeably, was released from my bond to the million of little rubber bands which had just kept me alive.



Nice to be done with that one (-; We stayed in the hut for a while just watching others jump and then were shuttled back to land and eventually back to Queenstown.