Let’s all jump off a ledge we said…How we survived Queenstown’s playground: Part 1

Whether or not you have guessed it already I will fill you in on what this blog is all about. And yes as the title states this is only Part 1 of this story. It’s a damn long one people, so get a shot, you’ll need it to get through this post and Part 2 in a few days. Or maybe just get a shot for us because it was a lot to get through before even writing this!

To set the scene, we are in Queenstown in New Zealand, the home of A. J Hackett. A. J Hackett was the commercial ‘inventor’ of bungy jumping and as such made it a well known sport and activity round the world. Now I am only providing this information so you have more understanding of the very stupid activities I am about to tell you we got up to. Just so you know that yes he invented it, but also he tested it many many many times and also made it very safe, so we are ok!

But before I reiterate our safety, lets start at the beginning of the day.

We woke up early, ate breakfast, the usual boring stuff and then got in our car and drove into town. We then checked in at the bungy centre, where we had to sign our lives away, be weighed and our hands written all over. After that we were told to wait until the bus arrived.

With not too long of a wait, a giant bus arrived, and all four of us along with a mixed group of equally afraid individuals got in the bus with us. In our excitedness/nervouseness we may have forgotten to put our setabelts on, but it was only a half hour drive to the first stop so we let it slide….

The first stop was the Karawara Bridge Jump. This was the orginal bungry jumping site,  and the home of bungy.

It was only me who would be jumping this particular spot out of the four of us, but everyone was there to spectate and support. I was secretly hoping I would successfully jump and not embarrass myself by throwing up mid jump all over myself. Stay tuned…

Now we got off the bus and walked down the spiral staircase to the bridge entrance. There we were told to use the bathroom and then make our way onto the bridge when we were ready for our jump.

I had been psyching myself out, seriously I was scared for days leading up to this moment. However when we were right there, waiting for me to walk onto that bridge, I could not have felt readier.

I handed my things to Alex, gave him a kiss and then walked onto the bridge, with Bob coming with me for support.

When we got to the bridge there were two girls before me. In that moment the first girl jumped, right after they counted to 1 and that’s what they started with. She had no hesitation and right away I was amazed and impressed. The next girl went, she screamed but smashed it as well, and then it was my turn.

I shimmied through the gap and down to a wooden plant attached to the bridge. There a guy started to get me geared up. I had a harness around my waist which I knew would be there. But when he started to wrap a towel around my ankles and then an old car seat belt around that, I made a joke. I said ‘haha well this seems very safe’ also insinuating a serious side to the situation. He assured me it was safe and that I would be fine. And I believed him.

Once I was secured to the actual bungy I got to my feet and then very slowly walked out to the ledge. From there they allowed me to move even slower, and position myself with my feet on the very edge ready to jump. This was probably the scariest part for me. I in fact recall asking if I could go back, laughing and saying ok maybe I don’t want to do this anymore. The guy held onto me and said, don’t be scared, just get it over with and make sure you look up before you jump. He got me to smile for some pictures and I think I look genuinely excited and happy don’t you?

And then he counted me down, with 3 being the moment I just looked up and leaped off that edge.

 

In the moment I just recall allowing my eyes to slowly fall from the distant bridge I had been focusing on to the water beneath me that was slowly getting closer, and then BOOM, the rope snapped up again and I bounced down again. It was surreal, extremely amazing and absolutely terrifying all in the same moment, but in the best way possible!

The rope allowed me to bounce twice but the initial fall was by far the best and oh did I scream! I screamed so much, first out of ‘holy shit what am I doing’ to ‘THIS IS AMAZINGGGGGGGGGG’!

I was told that there would be a chance for me to touch the water depending on how I jumped, and I had done my best to achieve that, but I had fallen short maybe by 30cm. Not to worry, I still count it as the best jump ever!

As you can see I was pretty ecstatic once pulled into the boat at the bottom.

Once I was detached, they took me over to the waters edge and let me out. I then had to walk all the way up the cliff side, to where Alex was running towards me. Not going to lie, we were super cute!

After some laughs looking at footage from the jump, we all then hoped on the bus when it came and headed to the next destination…

We were off to the Nevis Bungy. The bus we were in was a giant 4WD tank type and as we began ascending the single lane dirt road that took us to Nevis, there was some extreme nerves. It was practically climbing the mountain with a sheer drop and no railings next to us. I was already beyond nervous and this made it slightly worse. But of course we arrived safely and the driver smashed it like it was nothing, goes to show it’s just us who were nervous.

All four of us checked in and it was Alex and I up first, we would both be jumping Nevis…

But you’ll have to read about that in part two of this blog….see you in a few days, stay tuned!

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