The 29th of January was one of the greatest days on the backpack journey this far. Doug and I ended our time in Queenstown in the best way possible....with a full on adrenaline rush! We went bungy jumping! We had absolutely no intention to do such a thing, but after hearing about our friends' experiences we had to do it (peer pressure at its finest and we totally caved).
We scheduled our bungy jump at 10pm the night before.
We were scheduled to jump at 8:40am the next day. I have to admit, it was the best spur-of-the-moment decision I have ever made. We were both completely terrified. (I even practiced jumping off my bed the night before the jump.)
The morning of the bungy we woke up after a nervous night of sleep and walked to the bungy pick up, got weighed, and received our bungy hand marks.
Next we boarded a bus and took a 40minute drive to the Nevis Bungy location.
The Nevis Bungy Jump is the highest bungy in all of Australasia at 134 meters....1-3-4 meters! Ahh!
The drive to the bungy wasn't too bad. We met four people from Vermont and Doug spent most of the time chatting with a guy about his job (turns out he was once the leading producer of tear gas in the whole world-crazy). We talked to that man and his family most of the way so that was a nice distraction from thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong at the bungy.
Once we arrived at the Nevis location things went very quickly. We were fitted into gear and harnesses and then shuttled onto a cart across the valley to the platform we were to jump from (a.k.a willingly throw our own bodies off of).
Doug had to go second and I had to go fourth.
Watching someone you love disappear and jump from a platform (by choice) is such a weird feeling (like when you drive over an unexpected hill and it tickles your stomach).
Doug didn't even look nervous (if he was he hid it very well). Doug's jump looked great! He went out far enough and was parallel with the ground. He did get a little excited to go towards the ground though! The cameras caught a hilarious photo of him at a perfect 90 degree angle in the air.
The free fall during the descent is estimated to be ~9 seconds, but it feels so much longer! You are basically torpedo-ing your body straight towards the ground and you can't do anything about it!
Pretty soon, I was next in line! (Imagine my horror).
I was smiling on the outside but on the inside my nerves were raising a ruckus! My stomach was in knots and I'll be honest...I really wanted to cry but I was surrounded by men so of course, I didn't. The guys who worked there were super nice and supportive but (my goodness) I was basically trusting complete strangers with my life! Nevertheless, I let them strap up my feet and help me hobble to the end of the platform. Then.... I received the countdown.
3...2...1...BUNGY!....and I jumped!
I'm not kidding! It was so scary but so thrilling it was like I was having an out-of-body experience!
The weirdest part wasn't the jump itself, it was realizing that two seconds after I jumped that oh my gosh- I actually jumped! I screamed my head off and had a blast! The adrenaline rush quickly defeated all of my fears and my nerves completely ceased to exist!
The videos of our jumps are utterly hilarious. We could not stop smiling and laughing because we were on such adrenaline highs. It was the craziest experience yet.
After conquering the Nevis Bungy , we went back to our hostel in Queenstown and ate some lunch. With the rest of the afternoon before us, we decided to hitch a ride on a gondalo up to an overview of Queenstown.
There, we decided to go luging, which neither of us had ever done before.
We took the go-pro and spent the entire afternoon laughing and crashing our luge carts into one another.
It wasn't as intense as a bungy jump but it was the perfect way to end the day.
That night we went back to the hostel and had a "kiwi family dinner" with the group of friends we have made on the trip-some of the most interesting and hilarious people I have ever encountered.
Our time on the South Island is slowly coming to an end, but we are still enjoying every bit of our journey.
Doug and I both realize how lucky we are that we have been able to explore this beautiful country. These are the days we will absolutely never regret.
Thanks so much for reading!! Have a great day and don't be afraid to take a few risks every now and then :) sometimes the outcome is far better than you could ever expect!
Geronimo! :)
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