Sunday July 19
Our last day on Mambo's bus and we had to make it count. The final stop before Queenstown was at the site of the first ever commercial bungy jump- the Kawarau Bridge. The whole group watched a video on the history of bungy and the guy who started it all- AJ Hackett. After he and all his friends jumped off bridges all over New Zealand and he perfected the technique, he gained world wide recognition when he bungyed off the Eiffel Tower. He came back to NZ and set up a legit site at the bridge. All the footage looked like a lot of fun, and Mambo had given us a long talk about how bungy can change your life by having a near death experience in a safe, controlled environment. I still didn't think I would do it, but we watched a few people from our group jump and I thought "I could totally do that" which was a slightly surprising reaction to watching people throw themselves off a 43m (112 ft) bridge! I knew Tiffany had been debating it, so I grabbed her and Cleodha who was also on the fence and we ran up to the counter and threw our money atthe guy before any of us could change our minds.
Once we were on the bridge we got harnessed up. We had to waddle to the end of the platform with our feet strapped together. It was kind of freaky, looking down at the river below and thinking- "ok, I'm actually going to dive off this platform and go all the way down there". But it wasn't terrifying like I had imagined- I took a couple deep breaths and was actually pretty relaxed about it, and when he said 3,2,1-BUNGY! I just... Jumped.
It was all over really quickly. The bungy part was really smooth, and I remember bouncing higher than I expected. You end up dangling upside down just over the water, and two guys in an inflatible boat come paddling over and hold a stick out to you. You have to grab the stick then they lower you into the boat and unstrap you and pull you into shore. There are a bunch of steps back up to the viewing platform. Tif was going right after me so I hustled up to see. By the time I got to the top my heart was pounding out of my chest after running up a steep hill and erm, jumping off a bridge. I got a bunch of hugs and hi fives at the top and got to watch Tiffany jump.
I wouldn't say that bungy changed my life (but thanks for the talk anyway Mambo) but it was certainly nothing I EVER thought I would do. And hey, how many times will I be young and healthy and in New Zealand? Carpe diem!
(Tif has the pink hood here)
No comments:
Post a Comment