Back to Queenstown and Bungy Jumping!!

  Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

I've been saying for the last 32 years that I will never, ever, ever do a bungy jump but they say that if you spend enough time in Queenstown that you will eventually find yourself dangling off a bridge attached by your feet to a giant elastic band. We had driven over to the world's first commercial A.J. Hackett bungy jump site at Kawerau Suspension Bridge in Queenstown to have a look earlier in the week and at that time I was wavering, but on the way back from Milford Sound we had to practically drive past it and the gravitational pull of that bridge was just too hard to resist!

Mad Kiwi A.J. Hackett sneaked up the Eiffel Tower in 1987 and threw himself off for the most famous bungy jump in history and now he has a very successful business with his Bungy sites throughout the world. However, the Kawerau Bridge was the original so that was the one we chose for our first (and last) jump. It's basically a cantilevered suspension bridge over a deep canyon with a fast flowing river raging along some 150ft below. Halfway along the bridge is a platform with the stretchy elastic cords attached where insane members of the public part with their cash to leap off into the abyss.

Sarah still wasn't sure whether she was up for it but I decided to get the whole thing over with and checked in, paid, emptied my pockets and then got weighed in. I was pretty nervous, a situation which wasn't really improved when I had to sign a waiver form which basically said that if anything happened, A.J. Hackett would take absolutely no responsibility and I wouldn't be allowed to sue them.

It seemed like a much longer walk over to the jump platform on the middle of the bridge - what I imagine walking down death row to feel like, on the way to the old sparky. Anyway, I sat down on the rickety platform as far away from the edge as possible, while 2 youths hardly old enough to shave, wrapped a towel around my legs and then tied the bungy cord on with what seemed like a bit of old seatbelt. I was fretting badly by this time and remarked that it "felt a bit loose and was it okay", at which one of the prepubescent jokers flashed me a mad grin and said "don't worry mate, it'll tighten up on the way down". What could possibly go wrong!

Thankfully, this was the first extreme sport that we had attempted in which there was no requirement to wear a ridiculous outfit, so as I inched over to the edge of the jump platform, I was comfortable in my earlier choice of grey marl underwear and thick jeans that any physical evidence of my nerves would not show, or be smelt.















The overwhelming feeling was one of freedom as I opened my arms and dived off the platform, high on adrenaline as I was soaring down through the air towards the river below. I could hear the watching crowd's cheers then the bungee started to stretch and I was bounced back up towards the platform again. It was much smoother than I had expected not jerky at all, and a great feeling as I bounced around on the end of the cord like a rag doll. Once I had nearly stopped bouncing, they lowered me down onto a rubber dinghy and I was rowed back to the river bank.













Sarah was waiting and seemed really pleased to see me, far more emotional than I was! Having watched me and seen the expression on my face, she booked herself in for half an hour later.






















It was my turn to take the photos and wait nervously on the viewing platform as Sarah jumped but she was absolutely cool as a cucumber, despite the girl directly in front of her bottling out. It was brilliant to watch her graceful swan dive off the bridge and then see her triumphant look as she walked back up the path to me. A bit of a crazy thing to do but well worth it - such an adrenaline buzz.