AGHHHHHHHHHH... (breathing) ...AGHHHHHHHHH

This Sunday I turn 23. Surely my life is plunging into a downward spiral now, because what more do I have to look forward to? At 16 I could drive, at 18 I gained the right to vote and smoke tobacco, and upon my 21st birthday I earned the privilege of buying alcohol for myself instead of having to give money to an older friend to get it for me. Even 22 offered some promise, as it marked the year of my graduation from university. But now, at 23, what’s the next great milestone? Losing my hair and getting wrinkles at 40? Great!

To reflect on the downward spiral my life has become, I decided to take not one, not two, but THREE literal plunges in the form of bungy jumping. Fitting, no?

...actually, that’s a load of bull. I just did it because it seemed like an effing crazy fun way to spend my birthday weekend.

First up in my “Thrillogy” of jumps was the Kawarau Bridge Bungy. A little background: AJ Hackett, a native Kiwi, pioneered the sport of commercial bungy jumping. The Kawarau Bridge Bungy was the world’s first commercial bungy site, where the layperson can go and experience the extreme sport for themselves. Also, my spellchecker would like me to think that “bungee” is the proper spelling, but since AJ Hackett invented bungy, I figure I’ll go with his way.

Anyway, AJ Hackett Bungy has helped over a million jumpers conquer their fears and take the plunge in its 20-some years of operation, and there have only ever been 42 minor injuries and no major injuries or deaths. Safety is the first priority of all staff members, and all equipment is state-of-the-art and extremely safe.

But let me tell you something: when you’re standing on a bridge, feet bound by a towel and a harness strapped from your ankles to your crotch and staring 43 meters (141 feet) into the raging Kawarau river below, all of that reassuring knowledge goes out the window. The part of the brain in charge of logic meekly whispers “It’s perfectly safe,” from the backseat while pure, raw, self-preservation instinct is screaming “Oh my fucking Jesus, what are you doing?!”

Still, I managed to shut my brain down long enough to take the plunge. In a word, it was insane. For a few split-seconds I experienced nothing but ground-rush (water rush, perhaps?) and then—SPLASH!—I was quickly dunked into the river and just as quickly yo-yoing back into the air to bob around for a bit before being pulled into the recovery boat below. The video does it more justice:

Make sure your sound is turned on! Unless you're at work, in which case you will absolutely want to make sure the volume is off.



For the record, that is a yell, not a scream, thank you very much.

The second act in my Thrillogy brought me to The Ledge Bungy. It’s a part of the Skyline area up on Bob’s Peak, the same place where Alexa and I went luging and paragliding when we first arrived in Queenstown. It’s called an “urban bungy,” although it isn’t really in the midst of the city. Queenstown does, however, serve as a pretty spectacular backdrop to the jump.

The Ledge Bungy is more like a swing than a proper bungy, as the harness goes around your upper-body rather than around the ankles, and there’s a runway to run and jump out as opposed to a little platform to leap off.

All in all, it wasn’t quite as exhilarating as the Kawarau Bridge jump, although it did leave me with a pretty impressive bruise on my right bicep. Here’s the video:



For the rest of the day I rode the indescribable high of having just completed two jumps in one day, and that ended the experience for Friday. Like a fool I had booked the final (and highest) jump for today, nearly a full 24 hours after my first jump at Kawarau. A full 24 hours for my adrenaline-fueled high to burn out. A full 24 hours to poke around on youtube, watching videos of the Nevis Highwire Platform, the world’s third-highest commercial bungy site at 134 meters (440 feet, or 1.5 times the length of a football field). A full 24 hours to contemplate and, eventually, dread the foolish decision I’d made. Surely I must be insane, thinking I was going to jump from this:



Now you can see where the Nevis Highwire gets its name. Suspended high over the Nevis valley on wires, the glass-bottomed “jump-pod” can only be reached by cable car.

Still, despite an incredibly anxious morning of going for a run, eating a small breakfast, and pacing around the flat waiting to leave for the jump, it actually wasn’t much more frightening than the Kawarau jump. Up until the point that I had to step out onto the tiny 2x2 jumping platform, I was relatively fine. As you can see in the video below, though, my terror increased exponentially as I stepped out onto the eensty weensty square. Again, I don’t think the feeling is something that can be successfully explained without experiencing it for yourself. There’s a great difference between actual risk (very low) and perceived risk (HUGE!), but logic gets shoved to the side and perceived risk is all that matters, because some part of the brain thinks its about to die despite all the safety precautions.

So terrified. I can barely even wave to Alexa, I just want to jump so bad, ha ha:



Apparently the microphones were up in the jump-pod, so you can't quite hear me for the whole jump. Rest assured, I did shout in terror/exhiliration for the entire fall. Albeit with a pause in between to take a breath, since the free-fall lasts 8.5 seconds. In my first bounce I let out a braver-sounding "Wooo-hoooo!" and a "FUCK YEAH!" which I don't think the mic managed to pick up. Also, the little flip I do at the end is thanks to the orange strap you're supposed to pull at the height of your second bounce. If you fail to do this, you end up getting hauled back up upside-down, so it's a good thing I succeeded.

So there you have it. Altogether, bungy jumping was an incredible experience—and it was an experience. The anticipation, the waiting, the terror, and the adrenal high/buzz afterwards were all just as important as the jumps themselves.

And I can’t wait to do more! I probably won’t do the Queenstown jumps again, as this is a rather expensive hobby and I’d rather pay to jump in new places. But if I can coerce Mike into going with me, I would definitely do Nevis again. Otherwise, my next jump will probably be the AJ Hackett site in Auckland, or maybe the purpose-built bungy tower in Cairns, Australia. We’ll see!

Until next time, here’s hoping you guys found this entry more interesting than the past few. I know alpaca-feeding is the most exhilarating thing in the world, eh?