Today my alarm went off and my thoughts immediately thought “BUNGY DAY!” Then I got a little nervous but still very stoked. Kelly and her dad had already left to go on the cruise that we had done yesterday. But we got up and went straight to the road, no way we were going to be late for bungy day. I was the only one doing it from the group. We all picked one must do activity on the trip and this was mine, so the everyone else was cool to chill in Queenstown while I went and flung myself off a platform. It was a 35 minute drive to the bungy platform and when it came my time to get on the bus the staff told me I was the only person that signed up for this time. So I graciously told them I was wait and go on the next jump...saving them money...and well giving me a few people to watch and talk to and not be so scared. When I got on the bus I was set on making a friend to talk to and share the experience with so I met a guy named Simon. He was irish but lived in Sydney. We talked and sort of eased our nerves. When we got there it was really windy and pretty cold but the excitement was blazing. We had 8 people to jump. We took a gondola over to the cable car suspended above the canyon that we would be jumping from. With the wind it was a little scary in the gondola but we were harnessed in well. There we 4 people ahead of me and after everyone went they were so stoked! I couldn’t wait! I saw a dude at the Auckland bungy tape his camera to his hand so I did the same and put it on video to get some extra footage. Finally they called my name. I already had the full body harness on. As I sat in the launch chair they put the ankle straps and hooked me all in. I was pretty nervous and asked them to made sure everything was all perfect, they just reassured me and I hopped over with my ankles strapped together. The guys told ok we will count down from 3, then you jump. Holy crap, I stood over the edge and had no idea what I was doing. ...3....2.....1. I forgot any sane thoughts just did what I came there to do. I dove off that ledge trying to look as convincing as possible that I was in control and not flailing around like I had seen one guy do. I stretched my arms big and wide and then just let gravity take my body down. It went so fast I couldn’t even think and it was such a rush it completely blew my mind. It was super smooth as I reached the bottom. I really could barely tell once I started going back up. After one bounce my brain finally caught up with my body. I barely remembered I was supposed to unhook my feet on the 2nd or 3rd bounce. It wasn’t that important, by releasing my feet, I would get pulled up sitting up instead of upside down. On the second bounce I pulled the strap as hard as I could and it would unclip. The 3rd bounce I wrapped my hand in the cable and pulled as hard as I could. I finally got it but my hands were so cold it hurty really bad and I got a blood blister on my hard so that was not great. As they finally pulled me to the top I saw back in the harness and relaxed and in my chilly was just like “hey guys” and gave them a big smile. Once I was back on my feet “Wow” was all I could say. Every part of me was just shaking and kept shaking for awhile after. Simon had graciously taken more photos of me as I jumped so I have all sorts of coverage. After freaking out for a minute we reboarded the gondola and got back on solid ground. When we got back they showed up videos and photos of our jump. It was pretty much the best video ever so I bought mine J
After a 30 min drive back into town I met back up with my travel mates and after some celebratory ice cream we headed to Wanaka. They weren’t able to watch me jump because the bungy was like on private property or something lame but I had the video to show them. But we got to Wanaka, which is a true ski town, instead of all touristy like Queenstown so it was pretty chill. Our next adventure was Puzzle World! We saw the illusion museum and a life size maze. It was mind blowing. They had hologram pictures and the “Ames room” that made you look really tall or short depending on where you stood. It was crazy. There was another group of rooms set on a 45 degree angle that made everything look like it was defying gravity, it really messed with your brain as you rolled up or stepped up stuff that looked like it was supposed to go down. After going a little crazy with all the illusions we headed out to tackle the life size maze. It took us an embarrassing long time but we finally made it and were so proud of ourselves J.
When we finally got to our hostel we were hungry and they had some backpacker specials at the bar in the basement so we went and got some food. While we were eating, they were setting up for a flouro (neon) party. They gave us face paint and glow sticks. So we left and let them finish setting up while we did our laundry then came back and had a neon night dance party. It was pretty fun but a little strange with some weird techno music stuff but we had a good time.
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