Surprise! (from both sides)

---

February 4th

So, we were told yesterday that we had to be out by 10. I woke nice and early so we could do the necessaries to the van. I left Katherine lying in bed while I went to reception to check out what activities there are to do in this adrenaline fueled town. After reading all about these nuts things to do yesterday, a sky-swing and/or a jet boat ride were tickling our fancies. But we were kind of at least talking about a bungee jump but still thought it was a bit too nuts.

Anyway, self appointing myself to be alone and to make the final decision, I just said 'yes' to the Kawarau Bridge bungee jump. It is the place of the world's first commercial bungee jump, just as St. Andrews is to golf and Lord's to cricket. I couldn't say no.

A hop, skip and a jump back to the van and opened the back doors to find a possum all tucked in and nearly asleep again. I handed Katherine the piece of paper which had all the details. A few seconds passed. Then a huge grin and a long groan of appreciation. The nerves for us both were already setting in.

We had breakkie, sorted the van out and then both sat down to realise what was going to happen. We needed a calm place to think of when teetering on the edge. So we headed down to Queentown's public gardens to feed the ducks and take in the calmness. It was a beautiful garden; many species of trees, flowers and birds with a huge duck pond in the middle picturesquely filled around the edge with lilly pads. After nearly an hour it was time to drive the 25km east of the town and meet this daunting Kawarau river.

The GPS said it was round the next corner, and we both tipped our heads a little to get a slightly earlier sighting and what a sighting it was. It was an old-school iron and wood suspension bridge panning steep grey rocks from back in day. The river was fairly fast moving and was coloured like no other, Katherine says aqua-marine.

We checked in and were given tickets of our tandem jump. We then watched a few jumps, some people hit the water at the bottom of their jump, others didn't. Importantly though, the nerves were kind of at a limit. We had a final nervous trip to the lav, climbed the stairs out onto the bridge and joined the line.

We were strapped into harnesses around our waist and then climbed onto the platform where our feet were bound. While the dude was placing carabinas around all of the loose ends he smirked and said, "I don't know what I'm doing and my shift ends when you jump, so I hope one of these works." THAT WAS NOT COOL.

Once strapped in, we stood up together and shuffled forward. We stared on the level; out to the road bridge. Our toes were over the edge and we both went to our calm place and imagining a duck bobbing for fodder. The dude mentioned how big my feet were which was to make me feel more manly, I guess, and it kind of worked. (they must have so much fun talking people into jumping). There was a quick 3-2-1-go! and neither of us reacted. We were, like, was that a serious or a practice countdown. Once we realised it was for real, Katherine led and we tipped over!

Holy Mary, mother of Jesus!! It was indescribably nuts. The water was shooting towards us so fast. The feeling of weightlessness was a huge fear for us both and this was to rid that by going well over the line and running off into the distance, so to speak. We were both petrified, holding onto each other like it was the end through our silence and the wind whistling past our ears faster and faster.

(Massive splash) We had been dipped up to the nipple line and the first bounce up was the greatest feeling of my life; the cord and carabinas had worked. It happened so quickly that I don't remember the bungee taking the strain and slowing us down. I could hardly see as I'd kept my eyes open when we hit the water. I screamed and might have shouted 'feck' at the top of my voice. Then we laughed as we bobbed up and down and the adrenaline was flowing. We were lowered a bit and had to grab a stupid white slippery pole so that we could be lowered into the yellow rib, it took a couple of goes.

A dude on the boat asked 'how was it?', I said 'that was intense', he replied 'what? you're in a tent?' and laughed. I was mumbling, of course I was. That feeling of consciously throwing yourself off a perfectly safe bridge is now, after much chat and saying that I would do it when I'm older, a rational choice for me and I would gladly do it again.

It was then back on the road for a well long drive through the mountains to Haast to fill up because there isn't any petrol for 150km radius from there. Then headed north towards the glaciers which were our next port of call. We popped a bottle of red and spent the night in a lay-by in the middle of nowhere, about 40km south of the Fox Glacier, and surrounded by farms.

---

February 4th

Right, so I realize this is the same story, so I'll be brief. George woke me up before I was done and greeted me with a large receipt. I knew what it was before my eyes had time to focus, and my stomach fell through to the bottom of my toes. What if I peed? Or lost an eyeball? There are so many horrible things that could happen...

We raced intrinsically to the park, and fed a team of ducks way too much crusty bread. Once we were done, they moved across the pond to a little Japanese boy, about two years old, and his cautious mother who were tossing tiny hunks to one bird. Within two seconds he was absolutely and totally swarmed and started running in circles waving the bread about, with forty tame and bossy ducks following close behind.
This, I thought, is excellent. This is my happy place.
I went to it soon, and often.

At bungee check-in, we were discreetly weighed. Then, our weights were written in permanent marker in large, clear numbers on the back of our left hands.

There's nothing that boosts my confidence more than having my weight branded in red for all to see (and, curiosity being what it is, everyone does indeed look). No matter, I had bigger problems (43m).

Anyway, at this point I'm thinking that if I can walk around with my accurate weight on my hand so I can throw myself off a 43m bridge into swirling rapids, then probably this is the most intimidating moment of my life and everything else will seem way less scary and therefore easier.

As we were being strapped in, I may have sweated out of my eyeballs a tiny bit. Go stand on the roof of an 140 ft. building that's perfectly stable and tell me you'd want to jump off it. But the time had come. To cheer me up, the team blasted Daft Punk and I felt relaxed enough to stand up. We inched towards the edge, legs bound, and George hung on to a handle, carefully looking down.

3, 2, 1, and George looked round, and I looked at him, thinking is this it, or what? Then, ah feck it, the longer we stand around here the worse it's going to be. I thought of the kid and the ducks, looked out into the horizon, and tipped forward, clutching G. mightily.

Then, it was all emptiness. As our friend Olga has mentioned about sky diving, the thing you notice the most is the sound of the wind and its feeling on your face. If my life flashed before my eyes, it must have been an extremely abbreviated version, because what I remember next is just PURE RELIEF as the water came towards me at a more reasonable speed. We managed to squeeze out a scream after the first dunk.

Needless to say, we did not feel the cold of the river. In fact, we didn't feel anything much for the next two hours. We stayed in our wet clothes, chattering at a million miles a minutes and shaking even though we were warm. It took a three hour drive through the mountains to calm us down. I still feel giddy when I look at those photos.

Excellent surprise, George. I have conquered the fear (or let it conquer me, or some combination of the two that means I FEEL IT NO MORE!!!!!)

---

Photos

The bridge from the road bridge
if that makes sense

Lake Hawea
we love the reflection, it was so calm

Comments

[mum]

are you both crazy?????
OMG, what a rush that must have been. When we were there we went jet boating - we thought that was very exciting but actually it was pretty sedate in comparison. I'm just loving the blog - we're all enjoying your journey.vicariously. Keep the stories and pictures coming!