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Published: November 23rd 2008
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(Ooh, before i go on, all th pics for this bit an the next few are actually attached to that last entry, too tricky to get them all separated! Use the captions an ya can figure the way it goes...)
So, in order to top the whole ice-climbin vibes, its off to queenstown to do THE stoopidest thing of the trip so far: BRING ON THE BUNGY!
And, as events would transpire, the FEAR OF GOD! I have honestly NEVER EVER EVER been so so so scared in my life. Now, those who know me well - in fact, scratch that! - those who have been in a room with me for more than 3 seconds, will know i can talk. Well, holy holiness, you have NO IDEA how much i talk when i'm truly freaking out. Actually, this is an official public apology to all those unfortunate souls who found themselves stuck in the tin box between 2 giant mountains in my company that afternoon. I am actually quite a nice person, when not scared outta my mind (altho i do talk a tad more than average talkaholic, of course!)
So, signed up and (depressingly!) weighed in in queenstown then driven 45 minutes to the well high canyon that is to be our playground for the aftrenoon by a thin hairy dude playing van halen "jump", "good day to die" and the like thru the bus. Thankfully all a tad under the weather after last night's queenstown cocktail and fishbowl chaos sp i was feeelin a bit distant an like it was all kinda unreal... UNTIL ya get to the hill that the rickety old buis hauls itself up (just!) an nearly topples off as there's no fence. IT IS WELL STEEP!
And on the other side of it, well that would be the TINY lookin tin hut suspended 134metres above a GIANT gorge and river bed encased by 2 mountainous mountains... Goodbye distant feeling, hello UTTER FEAR! After a pretty excruciating blow by blow account of the night before, all is distraced once more as i try and hide form EVERYONE as the drunken dancin in the streets, an the random chats with total srtrngers an theivin of a fishbowl to drink out of in another establishment (NOT me, by the way, mum!) is discussed; we all calm down and i only talk at a rate of 5 - rather than the 10 - words per second for the next wee while.
Then we have to put the harnesses on and i develop the sudden desire to tell everyone working here that i love them and really would like to see them all again...SOON! As the hysteria set in I attempted to not talk for a while and was faced with a number of enquiries after my health, so the drivel reappaered, especially as we walked, rather shakily to the viewpoint, where we saw the wonder that is a shopping basket attached to a peice of string - i.e. the "lift" over to the metal box that is suspended between two MUCh bigger looking than in the poster, mountains... HOLEEE CRAP! My maw's gonna do one! Why are we here! and the like thoughts hurt my brain they were attackin it so rapidly!
So, the first batch of 4 outta the 21 "jumpers" (yep, that's what we're called, feel like i'm gonna chuck myself off a bridge in new york an top myself now!) were lifted over, then the dreaded "right your turn" phrase hits my ears for the first time today... Off we go! Got chattin to 2 irish brothers, one of whom is majoprly scared of heights... brave boy! An when everyone is over in the ickle boz, the REAL frenzy begins... I slowly drive myself mad with the "what if?"s regarding ropes, mountains an long long falls, an then we stand and wtach as EVERYONE jumps... its excruciating! Couldn't bring myslef to watch the others thru the glass floor, so i just stood on it an talked to ANYONE who would listen, mainly Gareth, god love you dude!
Then I'm shouted: oh my freakin freakster! i don't wanna! I don't wanna! First ya get these big foam leg-wrmeresque things out on your legs zan ankles, then the fun part really strats: Ya gfotta sit in "the chair": A big dentisty-lookin black leather thing, where ya sit next to "the plank": as this LOVELY man attaches the connector for the bungy elastic and you sit saying " uh-hu, uh-huh uh-huh" to him as he tells you how to detach your ankles when yer ready to come back up so ya swing the right way round instead of upside down. Of course, by this stage i am saying "uh-hu" yet thinking "OH MYT GOD OH MY GOD!" an not hearing a WORD the poor man is trying to tell me ( i di dnotice however that EVERYONE in the chair had the same "I'm listening, really!" panicked look on their face as me and all did the uh-huhs, so I guess i'm not alone...
Thgen the "Ok, follow me...I'm goin to hold on to your harness at the back, then when you hear the contdown i'll let go" happesn... holy shittin shit! I might barf! I think, as i "shuffle out, but don't look down, I'll telly uou when you're at the edge". NO BOTHER MATE! I could not look down right now even if ya paid me!
So, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, and I am NOT goin any further! "Just a few more..." and all of a sudden this man is my bestest friend in the history of ever and i have EVERY faith in him... So i do it... I just go...
"1, 2, 3..." JUMP!!!
then FALL FALL FALL... for like 8 seconds! It felt amazing, flying thru the air without a CLUE what is really going on. Had my eyes closed to start with, but then it was amaziing! The mountians whoosh by, the wind whistles thru your ears an ya quite forget what you're doing... Ooh, pretty mountains, THEN i flip the way i was SUPPOSED to be facing an its a sudden "AAARRGH! Ground!" as ya recall what you are actually doing, then its kinda finished... An ya think, oh, ok, that's cool... and i still seeem to be living, whaddya know!
Ya then spend the next 2 mintues tryin to get the chord off yer foot whilst hangin upside down, ya manage it an ya swing around waitin to get hpoisted back up, whgich feels like AGES! I realise that i have managed to acquire a "bungy injury" an have made my pinkie bleed, so once doing the "YEY! stuill alove" wiggling around of the arms an the swingin of the legs CONSTANTLY on the way back up i shake my hands around like a total muppet... of course forgettin all of this is goin o the DVD. Nice one em!
So, ya get back up an its a kinda, oh right, that's that done then.. sorta feeling. Bit oif an anticlimax, really... but still. Yey for us! we all did it!
Bless one girl did PROPER freak out, an not go on the firsat count, an i have to say, if that was me an i hadn't gone on the fuirst jump i just wouldn't have gone EVER! But she amanaged it! Go girl! Gareth looked WELL terrified, too bless him! He even shouted "Love you mum!!!" as he jumped. bless!
What a day! Spent the rest of the week sittin chattin wi other "jumpbuds" talkin about it all an feelin a bit groovy that we all did it, havin a few beers in the evening, then headin outta Qt an onto the prettier stuff; bring on the proper south an the real NZ! Yey!
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