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Published: February 22nd 2009
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Hey!!
Once we got back to Queenstown we realised the hostel had messed up our reservation we had made before leaving Queenstown the first time, so we got upgraded to amaaazing rooms - proper beds instead of squeaky bunkbeds, with en-suites, TV etc! It was such a nice treat! :o) We then went and booked our bungy jump and then spent the rest of the evening being reaaaally nervous because it was suddenly official! :o( However, it rained all night, so the hope remained that we might not have to do! But ofcourse my morning the weather was fine and after being weighed (they write your weight on your hand.... no me gusta!) in and checked we were loaded into a bus for the 45minute drive to Nevis, throughout which scary heavy metal music was blared out... just to get us in the mood I guess!! The Scottish driver was absolutely hilarious and kept every now and again chirping in with "Oh dear oh dear.... what have you done???!" (obviously much more hilarious in a Scottish accent!) and all I could think was "EXCELLENT question its about time someone started assessing the seriousness/madness of this situation because there has obvioulsy
been a BIG misunderstanding here because for some reason unbeknown to me we are all about to jump out of a cable car for no apparant reason"!!!
I could go into ridiculous detail about the build up to the bungy jump and actually doing it but that would take forever so I will just give you a summary.... it was the MOST scary thing I have EVER done in my life... a million billion times worse than skydiving (even given the fact my parachute didn't even open!). We got taken across to the platform/gondola where you jump from in a gondola which in itself was a bit scary because it was a loooong way down! It was done in order of weight, with the heaviest going first so we ended up having quite a long wait and could watch everyone in turn getting strapped up, going through the gate, sitting in what looked like an electric chair and then shuffling over to the ledge, the countdown and then ... the jump!! Everyone came back up saying it was amazing but I still wasn't convinced! When my name was called up to get the straps put on my legs, I
was a teeeny bit cheeky - I went up to the man told him that Greg weighed exactly the same as me (which he did) and asked him to make Greg go first (oooops!!) which he did! Then I accidentally (because I'm rubbish at keeping secrets!) told Greg what I had done and luckily he was too worried about the jump to be mad at me... phew! :o) Turned out to be a good thing though as once Greg was in the chair he changed his mind and needed a little persuasion to actually do it... and it worked! When it came to my turn I realised that I had spent so much time convincing everyone else to do it with me that I'd never actually properly thought about whether I wanted to do it and once I got in the chair and was having my legs bound I realised I'd never wanted to do anything in my life less! Greg then came back up and said exactly the same things that I had said to him to make him do it so I reluctantly shuffled over to the ledge.... the woman told me not to look down, which was
obvioulsy the next thing i did... whoops... and consequently changed my mind again, reasoning with the woman that the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous (unfortunately I forgot about my DVD which was already filming.... quite embarrassing!) and insane! But soon enough I was back at the ledge, arms either side and the woman was counting down! It got to 1 and for a split second I considered not jumping but I knew if I didnt jump then then I never would and I also couldn't bear the thought of standing on that platform for a second longer so thought I might as well just throw myself off it instead! :o) I planned on screaming or shouting something funny on the way down for the amusement of my DVD, however, it appeared that I was, for the first time (and unlike skydiving), too scared to control what came out of my mouth which was what I can only describe as a very ungodly sound..... a little bit like Tarzan dying... hard to explain, I will just have to show you the video!
But anyway, I'm babbling again, it was amazing ... although it took me a long time afterwards to
realise that I did actually enjoy it because during it I was still too scared (and also I got yanked in a funny direction once the bungy was fully extended and I bounced back up which hurt a little bit!) and afterwards I was still in shock! But I'm definately really really pleased that I did it and also very proud! I can't explain what it feels like though standing up there..... your brain really is telling you to get out of there, it feels soooo unnatural, it really does feel like you are commiting suicide as you should never really have that feeling of jumping into nothingness with the ground such a long way down (the cable car was suspended 380m above the Nevis river - apparantly deliberately to make it even more scary, as if it wasnt scary enough!! - so actually it seems a lot scarier because you dont realise that you are not jumping all the way down - the jump was 134m!)! I will never in a million years be able to describe what I felt when I started to jump off the ledge and felt my feet leave the platform.... technically you know that
you have a bungy attached to you and that you WILL be fine but for some reason the feeling is so out of this world that logic doesn't prevail and you honestly feel like its game over!!
The Nevis bungy is the worlds first gondola jump and the second highest bungy in the world! :o) Ive already sent my DVD and proper photos home so can't put them on my blog so will just have to show you them when I get home!! :o) We have watched our DVDs a few times since and honestly just watching it induces all the emotions and fear all over again and I nearly wet myself just watching it!!
Anyway, we got our DVDS, photos and T-shirts afterwards and went back to the hostel very pleased with ourselves for having done it! That afternoon we just went for lunch, relaxed and then had a night out in Queenstown!
OK just 2 more for New Zealand and then on to OZ!
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxx
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