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Published: July 16th 2006
Picture Perfect
The Lake by our hostel, with the Mountain Range in th background.Hey Hey,
Arrived in Queenstown from Lake Hawea and it's been pretty hectic since then. New Zealand is the home of the Bungy Jump, made popular by A.J Hackett after he jumped from the top of the Eiffel Tower in 1988. On the car journey to Queenstown we stopped off at Kawarau Bridge to watch some people Bungy Jump: the Kawarau Bridge Bungy is the oldest Bungy site in the World with a drop of just over 40 metres .
http://www.ajhackett.com/index.php/ps_pagename/queenstown
Watching the jumps certainly wetted my appetite to do one myself so as soon as we arrived in Queenstown Me, Jonny and Dan booked up for a Sky Swing and a Bungy Jump, that we'd do over the next two days. As well as being an Extreme Sports haven, Queenstown boasts some of the finest scenery in the country. It is surrounded by the Remarkables Mountain Range and also green forestry. We stayed at the YHA, which was by the lake and is only a short walk into town. The town reminded both me and Jonny of Keswick, only it looks a bit nicer, most of the shops are selling winter sports clothes and there are some
I canny get on the Cable Car likes
About to catch the cable car upto the Sky Swing. old stylee sweet shops.
Queenstown is a bit of a party town, the first one of those we've been in for a while, and has happy hours where pints are less than quid- aka cheap enough to see us on the road to ruin. We headed out on our first night with a couple of Irish girls who we done our Glacier walk with and a good night was had by all.
The next day me, Dan and Jonny prepared ourselves for our Ledge Skyswing at 4pm. We had to catch a Gondola up a mountain that overlooked Queenstown to reach our "swinging" destination. Heres how the A.J. Hackett website describes the swing:
"Remember the swing you had in your back yard? Well, the Ledge Urban Sky Swing takes that to a whole new level. In fact a level 400 metres over Queenstown. Once harnessed your lowered to the release 'station'. Let the thrill take over! As you swing away the biggest surprise is not knowing when you'll change from fall to swing. Just as your brain convinces you the fall will never stop, you begin arching out 400 metres over Queenstown."
Upon arrival at the
Stamped like cattle!
We had to get our weights wrote on our hands with marker pen to do the Sky Swing. Heres Danzil proudly displaying his 85 kg (I'm sure they missed off number one from the start of it!) Banter. top of the Gondola we had to be weighed in to determine which rope each of us would need to use. They wrote our respective weights on our hands in marker pen; Dan was furious that we were being "branded like cattle". After the weigh in it was a small walk to the Ledge to be "harnessed up" and then it was time to get the show on the road/in the air?! Dan went first and was lowered off the edge of the ledge by one of the workers before being asked to pull a release cord, after he did this all we heard (and half of Queenstown heard I presume) was "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" for about 10 seconds as he first flew toward the abyss below, before the rope became taut and swung him in a big U Shape back and forth.
Next up it was my turn, God I hope Dan hasn't put too much pressure on this rope. The guy who helped us into the harnesses insisted that they did change the ropes as soon as one of them snapped! After being lowered from the Ledge there was nothing left to do but pull that cord... God, the
Ledge Sky Swing.
The platform in focus is where people bungy from. We started "swinging" from a platform to the far right of the picture and went in a big arc, before eventually being pulled upto the Bungy platform. rush was incredible, until the rope becomes taut you are just freefalling to the earth below and theres nothing you can do about it. When I started swinging all of the fear goes and you can just admire the views from not your everyday vantage point-awesome.
Jonny was last to go, he didn't scream like me and Dan, and he looked like more of a pro as he was doing Jumping Jack Flash poses as he was swinging- looked like a cool customer. He was also singing Nelly furtardo's song "I'm like a bird" at the top of his voice!
On the ride back down the Gondola afterwards we all felt, in the words of Sprigsy, "exhilarated": we knew there was a much bigger challenge to
Our Playground
We had to catch a small cable car to reach the Big Kahuna in the middle of the wire where we jumped from. come though in the form of the big Kahuna bungy Jump the next day.
I didn't sleep much that night, due partly to my nervousness about the next days jump, but mostly because of the snoring of people in the dorm (Oh the drawbacks of living in dorms): God they were like Ogres! Bully's technique for dealing with snorers tends to come in the form of a pillow smack to the face, sounds harsh but it sorts out the problem temporarily!
Breakfast the next morning was a quiet affair for me, Jonny and Dan: we were a bit apprehensive about what we were about to do: jump off a ledge with only a 440 foot drop to look forward to. We headed to the Bungy centre in town where we were picked up by a minibus to take us to the Nevis Highwire Bungy. During the journey our emotions kept changing from nervous, to excited to shitting it. The Nevis Highwire is the biggest man made Bungy in the world (The biggest of any kind is in South Africa), it is easy to tell the lengths "Team Hackett" went to to increase the fear factor of the jumpers.
Before
Me on the small cable car. The drive takes you off road and into canyon terrain, your surrounded by huge cliff faces until eventually you reach the top and that is when you get your first glimpse of where your jumping from: no doubting which of the three aforementioned emotions I was feeling at this stage!! God, i was shitting it! 440 feet above a gaping valley, flanked between two mountains is a wire with a cable car in the middle of it, below this is a rope dangling ominously into the abyss below.
"You won't get me on that" were Dan's first words in a Peter Kay stylee! Of course none of us had any intentions of bottling it, but what if we just got to the ledge and physically couldn't make ourselves jump. The thought had crossed my mind, i mean it seems to go against any rational thought to throw yourself out of a cable car into a ravine: and as much as you tell yourself that thousands of people have done it in the past and haven't had any problems, you still have that nagging thought at the back/front of your mind!
To get to the Bungy Pod, we had
Just Before
Look how concerned my face looks as the blokes briefing me on my technique. Ooh. to catch a cable car from the edge of the valley. Dan and Jonny went in the first batch because they would be using the chuffers rope to jump with, i was a bit lighter so i was the twelfth person in order to jump: so i had to play the old waiting game. As i was being transported in the cable car someone had jumped from the Pod: is it a bird, is it a plane, no... It's SuperDan (I couldn't see him for sure but the textbook girly scream that accompanied him on the Sky Swing the day before made me realise it could only be the T Man!) he was just getting back in the Pod as i stepped in it: he looked a bit flushed!
Jonny was next, and after singing "I'm like a Bird" again to calm his nerves he jumped. He was dragged back into the Pod upside down because the cord he was suppose to pull on his ascent back up had failed to function: he was like a piece of meat. Jonny was even more flushed than Dan, probably because of the blood rushing to his head because he was pulled
Going...going...
When your feet are hanging over the edge- B'jesus! Soooo scary. back upside down.
As the numbers started falling i felt strangely calm, then it was me next. Before walking to the Ledge you are sat in a dentists chair and the Bungy rope is attached to you, the bloke goes through the technique you should use and about pulling the cord to make you swing the right way up for your ascent back to the Pod. On the dentists chair I was getting butterflies but still thought I felt much more nervous watching England in the Penalty Shoot Out than doing this jump. Then came the walk to the ledge... God, it seemed to last an age. The fact you've got a big Bungy Cord between your feet means you can't walk normally and you have to scuttle along like a penguin to the 2 foot by 2 foot ledge that hangs out of the Pod, your feet have actually got to hang over the edge so my walk took a bit of finetuning.
Once i was on the edge i had a sudden urge to look down, in a way i wanted to be as scared as possible to take in the whole experience: wow. Then I
GONE!
Look at that flawless technique! What a feeling! had to look directly ahead of me as I was counted down from 5 to 1: the fear seemed to dissapear somewhat here and I became more business like, just concentrating on getting a good jump off. You feel obliged to jump as your counted down and because of the peer pressure i don't think many people actually don't go through with it when they reach the Pod. I'm so glad Jonny wasn't counting me down or i would have fully expected to hear, "5,4,3,2,1.75,1.5,1.25,,1.11111 recurring!"
When the countdown reached 1 I jumped: Incredible. As your hurtling towards the ravine below (The speed you pick up is sureal) for over 8 seconds theres nothing you can do but enjoy the ride: if the rope snaps it's not as if you can do anything about it! I felt like i'd left my guts up in the Pod somewhere as i was falling. After a couple of bounces when the rope swung back up i attempted to pull my cord to put me upright: needless to say, no matter how much i pulled it, i didn't flip around! As i was slowly brought back towards the Pod upside down, i took
After
The three extremeteers after conquering their nemisis. in the view around me, knowing i wouldn't get a vantage point like this again. "Alright where's Beadle?, wheres Beadle?", i was thinking as i was hanging. It was so quiet and peaceful. Then i arrived back in the Pod: Job done.
We all felt pretty pleased with ourselves as we watchd the DVD of us jumping: me and Jonny's upsde down ascents are a couple for the bloopers video no doubt! That afternoon we went for a nice relaxing round of golf with Bully. Jonny obviously won; Dan came last, taking half of the turf from the course with him! and me and Bully battled for second. I needed to hole a 2 foot put to tie with him and i Montgomeried it! god, i could Bungy Jump but the nerves of a simple putt still beat me!!!
We headed out that night, and i slept like a baby when i got back. The next day Dan and Will done a skydive: said it was absolutely amazing, not scary, just amazing. Thats the next thing for me to look forward to somewhere else in New Zealand. Me and Bully played golf again and then went to the Driving Range, I played as well as i ever have and beat him this time.
That night it was special because we would be saying goodbye to Dan, who goes home to graduate and to Bull, who heads to the North island earlier than me J and Wils. We had a meal at an Italian and then had a Pub Crawl followed by a club till past 4am. At one stage we managed to draw a moustache on Jonny without him realising, oh the fun we have- he looked hilarious.
This morning Dan and Bully had to drive for 7 hours to Christchurch, i didn't envy them! They came into our room to say their goodbyes. Sad to think we won't see Dan's ever smiley face again on the trip and although Bully's face isn't quite so smiley it's a wrench to see him go: we've been in each others pockets for 4 months now! Fellas it's been an absolute pleasure to share this experience with you guys, wouldn't have been the same without yous. Have a good graduation T, remember not to slip as your collecting your certificate and keep us informed of the Cookmeisters antics. Bully: have a nice trip and good luck starting your multi-million pound a year accounting job when you get home, i know your not supposed to do work on the side but i'm sure Jonny could use a hand with his accounts for his Sprigwells Coffee Houses!
So, then there were three of us again, going wherever the wind takes us (Just like Pocohontas!)
till next time,
Mike
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anonymous
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A tear in my Jap's eye
Been an absolute pleasure as well Mike. At least the banter about a)me being the devil b) me being miserable c) me being politically incorrect d) me being violent towards snorers can finally be put to rest. Sweet relief!!!!