If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Hell yeah!

After our delightful morning in Wanaka, we drove to Queenstown. The locals will tell you it's "just over the hill" ... the hill is actually the highest paved road in New Zealand, and it's followed by an outrageous amount of switchbacks that had all of us feeling a little queasy by the end. Once we were in downtown Queenstown, we went to the AJ Hackett bungy centre where we checked in and then awaited the bus that would come pick us up.

On the drive to Queenstown

YES, I was going bungy jumping (in NZ it's spelled bungy, not bungee) and after what happened while cliff jumping this summer, I was terrified. Kelsey was also nervous for the jump, so we decided we'd jump tandem to provide each other some support. On the bus ride to the Kawarau Bridge, my stomach was churning, and I was getting more and more nervous by the minute. Annoyingly, it turned out that we went right back on the road toward Wanaka so we could have just avoided taking the bus altogether - oh well.


At the World's First bungee site we were greeted by a peppy guide who took us to a desk where we got weighed, then all of a sudden we were walking out onto the bridge. My stomach was doing cartwheels and Kelsey was wringing her hands, but Derek and Drea were cool as cucumbers. When we told the bungee operators we wanted to go tandem, the oldest one there said "Twice as much can go wrong with a tandem jump" in a gruff voice. Miss peppy guide urged us to jump solo, and we finally agreed (mostly terrified by the bungee cowboy's words). Kelsey went first, and luckily we couldn't see her after she jumped off. Next, it was my turn ... I was practically peeing my pants at this point, but the man who was tying up my legs gave me no chance to hesitate, just talked to me the whole time until suddenly I was at the edge, my photo was being taken, and it was time to JUMP!

There is nothing rational about hurling yourself off a 45m bridge toward water. For a second, I thought I couldn't do it - I felt just like I'd felt on that cliff. But then my knees buckled and I had no choice, I was doing it so I might as well enjoy it! I spread my arms and fell, and it was an incredible rush - followed by a dive into the icy water below. I was unbelievably happy - I DID IT!! Luckily Mal was on the viewing deck (anyone can stop their car and watch some bungee if they feel like it) so she got it on video ...

Bungee Jump from Ally Stocks on Vimeo.
 

Drea's and Derek's jumps were very graceful and very wet (they got fully dunked in the water; I went halfway), and when we were all finished we were a jumble of excitement and adrenaline. We relaxed in the sun and watched a few more bungee jumps (some people looked very awkward and wiggly when they jumped) before taking the bus back to Queenstown, hopping in the car and driving to Te Anau where we stayed the night at a creepy campsite that lacked grass space for tents.