WEDNESDAY IN QUEENSTOWN

Kawarau Bridge Bungy/Luge

    To start off today this post, I would like to give you a little bit of history! Bungy jumping was pioneered by AJ Hackett. He and his friend decided to jump of the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown. This is why all sixteen of us felt like we needed to jump of the bridge as well!

   

    Now we started out, and we woke up once again super early! I'm not really sure why, but for some reason everyone over here is up and going early in the morning. No one really believes in sleeping in! I may just become a morning person yet! Okay well anyway we met down in the bottom of the base, where Jim and James were there to take us up to the bridge. AJ Hackett said they could take us up there, but Jim (Our professor) and James (Our driver that tours with us) wanted to see us all do this. They didn't believe that all of us really would do it. Anyway it was about seven in the morning when we left the base. Now this morning did look like it was going to be that great of a morning. It was raining! This made it a little scary, but we keep going!

     We got up to the bridge, and we had to wait a little bit for them to open the doors. We were the first group jumping of the morning, and they weren't quite open when we got up there! Anyways, once they opened up we once again had to go sign our life away. You would think your mind when you are signing a paper saying if you get hurt it's not the companies fault, you would think twice about what you are doing, but no, we all just signed our life away. After we signed our life away we again had to weigh ourselves. This is the second time, that we all wanted to make sure we got our EXACT weight. It could be very traumatic if we didn't. Anyway, after we get up all signed up, it's time to go up to the bridge. Now we went up to two different groups. I was in the first group. In our group was me, Emily, Christine, Janet, Whitney, and Hannah. We get to the point of the bridge where you jump, and the guy goes who is going first? All of us are dead silent. I think we sat there in silence for about 5 minutes. During that silence we were all making eye contact pointing to other people of who should go first. Then I decide someone has to go first, it might as well be me, so I said I'm first, and I was!

      So the guy helping us says step on in, he puts a harness around my waist and he doesn't do it up very tight. I was like shouldn't that be tighter? He told me that was just in case the real cord broke. That makes me feel good! He then starts putting the cords and things around my ankles. While he was doing this we were having a little chat. I asked if there was a certain way that I should jump, his response was "Like the Pocahontas jump!" Now this made me SOOOO excited! Whenever I watched that movie, I see her jump off the cliff into the water, and dive in. I have ALWAYS wanted to dive just like her! This made me so excited!

     I got all strapped in, and he said are you ready? I said I think so. He said scoot on out to the end of the ledge remember Jump like Pocahontas. Then he said, "Where you are the first jump of the day, we never really know what the cords are going to do, so just in case make sure your chin is to your chest and you arms are above your head in case you hit the water." I responded, "Seriously?" He said, "Yup for real, Now jump on one. Three. Two. One." And guess what! I jumped right there! I was the very first jump of the day, and the very first jump out of the group! Oh my gosh! It was so much fun! AND everyone in my group was like Nancy, you had the perfect jump! You looked just like Pocahontas! I really did it! I jumped off a bridge! Not only did I jump off the bridge, but I was voted the best jump of the day, because I did it so gracefully! This was SOO much fun! At this point, I realized I am turning into an adrenaline junkie! (not really just for a few days). To see all of my photos from ths go to www.bungy.co.nz Choose Daily Photos Select the Kawarau Bridge then type in this code AJHK102020029516. There should be seven photos that come up! You will love them, and you can judge my jump for yourself!

 

Yup that's really me!

     Now that was such an adrenaline rush! Everyone in the group was cheering and screaming for me! No one could believe that I just jumped! I'm pretty sure if the guy wouldn't have said jump like Pocahontas, I wouldn't have been able to, but it was definitely very fun!

      After all sixteen of us had bungy jumped, and we all really did, we headed back down to base! We had a little bit of time that we got to explore! Christine and I decided that we would go walk around the lake. It was absolutley stunning and gorgeous! While we were walking around the lake, we watched some older ladies play a game at the bowling club! It was really fun! It was out on turf. They call it lawn bowling. It's very similar to bocce ball. This was very fun to watch. I decide when I retire, I think I want to come be a member of this bowling club and take up lawn bowling. Anyway the point of the game was to get the most balls closest to the white ball. The balls they roll are weighted on one side, so it takes a lot of skill and strategy. Don't worry  tried, and I wasn't very good!

      After this we walked back to base to meet up with the group. It was the luge day too! We walked up this mountain a little way, then we got to take  a gondola ride up to the top. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's the same mountain I went exploring on the first day only this time I was above it! Then the view when we got to the top was breaktaking!

    Anyway after we had admired the view it was time to go luging. We walked down a little ways, then rode a ski lift up to the top of the course. These are very similar to the alpine slides, only way better! They have two different courses. The scenic, and the adventure. Your first time, you have to go up on the scenic course. This is to make sure you can drive the cart, and you aren't going to kill yourself. After that you could pick.

      Well all did our first run down the mountain, and good news, none of us died! We all made it and could go on the adverture course! This is where it got fun! Our driver, James, this is his favorite thing in the world! He lives to do it! So he is amazing! This is why we all decided to try and beat him! He would go so fast! He would give us a huge head start and guess what! No one ever beat him! It was a lot of fun! 

       After we rode the gondola back down the mountain, we went down to Altitude to eat that night. This was a little bar next to the base. I had chicken strips and chips (and by chips I mean fries). They were so good! Not quite a Ferg burger, but they were still good. Then after we just walked around the bay a little more. While we were walking, we saw a little chinesse man doing a magic show, this is where we finshed our night was watching the magic show! Remember how magic fascinates me, well I found out it still does! Even the simplest things just fascinate me! Anyway, it was another great day in Queenstown, and I had enjoyed it very much!