So it is here.... the day of the big jump, nervous rating currently quite low anticipation & excitement help give me the energy to wake up after the last night. We met the other jumpers on our bus Harry, Nick, Kate and Eviand (Harry still wasn't feeling too great after last night) and headed over to the bungy station. Once there we weighed in to determine the bungy rope we would use. We still had a 30 minute wait till be set off to the bungy site and me and Ollie were still pretty cool and were finally realising that we are about to go through the the jump. After chilling out on some bean bags we were on our way to the bungy site about a 45 minute drive to a canyon that we passed on our way into Queenstown. The tunes on the way helped get us in the right mood and included such tracks as Song 2 by Blur, Jump by Van Halen, Jump Around by House of Pain.
When we arrived to the site we got our harnesses and were reweighed, no backing out now. Before I know it Ollie, who got his harness on a little before me, was pointing me to the cable car I was a little confused but suddenly realised I was going out to the bungy platform to watch Ollie as he was jumping second. My nervousness went up a notch during the cable car trip but I regained composure pretty quickly on the bungy platform. It is pretty hard for me to write Ollie's exact emotions but he can't be bothered to write them himself so you'll have to make do with the little I gathered or ask him yourself. There is a pretty good photo that seems to show Ollie's pre-jump nerves. I myself wasn't sure when I was going to be jumping as I went out with the first four I thought I might jump after them but this was not to be and I would just have to wait until all the people heavier than me had jumped, nervous rating slightly up and anticipation went through the roof.
The first jumper was an Irish girl and she set a very high standard and really didn't seem to show any sign of nerves, I was beginning to get used to the fact we were now suspended over 134 metre above the base of the canyon and she definitely helped my confidence. Now it was Ollie's turn to get prepared for his jump and he was look very nervous at the point when they called his name, by this point Nick and Harry had arrived with Lucy (who was just watching). He was sat in the seat looking a little more nervous than I had seen him previously getting strapped up and I found myself getting pretty nervous just watching him but also wishing I could just straight after but I knew I had quite a few jumpers ahead of me. In just a few short seconds Ollie was standing over the edge of the platform, he told me afterwards that he “S*** himself” but to me it seemed like he was relatively in control, considering the situation of being over 134 metres above the canyon base. Then the count down 3........2........1 and he jumped, UNBELIEVEABLE GEOFF! This helped really pump me up shame I would have to wait so long. I watched as he tried to pull the leg cord that would right him so that he wouldn't have to come back up upside down but his cord was a little tight so he tried for a while before giving up and hanging upside down to be lifted back up... Not Ideal! Although he was ecstatic when I spoke to him post jump and absolutely loved the experience and now I just had to wait...
Harry said a few days later that “he looked at red as his t-shirt”
I watched as both Nick and Harry jumped also very composed and also gave similar reactions following their jumps, getting me really pumped and ready to do it for real. Although Harry let out a very girly shout. Kate and Eivan came over on the cable car then Ollie, Nick, Harry and Lucy all headed back that made me a little nervous but I still had a couple of people I knew there with me at least. It turned out that Eivan was jumping before me nervous, hells yeah! I then heard my name call and my heart skipped a beat momentarily and then I confidently strolled over to the chair to get hooked up, while this was going on Eivan had just got back on the platform and looked pretty happy. Then time moved very quickly and I getting up ready to jump, I thought I would be fine but I looked over the edge and now the nerves hit me big time I said out loud “I can't do this” even though I knew that I would. The bungy guy said I could do it and I believe all I said was “ok” and then he began the count down 3......oh s***.......2 I have to do this everyone else has and I'm way to tight to waste the money...1 and then I went for it and jumped, well I say jumped but it wasn't the best. I was pretty scared for the first couple of seconds then relaxed a little more before calming down a little more on the first sign that the rope was holding my weight and then I let out the tension my shouting something like “Oh my God.......Yeah!” when I finally puled the cord to sit up again I got to view the spectacular canyon and the great height I had jumped for a few seconds before I got pulled back up.
Meanwhile little to my knowledge Ollie was about to do the Nevis Arc, the world highest swing and it too was over the canyon. He did this cause our room mate Nick wanted to do it and they were offering it cheap if you do it as a pair. I might have seen their swing cause I was travelling back on the cable car and saw from a distance what it looked like two people on the swing, I was still really buzzing from my jump at this point. We then purchased our DVDs and got the free t-shirt and Ollie got a hat for doing the Arc and headed to the bus which would take us back to Queenstown.
We talked to a few people about our jumps and what it felt like before running into Tom who told us if we have time, to walk up the hill next to the gondola to the viewing area. He told us the walk would take about 1 hour 30 minutes and it was quite intense to begin with. Still buzzing from the jump we decided to go and boy was Tom right the initial path was very rocky, steep and had a lot of trees but luckily the path wasn't too long and reached the road which would take us the rest of the way, winding up the hill which seemed like forever. It was well worth the effort to climb, we were now 487 metres above sea level and had great views of Queenstown and its mountain ranges. We then walked a little loop around the luge track before heading back down the hill before it got dark.
In the evening we hung around with people from the Kiwi bus playing some pool and having a few drinks. I almost forgot we had our first Fergburger which everyone who visits Queenstown will know exactly what I mean, for anyone else it is a very famous burger restaurant. I can say we honestly weren't disappointed despite all of the hype.
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