If all of your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you?

Well yes, I would also jump off of the bridge.

I've never had the urge to bungy jump before.  It always seemed, well, crazy, but then I started thinking about New Zealand and it just seems the thing to do.   When I was in Vienna, Austria I went to the opera; in Paris I had a picnic at Versailles, on the French Riviera I went topless, in Munich I drank beer.  Seems that the thing to do in Queenstown (QT) is to jump off of stuff and I do love to experience all that my travels have to offer me.

So Haven and I determined that we would bungy jump in QT, the mother of commercial bungy jumping.  There are 3 main options for bungy in QT.  The original bridge which is the site of the first every commercial bungy jump (43 m), a ledge sitting high above downtown QT (47m) and the Nevis jump which is the second highest in the world well over 100m but I don't remember exactly.  i appreciate history and felt that I needed to go for the original, so we signed up.

Haven and I both thought that it would be scarier than sky diving.  When you jump from the plane you are so high up that your proportions are thrown off.  Plus the is an expert strapped to your back.  With bungy, neither of these is true.

We walked out onto the bridge and the wind was just screaming.  Haven got picked to go before me and I watched as they hooked her up basically a towel around your ankles and then a bunch of straps.  She walked to the edge of the platform and the guys were telling her to go but she couldn't hear them.  In that extra time she had a chance to look around.  Not a good idea when you are about to jump off a bridge that almost 150 ft in the air.  The look on her face was sheer fright, the worst I've ever seen.  Looks like I had a lot to look forward to.

When you jump from the bridge you have the option of getting dunked into the river at the bottom of the jump.  I had originally thought I'd go for this but then decided it was too cold.  When the guy asked me, I told him I'd like to maybe skim the water with my outstretched arms.  He said sure thing.   After watching Haven, I knew that I needed to get to the edge and jump.  Any seconds standing at the edge were just going to make me panic.  I will fully admit that bungy was the scariest thing I've ever done.  It just defeats all logic that you should fling yourself from a bridge.  The first few moments off the bridge you are almost in a state of shock.   You see the river rushing towards you at a crazy speed.  In my case I had my fingers outstretched to skim the water.   Turns out I got dunked in to my armpits-- quite a surprise.  The guys afterwards swore (with a smile)that is what he thought that is what I meant by "skim."

It was great, I'm glad I did it but I don't really have a desire to do it again.  I think that I'm happy just crossing that one off my life's to-do list.  I do have some photos online I'm going to try to download but it will be a while before I get the chance.