“If you’re not trying to kill yourself in Queenstown, your doing it wrong.”

– An insightful Kiwi man we met

We made it to Queenstown, and our hostel – Adventure Queenstown – was one of, if not the best, we had booked. So we had a nice place to relax and prepare to bungy jump!

My stomach was in knots all night. This is something I always said I would never do – that I never had any desire to do – and yet somehow I am the one that signed us up. (When in NZ?!?) I picked the Kawarau bridge location because:

1. It is beautiful
2. There is a tandem option – and I was pretty sure the only way I was going to bungy was if someone else pulled me over the edge

However, I didn’t realize until after we booked that there are some requirements to meet before we could tandem. And on that morning we learned we did not qualify. I figured that might be the case, but I was still not prepared to do this myself. I knew I was safe – this group does this all day every day without incident. But I was still not sure how I was going to throw myself off a ledge 43 meters (140 feet) high!

Luckily – the AJ Hackett team is AMAZING! They helped keep me calm, encouraged me, and took me through the process one step at a time.

1. Harness
2. Sit inside the prep area (and don’t look down)
3. Get talked through (at my request) all my connection points and the safety of the setup
4. Stand up
5. Get on the platform. This is where the guy helping me was a true champ – yes, the guy with the tongue below. I started to hesitate and he told me the longer I waited the harder it would be, and all I had to do at that moment was get onto the platform. That was it. (And don’t look down!)
6. Dive on 1 – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…. Then I just did it!

I still don’t know how! But I did not look down – I just fell… and it was awesome! It was not nearly as hard or scary as I thought it would be. (Though the whip from my unintended flip wasn’t super fun.) But I was secure and safe, and it was great!

Remember how awesome I said the AJ Hackett team was? Two of them came to check on me after it was over – one to hug and congratulate me, and the other checked with Brandon to see if I did it and was thrilled to learn I did! (This shows both how nice they are and how much of a blubbering mess I was.)

Then it was Brandon’s turn. He had done this before – and he is crazy – so it was no problem for him. He strapped in and dove! There is an option to touch the water when you jump – and Brandon went waist deep.

All in all – absolutely amazing! Would do again. (Maybe)

Since we did all of this before lunch, we had the rest of the day to fill. So Brandon looked at me and asked, “Wanna go hang gliding?” As if jumping off of a bridge wasn’t enough adrenaline for one day. But that afternoon, we were soaring over the mountaintops!

We tried to go for broke and go skydiving that evening, but they were too swamped to even look at us sideways. (That was probably a good thing for both my sanity and our wallets.) But maybe next time.