JUMPING OFF A BRIDGE - QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND - DAY 8

I’ve barely slept, knowing that I’ve now booked a bungy jump, and there’s no backing out, aka no refund.

I’m waking up every hour, and once again, wake up fully at 6AM. I wait for Rachel to wake up an hour later, and we go out to eat for breakfast. The hostel has a deal with this restaurant, so we can eat cheap there. I don’t have much more time to think about the jump, because we have to inhale our meal and rush over to the site by 10:30AM for orientation. We drive through the hills, and today, the sun is out. New Zealand is GORGEOUS. To the right, sharp snow capped mountains, trickled with clouds hovering at the peaks, and to the left, high rolling green hills, blanketed with grass, and sprinkled with roaming sheep. Remember, it’s Autumn here. At the base of each hill and mountain are brilliant rims of yellow, and orange leaves of every shade. Rachel and I drive in near silence, as our mouths are gaping open with eyes equally wide at the beauty that surrounds us, and surprises us anew at every turn.

We come to our destination, the Kawarau Bridge- Home of the first bungee jump, and where it was invented. I’m brought back to reality at this. We get out of the car, and from the side, the bridge doesn’t look very high, but it’s 43meters...141ft. I’m scared.

We sign in, and sign our lives away while they weigh us, take our emergency contact person’s info, and suit us up in a harness. I’m very tense now, but they move quickly so there’s no time to think. I do manage to glance out the window, and at the live feed on a massive screen to see people jumping and falling at their own will. The lady I observe is scared, but leaps without screaming. Seems easy enough...Or at least, that's what I tell myself. Rachel's not frightened at all. She actually wanted to do the The Nevis swing at 300ft, but to that I said, “fuck off”. The Nevis is the "middle level" of this jump. (The largest jump with this company is 500ft high out of a hovering cable car, in between a gorge). Rachel can be as quiet as a mouse, so you'd never know she loves roller coasters, and adrenaline thumping rides like this. Last night, I insisted on booking this one for me to take "baby steps", and if I like it, we can do the 300ft swing if we ever come back. I'm already afraid of heights, and free falling at any level sounds entirely unappealing. I just want to do this to face my fear. If I don't do it, I know the sting of regret will hurt forever, rather than pushing through three seconds of very intense fear.

I put my GoPros on, and we walk out on the bridge. The guys / guides are nice, and they ask us if we want to touch the water- I actually want to, but we went at 10:45AM, and it was still bloody cold. I change my mind and we opt out.

Rachel and I sit at the edge of the bridge. I’m still fairly calm, but remain stiff. Rachel, a true daredevil, goes first. She jumps without hesitation, and doesn’t even scream- Cool as a cucumber. She completes this challenge like it’s nothing, and I envy her balls of steel.

Okay, my turn. They wrap up my feet, and ask me to approach the ledge. I did the one thing you’re not supposed to do, and I look down into the depths of the gorge. Everything in my body’s natural instinct says DONT. JUMP. YOU BLITHERING IDIOT.

I hold on to the ledge and unintentionally say out loud what I'm thinking, “I don’t want to do this”. I actually needed tough love here, but the guides are so nice, they ask if I want to sit down. I don’t reply, but in my head I think, “I definitely don’t want to sit down, I need to carry through”. The rush of water beneath me becomes louder, as the next tour bus passes through, and drops a crowd of people to watch me from the sidelines. The guide reminds me this was my idea to do a jump today. I still don't reply, but think, "Don't rub it in, you twat. Just push me off". He then points and tells me to look at the camera to wave and smile, and again to the tourists to the left. Instead when I turn to the left, I mouth, “OH. MY. FUCK”. Spectators at the side cheer me on anyway- They can probably see my horrified look from there.

The guide counts down from three, and I know I can’t think. I MUST JUMP, or I won’t at all. I count down with them.

BUNGY GUIDE: 3

ME: 3

BUNGY GUIDE: 2

ME: 2

BUNGY GUIDE: 1

ME: 1

BUNGY GUIDE: BUNGY!!

ME: FUCK IT!

I leap.

My brain actually thinks I've just killed myself. Falling for “3 Mississippi” seconds, I scream, close my eyes, and open them again to suddenly find I nearly touch the water. The very second the bungee pulls tension on my feet and zips me back up, I AM LOVING THIS!!! I actually feel like I’m flying. I've never experienced a more exhilarating sensation than this- This is the highest high I've ever felt. I bounce and swing two more times, and on my second bounce, I even yell, “I WANT TO GO AGAIN”!! It's over before I know it, and I pull myself down with the team on the raft waiting at the bottom of the river.

Had we stayed in New Zealand longer, and had more money, I most certainly would've gone again. It's rather expensive to throw yourself off a bridge apparently. But since I did it the first time, I have 20% off any bungee in NZ for life. I will definitely do the The Nevis (300ft) swing with Rachel if we ever come back. (I wanted to do it right after this first jump).

I’m pulled down and into the raft to undo my harness. I lay in the raft, and I’m completely ELATED. I fucking did it. Scared shitless for two weeks, not sleeping, to full fear at the ledge, to overcoming my fear, and actually having a blast doing it, I have bungy jumped in my life.

Although I don’t have balls of steel like Rachel, I actually feel like I grew a pair. Rachel even says she’s proud of me when I climb up the stairs on the side of gorge to meet her. We finish climbing all the way back up to the top, buy our photos and video on a USB stick, get our certificates and free t-shirt, and I’m smiling from ear to ear the whole rest of the day.

Next on the docket is wine tasting. I could forgo this, but Rachel is really into wine, and this is what she wanted to do for today. We each try an array of Pinots grown in New Zealand. I like the first and the last one, but admittedly, I know nothing of the chemistry of wine, and as we’re tasting, a lot of our commentary on each glass sounds like a bunch of B.S. I appreciate this first wine tasting experience for me, but I think I’ve also learned that it’s not my cup of tea. I already know what kind of wine I prefer, and honestly, I don’t even drink wine very much to have a passion for this. The chemistry intrigued me, but the lessons for the taste testing session were minimal.

All the same, we enjoyed ourselves, and shared deep conversations about our views on faith vs. religion, and our families. Not only is alcohol a social lubricant, but it acts as a very effective truth serum. Seems like the correct response in drinking wine with girlfriends. We pay, and walk around the vineyard. We cross the road and eat our packed lunches at a bench overlooking the Kawarau River. WHAT A LIFE. It’s so beautiful, we cheers our lunch bowls, and take in the sights. Another, “I can’t believe we did that” moment. Two in a row, and in a single day.

We go three-for-three after lunch. I really wanted to see the Kiwi Bird conservation, more formally called, The Kiwi Birdlife Park. The tickets were a bit pricey, but it’s not a very well known tourist attraction, and all of the funds go straight to the birds. I’m happy about this. We actually get 20% off the tickets because we missed the first half of the Educational and Conservation show. Good timing...For us at least.

After the second half of the show, we walk through the entire park. It’s lovely so see all of the birds up close and to learn about them. We finish at the main and final event, the Kiwis. One of my favorite short films is a student animation called “Kiwi” on YouTube, so naturally, this is my favorite bird. In the very least, the Kiwi bird holds a special place in my heart. They’re rather large, and their feathers are so soft, it feels like fur. (This is all according to the animal guide, we weren't allowed to touch them). They don’t have wings, just nubs; they’re ground birds, so their legs are VERY strong, and can therefore, run very fast. Because they have such long beaks, they have the best sense of smell for a bird. Like penguins, another flightless bird, Kiwis find one mate, and mate for life. For females, they grow one egg at a time, and the egg takes up 20% of her body. The egg in other words, is VERY big, and VERY dense. Poor Kiwi moms. Childbirth is already difficult, but this is next level suffering. The Dad then incubates the egg for three months, and the baby bird is left to fend for itself.

Kiwis are rather aggressive and territorial, but they are darn cute. Rachel and I were so happy to see these birds. They’re only in New Zealand which is why the conservation is so important. After the Europeans brought in dogs, cats, ferrets and other predators, the Kiwi population had gone down 95%. If they go extinct in New Zealand, They. Are. Extinct.

I was thinking of writing a good review online for the Conservation, and maybe even donating my other photographs of the birds I captured today in hopes of beefing up their tourist attraction for funds. *(I did this when I returned home). We weren’t allowed to photograph or film the Kiwis unfortunately, but I could look at them all day. They're adorable.

The Kiwi park closed, and Rachel and I left to meet up with Ashley who had just arrived into town. She was wine tasting in the main city of Queenstown. Rachel loved the idea of more wine tasting, but I opted out- A bit sick of wine for the day. Ashley however, pointed me to a corner of whiskey taste testing. Whiskey chemistry, distilling, history, and flavor peaks my interest the way wine does for the girls. However, I’m careful with these, as whiskey is a heavy weight alcohol. I have a little sip of three different New Zealand whiskeys. Thankfully, the tasting here is extremely cheap, and it helped that I had very little to drink in comparison to the girls. Also, I don’t like Smokey flavored food or drink, so this helps to narrow down my desired whiskey choices for comparison.

My honest consensus, New Zealand whiskey tries too hard. It makes me miss the profoundly good whiskey I had in Ireland, and the Mackmyra from Sweden. Of the three, I can only really enjoy one... And it tastes really close to Jameson.

Hungry, we head out to try Queenstown‘s most famous burger place, Fergburger. I have a lamb burger, Rachel tries a tropical pineapple burger, and Ashley goes for the deer meat burger. It’s not the best burger I’ve ever had, but it’s still tasty, filling, and we get to say we’ve done it.

We chow down at our hostel, meet up with one of our roommates, Emily, and meet our other two new roommates, Michelle and Anne. They’re also British, and huge party goers. They have drunk, dry British humor, (I love this), and we share long hearty laughs throughout our meal. We finish up, they get ready for a pub crawl and talk about trying to get laid, I take photos of them for their Instagram- They're surprised at how good I am at this, (I don't tell them I'm a pro), and then they leave to do a pub crawl. Rachel, Ashley and I call it a night.

Early to bed for us, as it’s another 6AM wake up call. Shouldn’t be an issue. Tomorrow, we start our drive to Milford Sound for our cruise. Let the road trip begin!

-eM