Queenstown is known as the Adventure Capital of the World. After staying here for a few days, I can see how that honor has been well earned. Want to get your adrenaline pumping? The options are pretty much limitless for the number of ways you can do it! There’s bungy jumping, sky diving, hang gliding, parasailing, jet boating, whitewater rafting and the list goes on and on.
Our nephew, Alex, who is visiting is 20-years old and pretty much smack dab in the middle of the demographic being targeted for all these activities. He was definitely up for something and was just trying to pick what exactly he wanted to do. Queenstown is home of the ORIGINAL bungy jump. AJ Hackett Bungy started back in 1988 with a 43-meter jump off the Kawarau Bridge and has been going strong ever since. Matt had been here almost 20 years ago, and took the plunge, so Alex decided he was game as well.
We called up and got a spot secured for him and signed Jack and I up for a few 150-meter zip line rides there as well. We arrived at the bungy center at Kawarau Bridge and it was crazy! They had huge screens inside where you could watch jumpers or you could walk out to viewing platforms to see people take the leap. We were getting checked in and Matt looked at me and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to bungy jump?” I honestly wasn’t even considering it until then. But really, home of the original bungy jump? When am I going to be here again? What the heck, let’s do it. I made the decision and signed my life away before I changed my mind.
We did the zip lining first. I took the first ride with Jack and Alex went with him for a second ride, which Jack absolutely LOVED! It’s one thing to zip line with your mom, but it’s a whole different thing to zip line with your super cool cousin! I mean just look at this smile…
Then it was time for the bungy. They had it down to a science and they get you ready to go so fast it’s amazing. Alex went first. You had the option to actually get dunked in the river below, which he decided to do (I wasn’t so sure about that yet). He got all strapped in and, with hardly any hesitation at all, dove off the platform (much to the delight of all the cheering young ladies watching…wink, wink). Then it was my turn. I was so freaking nervous! Why did I say yes to jumping off a perfectly good bridge? Since I decided to do it, I decided I might as well get dunked in the water, too, because hey – might as well go all out right? I couldn’t have Jack see his mom totally chicken out, so I eeked myself to the end of the platform and politely asked the guy at the ledge about 5 times to please not push me. I’m not sure why exactly I thought he’d shove me off, but it seemed completely logical at that moment. And then, because standing there at the end of the plank was the scariest thing in the world, I just dove off. Holy cow, it seemed like a long way down! I don’t know if I took a breath the whole time, but I did it! It was fun, I can check it off my bucket list and now Jack wants to go as soon as he hits the minimum age requirement of 10…sheesh, what have we done!
The Detour Diary 