Happy Bungyday to You

• Pauldebi's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Queenstown

Trip Start Sep 01, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 23, 2008 Next
Entry

  Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand
Monday, September 15, 2008

Paul writes: From Te Anau to Queenstown, that's the plan, where we've a reservation at the Copthorne for tonight and Paul has a bungy jump booked for 3:00pm at the original bungy jump location in the world: Kawarau Suspension Bridge, 14 kilometers east of town. That's more of a plan than we have had since arriving twelve days ago.
It's a short drive, only 170 kilometers which, at the speed limit of 100kph (62mph) will take less than three hours on windy roads.
Along the way, we are interrupted by a gigantic flock of sheep being worked by a trio of dogs and their owner and we stop for pictures. We see a deer herd, more mountains, more lakes, more cattle, more sheep. As we near Queenstown, we decide to get the lay of the land and drive by Kawarau Bridge so we'll know the way later on.
Stopping in, we watch half-dozen jumpers leap from the perch on the bridge and rebound high into the air, some squealing in delight and others too scared to squeal

Paul: "absolutely"

. "You've got to do this, Debi," I say. "I think I will," she says, and we sign her up.
She is to go first and I take pictures; then, we'll switch.

Debi writes: Let me just add here...I was scared shit-less...as they say, so much so that when they were strapping my feet together, my legs wouldn't stop shaking. But I kept telling myself, don't be such a baby, just go....what's the worse that could happen!....

Paul writes: What a trooper she is. As she stands on the platform, high above my viewpoint, I can see that she's a tiny bit nervous. The tipoff is the death grip she maintains on the iron rail adjacent to the perch from which the jumpers leap. First, it's both hands hanging on, then only one and, then, she's airborne.

Debi writes: As I stood on the platform...if I could have, I might have backed out...but I just didn't look down and I listened to the words of the instructor behind me and took a deep breath and off I went.

Paul writes: A perfect leap

Where one sheep goes, all go to graze

. Its 43 meters (141 feet) to the surface of the turquoise waters of the fast moving Kawarau River. A rubber boat with two jumper-retrievers bobs below. There are many spectators on the viewing platform and all eyes are on our Debi. She free-falls with the gigantic rubber band tied to her ankles, arms spread wide as if she were going to will herself to fly. But fly she didn't. You plummet. The water rushes at you. But then, you slow abruptly. And then, well, you bungy. You spring back into the air. From my point of view, she reached her "low point" with five feet between her and the swirling water and she rocketed back skyward...I don't know...half way back up? Then back down, then back up; you get the picture, until finally, you're at your low point and the support team above lowers your bungy cord and you see the boat crew below you handing up a white pole for you to grasp. Once you've got that pole, they (and you) pull down a bit more until you grasp hands with your catcher who eases you, gracefully to be sure, to the floor of the rubber boat. Your ankles are untied and you slip out of the harness that you've been fitted into earlier and, before you know it, you're back at the dock where you climb out onto terra firma once more.
It's over. She climbs up the path, wanting her glasses back. She sits with me on a bench, her breath having been previously taken by the jump and now taken again by the hike up the hill.

Debi writes: As I climb out of the boat, I am still shaky and glad I did it - if no other reason than to tell Cianan that I did actually jump out of something while I was here...little did he know I felt I had jumped out of my skin!

Long and winding road

! I am not sure the word to describe this is experience was exhilarating - possibly more like death-defying for me...but there I have done it ! Now it is time to watch Paul do the one thing he was waited for for almost 2 weeks. And he is siked! Watching him will be fun...he is so excited.

Paul writes: Then, I go. Happy Birthday to me. The crew at the top of the bridge, notified by Debi that I was turning sixty this day, were congratulatory. "Do you want to touch the water?"
"Absolutely," I say. "Well, then, you should jump outward a bit. If you do it just right, your hand will reach the water." They had weighed us before hand and it appeared that adjustments and calculations and computations were made regarding bungy length and so forth. But, hell; we didn't have a clue. The form you filled out when you signed in was titled "Toe Tag," so the point was made; you do this and you trust them and it will all turn out OK for you just as it did for all those who preceded you.
There's a DVD movie of what happened next. It records the event from an unbiased and unemotional point of view which is more than I can say for my recollection.
You look down and it's the highest thing you've ever stood upon without a railing and there is this very reassuring person behind you giving you all kinds of instructions which you do not hear

Our perch

. I am reminded of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid standing on that rocky ledge in the movie with the "Who are those guys?" guys coming on fast and then they jump into the water. The only "Who are those guys?" behind me are being paid to get me to jump into the river. So what do I do? I jump. I think of Andy Sears' fear of heights. I think of Linda Lee's gasping at an impending traffic light, crossing car or nothing at all. Then I think of Betsy Sears grabbing an unripe olive from a tree and popping it into her mouth without thinking of the consequences. I think of Megan heading off to Utah to make her professional singing debut or Cianan skipping his senior year in high school and going to Iowa. Or, of Phoebe rushing headlong after a skunk. It's all a blur. As the Nike people, say: Just do it. I do it.
My left hand hits the water...about up to my wrist, and back up I go. The fall happened too fast. I can't tell you about it because it came and went before I was ready.
When skydiving, the fall lasted forever; this lasted for-never. Wow.
We got our T-shirts and our DVDs and two vouchers for a free wine tasting at the vineyard next door. The perfect ending; a great late lunch and some lovely wine.
The rest of this day is anti-climactic, including a purchase of yard at the Queenstown Yarn Shop and dinner. What a birthday it was.
If you make it to sixty, I recommend it.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

That's our Debi	Debi flies	Just do it	Time flies
Bouncing	I recommend it highly

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry