Before I left for my trip, Kristen surprised me with a gift certificate to the
AJ Hackett Nevis Highwire Bungy Jump.
Queenstown tends to be known as the adrenaline capital of the world due to the area focus on outdoor and extreme sports. I had never been
bungy/bungee jumping before since I figured that after skydiving a short little hop in wouldn't be that interesting. However if I'm going to do something, I'd at least want to try the superlative version of it, so chose the Nevis jump since it offers one of the highest jumps in the world at about. She had heard me talk about this as one of my definite planned activities and went ahead and made the booking for me. I got up early this morning to meet at the shop in town to go through the paperwork, load up into the passenger van, and ride out to the site.
Since I was the tallest and heaviest of the participants, I had the opportunity to go first. I had talked to one of the other guys with a camera, so we each took pictures of the other with the owners respective camera. Even though skydiving has to be about the ultimate thrill, this can be a different experience. The biggest difference is the ground rush since the entire jump takes place within a few hundred feet of the ground while in skydiving one is under canopy while at least still 2500 feet high. Once strapped in, there was just time enough to glance around and launch. The level at which ones body is charged and alert is pretty incredible. Everything goes by in a blurry, eyes water in response to the sudden blast of air, and the explosion of wind past the ears roars of life. After bouncing a couple of times, one just releases a strap at the ankles and then is attached mid-harness for the winching up for a ride back up. It was a wonderful experience. After several of the others had jumped and headed back to land, I decided to go a second time in order to get in one last thrill and thus I got to also be the last person to go that morning. On the bus ride back I ended up talking to Caitlin who was working in Arrowhead for the summer and inquired about her Cirque
du Soleil jacket and found that she had performed acrobatics in one of the traveling shows.
After getting back I decided to continue on with the extreme stuff and signed up for the Canyon Swing. this also involved a
highwire draped over a valley, however instead of dropped straight down, one was released from a cliff side platform to swoop down in an arch. It wasn't as if I was feeling like much of a 'lord of the swings' but I had a good time. Getting here also involved a van ride, though fortunately the whole thing as less expensive than the
bungy jumps. I also did this twice with the second release being completely upside down and facing the cliff so that I could more of a rush out of it. While both of the experiences were fun, for me they were probably one-time things such it is pretty expensive and fairly static in terms of variation.
Before I left for my trip, Kristen surprised me with a gift certificate to the AJ Hackett Nevis Highwire Bungy Jump. Queenstown tends to be known as the adrenaline capital of the world due to the area focus on outdoor and extreme sports. I had never been bungy/bungee jumping before since I figured that after skydiving a short little hop in wouldn't be that interesting. However if I'm going to do something, I'd at least want to try the superlative version of it, so chose the Nevis jump since it offers one of the highest jumps in the world at about. She had heard me talk about this as one of my definite planned activities and went ahead and made the booking for me. I got up early this morning to meet at the shop in town to go through the paperwork, load up into the passenger van, and ride out to the site.
Since I was the tallest and heaviest of the participants, I had the opportunity to go first. I had talked to one of the other guys with a camera, so we each took pictures of the other with the owners respective camera. Even though skydiving has to be about the ultimate thrill, this can be a different experience. The biggest difference is the ground rush since the entire jump takes place within a few hundred feet of the ground while in skydiving one is under canopy while at least still 2500 feet high. Once strapped in, there was just time enough to glance around and launch. The level at which ones body is charged and alert is pretty incredible. Everything goes by in a blurry, eyes water in response to the sudden blast of air, and the explosion of wind past the ears roars of life. After bouncing a couple of times, one just releases a strap at the ankles and then is attached mid-harness for the winching up for a ride back up. It was a wonderful experience. After several of the others had jumped and headed back to land, I decided to go a second time in order to get in one last thrill and thus I got to also be the last person to go that morning. On the bus ride back I ended up talking to Caitlin who was working in Arrowhead for the summer and inquired about her Cirque du Soleil jacket and found that she had performed acrobatics in one of the traveling shows.
After getting back I decided to continue on with the extreme stuff and signed up for the Canyon Swing. this also involved a highwire draped over a valley, however instead of dropped straight down, one was released from a cliff side platform to swoop down in an arch. It wasn't as if I was feeling like much of a 'lord of the swings' but I had a good time. Getting here also involved a van ride, though fortunately the whole thing as less expensive than the bungy jumps. I also did this twice with the second release being completely upside down and facing the cliff so that I could more of a rush out of it. While both of the experiences were fun, for me they were probably one-time things such it is pretty expensive and fairly static in terms of variation.
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