As I sat down to write today, I thought to myself, “what inspires me right now? What do I want to write about?” Staring out my window at the beautiful Rocky Mountains, I was taken back to a place with equally as incredible views: New Zealand. So, today I am writing about my trip to New Zealand, specifically a week spent in Queenstown jumping off of all sorts of crazy things! New Zealand was the last stop on Ryan and I’s first 6 month trip, and it was fast, as we only had 3 weeks to explore the entirety of the country. Being that it was our last stop on our roller coaster adventure, it also came with a lot of mixed emotions. I went back and forth daily between feeling excited and scared to go home. One minute I was craving being back in Calgary, the next I was debating Christmas in Fiji, and postponing “real life” just a little while longer. In reality, I knew that I had to go home, so I chose to embrace this fact by spending the last of my shrunken bank account on 2 bungy jumps, a bungy swing, and a sky dive. Adrenaline rush much?!
Our adventure in New Zealand began in Christchurch, where we briefly explored the earthquake devastated city. We took the Tranz Alpine across the beautiful countryside, through the mountains, making our way to the Franz Joseph Glacier. Here, we had the chance to climb on a glacier. It was difficult, but absolutely amazing. Words cannot describe what it is like to throw on a pair of crampons and climb across a chunk of ice the size of a city, hearing the creaks and groans of the ever changing ice. After one more bus ride, we made it to the scenic Queenstown. Queenstown reminds me a lot of Banff, Alberta because it is a super small tourist town nestled in what may be one of the most beautiful places in the world. On our way into town, we stopped off at the AJ Hackett bridge bungy, which is the first ever commercialized bungy jump. After watching a quick demo video, Ryan and I decided to do it, and within 5 minutes of paying, we were standing up on the ledge of the bungy jump. Bungy jumping has been on my bucket list for pretty much as long as I can remember, and standing up on the edge of that ledge, I couldn’t believe that I was finally actually doing it. Ryan and I decided to do our first bungy in tandem, and I felt fortunate to have my best friend strapped to me by my side as I plunged myself off a bridge, attached only by a cord. What can I say about bungy jumping? It’s one of the most amazing adrenaline rushes I have ever had. It is invigorating, fun, overwhelming, heart stopping, and probably one of the best experiences of my life. As we jumped, I remember thinking to myself, “holy fuck, I’m bungy jumping!” and then plummeting into the river up to my waist, and spending much of the rest of the time attempting to get the water out of my nose, eyes, and mouth, while enjoying the flip flopping in my stomach that only an adrenaline rush can bring on. Immediately following our bungy jump, my heart was racing, I was weak in the knees, but I couldn’t stop smiling. If it wasn’t apparent already, I think this confirmed that I might just be a bit of an adrenaline junkie!
The following day, Ryan and I decided to do an even bigger bungy jump: the Nevis Bungy. This bungy takes place in a canyon, close to an hour outside of Queenstown. It’s 134 meters or 440 feet tall, and one of the tallest bungy’s in the world. To say that I was nervous was an understatement. After getting strapped into our full body harnesses, we made our way to the edge of the canyon to watch the other bungy jumpers, while waiting for our turn to take the trolly out to the cable car where we would be jumping off. As I watched jumper after jumper, I felt my stomach flip flop with fear and anxiety, and my palms began to sweat at the thought of myself jumping. When it finally came time to cross over to the cable car, Ryan and I crossed with a group of guys, and I felt optimistic that I still had some time to mentally prepare myself for my jump, as I was easily the lightest in the group. We made our way into the cable car, and I was astounded by how high we were. Jokes were made about how this time around if we touched the water, we would be dead, and everyone awkwardly laughed, attempting to hide the nerves that were building up. Our group got settled in, and as I prepared myself to watch the group of guys take their turns throwing themselves 400 feet into a canyon, my name was called. As it turned out, the girl who jumped last out of the group before us was the same weight as me, so they were going to have me jump before the guys so that they didn’t have to change the settings on the rope as much. Eek! I gulped nervously and made my way to the front to set up. I tried to take my time to process what was happening, but they moved everything so fast that before I knew it, I was standing at the edge of the ledge. They instructed me to smile up at the camera, not to look down (I looked… oops!), and then to jump when I heard the word “bungy”. They counted me down… 3, 2, 1.. bungy, and before I had time to change my mind, I threw myself off a ledge, free falling for what may just be the coolest 8 seconds of my whole life. This time around, I thought to myself, “this is what flying must be like” as I plummeted down into the canyon.
As I reached the end of the bungy cord, my body was jerked back upwards and my stomach did a flop of excitement, and I couldn’t help but smile at how amazingly cool this experience was. On the second bounce up, I reached towards my feet, pulled the cable I was instructed to pull to release my legs and found myself right way up so that I could take in my surroundings. Breathing heavily, I attempted to take in my beautiful surroundings, while trying not to freak out that I was suspended in a massive canyon. I reached the top cable car, smiling from ear to ear, shaking like a crazy person, and repeating over and over “that was amazing”. By the time Ryan jumped, I had calmed myself down enough to enjoy the excitement and adrenaline that I knew he was experiencing. Immediately following our jump, we headed over the Nevis canyon swing, where we were swung in a 300 meter arc into another canyon at incredibly fast speeds. This was nothing like the bungy jump we had just done, but it was a whole different form of adrenaline rush. After a hard day of bungy jumping, we treated ourselves to the famous Fergburger, which may just be the best burger in the world. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out. It is absolutely delicious every time, and even though the burgers are huge, it’s hard to stop eating because they are just so damn good!
On our 3rd day in Queenstown, we took a break from jumping off stuff and made our way to Milford Sound, which is on the southern tip of New Zealand. We drove through incredibly scenic mountain ranges and then took a boat through the fjords, where we saw lush mountains, waterfalls, and seals. It was like a whole different world, and the beauty was astounding. The following day, we were back at it again; this time, we were going sky diving! For me, the thought of bungy jumping had always been more terrifying than sky diving, so I was more excited than nervous this time around. After waiting for close to 2 hours, we suited up, put our harnesses on, and got into the plane. Our group had a 6 year old boy who barely reached my waist in it, and as we went out and the nerves kicked in, I thought to myself that there was no turning back if a 6 year old could jump out of a plane! Climbing high into the sky in the tiniest prop plane I have ever been in, I felt ready to get out of the plane. As we reached 15,000 feet, my skydiving instructor pulled me into his lap and strapped me to him. When it was my turn to jump, he tipped me out of the plane, quickly shouting 3, 2, 1, banana (the pose they teach you to go in for the free fall) as I was rocketed out of the plane, falling at extreme speeds. In the first 60 seconds, we fell 10,000 feet and I couldn’t even get enough air to scream. My eyes were streaming and my heart was racing by the time the parachute was pulled. The next 5,000 foot descent was much slower and pleasant, and I was able to take in the mountains and lakes in the area. Everything looks cooler from the sky!
After 2 bungy jumps, a bungy swing, a sky dive, and one last Fergburger, I felt as though my trip was complete. I knocked 2 more items off my bucket list, spent the last of my savings, and officially felt as though I just might possibly be ready to head home….
Want to hear more? Check out Ryan and I’s podcast here!