A trip to Queenstown
is definitely not complete until you have experienced and felt the amazing rush
of the bungy jump. The art of Bungy jumping dates back thousands of years to
when Vanuatu tribes use to tie vines to there ankles and jump off big towers to
prove bravery and heroism to the tribes women.
AJ Hacket saw this as an opportunity and brought this ritual to New
Zealand and this is now a globally know business. I know your thinking; people
pay to tie a big elastic rope to their ankles and jump of a bridge? As
farfetched as it sounds a lot of people pay to do it. I think it’s the sense of
not being stopped by anything and the freedom of being able to fly for a split
second is why so many men and women do this.
Without a doubt it is
another sun filled spectacular Friday afternoon in the glorious Queenstown. The
gang and I are getting ready to do the impossible, jump off a huge ledge. That
I would not even dream about doing. The last famil that I threw myself into was
that of the amazing Jet Boat ride from Waiatoto river safaris, so this was going to be a lot more scary. My group from
QRC and I all met in our classroom at the Queenstown Resort College where we
met our teacher Emily who was to look after us for the afternoon. The aim for
the afternoon was to attack the Queenstown ledge bungy with full force and guns
blazing. But before we were to jump the ledge we are going to have some fun
racing each other down the famous skyline luge and watch a performance from the
kappa haka group up at skyline. We were all extremely excited as we walked to
get on the gondola to take us up to the skyline. Once we arrived at the top of
the gondola we went straight to the luge. This was a new experience for me as I
had always wanted to try this, we all grabbed our little black luge carts and
had a briefing with the man in charge at the luge station. He sent us on our
way and I enjoyed 5 fun thrilled rides round the luge track racing and crashing
into the other guys. The kappa haka show that we experienced after was truly
amazing the songs, dances and the Maori culture was definitely a new experience
for me. They even got the girls to come up and do a poi dance and the boys to
come up and perform the haka.
The time
had come,
the time where I had to step up and do the unthinkable, throw myself of a
cliff. There was no way of backing out, well there was but as the men of
Vanuatu jumped to be brave in the eyes of there women so must I. We walked
around to the ledge bungy shop where all the staff was waiting to greet us
warmly, we had a talk about what was going to happen and the safety aspects of
the company. I got on the scales to weigh my self so that the jumpmasters new
what weight to put the rope to. All of us walked around the track towards the
ledge area where we were to jump. Looking around I could tell that everyone was
really nervous. I especially was nervous as I had never done anything like
before in my life and didn’t think I would. I was third to jump; my legs
trembled as I was trying to put my harness on. The ledge bungy crew had an
extremely relaxed persona about them, which I felt was very good as it helped
cool everyone’s nerves. As I stood on the edge of that ledge looking over
Queenstown I felt relaxed and forgot that was even about to jump off a 47 metre
high ledge. The jumpmaster was relaxed which made me relaxed.
I walked back from the edge, took a few huge
strides and made the leap of faith of the edge.
I leapt out like a huge
starfish with my arms wide open, not a care in the world as I flew freely
through the sky. The spring back up as reached the end of the rope was an
amazing feeling, I dangled there for a few minutes whilst I caught my breath back
and they lifted me back up to the platform. Wow what an amazing an experience,
I am now hooked for life.
This ledge
bungy in Queenstown is an amazing experience; I would recommend this to anyone
who extremely scared of doing it. For the others out there who are not bothered
by heights I recommend trying a big jump such as the Canyon Swing over the Shotover
River. If you are interested in reading more about the Ledge Bungy, have a look a Nick Shea's blog.
It was a crisp cool
morning in the bright sunny town of Queenstown on Friday the 23rd of
November. The class from Queenstown Resort College (QRC) and I met at the
Canyon Swing base shop in town at 8:30 in the morning. There on the wall hung
the glorious as we entered the shop with the 70 + jump styles that you are able
to do of the canyon swing. Each of which have a different underpants rating. If
the jump style has only one pair of underpants it meant that it is an easier
and less scary jump. If the jump has five pairs of underpants it means that
it’s the hardest and scariest jump. After looking at the board for a while I
still had not decided on which jump I was going to do so I thought I would
decide when I got there. The staff greeted us very welcomely on the desk and
they asked us to stand on the scales so they could measure out weight. They
drew small symbols on our hands instead of righting the actual weights so that
people would not feel self-conscious. I found this to be a great idea as the
Ledge Bungy wrote our weights on our hands. Our jumpmaster Rob met us in the
shop and walked us out to the van. I liked how they got the jumpmaster to come
and get his clients instead of just meeting them at the canyon swing; this made
the experience a lot more personal. 
We all got in the
canyon swing van, Rob spoke to us for a bit and he let us know what we would be
doing at the canyon swing. He put on a video for us all to watch, it showed us
people jumping in all the different styles. Once we arrived up along side the Shotover
River, we all got out and went to the toilet as Rob said this is the last
toilet stop you will get. Offcourse we were all nervous and needed to go to the
toilet. There was a bit of a walk down the hill to the canyon swing office,
which was filled with nervous chatter, we were met by Brooke who was on the
front desk and was to make up our videos and photos for the group from the jump.
The team at Canyon Swing gave us a briefing and soon after that the first
person from our group jumped. Our group all gathered around the big TV and
watched as the first person made the leap of the edge. But soon it was to be my
turn. I brought with me a teletubby suit to wear whilst I made the knee
trembling jump. I put my teletubby suit on and started thinking about what jump
I was going to do, but still had no idea. 
I was called to come
down to the platform, by this stage I thought I would have been a nervous wreck
but I was the complete opposite I was smiling and excited to be there. The jumpmasters
from Canyon Swing are notoriously known for there mind games and there tricks
that they play on you whilst you are looking over the edge of the cliff. Down
on the platform one of the staff was putting my harness on, he was making sure
that I was already and safe to go. The jumpmasters were all laughing at me and
making jokes about my purple teletubby outfit but I think they enjoyed it. They
wanted to know what I type of jump I was going to do off the edge, I told them
I had no idea so Rob decided for me. Offcourse he picked one of the hardest
jumps for me to do, which is the gainer flip. They clipped me on the ropes and
sorted out all the technical things to make sure I was completely safe. One of
the jumpmasters gave me a push and I freaked out, they made me lean out over
the edge so they could take some photos. At this stage I was completely calm
and was ready to jump, Rob was teaching me how to do this gainer flip. Ok I was
already to go, a group of nerves ran through my body as I ran vigorously
towards the edge. I threw my body into the air, started to bring my arms back
and rotated my body backwards in a back flip like motion. I was flying through
the air for so long as the jump gives you 8 seconds of a free fall, which is a
very long time to be falling, I then started to swing across the canyon it was
the most amazing feeling I have ever felt. I dangled in the canyon for a few
minutes until the jumpmasters pulled me up. I shook their hands and we talked
about the jump for a bit. I then sat down in the office to watch my video and
regather myself.
