Before The Leap And After

Something is clicking.

I can hear it as we drive out of Te Anau heading for Queenstown. It sounds like a flat tire, but when we pull over to inspect, the tires look fine.

Except for the nail, driven dead centre into the left rear tire.

Back into Te Anau we go and to the local Mobil garage. Six flat tires a day they average, so we don't feel too bad asking them to fix another. In half an hour, they have us back on the road and driving through flat farm land, heading for Queenstown.

The home of adventure and thrill rides including skydiving, jet boating, canyon swinging, paragliding and of course bungy jumping, Queenstown is billed as a boisterous and busy city. We anticipate the worst. But it is not so bad — crowded and commercial yes, but clean and being located right on Lake Wakatipu with mountains all around, the scenery is fabulous.

We go to the iSite downtown which feels like a madhouse after the serenity of Milford Sound — people clamoring to book one thrill ride of some sort or another. We figure if you can make it as a rep in the Queesntown iSite, you can make it anywhere...

At 2:45 p.m. we arrive at the counter to inquire about bungy jumping. By 4:30 p.m., I am strapped in, on the ledge, and getting the countdown.

I choose the Kawarau Bridge jump because I've always envisioned my bungy would be over water and I'd get dunked upon reaching the bottom — this is the only bungy jump in Queenstown that offers the water option. The Kawarau Bridge jump is also the original bungy jump, dating way back to 1988. There is the Nevis jump which is a 134 metre free fall from a suspended cable car (I'd do that next!) and then the Ledge Bungy which is 47 metres, jumping out over Queenstown.

You can't help but feel a bit like the cattle you see on the side of the highway as your shunted through a very well oiled bungy machine. And a money making machine at that! $180 NZ per jump and then the merchandising afterwards — the t-shirt, the video, the photo booklet. They do it very well — slick and efficient. Someone is doing quite well for themselves.

To our surprise, I get a jump time quiet easily. Since we have our own transportation, there's plenty of options and after an hour checking out the shops in Queenstown, we're headed back out along the highway, 20km down the road to the AJ Hackett Bungy site.

It's not a secluded little spot, tucked away in some back canyon. It's right off the highway — you turn the corner and there's the bridge, the platform, the canyon, the drop and all the water below. And then buses full of Japanese tourists watching and cheering the jumpers. It's not too busy when we arrive, a benefit of going later in the day. I change into my swim togs and hand my keys and wallet to Jenn.

I had assumed that Jenn would not be interested at all in doing this. She doesn't like heights and whenever we've talked to people about it, she's always said it was something I want to do, not her.

But last night, she surprises me by saying she might do it too. I instantly counter with, "What? Are you sure? You don't want to get up there and get vertigo and have to back down and lose all our money?!"

"I never said I wouldn't do it, did I?"

I am guilty of assuming she didn't want to do it. And for telling her that if she tried to jump, it would be a waste of money. I apologize and try to convince her to do it. "We'll go in tandem!"

She's okay not doing it, she says. She'll film me. And the outcome is a great video, better than the pros.

Afterwards, we drive back to Arrowtown, a quaint little touristy place just outside of Queenstown, and sample some of the brews at the local microbrewery.





I feel okay after my leap, but my sinuses hurt — like all the blood rushed to my head and hasn't quite left yet. This helps a bit...




We ask the bartender about the drive to Wanaka. How long will it take? He says if we do the alpine road, we can be there in 45 minutes.

Done! We're back on the road, driving up through the mountains which provide us with some of the best views of the day. Arriving in Wanaka, we take a spot at the very quiet Glendhu Bay Motor Camp.




It's an absolutely stunning location on the water, although the facilities are a touch ancient. And they break Jenn's golden rule — charging for hot showers! A big no, no...

It's a good day. In and out of Queenstown, with the jump done.

As they like to say in this neck of the woods... Sweet as!

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