The big jump!

October 9th - 10th

Ah, Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. While New Zealand is of course cited as the adventure capital of the world. So Queenstown must be great right? Yeah. IT’S EXACTLY RIGHT.

Sometimes you just have nothing planned for the weekend and you and your friends think well what do we want to do that we have yet to accomplish. Dane, Meg, Michelle and I asked ourselves this question on Friday and came up with one answer, the Nevis. Which entailed one thing a trip to Queenstown.

After finagling the boys into action on Saturday morning for the farmer’s market Dane, John, Meg and I traveled to the car rental place with discount voucher in hand to rent a car. After dealing with a slightly inept sales guy we got a brand new Toyota, that went very fast for 68 dollars for the weekend. Sweet as.

Caravan time! Boy’s car = Trevor, Dane, JBo and Greg. Girl’s car = Megan, Louise, Michelle and I. We had the newer car, we passed them/made them eat our dust while mooning them at every possible location. Yes. Moving on since no one likes a bragger.

Arrive in Queenstown, book bungying for the next day? Completed in the first 5 minutes, the bank account was not happy. Next on the list, find a hostel, XBase with an adjoining bar and a 8 person room? Perfect. Dinner? The famous Ferg Burger, along with some Speight’s to wash it down. Again perfect. Not going to weigh in on the Velvet Burger (of Dunedin) vs. the Ferg debate but I have one comment. Velvet, look into toasting your buns, all jokes aside. After dinner, the 8 of us had a lovely night exploring Queenstown and all it had to offer. Queenstown night life is definitely a must-do.

Next morning, wake up to… rain. Awesome, I’m about to jump 134 meters and it’s raining. Also being told I would fall faster than the rain drops did not make the situation any less stressful. Walked to AJ Hackett Bungy and watched the video of people doing the Nevis. Again not something to calm my fears. After boarding a bus and a 45 minute ride we arrived, at the top of a gorge. I am now no longer speaking I am so nervous. On the bright side it has stopped raining. After that it was a harness on, a weigh in, strapped onto a gondola and a ride over to a hanging platform that separated me from certain death, aka a bungy jump. Dane goes, loves it. Meg goes, screams but loves it. Michelle goes, almost falls off but goes for it. My turn. It is now of course beautifully sunny.

Scariest moment of my entire life. I almost have no other words for it, I have definitely never been truly scared until that moment. I’ll let the video do the rest of the explaining, but know that yes I was actually asking what I was supposed to hold onto, while bungy jumping. Yet another Brittany New Zealand moment that proves my infinite genius.

Needless to say, I do indeed survive. Since you know AJ Hackett has a 100% success rate and all I really should have been worried. Moving on. Dane, Meg and Michelle do it again, I watch. Once in a lifetime is enough for me.

After getting the video, pictures and t-shirt it is back on the bus and back to Queenstown. After a lovely meal of enchiladas and margaritas, at the ONLY Mexican restaurant in New Zealand, it’s back into the car and back to Dunedin. I sleep the entire way. The entire time I have dreams of jumping off random objects, imagine that!

Ps, I jumped on 10/10/10 pretty cool!