Quite exactly a year ago, my friend Sarath visited Queenstown New Zealand, with the surrounding area. And sent a video of him bungy jumping in a WhatsApp chat. CRAZY! My first thought wasn’t really thoughts, more a semi-terrified tremor in arms and legs while hands and feet went cold. But then also admiration. Such bravery to dare to jump off a bridge! My comments back were along the lines of “That’s AWESOME! But I think I’d never be able to do it”.
I’ve para-glided and I’m dreaming of skydiving. But bungy jumping has never been on the list of adrenaline-inducing activities that I’ve got on my bucket list. NEVER!
Petri had done it, back in the middle of ’00s, at Ruisrock. I’ve heard him tell the story a few times. Still not interested.
(For you who haven’t heard the story – he has a fear of heights. Like “I don’t feel comfortable near the edge of too high buildings/cliffs” kind of fear. I’ve seen it in other people too, so I suppose it’s a semi-normal level of fear of heights. But Petri’s fear gets worse with time, and he’s very aware of it himself. So what he does, is to every now and then shock his system into “reset” to a less terrifying level. So things like bungy jumping and skydiving = less fear of heights for a while for him).
So he had been talking about bungy jumping for a while, I had noticed while hiking on/near steep cliffs that it has been getting worse.
Bungy jumping ended up on our “to do list” – but nothing was set in stone. AJ Hackett – who founded the first commercial bungy jump back in 1988, has 3 locations on the south island for this purpose, as well as offering zip rides, swings and a catapult to satisfy other thrill seekers. Due to miscommunication I first thought Petri wanted to do a tandem swing, possibly together with a solo bungy. But what he really wanted was to do a tandem at Nevis.
New Zealand’s highest bungy.
134 meters.
8,5-sec free fall.
W H A T ! ?
I did some soul searching and realized that I would dare to do it and that I would mentally survive it. We had originally planned to book it a bit further in advance, but as the weather was turning around for worse winter weather, we decided to wait for a but. About a week before the planned date, we did some checking of info on their website, asked some questions to the customer service, and realized that there’s only the tandem bungy possibility at the Kawarau bridge, 43 meters. Nevis would only be solo.
A new discussion started. What was more important?
To do it solo? And go to the highest possible in NZ?
Or to do it together, but at the “cost” of the height?
For a short while we played with the thought of doing it first tandem at Kawarau and then going to Nevis and doing a solo jump. Unfortunately we aren’t millionaires, so we decided that that wasn’t sensible for our budget. What we settled for was for us to either doing it together and not at all. There was another catch though. We could not have a weight difference greater than 30 kg. (And the staff always have the right to decide that they won’t let someone do a jump, for safety reasons). At the camping ground we were parked, in Dunedin, I, therefore, walked to ask the reception for a scale. Luckily they had one they could let us borrow. We were exactly 30 kg apart. Therefore our decision became to go there, talk with them and check our weights to see if we could jump together. So in my head, this started sounding like “We’ll probably not do it, pjuh!”.
4th of June came around.
We drive from Twizel in the morning, to Kawarau bridge. Some 175 kilometers. A bit icy road at some parts, so while I drive, I definitely keep the speed on the lower side. Some nerves might also play a role. We pull up at the parking. The pulse is slowly increasing. We walk in. Thoughts like “Shit! We’re really here!” start racing. We talk with the guy at the desk, we weigh in. The guy doubles checks with the people on the bridge and on the boat beforehand. We are on the limit, but we can jump!
Holy shit!
As it’s nippy outside, and I had driven in comfy pants, so I walk back to the van to change to something warmer. Once there, I get nervous out of my skin! I feel like I’ll throw up. I eat a banana to make it better, but it basically makes it worse. Then I remember my friend Eliza’s words (Well, not her exact words though, as I am on my way to a terrified state, but the gist of it): We should make it our quest to fight our fears.
And a calm comes over me. I am in control. I can do this. It’s safe, there are safety gear and protocol for a reason. People do this “all the time” and live to tell the tale.
I return. Meanwhile, Petri’s nerves have been working themselves up. We pay, we weigh in, we get information and we fill out a health and safety form. The staff at AJ Hattcket are so professional and so dedicated to safety, which of course is VERY appreciated!
We walk out to the bridge. A staff member helps us on with our harnesses, makes some jokes, and tells us that we need to hold on TIGHT to the other person’s harness while jumping – or we’ll collide and hurt ourselves. “But.. How?! I don’t have that good finger strength!”. “Don’t worry, you will!”.
We proceed to the outer part of the bridge, Petri gets his legs “Strapped on” first. Then I sit down next to him. Ok, I’m starting to lose my cool! 1001 questions start popping into my head. I’m clearly trying to stall the whole thing.
All the lines are on.
We’re secured.
It is time.
And as we stand up and start taking our tiny steps towards the end of the platform the terror and fear are all here. I can clearly feel Petri’s fear as well, which enhances mine. As the staff member tells us to look into camera 1, I’m sweating and realizing that I need to pull down the zipper from my jacket or I will die during the jump!
When looking into camera 2, I can barely put on a smile anymore. I look a little bit forward on the river, decide to be brave and do a proper good jump off. The voice behind me goes
3..
2..
1.
I jump. I am just a little bit closer to the river (we’re talking 30 cm down, if even) when my head really realizes that I AM FALLING TOWARDS MY DEATH! And I do the only thing that feels natural at this moment. SCREAMING MY LUNGS OUT!
I must have closed my eyes for a bit, or my brain has blocked out parts of the fall. When the recoil comes, we start spinning quite a lot. I stop screaming. I try to look up to make sure I am alive and to grasp it all, but it strains too much on my neck and makes me nauseous. There is a few more bounces and spins. Petri asks if I’m ok, and I say yes, though I am not sure I really am enjoying hanging upside-down. The boat comes into view, I miss the pole on the first try, I have no grip strength left. On the second attempt, we catch it and get guided into the boat. Once on my back, I can orient myself and the adrenaline is rushing!
Wooooohoooo!
I did it!
WE DID IT!
The walk up to the center was floating on adrenaline, giggles and a slow understanding of WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED! We decided to buy both the videos and photos so that we could share with the world! We also sat down for a non-alcoholic drink to try to gather ourselves before driving off to the campground for the night.
Naturally, once we settled in, we started sharing with friends and family what we have just down and got the pictures into our devices. We started analyzing our video. We noticed early on that Petri was not holding my harness, which he was supposed to. It looked like he was holding the end of my jacket. And my left hand, that’s supposed to be straight out to the side, as the jump started, went to holding Petri’s hand. A few more replays, speculations and discussions, lead to the realization that Petri grabbed the belt of my pants! I thought I was brave and jumped, but the picture showed I was falling over, and the video revealed that Petri had a firm grip on my belt and pulled it (and consequently me) up and with him as he fell off. Not how I had pictured it in my head, but it was also a fail-safe to that as long as he jumped, I would be sure to go with him. And at the end of it all; We freaking did it!
And the words from Sarath later when I had shared our video with him;
“Awesome! Welcome to the group!”
Petra