Since Queenstown is the “adventure capital of the world,” I decided that I would try to shun my scardy cat ways and take advantage of all that it had to offer.
My first adventure was to bungy jump at the world’s first commercially bungied site, the Kawarau River Bridge. Now, I would describe myself as being moderately afraid of heights. I mean I do rollercoasters, but I wasn’t exactly looking forward to voluntarily throwing myself off of a bridge. I decided, however, that I had to do it to challenge myself.
So I went to the site with my heart beating wildly, but I was able to stay relatively calm. We walked into the building (above), and I had to chuckle at the sign on the womens’ bathroom (above). They weighed us, so they could figure out how much bungy they needed to attach to us. Upon seeing the bridge (above), Mary and I were a little nervous (above).
We walked across the bridge to take inventory of the 43 meter (134 feet) drop (above). Mary went first (above, in the red circle), and her enthusiastic reaction gave me some confidence. Finally, it was my turn. I put on a harness around my waist. When I told them that I wanted to touch the river, they put an additional harness around my ankles so I would hang upside down. I decided that I was going to jump, no matter how scared I was.
Since my ankles were bound, I had to shuffle to the end of the platform. When I got close to the edge, I started to have second thoughts. It was a loooooooong way down. They made me pose for a picture (above). I’m pretty sure that my face says it all. Then the bungy guy told me to just stay focused on the other bridge out in the distance (above), and he counted down from 5. I dove straight out when he counted down, because someone told me that it was easier if you went right away instead of hesitating (above). The falling feeling was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Before I realized what was going on, I plunged up to my waist into the river (above). I bounced a few times, laughing the whole way. There were guys in a raft on the river that caught me and unhooked my harness. (If you click on these pictures, they will open big in a new window, so I look like more than a dot).
It was amazing, pretty much the coolest thing ever. It wasn’t even that scary. It’s just as safe as a rollercoaster when it comes down to it. No worries!
We refueled at Fergburger, where I ate one of the top 5 hamburgers of my life, and headed off to Mad Dog River Boarding (above). River boarding is basically boogie boarding down river rapids. Brittany and I got in the van, and as we’re driving they pass around their guest book. One guy wrote “I just got back from Iraq, and I think that Baghdad is safer than this.” I started to wonder what I was getting myself into.
We got to a point farther down the Kawarau River and got suited up. Since it is fall here, they took extra care to make sure we didn’t get cold. I was wearing a long-sleeved and long-pants wetsuit, wetsuit booties, 2 wetsuit jackets, a life vest, a helmet, and flippers. It was quite the get up (above). We did a little bit of practice kicking before we left, and I was feeling good, not scared at all. But I should have been.
So basically we were river boarding (see website picture above) down grade 3 rapids. There were 3 guides to 16 of us. Before we’d get to a stretch of rapids, the lead guide would hold his hand up in a fist to signal “get behind me and follow my line through the rapids.” I made it through the first few stretches of rapids fine. Then, one of the river boarders started heading in the wrong direction, so the guide went after him. I started to follow the guide, and the current took me into an eddy on the side of the river. The eddy water flows the opposite direction of the river, so to get out of it I was supposed to kick upstream until I was in the middle of the river. It was really hard, and I started to wheeze (thank you asthma), so I got thrown back into the eddy. One of the guides had to pull me out and I had to take my inhaler.
Then we went through a few more rapids, which were absolutely terrifying. I was wishing that I hadn’t signed up for it. Especially when we were going through one area, and the guide yells “stay right behind me because if you go over there, you will be sucked into a whirlpool and you won’t be able to get out.” Yikes! Somehow, I made it through the rapids, and the rest of the ride was relaxing down the smooth Kawarau River (above). A fast jet boat picked us up and brought us back to where we started. We were rewarded for our efforts by being able to go down a slide on our boards and jumping off of a rope swing into the river (above). A jet ski caught us after we ended up in the river.
River boarding was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life. Though it is pretty cool to say that I’ve done it. I also realized that under normal circumstances, I would have been afraid to rope swing into a river, but given all that I had done that day, I didn’t hesitate at all. I think that my day in Queenstown was a good step towards worrying less.
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