We Saved the Crazy for Last...

Our last Friday there we realized, (though we'd been thinking about it all week...) that we couldn't come all the way around the world to the place where bungy jumping was invented, and not try it. So, Sam booked his appointment with death, while I preferred to remain undecided until I could see some folks try it and live. This was on the bus up there,

Before the plunge, Kawaru Bridge, New Zealand


So, the Kawaru Bridge is the sight of the very first bungy jump, it is 43m high, which is a little over 141 ft, so stories are 10 ft high, that would make the jump 14 stories. When you get there you can tell them if you want to be dunked in the water or not, since I didn't want to be cold all day, I declined, but Sam chose to be dunked in past his head, all the jumps are done head first. Sam went first, his face looked a little scared.. but he did it and loved it!



When you're about to jump they say, see that bridge out there? See if you can jump to it! Really?!! I'm thinking, they are crazy..

Because this is the original bungy, they don't want to change it in anyway, so to get off, they come to you in this raft, hand up a pole, you grab on, all the while you're brains feel like they're popping out of your eyeballs.. and lower you down to the raft. Here's Sam's graceful exit..

I'm sad because I was too busy filming it on our other camcorder and didn't really get pictures of Sam's jump, then he declined to buy the ones they provide and by the time I realized he did, it was too late, they'd sent them to the recycling! But at least I got it on video. Here's another small clip I got on the camera after he jumped!

This is also too fun to not watch! Sam was so excited.

I was feeling pretty good about it once I was up there, so I decided to go for it, easier said than done. When I got to the ledge I realized I was looking around into the faces of all these horrified people. The guy who tied my ankles up, (with a towel, mind you) just told me, ok, you're going to jump, and I said, no, I'm not. I struggled for a little bit and then finally had to go sit down for a second because I wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. Then Sam came back up, he had been ready to film... and a worker from the bridge saw us, she asked if we'd gotten our T-shirts for jumping yet and I confessed that I hadn't gone yet, she was so nice and said, "well, I'll go with you!" This actually didn't make it any better at first then I thought, well, I'm here and I'll kick myself back home if I don't go through with this.. Since Sam had already used his turn, he couldn't have gone with me unless we wanted to pay again. So here we are, me and my new BFF! That's me in the white sweatshirt

It was funny, at the bottom, I realized I hadn't even asked her what her name was. As we were being lowered into the raft I turned to her and said, " I don't even know your name!!" She told me, hello, I'm Nikki. I then told her she was my new best friend!

It was an awesome experience, in the end, I wouldn't trade it for anything!