Thursday, February 23, 2006

Bungy Jumping

As I looked down to the canyon 43 metres below me my mouth went dry and my legs went weak. Down in the bottom of the valley the white water boiled and seethed - if the bungy broke and the fall didnt kill you the rapids downstream surely would.

It was a good job that I was only standing in the car park and I had no intention of jumping off. The most risky thing I was going to do was eat one of the dodgy burgers from the barbecue outside the gift shop.

We were at the site of the worlds first commercial bungy jump at the Kawarau bridge near Queenstown, and I was joined on the viewing platform by about 70 other people who couldn't jump because they'd developed back problems on the walk down from the car park. One by one the jumpers cast themselves off the bridge and bounced around for a bit on the end of a bit of elastic. The crowd gasped and wowed, the Japanese tourists screamed and giggled. I bought a postcard from the gift shop.

Three days later I did the 134 metre Nevis Highwire Bungy - the second highest commercial bungy site in the world.

It was quite scary.

What? You didn't think I was going to do one?????
The 43 metre one is for pussies...

6 seconds of freefall, a further 2.5 seconds to stop when the bungy kicks in...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done Steve.
You're da man.

Anonymous said...

steve reading your expolits whislt sat in a cold office in warwickshire makes me feel almost as sick as you probably were at metre 130. good on you though buddy keep up the good work, Ed

Anonymous said...

Good job. However, now I want to hear about more exciting things.
Tell us more since you're having fun, and we're still in our cubie's pretending...