Bungy Jumping – Nevis Bungy in Queenstown

Bungy jumping has always been on my list of things that I someday wanted to do. Like most people, however, the thought of it terrifies me and I’ve never really put much effort into finding somewhere to actually do it. Since moving to New Zealand, however, it has always been in the back of our minds and both Hilary and I knew before we left the country we were going to have to go for it.

As luck would have it, a few weeks ago, some of our friends asked us if we wanted to join them to go bungee jumping so we jumped at the opportunity (get it?…jumped…). We set our sights on the Nevis Bungy which is just outside of Queenstown. We decided that even though it was something that we have always wanted to do, we’ll likely only ever do it once. Because of this, the Nevis Bungy made the most sense as Queenstown is the home of bungy jumping and the Nevis is the biggest bungy in Australasia at 134 metres, so we decided to go big.

On the days leading up to the bungy, I tried not to give it much thought. It wasn’t until the night before that it began to set in. The next morning, we all headed over the hill to Queenstown and the whole morning I felt a strange sort of numb. We checked in at the office in Queenstown and then a bus drove us out to the bungy. When we first glimpsed the bungee strung across the Nevis Valley my stomach dropped. Hilary was beside me on the bus and she looked to be second guessing the whole thing.

We then arrived got dropped off at a building where there was a blur of getting harnesses on, checking in, dropping off bags, and soon we were headed out to throw ourselves off of an edge.

The Nevis Bungy is a bit unique because you jump from a little shack that is suspended high above the valley. This is probably the most intimidating part of the whole experience.

To get out there, you take kind of a cable cart and it’s at this point that you realize that you are completely committed to this thing. The cart wheels you across on the cable and you enter the suspended shack where the whole experience got magnified once again.

As soon as you step off of the cart through the doors, you are greeted with an overwhelming amount of sound. There is loud music playing, people moving around everywhere, the clash and clang of carabiners snapping, harnesses clicking, cords and rigging smacking together, and people talking. Just after we stepped through the door to the shack, someone jumped and the whole shack began to swing and move around. It’s about at this point that we looked out of the windows and through the glass panel in the floor and realized how high we were above the valley floor. The river looked like a small thread far below us and the sides of the valleys seemed miles away.

The next 10 minutes or so seemed to last an eternity of watching other people jump and constantly asking ourselves if we were actually going to be able to go through with this. I’m generally fine with heights and am comfortable doing things like cliff jumping, but this was something else entirely. Finally, I was up next.

Everyone is given a ticket when they check in and these tickets are then put up on a board in the shack and they are taken down one-by-one as people jump. When I saw my ticket next on the board, my fear reached its pinnacle. I realized that the moment had finally come and soon after I was being ushered through the gates. They then sit you on a reclining chair so that they can hook collars around your feet. It feels like you’re sitting in a dentist’s chair, but in that particular moment, I think going to the dentist would be preferable.

You then stand up from the chair and waddle over to the edge of the platform. This is probably the only definite moment that I remember clearly from the whole ordeal. I watched my feet slowly get closer to the line of tape that they have on the edge of the small platform that you jump off of. The whole time I was trying not to focus on the empty space below the platform. Then they drop the length of cable and you feel it tug on your ankles, and you look up and around you and see nothing except empty space all around. From the river far far below, to the valley walls far to the sides, it seemed like there was absolutely nothing around and it was a weird feeling of floating.

The hardest part of the whole thing is jumping. This is probably the reason that bungy is so intimidating. No one pushes a button, and nobody else can do it for you. At some point, you just have to convince yourself to make your muscles move and defy everything that your body and brain are telling you. I distinctly remember the guy behind me counting down 3 – 2 – 1 and I somehow jumped.

The freefall is absolutely crazy and seems to go on forever. You then bounce and return to about three quarters of the initial height and fall again. This happens a couple of times before you come to a rest and a winch comes down to haul you back up to the top.

Once I got back to the top and got unhooked, it was Hilary’s turn. I can’t tell you how she felt, but I think the look on her face as she sat in the chair waiting tells the story. I’ve never quite seen that look before and it seemed to be a combination or sadness, terror, anger, confusion, and excitement all in one. I guess that’s just her “about to bungy” face.

She then took her turn waddling out to the platform and also managed to jump on the count of 3. It was almost as much of a rush watching her jump as it was to do it myself. When Hilary was hauled up we then hung out for a bit to watch other people jump now that the pressure was off of us.

All of our friends had decided to do the swing rather than the bungy, so after Hilary and I were wrapped up, we took the cart back across and made our way to where the swing releases from. The swing is quite impressive and is claimed to be the biggest in the world. Rather than being suspended over the valley though, it’s set on a platform sticking out from the side of the valley. It’s also a bit different from the bungee in that you are clipped in and then someone presses a button to release you. It still looks like a huge rush, but it doesn’t have the self-initiating factor that makes bungy jumping so unique.

We watched as all of our friends took their turns and it was nice to relax now that the pressure was off of us. We then all made our way back to Queenstown on the bus and had lunch at Devil Burger (which definitely has my huge recommendation if you find yourself in Queenstown), and then went bowling. Yep, we went from the huge adrenaline rush of bungy jumping….to bowling. All in a day’s work right?

Hilary and I both had the next day off, so when everyone headed back to Wanaka, we stayed the night in Arrowtown.

Arrowtown Biking – Coronet Peak:

We had planned to spend the whole next day in Arrowtown, but the weather was quite cold and rainy. So instead, Hilary drove me to the top of Coronet Peak where I did a bike ride that I had wanted to do for a long time. It starts at the top of Coronet and takes you all of the way back to Arrowtown. From where Hilary dropped me off at the base of the hill (Coronet Peak is a ski field that only runs in the winter time) I was a long ways above the valley floor already, but I followed a trail all of the way to the top of the peak.

From the peak I rode down a trail called the Coronet XC which then tied into the trail called Corotown which goes from Coronet all of the way down to Arrowtown. It’s quite a long ride and starts out in really steep open slopes and eventually heads into a tight beech forest valley and eventually ends up back in Arrowtown. It was a really cool ride and the perfect ending to an action packed weekend.

To keep up the trend of adrenaline seeking, a few days after bungy jumping and riding Corotown I took a few days off of work and headed on a biking trip to Cragieburn. Stay tuned for my next post when I’ll have the stories and some photos from that trip.