Bungee Jumping off the Kawarau Bridge

Queenstown, New Zealand is well known for adventure sports/tourism.  So things like paragliding, white water rafting, skydiving and yes, bungee jumping.  I decided that while I was here I'd have to do one of those things and decided on the bungee jump.  I went with he Kawarau Bridge jump as it's the home of the world's first commercial bungee jump.  The jump is 43 meters or about 140 feet.

The day of the jump I headed to the bungee shop in town where they make you sign your life away, and you get weighed.  Then you hop on a bus and ride for about 20 minutes to the bridge.  Once you're at the bridge you can decide when you want to jump so long as you're back on the bus in about an hour.  I decided to just go for it.  This is the view as you approach the bridge.  I laughed out loud when I saw it.

Here's the view as you walk the bridge.  About halfway down is where you jump from.

And this is the view if you look down. Yes, I know, you're not supposed to look.

The folks working were really great.  The suited me up in what I thought was a pretty simple harness.  They clipped some carabiners, tightened some straps, and in about 2 minutes I was ready to jump. The make you walk all the way to the edge of the platform with your toes flush with the edge.  Honestly that was the scariest part.  You can't really walk either, you have to shimmy because they tie your legs together.  They did a great job with the photos they take, so I'll let those tell the rest of the story.  Or if you'd rather see the video, keep scrolling down until you see the YouTube link.

The count you down, 3-2-1, and then yell jump, and surprisingly, I jumped right away, though I also screamed.

 After the initial fall you swing around for a bit over the water.

Then you end up in a raft.  At this point I was laughing.

But wait, there's more!  Here's the video of me jumping -- with full audio!  So yes, you can hear me scream:

After I jump you can hear the guy say, "I wasn't expecting that one!"  Ha, I don't know why he wasn't expecting it, did he see me, I mean really?!

I enjoyed the jump, I was glad I did it.  The worst part was standing up there before you jump.  Pretty quickly after I jumped, it was just fun.  After the jump they offer you a discount on zip lining, which you can do for $20 bucks, so I figured, what the heck, let's do that too.  It was fun, though not as intense as the bungee.

So, jumping off a bridge, check!  On to the next adventure!