The three and a half pints of Guinness that I’d drunk at the Irish Pub didn’t cause as much suffering as I’d expected. Not that I could remember too much of the latter part of the evening – a vague recollection of people telling me to go bungy jumping in Queenstown and me saying repeatedly “Ha ha! No way!”. However everyone said that I should take the “special” bus to Queenstown, one which includes scenic stops, and a visit to the base of Mount Cook – the highest mountain in New Zealand.
Accordingly at 7 am I somehow got myself heading towards the intercity bus terminal, and found there was a long queue for tickets. I was only just in time to get one for the special “Mt Cook” bus to Queenstown. The bus was very nice! The driver was friendly, the seats were comfortable, the windows were large and clean. I was sitting next to a chatty Australian girl who I’d met in the Irish pub, and behind me was a fellow Man of Kent – a farmer from the east end of the county where I grew up. Once we were outside Christchurch, plenty of green tidy rural scenery slipped by – the farmer agreed that it was similar to our home county in south east England. Soon it gave way to more rugged scenery with rivers and lakes.
The driver gave a geography lesson the whole time – explaining the vegetation, the climate, the landforms, and eventually told us all about the Southern Alps that were growing larger to the west. Eventually we turned off the main road to head up alongside Lake Pukaki. Mount Cook was huge, white, and gleaming in the distance – we were very lucky with the weather – not a cloud in the sky. The bus went all the way to the end of the road, where we were only 12 km from the 12,220 ft (3725 m) peak, and we were given some time to walk around enjoying the mountainous location.
Then it was time to get back on the road and 3 very scenic hours later the bus was heading down the valley towards the beautifully located village of Queenstown. The last stop was to the birthplace of bungy jumping. From a distance we watched some people jump off of the original bungy bridge – the Kawarau Bridge. Reaching Queenstown half an hour later, the Kent farmer and I spent a long time looking for beds. In the end we went to the FAB Hostel, where all they had was a room with a double bed. But it had a thick carpet so we took it, deciding to alternate – I got the floor the first night!
I got talking to some fellow hostel residents. I knew that Queenstown is famous for bungy jumping, and that there are a few crazy people who do that. What I hadn’t been prepared for was to find myself surrounded by people who have either just done a bungy jump, or are planning to do one in the next day or two. This was quite a shock! Being a rock climber, I’m used to trusting ropes at great heights, but… did I really want to jump off a bridge on a piece of elastic….?
I went to the office of a company called A.J.Hackett. This was the company that apparently started the whole commercial bungy jumping craze. In the front office was a video player which was playing a tape of people jumping off one of the bridges. It looked utterly terrifying!!
On the video it looked scary enough just crossing the flimsy narrow bridge – let alone leaping off it into the infinite depths below!! The bridge is called the Skippers Bridge and is on the Shotover River north of Queenstown. And it supposedly provides jumpers with the world’s longest bungy jump at 70 metres (229 ft). This all looked totally insane, yet people were signing up for it in front of my eyes…
I was told that there is a combo deal that involves doing 4 exciting activities the same day on the Shotover River. It is called the “Shotover Assault” or the “Awesome Foursome”. It includes a helicopter ride through Skippers Canyon, then a ride in a jet boat up the rapids on the Shotover river to the bridge to do the bungy jump, then rafting down the rapids at the end. It costs a little over 120 US Dollars. But this has the advantage that even if I chicken out of the bungy jump I will still have had an exciting day. But it’s hard to see how I could chicken out of the jump if everyone else does it. And if I don’t do the jump then I won’t get the “Awesome Foursome” T-shirt at the end…
Before common sense had a chance to prevail, I signed up to do the “Awesome Foursome” tomorrow. I must be totally mad…