This morning, we had breakfast and walked into the city center to the AJ Hackett station. Evidently, Mr. Hackett was the man who witnessed the native people in Vanuatu jumping with a rope attached to their ankles, and he saw dollar signs. Good call, Mr. Hackett. You got our dollars.
Cas and I signed in, then got on a shuttle to the Kawarau river bridge. When we arrived, we had already signed up to bungee jump from the bridge and participate in a zip line type activity.
We had planned to do the zip line first, then follow it with a bungee jump. When we arrived, the zip line staff was on break, so we bungee jumped straight away. The way that it worked out, they had me on the ledge before Cas was ready to go.
As I suspected, I was totally cool about everything, right up until the moment I had to jump. At that moment, I was terrified. I understand that this happens to a lot of people. Cas was still on the bridge when I was bouncing up and down on a massive rubber band above the river. By the time he jumped from the bridge, I was down on the ground and looking up.
Of course, they had photos available for purchase. Normally, Cas and I don't go for that sort of thing, but honestly, when are we going to be back at a bungee bridge over the Kawarau River again? So, here:
Certainly, we will place all of the photos online once we return home. They gave us a pair of flash drives containing all of the images and the video. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until we are at an actual computer. In the meantime, just trust me that it was totally fantastic.
When the bungee jump was finished, we went to do the zip line part of our adventure. There were several different poses from which you could choose. You could sit facing forward; you could sit facing backward. You could endeavor to sit together. We decided to do a pose that they referred to as the Superman. You can make the inference. We went separately, no doubt fighting for truth, justice and the American way. It was a pretty heroic feeling to fly with arms outstretched, though he harness was a little constricting. No problems, though. It was completely cool.
Honestly, between bungee jumping and the zip line adventure, I think Cas and I had to wait an extra few moments for our heart rates to go down. That was a whole lot of adrenaline. It was pretty amazing.
When we got on the shuttle and back into the center of town, we felt it was appropriate to have a glass of champagne. Our hot air balloon a captain told us that a successful flight should always be followed by a glass of champagne. This seemed pretty successful. Honestly, the champagne was Cas's idea. He's pretty smart.
Along with our champagne, we had lunch. All of that madness happened before lunch, as it turns out.
After lunch and our champagne, we made our way to one of the attractions in town, and ice bar. For a small amount of money, they give you a parka and some gloves and admission to their ice bar. Once you get in there, you have a few cocktails in about the coldest place you've ever been. It was called the five below bar. Evidently, it was supposed to be five degrees below zero Celsius. When we walked in, it was seven below. I attribute that to Cas being an overachiever.
After that, the day had already been very full. We decided to get a little bit of food that we could eat in the hotel room, then watch a movie while relaxing and getting ready for our travel day tomorrow.
Tomorrow, we leave the South Island of New Zealand, and go to the North Island. Our flights will go from Queenstown to Christchurch, then from Christchurch to Rotorua. It's a bit of a long day of travel, but at the end we will have a hangi feast. My older brother tells me that a hangi feast is quite a spectacular ordeal. I look forward to it.
But for today, we did it. We jumped, and our moms should sleep soundly, knowing we're all done, safe and sound, and have no more terrifying feats on the menu. Good night.
