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New Zealand: where the Lord Of The Rings was filmed, and……um…..countless other stuff, too. Amongst the countless other stuff is bungy jumping. You’ve seen it on TV somewhere: some idiot ties a thick rubber band around their ankles and jumps off a bridge only to bounce up and down a few times. Sounds fun, right? Damn straight it does.

I didn’t even think of bungy jumping when I first booked the Australia/New Zealand trip. In fact, it didn’t even dawn on me it was so prevelant here. But come to find out, this is where it all started. Some out-of-work-guy-who-probably-smoked-too-much-weed-and-likes-to-do-crazy-sports-acts (called “extremists”, a.k.a adrenlin junkies) was probably watching the PBS channel and saw an island, indian tradition of jumping off a high tree with vines tied to their ankles as a test of manhood. In his infinite wisdom, he decided to tie a bunch of rubber bands together and jump off high places himself, starting with the Eiffel Tower. And with that, the AJ Hackett company was born (Hint: AJ Hackett is the original bungy jumping “extremist”).

So, walking around Queenstown when I got here, I saw the store and was immediatly interested. If I’m going to do the whole New Zealand experience, I’m all in. AJ Hackett offers several bungy jumping locations in the Queenstown area with different heights (all prices differently depending on the height, of course). I saw the original bungy jumping bridge outside of Queenstown with a height of 47 meters. That’s pretty far, but not far enough.

I settled on the highest bungy jump in New Zealand: Nevis Bridge with a height of 134 meters (440 ft). It’s all off-road to get to the location, so I scheduled a jump for 10:00 AM on Tuesday.

Checking in, about 15 of us idiots jumped on a bus and took off. Looking around, it was mostly young 20 year olds. At 35, I was the oldest (yikes). It was an adventure just to get to the canyone as we climbed a narrow roadway to reach the bridge. Once arriving, we all were helped into our harnesses by the staff, and then weighed in. The crew told us we’d jump from heaviest person first to the lightest person. Being the oldest, it was only natural I was the heaviest as well, checking in at 95 kgs. (That’s 205 lbs so you don’t have to convert). So, that means Patrick was going first.

It was a cool morning as it had rained the previous night. Snow had fallen in the higher altitudes and a crisp breeze was blowing, make the air quite cool. I had a long sleeve sweatshirt on but could have used some gloves on this trip. It really didn’t matter….I was nervous enough.

4 of us, along with some of the crew, jumped in a small cable car and made our way to the middle. A span was already erected in the middle of the gorge some 135 meters above the creek. This is where we’d begin. Once we arrived at the middle, the crew strapped on the leg braces. I then hopped in a seat resembling a dentist chair and had the bungy strap tied on. My nerves were really starting to mount at this point as my time was coming.

The crew told me to “pull the red cord on my 2nd up”. As I’m too nervous to understand what the hell a 2nd up is, so I kept saying “Yes” each time. Call it nerves on my part, but I want to make 100% sure I knew what the hell I was doing.

It’s GO TIME. I penguin-walked to the edge as the ankle braces made it difficult to move. This is where I was the most nervous…..looking down 440 feet. The guy made a very fast count of 5,4,3,2,1,gooooo….

I dived….sreaming like an idiot all the way. And, here’s the video to prove it:

All kidding aside, the AJ Hackett company has bungy jumping down to a science. As I was the first to go, I was able to watch the rest of the group take their turns and also watch the 2-person crew work the bungy cords. They know what they’re doing and could probably devise a bungy jump from any high structure, cliff, or canyon anywhere in the world. If you’re looking for a thrill and want to become an extremist (or have smoked too much weed), take a chance on this!