Despite it being Laura’s birthday, the day began before sunrise when we were rudely awoken by our alarms. After treating ourselves to an extra 5 minutes in bed (it was a birthday after all) we were up and getting ready to face the day. And what a wet day it was. I think it is fair to say that it was to rain all day. But never mind. For today we were off to conquer fears and reward ourselves with a big helping of adrenaline. See, Queenstown is home to the Nevis Bungy and Swing, the biggest of each in the world. After meeting downtown, we piled into the coach and headed off. After passing along dirt tracks and being carted up a rather steep hill we reached the site, and the nerves really kicked in.

The Bungy is from a gondola, suspended on cables above the valley floor. Looking out at the box from which we would be jumping, my heart was racing. But all too soon we were being weighed and strapped into harnesses so we could head out. A small gondola carries you out to the jump gondola, and with six of us strapped in we headed off.

Arriving at the platform and stepping inside really kicked the nerves into overdrive. Did I really want to do a 134m Bungy? Too late now. The jump order was determined by weight, meaning as the second heaviest I was up second and so got to watch as the first guy easy strapped in and then took the leap. He fell an awfully long way!! Have chambered into the previous jump chair so my legs could be strapped together in preparation, it was to my relief when I was ushered out of the chair and back to the safe side of the barrier. It turns out that the storm that had encouraged us out of Milford Sound the day before had caused an issue with the recovery winch for the bungy. As in it wasn’t working! This meant that the operating staff had to do a manual recovery of the poor guy who was hanging below. When they finally got him up, he looked frozen!

So what did this mean for us? Well, after an initial attempt to reset the winch, we were put back into the small gondola to return to terra firma whilst further efforts were made to fix the winch. As it was, we had already booked on to do the canyon swing and so we were ushered off there. Laura and I decided we wanted to swing together and so, after watching a few others go, it was our turn.

Strapped in and lowering ourselves into a sitting position we were hung out over the edge before getting a countdown. 3-2-1 and away we fell. See, whilst the swing has a 300m archive, it begins with a 70m fall. I have to confess that I may have screamed at little as we fell. But what an incredible feeling. Once the plummeting had finished, we were swinging like a pendulum in a canyon. It was great! Especially with the adrenaline from the fall still coursing through us.

Once our swinging had slowed, we were recovered back up to the ledge from which we had plummeted and released from our bindings. Heading back into the main building we were told that the winch was still not working and engineers were on their way. We were given the option of waiting and hoping or rebooking. Given we were planning on a lazy morning the next day, we rebooked for first thing the following day.

Heading back to Queenstown, whilst disappointed we didn’t get to bungy, we were buzzing from the adrenaline of the swing. Outside it remained a grey and very wet day and so once back in Queenstown we went and found ourselves somewhere warm and dry for lunch (we ended up in the Fat Badger, a pizzeria that serves huge pizzas). We then passed a lazy afternoon, picking up a camping stove and relaxing in the campervan. I even had a little nap!

As evening fell, it was still pouring with rain and cold outside. Nonetheless, we pulled on our coats and headed out in search of a birthday meal. Descending into Queenstown, we paused outside a Lone Star restaurant and were enticed in by a promise of good food and a wood fire that would be kept well stoked all night. And what a good place it turned out to be. Seated right in front of the fire, it didn’t take us long to dry out and feel warmed through. Our waiter was a fantastic character, even though we could only understand about half of what he was saying!
Once fed and watered and with eyes drooping, we braved the rain once again as we returned to the comfort of our van. A very good, if wet, day and with more adrenaline to come tomorrow (hopefully)!