"Nevis?" the driver calls out. There's that kiwi accent again. One UK potential jumper is quick off the mark and realises the play on words - "yeah - a little bit.... nervous".
We're all hanging about watching the promo vids in town awaiting the bus to take us out to the Nevis High wire which is about 40 minutes in the Wanaka direction.
It's a perfect day, and I've shelled out the $240 (the scariest part by a slim margin) to leap into the abyss of the canyons outside of town. I've done a few skydives solo so I'm thinking this shouldn't be too much of a task, and realistically only do it because this has got to be one of the best places around to do one and its the biggest one in NZ and is up on the short list of the biggest around the world. There's a nice wind up to tension all the way out there. The driver is kind of funny/scary looking and makes use of all the jokes you could think of on the way out there. "We've not hurt anyone... yet". The last kilometre of the drive out to the canyon is right in line with the risk here, being a one lane gravel travel that edges along the side of an abyss on its own. We get to the top, and I'm first to get into the harness. I'm all ok with everything just so long as the harness stitching is intact. Some of us venture off to the viewing platform that looks across to the launch pad which hangs out in the middle like a cable car, and some might even think that catching the cable car out there is an experience in itself. The cable car that travels out the wire is a nice lead up to the jump too.
The first of us (about 4 at a time) dock onto the station out the middle and we get our leg harnesses put on. A quick wrap of what really doesn't seem enough to be considered safe (they're going to wrap something else on there also?), but in fact that's it.. I'm going to launch off this thing with a wrap of nylon and velcro around my ankles?
ok.. so it's launch time. I'm not first, but not far off it. You sit in what feels as comfy as a lounge recliner as the jump crew attach the bungy cord to my feet. I'm watching him as he feeds it through, and adds, "but you don't really know if I'm doing it right though do you?". About 30 seconds later, I'm up. I waddle as best I can with my ankles strapped together to get a first real look into the abyss below. There's the usual moment, where you think.. frick that's a long way down, and I'm tied on... right? and then with the reasurring count down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... off I go.
Initially it's like .. ok it's like jumping off something tall... but then the speed develops, and you kind of want to wail your arms as if to think I'm going to steady or direct my fall in some way ... and like the initial jump out of a plane, it just keeps on going. This would have to be the best part of a tall bungy.. the way you just keep on going and going, hurtling towards the ground which really will make a mess without something to pull me up.. I try to catch it all in.. try to make sure I'm checking out the surroundings, but realistically the feeling of the accelerating fall really is the focus.
When the bungy kicks in to break your fall, you can hardly feel it. It's a real gradual pull, but nonetheless reassuring to know it was attached. I've heard others say that the dangling down the bottom is very disconcerting but maybe due to the length of the stretch of the bungy cord, it was actually a very easy and soft dangle around, so much so that it was near impossible to tell if I was on the upward or downward bounce. Just before jumping out, I was reminded that I should pull one of the lines when I get down the bottom, which releases the foot line, so that you hang upright (rather than hang upside down like a bat while they hoist you back up again). I quickly scan some of the ropes that are around, with the brief thought of.. pull the wrong one, releases everything maybe? but I pull the cord at the right moment and I swing around upright. That seems really good, but heh.. I'm still hanging by a thread in the middle of a canyon. Lets assume the hoist works right, because it's still a long way down from here.
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