Kelsey's Travel Blog!
I travel not to escape life, but to be sure that life will not escape me! Come join me!
Adventure Captial of the World
Queenstown, New Zealand is a resort town located on the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand primarily known for something called “adventure tourism.” It is also called “the Adventure Capital of the World”, a very fitting name for the assortment of activities offered in the town. Everything from skiing and snowboarding in winger, to bungee jumping mountain biking, sky diving, and parapenting in the summer, Queenstown is truly a thrill-seekers heaven. People from all over the world travel to this town to ski the Remarkables, or do the infamous Nevis Bungee Jump, or a number of other AJ Hackett Bungy experiences.
Therein we find our purpose for making our way to this beautiful resort town nestled in between peaks of the Southern Alps. When life somehow leads you to a place that is world renowned for extreme sports, the first thing on your agenda should be an extreme sport.
This is how I found myself around 500 feet above a canon, standing on a ledge, with a bungee cord attached to my feet. The Nevis Bungy jump is 8 seconds of free fall, usually at speeds over 80 miles per hour, for a total of eight long and grueling seconds. One jumps from a high-wire platform hooked between two different hills creating an adrenalin junkie’s paradise. It is currently the largest in Australasia and the fifth largest in the world.
But that’s right folks, I went bungee jumping! I, along with both my sister and my dad took this literal leap of faith. I wasn’t sure if anything could top the Helicopter tour over Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, but I was mistaken! Bungy jumping beats it all!
Never have I felt a rush of adrenalin like I did the moment I stood on the edge of the ledge, looking out on the distant hill, with a very cute but clearly hungover kiwi telling me that everything will be alright and I just had to reach for the hill. The mere thought is making my hands sweat. Every inch of my body was alive as I dove through the air. Time seemed to stand still, and all I could see was the ground coming closer and closer to me. I could barely breathe or even think as the wind rushed through my hair, my eyes watered both out of fear and speed of my fall, and my cheeks flushed with the sheer force of gravity.
So the final verdict? Would I do it again? IN A HEART BEAT! I would absolutely do it again, and I would even do a bigger one! If you asked my sister the same question, she would probably say you’d have to kill her first before she did it again, but she did it, which is I applauded her for. My dad, like me, would also do it again. Trish my step-mom, thought we were all just insane, which, if I was being perfectly honest with myself, is not far off from the truth.
