Vertigo inducing, Adrenaline pumping, Heart stopping, Breathtaking, Palm sweating, Hands shaking, Scream if you want to go faster!!! What could all this possibly be?!?!?!

Well add in two travel junkies, 580 brake horse power, 11 tons of water per second, latex rubber and rope, a couple of canyons and you get our 2 day KAWARAU BUNGY JET, SHOTOVER SWING RAFT Queenstown spectacular!!

Day 1. After a days build up we arrived at the station building Queenstown at 9:45 am, to check in for our first of the days 2 events. We had a little wait before boarding our bus and driving around 10 minutes to our starting location which happened to be the 'Shotover river', during the drive we had a brief safety video to watch to pass the time on. Once at the river we had a quick photo taken as we departed the bus, before getting into our spray jackets and life jackets followed by a short jetty walk to our boat. Here we boarded the 'Ferrari red 'Shotover jet' which is a special type of jet boat, our driver called Murray introduced himself and the boat along with a few other bits of info before firing up the supercharged 3.5 litre V6 monster engine. Soon after we were off whizzing down the Shotover river directly into the canyon, the skill of the driver was brilliant. Narrowly missing rocks and canyon walls by inches whilst sliding sideways around bends, combined with 360 turns and still keeping going at a rate of knots was a fantastic thrill to wake you up. The boat had heated hand rails which helped as the wind chill in the canyon was really cold at this speed, added to every time we were spun round and drenched with water.

Are you impressed yet?! If not try this, the boat is special as it sucks the water up from underneath it, spins it around and shoots it out at an angle giving the jet propulsion and turning. On top of all that parts of the river are only 10cm deep!!!! And yes we went straight over them like it was 100 feet deep. The bottom of the boat is flat to allow this, but due to the jet system has better handling than a normal boat. Now that is impressive. Our jet ride lasted around 45 minutes which was fantastic on every bit, but then left us with a drive back to town after collecting our rather cool action photos.

Back at the station building it was now time to check in for event number 2! This one raising our pulse just by thinking about it, and just to put us on edge just a tad more we were surrounded by huge tv screens playing over and over again the exact thing we were waiting to do. After a nervous 30 minute wait we were off again on a different bus heading back out of town, but this time up hill not down!!! The 20 long long minutes ride was absolute torture, not only due to our nerves of uncertainty but also because of that overwhelming excitement you get that you cant quite put into words. As we were all deep in our own thoughts of mental preparation our driver called at us all to look left out of the bus window, at first all we saw was mountains, but soon enough followed a gorge and a river, followed by……………..the unmistakable 'KAWARAU BRIDGE'. In the middle of the bridge was the cage pod, with what looked like big white rubber bands hanging below begging for a victim. At this point your senses are instantly sent wild with fear, disbelief, and for some people nausea, swiftly followed by your eyes bulging out of their sockets and a few choice words spurting from your mouth uncontrollably before it rests in the fly catching position! The only remark from the driver been, 'it's a beautiful day for it' and yes it was but what a thing to say! Greg (the driver) lead us off the bus and down through the winding walk way which we are sure is made longer with pictures on all sides just to make sure you are freaking out as much as possible. An urgent toilet stop was required, but heightened any fear you may have already had as the figures on the doors were upside down!! Nice touch ey. At the weigh in desk we were weighed individually and our weights wrote on one hand, while the jumpers mark was put on the other, the fact you are weighed should give you confidence but actually only makes you think if they get it wrong it's a bit of pretty bad luck. Well guess what? She did get it wrong and check us both in the wrong way round with the wrong weights!!!!! You can imagine what this did to our confidence! However once all was corrected we were swiftly lead onto the bridge by Greg and out to the jump pod, which by now had increased our heart rates to a point you would think it was trying to depart our bodies. At the outer of the pod we were put into a harness each, encouraged and unable to help ourselves we stood up on the spectator ledge and looked over the edge, which other than been a long terrifying 43 metres down presented a beautifully green/blue gentle running river enhanced by clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine. At this point your body begins to realise you are doing something silly as you should not be on a bridge with a harness on, and so it presents sweaty palm syndrome. This also had a serious adverse effect on Tinks (Carina), the colour really had drained from her face leaving her looking somewhat like Casper the ghost.

Before we knew it the crew we calling us down into the pod, nervously we climbed down with quite some care due to the fact most of the control in our legs was now absent as they really wanted to be going the other way. David had to be first as he was the tallest, we have no idea why that makes a difference but it does. Carina was still on the outside as David was having his legs strapped together with a common bathroom towel, making us both wonder why they are not using space age equipment, the panic rat at this point bites in your mind sending all sorts of ideas zooming around your head in a frenzy. With much caution Carina was brought down next and we were sat side by side to be clipped together by our ankle straps, then clipped to the bungy cord which is hundreds of long strands of latex rubber with spaced out smaller strands tied around the outside holding it together, the thought of jumping off a bridge suspended by a large condom was now most apparent in our frantic minds . Next we had to put one arm around each others back and hold the back of the others harness, which we guess helps to make sure you both go at the same time. We then had to shuffle ourselves near to the edge of the platform sticking out from the safety of the pod and over the river, which is hard enough with your own ankles tied together, let alone tied to someone else as well. Now you are told to smile for the camera and wave to the crowd of either sadists or people contemplating a jump. Then comes the final shuffle to the very edge, this is when your body is screaming at you in every conceivable way, this now vertigo inducing view down into the canyon below is more real than ever! If the saying of s**ting bricks were true, at this point we were laying them big enough to build the bridge! Which follows onto Carina's next words which were 'I cant do it, now David really did not need this at this point, as you can guess he had his own issues going on. So can you guess what David said?! Exactly, 'yes you can your coming with me, only one way down'. With that the guy who strapped us in said, the longer you wait the harder it will get, David replied 'we are going'. The crew had started to count down from 5, adrenaline was raging through us now making every limb tremble, we were fighting our bodies every natural born instinct that was frantically telling us it is not natural to throw yourself of a bridge!! What the hell are you doing? Are you stark raving mad? The adrenaline kicks in more and you shake even harder, then suddenly……………. you have a split second where it all stops, the thumping in your chest is gone, you no longer shake, it feels good to go!!! You lean forward, you tip into the balance just before gravity takes over, and then you JUMP!!!!!!!!

That split second is gone and you are falling. The river rushes upwards to you so fast your brain cant keep up, all it can do is make you scream or shout or something you cant control, and just as it registers how fast you are heading towards the river……SPLASH you hit the water, head and arms in. The jerk of the bungy cord comes and you are catapulted upwards, the screams and shouts replaced with laughter of happiness and achievement, you look up to see the huge structure of the bridge and the platform you just had the courage to jump off. Then you look back down to river to see what you just dipped in, now you feel more alive than ever. Seconds later the raft crew below are there to pull you down into the raft and unhook you, you are dropped of on shore to walk back up the hill trying to take in what just happened. People laugh and congratulate you as you reach the viewing platform, the images of the jump ringing in your head making every feeling you just had sweet like a bear that got the honey. Now its your turn to see yourself on the DVD screen and receive a t-shirt only the successful jumpers get, which is like a gold medal, followed by plenty of time to take pictures of the awesome jump site and watch other people jump along with the ones that don't and have to come back down disappointed and lost in themselves. Before you know it the time is up and you are on the return journey back to town, this is quite an extraordinary journey as you are overwhelmed with your triumph, you have overcome a personal challenge and much more.

Although the jet boat is not in the same league as the bungy for adrenaline sports it was definitely the right choice as a build up to the bungy. Some of you may ask why that bungy site? Or you may ask why that one when there are bigger ones?! Well see if this answers that for you….AJ Hackett made the first proper bungy jump from the Eiffel Tower in June 1987 putting him and it into the international spotlight, plus he was arrested. Followed by this he found the Kawarau bridge in New Zealand which was not used for anything at this point, he applied for and got permission from the New Zealand government and Heritage society to use the bridge for 2 months of commercial bungy as a pilot scheme which was obviously successful. Aj Hackett and the Heritage society restored the bridge together and on November 12th 1988 the Kawarau bridge became the worlds first bungy site! Now legend and sport were born, leaving the Kawarau bridge the iconic home of bungy forever! So there you go if your going to do it keep with the original, oh and it's the only one in the world to date that allows you to tandem jump and touch a river.

Day 2. Now day 1 was a big event but today we thought why not go a step further. So once again we checked in for our 1st event of the yet again 2 events of the day, but this time it was even earlier at 8:15 am. Again we were bussed to our location which was as the previous day the Shotover river, and again kitted up straight away but with a difference. Today we had wet suits spray jackets and life jackets, but also with bright yellow helmets. Soon after we had a 20 minute drive up river via a very narrow and high cliff edge gravel road the miners built in the gold rush, and this road was definitely in the rush part. Once at our departure point we unloaded our rafts from the trailers that had come with us, and if you haven't guessed this morning was white water rapids time. A safety briefing later and we were put into our crews and onto the at present calm running river.

There is a good reason the river is calm where we start as we practised several manoeuvres for various things we would or could encounter on the way down the rapids. Rafting in general on rapids is clearly a dangerous sport, however this river was even worse as it was still evident that the gold miners had left in as much as a hurry as they arrived in and had left all the piping and mining equipment rusting away in the river.

The rapids we were to venture down were graded 3-4, now with the highest been 5 this is pretty good going for a first time rafting session. Add to that equation 11 tons of water per second fuelling the rapids, and you have a good recipe for a fun day. At our first rapid we were able to stay sat on the edge of the raft to go down it and only had a minor splash, however among this we gained speed so the guide decided it would be a good time to practice for the next by slamming us nose first into the canyon wall which we all found highly amusing. There were long calm stretches between rapids so a lot of talking was done about general stuff and travel and things to do. When we were approaching rapids the guide would tell us the idea of how we would approach it but that did sometimes change as the river decided, which would slam us into rocks or completely submerge the raft in the torrent of water leaving it gushing over the top of us. All the rapids were named, such as Jaws, Red rocks, Anvil, The oh s**t rocks (which we hit, and yes on the approach did shout its name), pinball (with the ball being us), and cascade, along with a few others. The names of these give you a clue as to what they were like as we went down them, but the bigger they got the better it was having to paddle like crazy in between moving left right and on and off the floor to ensure we stayed in the raft. The final leg of the river is through a tunnel which looks calm as you go through but immediately as you emerge it has cascade at its end, and yes you do cascade straight over the waterfall and down onto the rocks below in the hope you have the right line and dip under the water and pop out the other side of the swell, without getting caught in the swirling mass at the bottom of the fall. You definitely have a good build up as the rapids get faster which makes each one that bit better, having the excitement of the last with the excitement of the unknown next. Even the guides never know exactly what will happen as the rapids not only change on a daily basis as rain falls and rocks fall in or shift in the river, but they also change throughout the day so it is ever a constant thrill and challenge.

The end of the raft session finishes where we first kitted up and rounds of with a brew and biscuits to warm your bones as the water is very cold even in summer due to the speed it moves and because it is in a canyon which is mostly shaded from the sun.

Once back at town and all hyped up from our rafting trip, it was a 45 minute wait until our next adventure which was bigger, faster and had an array of styles in which to do it. This time before we could set of on our journey we had a short walk to a different building, where we had some medical forms to do and once again be weighed. As with our last major thing in Queenstown we were branded with a mark on our hands which came in the for of pacman for David and a snail for Carina! Again on yet an other bus the ride for this was uphill and longer than the others, and it was another of those gravel mountain roads, meaning it was higher and bigger, just right for the grand finale.

Our destination was at the top of the canyon we had just rafted down which meant we had seen our fate from the river bed below, which was 109 meters high. Yep that puts it at over double the height of the bridge bungy, so are you thinking it is a bigger bungy???? Well it if you are you would be wrong, after all why do the same thing twice with so much choice of other stuff. We will give you another clue…….it has 60 meters of freefall!!! Not got it??!! Well we will tell you……..it was the 'Shotover Canyon Swing'. At 109 meters high, 60 metres of freefall, you reach 150kph, and have a swing arc of 200meters!!!!!!!

So on our arrival we had a short walk down a track at which point enduced another of those 'oh dear' moments when we clapped eyes on this monster swing, we were sent out to the viewing platform to await our driver who had been winding us up all the way and would also be one of the crew rigging us to jump. Great! He gave us the run down on the options of how we could swing, which gave us a choice of any ridiculously crazy acrobatic stunt in which you want to be launched from the platform! Or there are 10 options listed to chose from all graded in 'pants' from 1 to 5 going from 'scary' to 'even my s**t was scared'. Or we could have the jump masters choice!! NOT A GOOD IDEA. Now everyone was well and truly bricking it, he led us to the platform hanging off the gorge wall and rigged us all up in harnesses where once again that strange 'are you nuts' thing our bodies did before started again. There were 6 of us in total and everyone there had a look of bewilderment about them, but also an 'I really want to do this' look. Once all rigged up the guy asked for a volunteer. Promptly he tried to get Carina out on the platform as she was the closest to him, now as getting her down the path to the place at all had been a task, he had no chance!! Not a snow ball in hells chance. With everyone else backing away from the gate that crossed into the jump area, David was victim and hauled in to test the lines for the group! Surprise surprise.

Now you may think this would be easy after a 14000 feet skydive and a 43m bungy jump, well let me tell you this is not so! At 14000 feet the ground does not appear to get any closer until you are at around 4000 feet at which point the chute is hopefully open, at the distance we are talking for the bungy and swing the ground looks very very real at 43 or 109 meters, especially with razor sharp rapid rocks at the bottom of the canyon.

So now David was to make his choice of 'styley' which is basically which insane way do you want to launch yourself from a perfectly good wooden platform into a canyon, held up by nothing other than 2 ropes and metal wire that may develop metal fatigue ahd snap at any moment! (Oh yeah I Carina is now aware of metal fatigue) So David debated between styles before making his choice of pants which rated 4 pairs, which would involve a garden chair of the plastic type along with a backwards descent into the canyon. From the outset the 2 guys on the ledge were having a real wind up game with David getting him to the edge then nudging him to make him jump as if he would fall off, they brought out the chair and strapped him in with a seat belt!!???!! DON'T ASK. He was then moved to the edge of the platform where the wind up continued, with this chair stunt you have to rock yourself back on the chair until gravity takes over at which point If you are been wound up they grab you and pull you back meaning you have to re prepare your self all over again. This went on for a almost 5 minutes, which in that position seems a hell of a lot longer. Once they have had enough fun with you they again wait until you push yourself back expecting them to grab you again, distract you by asking a random question then just lpull the release cord just as you pass that gravity spot and have no way to stop!!!……… The guys and he platform are replaced with a vision of blue sky as you tumble backwards, then you see the wall, then the river, then the sky, spinning all the time!!! The shock hits you instantly and you either yell or don't if you are trying to catch up with what is happening, in David's case he made no sound until the 60 metre freefall ended and at 150kph he swung in to the 200 metre arc swing. At this point the was definitely having fun and yelling about it. After swinging around the canyon for a while he was hoisted back up to the ledge beaming all over like a school boy up to mischief.

Next up it was Carina as she had originally wanted to go before David but didn't want to be first so this caused an issue meaning she had to go second or wait and suffer further, and believe us up there is no time to be left thinking if you are already a bag of nerves! So it was decision time for Carina, which way did she want to go off the ledge?! Well she could not make a decision and was just babbling as originally she had thought she would go for 1 pants but really deep down wanted more, however as David was advising the chair as he thought its was so much fun the crew guy said that would be good as she had bungyed forward so why not go backwards, so she reluctantly agreed. At the edge getting strapped in the chair the wind up boys were at it again, however Carina was way out of it somewhere and little of what they said was computing enough for them to get many responses. Clearly the guys realised this and that Carina was a little nervous, so in true style made her rock herself back then yanked her back a time or two before ripping the safety cord at a point where she had used gravity as a toy and passed the point of no return, thus launching her backwards down into the canyon. Before Carina had even left the platform the canyon was ringing from Carina testing her lungs and vocal cords to the tune of a somewhat high pitched scream, which believe me is hysterical to hear and see on the DVD. There was no let up in the screaming until Carina was well into the 200 metre arc swing, by which time she had realised she was not going to hit those nice sharp rocks below. Once Carina had been lifted back up on to the platform she also could not stop smiling at what she had managed to do, and surprisingly to her she had actually enjoyed it which is a definite result.

We both think the worst bit was been pulled back up as the ropes and clips were creaking and twisting all the time, and probably were on the way down however at 150kph the wind whooshing past you kinda prevents you hearing that, helped by all the noise you are making and the fact your mind is otherwise engaged. Once we were back together we went straight up to the cabin to view our dvd and pictures, which is fantastic to see the build up to the fall and your reaction to go with it. We then had the pleasure of watching the rest of the group make their choice of jump and get the same fear factor treatment we got and all came back jut as happy as we did.

After we journeyed back to town we relived the last two days events over a burger and chips, before it was time to get on the road again as we had achieved our goals in Queenstown by using gravity as a toy. Overall our Queenstown experience was definitely in our top 5 on the trip so far and if anyone is still wondering why we did this? Well the answer is simple, because it is outside the box! And when you live outside the box, then you truly are living dreams and living free!!!!!