The Virtual Reinhard
Created | Updated May 26, 2005
The Awesome Foursome: Part One
The phone rang while we were enjoying a well-earned post-ski beer at the Dux Deluxe brewpub in Queenstown, New Zealand. It was the guys from AJ Hackett, confirming our 134-metre bungy jump, highest jump in New Zealand and probably the world, and first of a series of adventure pursuits known locally as the Awesome Foursome.
Nevis High Wire Bungy
So it was that early next morning we found ourselves bouncing around in a bus climbing up a rickety private track, past a number of unusual little beachcomber-style houses. Part of my stomach was complaining that a glass of water and some paracetamol do not make for a full and satisfying breakfast, while the rest was clenched in a knot of trepidation. It was even worse for Bronwyn, who doesn't like heights at the best of times, resolutely trying not to look out of the window as the four wheel drive scrabbled along the cliff edge up into the Shotover Gorge.
At the top, we were confronted by a stationary cable car gondola slung out over the centre of the gorge. To get there, we stood on a little open tray and winched ourselves across.
The guide had previously scrawled all our body weights on the back of our hands with permanent marker; at this point he explained that whoever had the biggest number, jumped first, with no exceptions.
Bronwyn glanced around at the array of midgets and stickmen in the tray, and it didn't really need a hurried variation on stone-paper-scissors to realise that, yes, she was going first.
In contrast to the young and joking staff that we had seen thus far, the man who greeted us at the gondola door was calm and precise and exuded confident experience, which is exactly what you need when he is about to cuff your ankles to a piece of elastic and throw you out into space.
The first hurdle is to shuffle to the open door of the gondola and sit in a dentist's chair with your feet up. Down to your side, the tiny ribbon of the Shotover River winds along 134 metres below. Each piece of equipment is carefully explained as it is strapped on, particularly the quick-release that allows you to sit up at the end of the jump, so that you are winched back up to the gondola by your waist rather than hanging by your ankles, which would probably be slightly disturbing.
A quick wave to the ever-watching cameras and then, with your feet strapped firmly together, you shuffle out onto a metal plank stuck out over the ravine. This is by far the hardest part. This is swiftly followed by the scariest part, which is when the guide throws a big soggy rope bag over the edge; as it drops, it gives your ankles a good sharp tug in the direction that you really, right now, don't want to go.
Then everybody counts down, and... you jump.
Once you jump, it's such a long way down that initially there's really no sensation of falling, just a feeling that there is a heck of a lot of wind. It's a lot like parachuting in that respect. However, there comes a point when you realise that the ground is approaching very fast indeed, but then suddenly you've reached the end of the elastic and you're shooting skyward, the cable car looms close, and then you're heading back earthward again.
At the top of the second bounce, you pull the rather neat trick ripcord, your ankles swing free, and you find yourself in a sitting position with views up and down the gorge as you are slowly winched back up to the gondola.
On the bus back down, Bronwyn gazed happily out of the windows at the view. Vertigo? What vertigo?
