Wheeeeee! - Queenstown

So I decided to let someone wrap a towel and a bungy cord around my ankles and let me throw myself off a bridge. I had hummed and hawwed about whether I would do the shorter bungy with more history and the Shotover Canyon Swing (my true purpose in looking forward to Queenstown) or do the 134m Nevis Bungy (New Zealand's highest) and the AJ Hackett canyon swing (less exciting than the Shotover, but bundling would help me save money). In the end I decided to go with my gut and do the 43m Kawarau Bridge bungy and the Shotover canyon swing.
I generally don't get too nervous with amusements that involve hurling oneself off of high things, I guess my time as a carnie contributed to that, but there was a tinge of trepidation when my feet left the platform. It was more of a teetering over the edge than an actual jump, but the effect was pretty much the same. The sensation of going from standing straight up to head first and falling fast proved a little much for my brain to handle, and there are a good 2 seconds of just blankness in my memory of the jump, but as soon as I felt the bungy cord pull me back towards the bridge I was able to speak again and let out a loud cry of joy to the watching public, who had the unfortunate task of watching my shirt ride up to my neck on inversion. Free show, indeed.
After being lowered into the raft and paddled back to shore, I had that walking-on-air feeling that is hard to beat and I practically raced up the stairs to watch the others experience the wonderment.
I got suckered into buying the souvenir photos and postcards, though I don't regret it, and then we headed into Queenstown proper to check in at Nomads.
The hostel was surprisingly clean and orderly for its size, and there was even a free meal of Bali chicken, sweet as! The meal was 45 minutes late and would not have been sufficient even had the rice not been burnt, but backpacker labour is what you pay for.
I topped up on spaghetti and went for a look around with some of the others before coming back to the hostel to update the blog and upload some happy snaps before bed.
The next day was the big canyon swing. I had booked it with Curry for phat discounts while at the bungy site the day before, and was all stoked to go meet the van at 11:45.
Also waiting to hurl themselves off things were two Canadians, Kate and Ben, and their Australian travel companion Stephen.
We had a bit of a chat on the way to the site, and as soon as we stepped out of the vehicle and finished doing business at the Mr. T and Chuck Norris themed urinals, we bounded up towards the bridge.
Blasted internet cards. I'll finish this later.