Dooms Day.

The moment that many of you (family, in particular) have been waiting for. One of the main reasons I chose to study abroad in New Zealand was for the scenery aspect, yes, but also for the 'thrill-seeking' aspect. New Zealand is regarded as one of the most adventurous countries in the world seeing as how the first commercial bungee jump happened here in Auckland, New Zealand. A. J. Hackett first popularized this in 1988 in Queenstown with the Kawarau Bridge jump. I decided to do the Nevis which is the highest here in Queenstown. 137 meters (approx 440 feet) from the ground with 8.5 seconds of free fall; I wanted to push myself to the extreme. For my whole life, I feel like I have made safe choices and I have never been a very rebellious child (comes with the territory of being raised by Dangie and Big Mike).. and I figured taking all the risks of coming here and doing this thing on my own, I was going to take a walk on the wild side. What's the worst that could happen? So let's say I don't make it, what a cool way to go out right?

Round 1.

Round 2.

So my friend Lauren and I were the only ones who decided to take the plunge (no pun intended) and test our luck.  Our appointment was at 11:40am that day and we had to walk a few streets over from our hostel to get to the company to sign our lives away and make the drive up there.  As we began driving up the mountainside, my heart began to race a little, my palms began to sweat, and for a few minutes there, I thought 'What did I get myself into?'

We finally arrived, they weighed us, put our harnesses on, and put us in the pod to take us to the central platform where we would be jumping. Our group consisted of myself, Lauren, our friend Alex whom we had met when we arrived in Queenstown and Fabio, a guy from Brazil who had signed up to do this jump less than an hour prior (with some convincing from Alex.) Lauren was up first... she was completely calm and once her ankles were tied in and she was propped up to walk to the edge, the tears began to flow. I felt so nervous then and began to freak out a little bit, but with our supportive group and a little encouragement, she went for it.. I was so proud of her, as were the boys. It was their turn next and finally, saving the best for last (well at least that is what I told myself....) my name was called. My throat was dry, my knees were shaking, and I thought at that moment a tremendous amount of words that cannot be repeated (due to some young people that might be reading this...)

As I was sitting in the chair and they were putting all the gear on, I thought a few things. 1)Why was I doing this? 2) Please Lord, keep me safe so I can call my mom and tell her I am ok. and 3) Maggie McKenzie is actually going to kill me. (previously, she had PLEADED that I don't do this. They sat me upright and it was time to walk to the edge. Now this edge is about 1" by 1", so very tiny and all that you could see was a small stream and rocks below you. They began to countdown and I recall what one of my guides in Auckland had previously said to me when finding out that I wanted to Bungee. (She said "Whatever you do, when they count down to 1, MAKE SURE YOU ARE OFF THAT BRIDGE!)... and boy, did I take that advice!!! You better believe I was going to make sure that I was off of that bridge on one. I thought 'here goes nothing, and I took that plunge...'

Round 2. Much more confident.

As I was being pulled back up, I could not stop laughing at the idea of what I had just done. I thought about what my dad had said about 'what kind of crazy person/idiot would pay to jump to their death?' (Well dad, I jumped, you paid, technically :)... it was so amazing. When the guys asked me if I liked it, honestly I did, however a few moments of it were almost blacked out of my brain because so much adrenalin was pumping- so they suggested I try it again because the second time is a much different experience.. so me, being the crazy person that I am.. went for it. That's right, folks.. bungee jumped TWICE off the Nevis. And it was one of the best experiences ever. I went from screaming to laughing to just being in a state of amazement. It was one of the most exhilarating and freeing experiences of my life and I hope you enjoy the pictures and video footage :)