Riding on busses and jumping off bridges

Well, I got up this morning and got the paper to see my picture of the protestor published on page 2!! But my name wasn't published with it! Bastard reporter!! I did get an email from the paper that they noticed the omission and apologized. Not sure if my name will be in there tomorrow or not, but oh well. My awesome picture was in the paper in New Zealand!!

So we got on a bus today to make the trip from Christchurch down to Queenstown. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We stopped along the way to see some glacier lakes that were absolutely gorgeous. The water was an amazing color and they were surrounded by mountains. This country is so beautiful! My pictures really don't do it justice.

Once we got into Queenstown, our first stop was the Kawarau Bridge where bungee jumping was invented. We got to go out on the observation deck and watch a couple of jumpers. I asked Erica if I could maybe skip the boat ride tomorrow and come back to the bridge to jump. I wasn't 100% sure I really wanted to jump. I was just kind of thinking out loud. She said, "Let's go inside and see how long it would take. You can just go now!" Uuuuhhhh, say what?!? The people inside said I could be jumping in 10 minutes. The next thing you know, before I could say "suicide mission," I was handing over my AmEx card and signing away any rights to a lawsuit in the case of death or dismemberment. Dad was pissed and didn't want me to do it, but it was too late!

Literally 10 minutes later, I was bungee corded up and had my toes dangling over the edge of a 150 foot drop into the river. I looked over to the observation deck and saw all my peeps - Paul and Edna, Buzz and Dorothy, Bill and Ida. I couldn't let these people down. It had been a boring day, and they needed some excitement! The view from up there was amazing, but I couldn't look at any of it. I knew if I looked down I wouldn't be able to do it. So I looked straight ahead and asked the dude to push me. He said, "No can do" so I just dove headfirst without hesitating. I knew if I balked for one second it would not happen. I tried to scream on the way down, but my heart was in my throat as I saw rocks and river rushing toward me. Once the cord caught and I rebounded back up, I was finally able to scream - and enjoy the view! It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life!!

Once I got to the bottom, the raft picked me up and took me back to the dock. I got up to the top and the first thing Dad says to me is, "You didn't jump out far enough." Seriously Dad?!? I told him to go show me how it was done, but he politely declined. You got to jump for free if you were 65 and they didn't ask for ID. So he could have lied about his age and gone, but he was not even going to consider it. Also FYI for anyone who is making a trip to New Zealand - if you jump naked, you jump free! Here is the video...