New Zealand 5 - ...3...2...1....Bungy!!

This is our transportation we took all through New Zealand. We wore clothes though, don't worry!


Ok so we finally made it back to Auckland near the top of the North Island (our whole trip started here first, then we flew south.. then slowly made our way back north). Katie and her friends flew back to their school this day, but before they left a few of us just decided to jump off the harbor bridge! Since bungy jumping originated in New Zealand and is a pretty big deal, it was neccessary for us to try it. So, that morning 4 of us began making our way to the bridge.

It was a much longer walk than we had anticipated, so we ran into a shop to see what we should do, either catch a taxi or a bus or something, so we could make our jump time. There were no busses or taxis around though, so people just said to hitchhike! Well, none of us had ever really done that before, but some nicely dressed business people assured us that it was perfectly safe and that we wouldn't have a problem flagging down someone.

So... we started walking down the road and holding out our thumbs and eventually it worked! This New Zealand courrier, Leon, stopped his big red truck and said hop on in... well there were 4 of us and we felt safe and could see the bridge in the distance.. so we did.

Leon - our ride


This is us piled into the back of Leon's van among all of his packages.



So we made it to the bridge finally and geared up to go. It got a little bit more scary as we walked up the bridge and actually got to the top where we were supposed to jump from, but all in all it wasn't that bad. I absolutely loved it and definitely want to do it again very soon.. but from higher up!

This is pre-jump, with our harnesses on. Tensions were high here...




This is Ashley post-jump. I absolutely love this picture of her. She and I both got dunked in the water. This is after they just pulled her up, she absolutely loved it too! It's an exhilarating feeling.. this photo captures it pretty well I think!



Here is the video of my first bungy. It pretty much sums it all up!



After our jump we headed back down the bridge and found a nice harbor-side restaurant for lunch to celebrate! We got these amazing seafood chowder bread towers. They were soo delicious! I also had a fun time playing with the little sea creatures they put in there =)

Finally Kaite and her friends left and I began my few days in NZ alone. This first day I just relaxed, wrote some postcards, enjoyed a chai-tea late from Starbucks, and walked around the city. This is the famous Auckland City Skytower.