Bungy Jumping
I've always wanted to try Bungy Jumping, but had never had the opportunity to do properly (which means not off one of those daft crane things) until my trip to New Zealand. Modern, semi-sane Bungy Jumping was invented in New Zealand, with the inspiration coming from a pacific island tribe who jump off huge wooden towers tied to a long line of vines. Kiwis might be daft, but not quite that daft. They use a rope made up of hundreds of individual strands of elastic, so it doesn't matter if a few break. I hope.
With its famously spectacular scenery, New Zealand has a number of great Bungy Jumping sites and I've jumped from two of them. At Taupo Bungy you jump from a purpose built cantilevered platform above the Waikato River. The drop is about 47 metres / 154ft depending on the water level as the Waikato flows out of Lake Taupo.
The other is near Taihape, about 15 minutes off the highway to Wellington. It's in the middle of nowhere, but what a spectacular location! The jump site is under a road bridge which crosses a deep gorge worn out by the Rangitikei river. This is also a much longer drop at around 80 metres. It's since been taken over by the same people as Taupo Bungy and should now get the promotion it deserves. It is almost the perfect bungy site, but it does suffer from two problems. Obviously, the biggest one is the remoteness of it, we only discovered it on the drive from Wellington to Ohakune. The other is that due to the unreliability of the rural electicity lines, the whole system is water powered. While this is a very clever solution, it slows the recovery down dramatically, and you can be left hanging upside down for quite a while after your jump. On the upside, the water powered chairlift means you don't need to go puffing up the stairs as at Taupo.
Taupo Bungy
I've jumped at Taupo on two occassions so far. The first was on holiday and the second was on my 30th birthday, where we ended up after a mystery tour through the countryside.
Nick Earls Kiwi Cousin prepares me for the jump. Smile at the Camera.
3...2...1... Bungy!
Wheeeeeeeee!!!
Video
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Taupo Bungy Video |
Taupo Bungy |
Taihape Bungy
More pictures soon, but this still from the Video Camera gives you and idea of what a spectacular jump this is. On the right is the bungy cord, and on the left is the water filled counterweight that lifts the bungy tail and the chair lift.