[Day 18] Queenstown Bungee and Debauchery!!!

Queenstown, New Zealand is a mecca of extreme sport. Most other towns are filled with coffee houses and retail shops, whereas here, adventure agencies and outdoor companies abound. Sky dive, canyon swing, jet boat, white water raft, luge... heaven on earth for the adrenaline junkie! It's home of the world's first bungee jump, as well as the world's best burger joint: Ferg Burger! On our road trip we had four separate people tell us that we MUST go to Ferg Burger! I'm a sucker for cool names and a good burger so that was the first thing on my mind when we arrive. I'm starving so I order the biggest on the menu, the 'Big Al': “Al delivers a double serving of prime New Zealand beef (½ pound), lashings of bacon, a whole lotta cheese, 2 eggs, beetroot, lettuce, tomato, relish and a big wad of aioli.” Massive! By far the biggest/ best burger I've ever had! I struggle to finish the whole thing, but I get a second wind and suck it down. I swore I was going into cardiac arrest after; felt like I had literally just eaten a small cow! Ferg Burger has become somewhat of a phenomenon in NZ for a number of reasons. First, they have the craziest burgers you will ever see. They have the most exotic combinations of stuff they put on their burgers, but it works out! Second, they are open until 5 am, which makes a lot of young, drunken party-goers more exited than your little sister on Christmas morning! Lastly, they serve beer...need I say more?

After our incredible Ferg Burger experience, we waddle over to the iSite (local information center) and plan out the next day. We scan the brochures and immediately spot The Nevis, a 440 ft bungee-jump! It's New Zealand's highest so we feel that doing any other would be like taking the easy way out. We look at it as a challenge, and accept even though we're all a bit scared! But none of us was as scared as Malin, who is absolutely terrified of heights! Malin decides to face one of her biggest fears and signs up, we're all so shocked/ proud of her! One by one we all handed our credit cards over to pay. And we are all looking at each other with worried and confused looks on our faces that scream out something along the lines of, “Why are we doing this again, and further more why I am paying a ridiculous amount of money to have the living daylights scared out of me?”. But with the final swipe of the last credit card, it was done...we were locked in and there was no turning back, it felt like I had just made a deal with the devil!

I wake up the next morning and realize that I all I dreamed about last night was bungee jumping. I wasn't having nightmares about jumping or anything; I was just bungee jumping repeatedly in my dreams. I think it was my mind's way of preparing for the extremely intimidating jump! I eat a small breakfast in case whatever's in my stomach before the jump decides to take the elevator to the top floor if you know what I mean?

We check into the bungee place at 11 am. Out of the blue Garrett blurts to the young English girl checking us in, “I heard if you do the jump naked it's free. Is this true?” The girl kindly informs him that this was once the case, but too many people were doing it naked to get a free jump and they had to retract the odd offer. Garrett being the insane kid he is says that he wants to do it naked anyways...haha! The girls can't believe their Swedish ears, “You are going to do it naked Garrett?” they exclaim in their priceless accents. Meanwhile I'm still laughing hysterically off to the side as a mental image of Garrett with nothing but bungee straps on pops into my head; man was I glad I didn't eat much, that image was would have been enough to make a big breakfast want to make an early exit...ewwwww!

We hop on the bus and discover it's a 45 minute ride to the jump site. Great, 45 minutes to sit on a bus and psyche myself out. That's just what I need! Right away I reach for my iPod to calm the nerves. My eyes zero in on Cool Calm Pete, a NYC hip hop artist with the laziest voice ever; I'd describe it as Slick Rick after three shots from a horse tranquilizer... perfect! 20 minutes into the ride, I notice a rustic bridge in the distance. As we get closer to it, the driver informs us that it's the world's first bungee jump; only 150 ft high yet still impressive to see the sport's birthplace. Someone jumps as we pass by; chills instantly spread throughout my body as I know I'm going to be in that person's shoes shortly!

The bus turns onto a dirt road and starts ascending this huge mountain. It struggles to climb the ridiculously steep incline; you see the 25 other passengers fidget a bit more as you get higher and closer to the jump, which is comforting as I'm getting pretty nervous. We finally arrive but all we see is a short building. We get strapped up by the employees of AJ Hackett, the bungee company, and Garrett informs them that he wants to do the bungee jump naked; I burst out in uncontrollable laughter once again and pretend I don't even know him...haha! We are instructed to go out to the lookout point for further instructions. The group walks out like cows going into a slaughter house; not one word is uttered until we see it, and all of a sudden all you hear is, “Oh my god”, “No way”, Holy #%*@, and some other four letter words I'm sure you can figure out.

The jump is made from of a tiny room suspended in an absolutely massive canyon, terrifying! We're given safety instructions that are peppered with comical relief to lighten the mood. Then we're organized into groups of 6 according to weight. Each group takes their turn riding an open gondola out to the room. I'm in the second group taken away to its demise; Garrett tries to videotape me getting hauled away but I really have nothing to say except, “I think I'm going to die!”

Soon enough the Swemerican Mobile Disco reunites in the suspended room. I'll never forget everyone's expressions; just blank stares in a desperate search for comfort. Then there was Garrett with his teal sweatshirt tied around his waist like he was about to do an audition for the movie 300, with nothing but his birthday suit underneath, wandering around and talking to everyone. Techno-trance was playing. Being such a huge fan of music in general, I found it very therapeutic. I just start dancing around to concentrate on the music and pump myself up, as opposed to thinking how high up we really were (there were two glass strips in the floor that you couldn't help but looking through). Anna was the first in our group to go; she did it like a champion; no hesitation, no nothing! I was so stoked for her and seeing her do it gave me a lot of confidence. My confidence just snow-balled from there; I began to get way more excited than scared!

I was the next one in our group to go; I did some poses for the tourist trap camera (it costs $45 for 5 pictures!), got briefed on how to pull the release cord to be pulled back up once it was over and before I knew it I was on the edge, face to face with the beast! All the excitement and confidence I had built up in the previous 20 minutes instantly diminished with one good look down into the seemingly endless canyon. I got so scared all of a sudden, I thought about backing out of the jump, but then the guy started counting down...5, 4, 3, 2,1 and I just put it all aside and went for it! The freefall was by far the most intense feeling I've ever had; it was terrifying but insanely fun at the same time! I felt the slight tension of the bungee cord and what a feeling that was; that meant I did it! The freefall was insane, but I was glad it was over! I breathed the biggest sigh of relief ever, once I did the first bounce up I reached for the release cord and it flipped me into an upright sitting position. As I was being hoisted up to the room my head was turning left and right, looking at the canyon I had just conquered out of pure joy; it was one of the greatest feelings of my life!

I was raised to the room full of travel companions and friends that were so excited for me, it was awesome! I told them how incredible it was and how pumped I was for the rest of them to do it, and then all of a sudden I yell out, “I want to do it again”! From there I stood by and encouraged everyone else in our crew; Pernilla didn't even flinch when she did hers, Garrett was just ridiculous and naked and then it was Malin's turn! She stepped up to the edge a bit scared as expected from anyone who is scared of heights. She let out a few war cries and boom she was out of sight! When she returned to the room she had the happiest look on her face and we all watched her bask in joy like proud parents. To watch someone overcome a major fear in their life right in front of your eyes is really special...Malin, if you're reading this, we just want to let you know you are incredible, skal!

Our group was all put on the same cart to be shipped back to the bungee base camp. The short ride went along with a soundtrack of screams, yells, laughter and of course some Swedish babble from the girls. The mood on the bus ride back was a completely different than the ride there. There was no more awkward silence, just laughs and cheers. I was still completely amped so I rode back literally bouncing up and down to my iPod... Crookers, Bloody Beetroots and friends to match the way I was feeling. I felt like I was on some sort of crazy drug; I wanted to jump out of my seat, run around screaming, punch stuff and have a few cocktails all at the same time...weird!

The first stop we made when we got back into town was the liquor store to get some party favors for the night; we were all so excited we had to go out and celebrate! We got back to the campervan, got ready, threw on some tunes, hung the disco balls and we were ready to rock! Anna and Pernilla taught us some crazy Swedish drinking game that I won't even try to explain, but it involves cards and calling people's bluffs. I'm not sure what it was called, but I named it “Blackout and Throw-up All Over Yourself” because it is completely ridiculous. You end up taking anywhere from 2-14 sips from your drink every time a card is flipped and there are 15 cards on the table. Needless to say things got pretty crazy/sloppy real quick!

We quickly consume all the alcohol at our makeshift pre-party and head out for the bars. The first stop was a place called Buffalo. It was dark with curious red lighting inside and the ground was littered with peanut shells. We quickly made our presence known in the bar to the dismay of everyone else. Ida hit some girl behind us with a peanut shell on accident and then I did the same thing to another girl somehow. Then Ida and Anna decide it’s a good idea to put peanuts down my shirt so we are all squirming around yelling within five minutes of being inside. We were that group of people in the bar that everyone hates, but we could care less; we were all so stoked on life from the bungee jump nothing could drag us down! To make things worse for everyone in the bar, but better for us, we bump into two other Swedish girls that our girls met on then ferry to the South Island...random! This only adds to the energy of our already hyper group; what are the odds that we would run into them? Their names are Anna and Kristin and they are from Gothemburg. They are both blond and blue eyed and fit the Swedish stereotype like none other. We all instantly hit it off and quickly invite our two new friends to join our whirlwind of drunken debauchery and they oblige. We leave Buffalo and storm down the silent streets of Queenstown like bats out of hell that drink vodka instead of blood. As if four Swedish girls weren't enough, now we have six, its almost unfair! Garrett and I just chuckle to each other, we're on cloud 9!

We stumble through the bar district, which is pretty quiet and people look at us like we have “Kick Me” signs on our backs or something; we very well could have at that point though and I don't think any of us would of known. Then Malin, who happens to be about 5'10”, decides to pick up a random construction cone and thrust it over her head and belt out an intense battle cry; everyone in the streets decides at that point that we are all insane! We ask around to try and find some good bars, but everyone says Wednesday nights are dead everywhere. Luckily we have a group big enough to make a party where ever we go. We're marching down the street determined to find a decent bar when the security guard from some jazz bar stops us and hands us drink tickets for $2 tap beers at his bar. The girls beg for a bunch of drink tickets and they get about ten each. Excited to use all the drink tickets we all run into the bar. There are about fifteen people in the whole place, but there is an amazing live band playing funk. We instantly make a drunken dance floor directly in front of the band; everyone in the whole place is pointing at us...I love it! Our amazing dance party lasts for a solid hour and we decide it's time to raise hell elsewhere. We end up at a place called Winnie's; its completely dead inside, but we make quite the entrance with our entourage and proceed to create yet another dance floor. Winnies had a roof that opened up which was really cool, but what's more is it started to sprinkle a bit. So here I was dancing the night away with 5 really good friends and two new ones to house music, inside a bar, but in the rain....what??? That just put the icing on the cake for me! Our euphoric night continued for about an hour more and we decided to call it a night, but not before one last stop at Ferg Burger. I had yet another best burger of my life and thus ended an insanely amazing day on that note...I love New Zealand!!!