I’m going to write about two random
memorable experiences from my travels for this post. I was going to write a
detailed account of one of my highest highs (naked bungee jumping), and one of
my lowest lows (getting severe food poisoning); however writing about the low
made me feel depressed. I don’t want anyone reading this blog to feel bad so I
decided to focus on the naked bungee jump and then quickly summarize what
happened when I got sick.
*Censored pictures of the naked jump are lumped together at the end of my first story!*
When I was a kid, probably about 10 years
old or so, I watched a movie made in New Zealand. I don’t remember what the
movie was about, but I remember one scene at the very end in which a girl does
a naked bungee jump off a bridge with a heart painted on her back. The movie
made it out to be an extremely liberating experience, and I wanted to do it
ever since. Not your average little girl’s dream, but I suppose I’m a bit
weird! I have done a lot of crazy things in my life (a previous post explains
how I’m a bit of a thrill-seeker), but naked bungee jumping in New Zealand was
always at the very top of my bucket list. I told everyone about my goal, not
sure if I would ever actually reach it. Going to New Zealand in general became
a dream of mine, as I had seen so many beautiful pictures, and I heard that you
could do all sorts of crazy stuff there. On top of that, I’m a bit of a fern
lover (I studied ferns for my Master’s thesis) and the silver fern as well as
the koru (fern fiddlehead) are two of New Zealand’s national emblems. It seemed
like that country had everything I could ever want.
I found myself in Australia for a year, and I knew that I would be heading to New Zealand from there. Due to the timing of my trip down south and work obligations, I decided to spend just six weeks in NZ during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer of 2012. Leading up to my trip I told even more people about how I wanted to go naked bungee jumping. It seemed closer, but still not part of my reality. Was I really going to do it?
I finally landed in New Zealand; one of my
dreams had already come true! I wasn’t sure when or where I would do the naked
bungee jump, so I decided to just wing it. I started my trip in the North
Island, which isn’t really known for its jumps nowadays. I then found my way onto a
quasi-tour bus called the Magic Bus when I got to the South Island. It was a
hop-on hop-off type of deal, and it was a better way of meeting people than
taking regular coach buses around the country. I slowly made my way down the south
of the country, to Queenstown, on the Magic Bus. Queenstown is the craziest
party town in the country, and it also offers a million opportunities for an
adrenaline junkie to get his fix. Queenstown is the home of commercial bungee
jumping, and I had it in my mind that I wanted to do a naked bungee jump at the
original commercial jump – the Kawarau
Bridge Jump. I told one of the bus drivers that I wanted to do a naked jump,
and he confirmed that the Kawarau Bridge Jump was my best bet for that
because I would be on a platform far away from an audience. That seemed ideal
because I’m really not an exhibitionist – the point of doing this jump was to
push myself beyond my comfort zone and reach a point of pure exhilaration and
freedom, not to just be naked in front of people. Additionally, the bridge jump
isn’t that high (43 m) so I wouldn’t be too preoccupied with the actual jump.
Well, the day came that our bus rolled into
Queenstown. It was a cool, rainy day; New Zealand wasn’t having the best of
summers. If I booked my jumps with the bus group I would get a better deal. You
see, naked bungee jumping used to be free, but too many broke backpackers
started doing it and now you have to pay full price regardless of if you have
your clothes on or not. I booked three jumps at once to get an even better deal,
but the Kawarau Bridge jump was first. I had to decide then and there if I was
going to take the leap – naked – or not! I decided to do it. I told my new bus
driver my plan, and he was super excited. He got to jump free if he went tandem
with someone, so he asked if he could come along. I gave him an emphatic no.
This was a personal thing. A moment many
years in the making.
I got to the front desk to sign up for the
jump and told the lady working there that I was going to do it naked. I don’t
think she paid attention/didn’t believe me the first time, but when I asked her
where I should put my clothes and if they had a towel or something I could wrap
myself in until I had to jump, she realized I was serious. Things were in
motion. I was given an extra-large T-shirt and changed into it in the bathroom
of the AJ Hackett Bungy Jump Centre. I gave my stuff to some guys on my bus and
proceeded to the bridge I would jump from. That’s when it first hit me that the
other bus driver had lied; I wouldn’t
be that far from everyone when I jumped. The viewing platform gave a clear view
of everyone jumping, and when news of my naked jump spread, a large crowd gathered on it. I also saw the cameraman and fully realized that the
whole thing was going to be photographed and filmed, with TV screens around the
centre showing a zoomed in video of my jump. Oy. I wasn’t considering turning
back, but my nervousness jumped up a few notches.
My friend went before me, and as she was
preparing to jump I started to get harnessed. I kept my shirt on while they
strapped me in around my torso, but then it was my turn up to the plate. I
lifted the shirt over my head and stepped onto the jumping platform. The woman
working on the platform took one look at me and started yelling at me to sit
down. My harness wasn’t attached to anything and I was just freely standing
there, naked, 43 m above the water. I
don’t know if it was me who got distracted, or the guy working there, but
either way a mistake was made and I shouldn’t have been up there. So I sat
down, another guy tied up my legs and attached me to the harness, and then it
was finally time to jump.
Sidenote: the guy who tied up my legs
didn’t even realize I was naked until I jumped. He was that focused on his job.
Kudos to him!
I stood at the edge of the jumping platform
and the crowd at the viewing platform started cheering. I was covering myself
as much as possible when the cameraman got my attention and insisted I smile
for the camera, so I did. The people working there counted me down – 3-2-1-JUMP!
– and I swan dived off the platform. The crowd went wild. I actually really enjoy
being cheered on by such a large crowd; maybe that’s what celebrities feel
like. Anyway, after the initial shock where you don’t really comprehend
anything (this has happened with all of my jumps), I closed my eyes and just
tried to take it all in. I had done it!!! My greatest goal in life had been
accomplished! I spread my arms wide and relished in my accomplishment and the
cool breeze, but I also realized that I didn’t feel as free as I thought I
would. The rush was temporary and then I was just hanging upside down naked in
front of a bunch of strangers. I didn’t exactly feel that sense of primal
adrenaline that I thought doing a naked jump off the original commercial bungee
jump in New Zealand would give me. But I still felt immense joy. I’m so glad I
did it!
After I stopped bouncing around, I hung
upside down over the water and waited for the boat to come pick me up and
release me from my naked prison. It was a bit awkward being scooped up by these
two guys, trying to cover myself whilst letting them unhook me. When I was finally
back at the shore a guy working there handed me the extra-large t-shirt I had
on before. I put it on and then my bus driver, who I was starting to realize
was maybe a bit creepy, came down with his jacket for me to wear. He offered to
give me a piggy back ride up the stairs back to the centre, but I told him not
to worry – I could walk barefoot, no problem.
Everyone at the centre gave me high fives
when I got back. I hung out with the crowd for a couple minutes and then
grabbed my stuff and changed back into my clothes. When I emerged from the
bathroom my bus driver called me over to the front desk. The employees wanted
to show me the pictures and video taken during my jump, hoping I would buy
them. I did not want to buy them, and I didn’t even really want to look at
them, but they insisted. Let me tell you, being suspended naked in mid-air is
not the most flattering way to be photographed. I quickly looked at everything
and then told them I didn’t want to buy it. My bus driver kept looking at the
video, and I had to block the screen and tell him to take a hike. They all
laughed and assured me that some pictures would go up in the employee lunch
room :S I admit that it was all pretty funny, but I definitely felt
uncomfortable with the fact that my naked body was the object of all the
attention!
I got back on the bus and we all waited for
about ten minutes for our driver to come back. When he did he handed something
to me. He had somehow acquired my naked photos (and postcards)! I don’t know if
he paid for them or not, but either way it was kind of nice, and kind of weird.
I spent the next month travelling around with naked pictures of myself in my
backpack! Ha!
I ran into people I knew for a couple of
weeks after my naked jump, and all of them had heard about it, even if they
didn’t know I was the one who did it. It seemed to really cause a stir in the backpacker
community hanging around there at the time, and it was fun overhearing people
talk about me. I hope I inspired a few of them to push themselves out of their
comfort zones and try something a little crazy too!
The majority of people I tell about my
adventure immediately ask if there was any chafing or pain from everything
flopping around. The answer is no, I felt perfectly fine. Even if there was
discomfort, I wouldn’t have noticed because I had more pressing issues on my
mind! I’m not sure how things would feel for a dude, who has a few more
moveable parts, but I can assure you that bungee jumping is a very smooth
process. The cord stretches out so that you slow down as you reach the bottom,
before you bounce back up. I’ve never felt more than a head rush from doing it.
I still feel a surge of joy and pride
whenever I think back on that adventure. I also feel extremely accomplished. My
bucket list had a bunch of things checked off of it in New Zealand, and while
I’m always adding more things to it, it feels so good to know that I’ve
followed through with most of my dreams thus far. I 100% recommend naked bungee
jumping, but more than that I urge you (yes you!) to make a plan to strike
something off your own personal bucket list. I don’t think life should be
solely focused on accomplishing specific goals, but doing so definitely helps
keep you on course to living a fulfilling life, and a life you can be proud of.
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| About to jump. Smile for the camera! |
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| I took the leap! |
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| Free fall! |
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| Weeee! |
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| Probably the worst picture of me of all time! |
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| So much fun! |
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| I did it!!!!!!!!!!! |
Now, if you’re interested in hearing a less exciting story, then keep reading!
Like I said, I decided not to post the
details of my illness on this blog because I actually felt sick again from just
writing it! So here’s the gist of it:
I ate shitty food at a Chinese restaurant
in Northern Peru right before venturing off on my own one evening. I got terrible food poisoning and was stuck in the bathroom
of a shitty hostel full of drunken Irish men, all alone, for about three days.
Nobody there knew I was sick or cared about me. Except maybe the cleaning lady.
I had never felt that much pain or had that many things coming out of me at
once before. After a week of not fully recovering I self-medicated and
overdosed on antibiotics. I killed all the good bacteria in my stomach and
continued suffering for a couple more months, on and off. I finally saw a
doctor in Bolivia, and after some testing he prescribed me probiotics. I had a
horrible reaction to the probiotics and was very sick again! I decided to
quickly move to Chile and Argentina, which are a bit more sanitary, and I
recovered.
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| Meal of Death! |
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| I managed to see Chan Chan, the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, right after my initial days of food poisoning. |
So, a couple months of my trip kinda sucked
because I didn’t feel well half the time. BUT, I got through it. I also took a
lot of positive things out of the experience: Being sick caused a chain of
events that led to me meeting some truly amazing people that I will be friends
with forever. It showed me that strangers can be extremely kind. I proved to
myself that I can overcome some tough life challenges, and that has given me
even more confidence in myself. I now know not to take Ciprofloxacin twice a
day for seven days, no matter how bad my food poisoning is. I also lost some of
the weight I had put on from travelling at that point and could fit back in my
too-tight jeans!
I may have missed out on some of the
experiences I had planned for myself in South America, like hiking in the Cordillera
Blanca, volunteering at an animal sanctuary, and camping in the jungle, but I
had some other wonderful experiences instead. That’s what travelling is all
about – you never know what the hell is going to happen next, but you know that
it’s going to be beautiful. I’m not sure I would say that looking back I’m glad
I got food poisoning, but I am certain that the experience helped me grow as a
person and caused a lot of good things to happen to me.
I suppose the lesson of both my stories is
that you can do anything. Whether it’s rising up to the occasion and reaching a
difficult goal, or overcoming a major challenge that comes out of nowhere,
everyone has it within themselves to follow through and not give up. I could
have easily chickened out and just done a regular bungee jump, or I could have
cut my trip short like my family wanted me to after I got sick. I wouldn’t have disappointed
anyone around me if I did those things, but I would have really disappointed
myself. Everyone has their own dreams and problems, and I encourage you all to believe
in yourself and not back down from them. You’ll be a better person for it.
