We drove on to Kawarau Gorge where the original A.J. Hackett Bungy Jump in New Zealand is located. It was still raining and gross weather but Andrew was psyched to do it. He was stoked. He was the first in our group to go. We had five people that wanted to jump. One gal talked the driver, Nick, into jumping tandem with her. The suspension bridge has a structure like a little hut out almost half way over the bridge. They got their ankles wrapped and were given directions in there and then they move the jumpers out to the gangplank! Andrew chose to do the "elevator". He backed out to the edge like doing a back dive but arched his back holding his hands behind his head with his elbows out. Then he leaped backwards off into nothing. He could see the bridge getting smaller as he went down. The bridge is 45 meters over the river of swiftly moving VERY cold water! I stood on an overlook down the way and took pictures trying to keep the camera dry. They had four cameras set up and we could buy a set of four pictures, which we did. We also bought the video! I couldn’t see missing out on that. Andrew talked about this for days later. He was on an adrenaline rush!

The gorge was not too far from Queenstown. It was a lovely scenic route but the weather stole much of its real beauty. This stretch we were driving had a beautiful aqua colored river alongside the road. The fog and clouds blocked our views and robbed the intensity of the colors. It was about 3:00 p.m. when we got into Queenstown. The bus would remain here three days but we were planning to catch a different bus and continue on the next day. Milford Sound is near here and would be a wonderful place to spend a couple days but we’d chosen to do our extra days on the North Island. Andrew is hoping he can catch up with his Maori professor for a visit. He also wants to do a tandem plane jump and go black water caving.