Bungy sites:

Let's back track a moment here. So here I am working for a hostel in Queenstown, and as you can appreciate by now that I like my adrenaline free flowing and plentiful. Well the Nevis was a world famous jump that I'd been itching to have a go at.

One day the company that owns the Nevis ran a champagne smoozing event for people who worked in the tourism industry in town, so I went along to get a jump and some free booze. The AJ Hacket team are a great bunch of blokes - lets face it, they've got a pretty damn cool job scaring the shit out of people all day long, and as most of them are Kiwis they're a pretty relaxed crowd (just keep 'em away from the sheep).

Now the bungy itself is done from a specially designed gondola suspended in the centre of the gorge. It was a windy day, with big gusts sweeping down the three valleys which lead into the Nevis gorge, but the Hacket team were professionals and weren't worried by a bit of wind. I was feeling pretty good with a few glasses of bubbly in me, and I kinda like situations where everyone's tense - everybody's in the same boat (or in this case gondola) which makes for great instant community spirit.

Anyhow, things started to come unstuck when the guy in front of me was winched back up hobbling. He was carried over to the side and I went over to see what was up. There was a small cut in his jeans over his shin, and when they pulled his trouser up you could see that his jeans weren't the only thing damaged. There was a 3 inch gash in his shin happily gurgling out blood. It was deep, but hardly life threatening. I'd been joking with the guy earlier in the day so reassured him that it's okay; "chicks dig scars" I say.

It turns out that when he jumped the bungy cord whipped round and whacked him on his shin. Now if I hit you with anything hard enough, then you skin simply splits, especially over skin near the bone like on the scalp, or shin in this instance.

I get called up next, so go over to get strapped up. Now people have subsequently asked me why I even considered doing the jump if the guy in front of me had been injured. Well, I thought that it was simply bad luck that he'd been injured. Accidents happen, and if anything I felt more safe that lightning wouldn't strike twice - Shows how I really should have paid more attention in statistics classes at University.

Anyhow, I waddled over to the precipice and did a manly swan dive from the platform (read; stood there for a minute trying to get my courage up, then jumped off, arms flailing in the air). All was good for the 5 seconds of freefall (again here the word "good" is subjective - your mind races and you body spasms) but then suddenly I felt a massive WHACK on my right ankle.

It turns out that a gust of wind had pushed me sideways, so when the bungy cord tightened, it yanked my legs sideways. On the video I have of the event you can see that the cord acted like a whip; with a wave traveling down the line from the gondola and ending at my right ankle.

Now bones bend more than you'd think, but the force was so great that my right ankle simply shattered under the stress - you're traveling at over 128 kph after all.

Now I could say that it was amazing painfully and that I was tough as a war hero biting the bullet, but to be honest it wasn't that bad. For sure it really hurt, but more like being twatted in the leg with a stick rather than an excerpt from a war movie. As you can see from the photos I was still grinning after the event, but that's the power of being surrounded by young women; as I wasn't about to start blubbing in front of everyone.

I had so much adrenaline running through my body anyway that I didn't feel much - more like an extremely uncomfortable throb.

I had an operation to bolt my ankle back together and am now the proud owner of two titanium screws. The post-op properly hurt, and I couldn't walk without crutches for over a third of a year, but hey, I've got a cool scar! It's totally screwed my professional football career though - oh well

On a quick note I'll quickly point out the following, partially for legality, but also because I mean it:

All was fine between the company and I for months after the accident. I continued to sell their product at the hostel in good conscience - I think that sometimes shit happens, and I'd happily do another jump with them today if I had working ankles again.

Backpackers would ask me what I'd done to myself whilst I was telling them what activities to do in town, and you know what, I don't think I had a single person drop out on doing a bungy because of my story. I think it adds to the kudos of bungy jumping that sometimes people get hurt.

I made it clear to people that you've got much, much, more chance of getting hurt crossing the road or going to the pub (especially some of the nightclubs near that hostel) than doing a bungy jump - just don't think that anything you do is 100% safe (in the UK in 2003, 27 died putting on their trousers).

That said, practically every activity in Queenstown has had fatalities (bar bungy jumping and sky diving - the most potentially dangerous activities have the most stringent safety measures you see). I would give more info about the grisly details, but would probably get sued for publishing it on this site. Buy me a beer and I'll tell you in person.

Anyhow, sure I'd prefer if it hadn't happened to me, especially as I still don't have full use of my ankle - I can't run anymore, but then why in God's name would I want to run anywhere?!

The worst thing about my accident though, was the run-in I had with a complete bitch working at the ledge just before I left Queenstown, who single handedly managed to spoil my relationship with the company, and it's left a bad taste in my mouth. Bummer.