I step onto the bridge. It is windy. The chill bites through whatever clothing I'm wearing like so many completely permeable layers.

There is a hut-like protrusion from the bridge. It is there that I must go. I walk with tentative steps towards it.

There are harnesses hung there like dead carcasses at a butcher's. I grab one and put it on. An attendant is there. He helps me into it. For some reason the image of a prison warden securing a prisoner for execution pops into my mind.

It's not yet my turn. I stand and examine the one who goes before me. She steps onto the edge. She is about to jump. But with a squeal, her nerves fail her. She collects herself for a moment while another warden attendant consoles her. She tries again, and fails once more with the same effect.

Finally, she disappears. She has leapt (or has she been pushed?). And all I can hear is her shrill scream.

I'm next. The attendant beckons to me. I walk over like a convict heading to the gallows. I'm told to sit. They begin to wrap the cords around my leg. Within moments I am bound at the feet like a cattle at a rodeo show. I'm helped up and led to the edge. I peer over. The beautiful emerald of the river below is so at odds with its action of enticing me to my death.

I'm told to look up. There's a camera there. It flashes. One last living shot? I'm told to look left. There is another. Absent-mindedly, I wave. Have I lost it before I've even begun?

I look down one more time. My mind is blank. I hear the words. Ready? Three, two, one...GO!

I jump.

At first there is a peace. A calm. The world is silent as I hover for a split second over the roaring river.

And then I fall. I watch as the earth comes closer and closer. Now there is a rush in my ears. I close my ears. Now in my mind thoughts race around each other. Thoughts like "OMG I am going to die", "this DOES feel kinda cool", and "WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF..."

Just as the fall reaches a panic point, I rise instead. I open my eyes.

I am safe. I am alive. The angels have caught me.

And it was friggin awesome.

The above text is my experience of bungy jumping at Kawarau Bridge, the world's first commercially available bungy jump site, near Queenstown, New Zealand.

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