My trip to NZ has been filled with amazing extreme adventures. Arriving in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, I decided I had no interest in doing a bungy jump. Queenstown is the home of bungy and the world’s biggest bungy jump. My trip has been about going for what makes me uncomfortable, but the bungy just didn’t excite me. I did river surfing which was basically going down a series of rapids along the Kawarau River on a boogie board. That was a blast, but not as extreme as i thought it would be.

One of my roommates at Nomads hostel was a fellow Californian named Keenan. He was very fired up to do the Shotover Canyon Swing. The swing is 109m (630ft) high, 60m (200ft) free fall and speeds reaching 130-160K (110mph)….sounded crazy, I was in.

The van ride to canyon swing was very quiet. Once we got there and geared up I jumped at the chance to go first. Standing over the edge of the platform was the scariest thing I’ve experienced on my journey. Skydiving was crazy, but with an instructor on my back I had no choice when I was jumping. Jumping off the canyon swing platform was all up to me to run and jump for a 200 ft free fall. It all happened so fast (literally) I screamed out of fear and excitement then laughed once I realized I made it. That was only the first jump. I hadn’t had enough and decided to step it up on jump two : )