Canyon Swing

... und andere verrückte Sprünge

Kaum zu glauben – wo ich doch immer sage, Bungy springen sei Geld zum Fenster raus werfen – ich habe während der Südinselrundreise in Queenstown tatsächlich einen Sprung in einen Canyon gebucht. Und das kam so: Kennt ihr Seilparks? Am Ende der verschiedenen Parcours gibts meistens ein mittellanges, relativ sanftes Hinuntergleiten an einem gespannten Seil, "Flying Fox" genannt. Genau das wollte ich buchen. Die Wintersaison hatte aber schon begonnen, der Seilpark war geschlossen. Die nette "Begleit-Tante" von AFS wusste Rat, es gebe eine prima Alternative zum Flying Fox, den Canyon Swing. Der nachfolgende englische Text ist wörtlich aus dem Original-E-Mail, welches ich am Ende der Südinseltour verschickt habe. Ich möchte euch diesen nicht vorenthalten.

Well… so we had to fill out those forms and sign our lives away (you gotta say that they can't be held responsible if anything happens, blablabla). We all got weighted and someone drew a pretty picture with a code on our hand. Then we walked to the platform and first some of the others jumped and then it was Tina's turn and then my one… jep… MY one. So I got this full-body harness on and walked along a security rope towards the end and looked down into a 150m deep canyon. I wasn't too sure anymore why I wanted to jump off a completely safe ground into nothing and I wasn't too sure either if I should jump. Those two guys were telling me that everything is safe and that I can do this and so on.

Then he did a second countdown (I didn't really jump at the first one) he goes –5– and I think "ok, if I don't jump now I'll have spent all this money for nothing and I'll be really hecked off with myself" –4– "ok… Sara you can do this just jump" –3– "Mami" –2– and then I jumped and screamed and was soooooo proud of myself. It was so cool after this first terrible stomach feeling when you're falling. I swung through the canyon and was so happy chappy I didn't want to get pulled up, but it happened and once up I just wanted to do it AGAIN! The second time I did jump backwards and it took my just one countdown. It was AWESOME!