Uncontrollable laughter

by Aimee Jackson (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

I didn't expect to find New Zealand

I hear a scream and look up. A panoramic wall of windows in front of me frames a woman lunging off of the Karawau bridge, plunging into the river below before springing back up, hung upside down at the bottom of a rope. “And that’s only the small one” someone remarks. I took a leap. 4 months exploring the world. 4 days left before I was to head home. My budget was crippled and yet I was booming. “I mean if you’re gonna do it you might as well do it big hey” I say to El, one of the amazing people I’d met along my adventure. “What’s $150 dollars?... Once I’m home I’ll just eat beans on toast for eternity” I joke as, now at the front of the bookings queue, I close my eyes and impulsively hand my card over, shakily signing away my soul on the bottom of a waiver form. A fatal swap. We’d just arrived in Queenstown, home of food and thrills, and in true reckless form I’d committed to the biggest bungy jump in New Zealand - the mammoth 134m ‘Nevis’. Two days later we return and are shuttled in a bus load of equally terrified thrill seekers around winding gravel roads to the mountaintop site. As if this journey wasn’t enough to get the adrenaline pulsing, we dismount and there it is. About 5x5m and suspended in mid-air, the tin cabin of a jump hut waits for us. Impending doom sinks in as my stomach gurgles with simultaneous nervousness and excitement. T-10 minutes. After a briefing, 4 of us board a cable car and begin our rickety sail over to the jump pad. Surrounded by mountains, I look down. My blood races like the river rushing through the valley below. What have I done? Anticipation. El and I wait as the two others take their leap, screaming as they go, returning dishevelled yet beaming. It’s my turn. I peer over as one of the crewmen attaches the cord to my ankles and shuffles me to the edge. “Okay I’m going to count to 3-” he tells me; “Oh God-““you’re gonna jump on 3-“ “Can you push me?” “I’m not allowed” he chuckles… “you have to jump yourself.” “Three”. I’m still there, frozen, clinging to a stranger I have placed all my trust in. “I can’t do this.” “Listen,” my companion interjects. I bring myself back, blocking out the overwhelming sounds of wind and machinery to focus on words that I will go on to carry with me in everything. “Aside from the fact you’ll waste colossal amounts of money, you’re going to regret not jumping. Trust me. Love or hate it you’re going to regret not just doing it. And the longer you stand here contemplating, the harder the dive is going to get. So... I’m going to count to three again, are you ready?” I can’t feel my body. Next thing I know I’m flying through the air howling profanities into the vast uninhibited space around me. I open my eyes and can see only air; the sky and mountains whirl together in an endless beige and blue kaleidoscope. The world goes silent. My mind blank. Hysteria. I hang, weightless, laughing for what feels like 30 minutes yet in reality is more like 30 seconds. Time has stopped just for me. ‘This brave being can no longer be considered a mere mortal’ the certificate I’m given afterwards reads ... and that’s exactly what I feel like floating here. Immortal. I didn’t expect such freeing, limitless peace and happiness amid such a manic and hyperreal escapade. So engulfed, I hardly realise I’m being reeled up. Suddenly I’m at the top again wishing I could jump straight back off the ledge. The blood of a new woman courses through me. Still relentlessly giggling, I’m pulled into the cabin and unclipped from the umbilical cord of my bungy rebirth. I wish El luck and watch her through the glass hole in the floor. I almost see her soul shining out of her body as she too transforms. “Fergburger?” I say as we re-board the cable car back to reality. Glowing, El nods and replies, “Fergburger.” Uncontrollable laughter.