Page 94 of To Hell With It

Like what?

I’m going to bed. Make sure you take a photo.

ChapterForty-Six

Luckily for me, I had asked Mitch for his number, and within half an hour of calling him, he was outside Sunshine Lodge ready to take me to my death. I was happy to listen to moreBloody Norastories to take my mind off what I had agreed to do, although I don’t think I’d actually agreed to anything.

I asked Mitch as many questions as I could about him and Nora, and when we arrived in Rotorua, I can hand-on-heart say that I didn’t want him to stop talking about her. I’d have listened to a whole day ofBloody Noraif it meant not getting out of that car.

I saw the crane straight away – it was painted bright purple but looked as though it should have been on a building site, not in the middle of a beautiful landscape (and it was beautiful by the way, the landscape, so green and lush and everything that you might imagine New Zealand to be). Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off the crane.

I said my goodbyes to Mitch and it felt like I was saying goodbye to my dad – not because I was close to Mitch (how could I be?) but because I didn’t want to get out of his taxi, I didn’t want to leave him and venture into the unknown.

But I did. I got out and the smell in the air hit me straight away. It smelt like eggs and farts, and I’d never felt so dirty just from standing outside. Mitch must have seen my expression because he unwound the window and said something about bubbling mud pools that erupted numerous times a day and sulphur gas.

‘Welcome to Rotorua,’ he said out of his window. Then he closed it, gave me a shrug, and drove off.

A girl with a purple cap that matched the crane appeared beside me, as if she’d been lurking, waiting to pounce – like one of those charity fundraisers on the street who make a beeline for you as you walk by with your head down.

‘Hey, how’s it going? Fancy a bungee?’ she said without a breath.

‘Oh, I don’t like heights.’ I shook my head politely.

‘That means you’ll love it even more!’ Her smile widened. ‘It’s always the ones with the fear who love it the most.’

‘I’m not sure I can afford it,’ I lied.

‘I’m sure we can do you a deal – is it your first time here?’

I nodded.

‘How about half price? Twenty-five dollars?’

I nodded again, and I didn’t know why I did that, the shock maybe.

‘Great! Let’s get you suited and booted,’ she said.

I was aware of getting my card out of my wallet, of swiping it across a card machine and a receipt being pushed into my hand. Then someone’s feet (my feet) followed her to the side of the crane and to my horror a cage. Then she waved goodbye with the same wide smile she greeted me with, and I was left there next to a man holding a harness.

‘OK then,’ the man said as he held the harness up in front of me. ‘I’m Kit. I’ll run through a few safety checks with you and then get you suited and booted. Is this your first jump?’

I nodded again. I didn’t know where my bloody voice had gone but I literally couldn’t speak.

‘It’s all good. You’ll be strapped in around your waist and the bungee will be around your ankles. When we get to the top, you stand facing forwards with your arms out like this.’ He stood like Jesus Christ, which was just what I didn’t need. ‘And then you jump, OK?’

The nod came again.

‘It’s all good,’ he repeated, and of course it bloody was for him because he wasn’t going to be hung upside down by a rope attached to his feet hundreds of feet in the air.

Kit guided me into the cage and then bent down and fastened the bungee to my ankles (I don’t know how because I couldn’t look). He tugged it a few times (which must have been the safety checks he’d talked about) and then he attached a harness around my waist (which again must have been a safety precaution in case the bungee snapped?)

‘We’re good to go,’ he said at the same time as he pressed a button and the cage I was in (I was in a bloody cage for Christ’s sake) started to move upwards towards the sky.

‘Trees, trees trees,’ I said to myself.

‘Say what?’ Kit shouted over the noise of the cage moving upwards.

‘Trees, trees, trees.’ I kept my breathing slow, my eyes pinched shut.

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