My biggest goal in coming to New Zealand was to return back home in June as a new person, to always push myself out of my comfort zone and do things I wouldn’t do back home.
During Easter break, my friends and I traveled the south island. We did quite a few things: went on road trips while we took turns driving, went to Milford Sound, visited Mt. Sunday, tried Fergburger, saw a glacier, stopped at a winery, made multiple stops to take pictures at scenic spots, camped… oh!… and bungee jumped!
It was a great week and the best part was that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone so much. I’ve only been camping once, when I was much younger and my mom had organized it. This time, I camped for a week with my friends using sleeping bags, pitching the tent and sleeping under the stars. I got to see all of the stars in the sky with no other lights to block them out and found the constellation Orion.
Not once did I freak out during the whole trip about not having any set plans. Every day we would wake up and just go with the flow. I couldn’t do that before this trip.
The biggest thing I did that surprised me was actually bungee jumping. I still can’t believe that I did it! If it weren’t for my photos and video, I would think that I just dreamed it. We did the Kawarau Bridge Bungy, which is the world’s first bungee jump. I wanted to get dunked into the water below, but only got my hands into the water.
I remember thinking as I waddled to the edge that I was dreaming. When I looked down at the water, I remember time freezing. The staff member holding me told me to look up at some cameras, which I did. He counted to three and then I just leaned forward and let myself fall. My only moment of regret was the millisecond after my feet left the platform. After that, the adrenaline kicked in.
I feel like I’ve grown so much in just the month and a half that I have been here, and I still have three more.
I have one more week-long break coming up at the end of April and, by the end of it, I am hoping to have gone skydiving among other things.
Until my next blog, good luck with classes and hopefully you find some things to try and push yourself to do, too!
