NEW ZEALAND, BUNGEE JUMP, - a MELANESIAN VANUATU kind of afternoon

March 5, 2013

THIS ONE GOES OUT TO THOSE WHO LOVE TO 
LAND DIVE 
AND
 THE SWEET POTATO. 

When I first started to pay attention to what was going on in life, TV images were black and white. Of the handful of channels on air, most went off the air by midnight. Radio programs offered some alternative but limited distraction. I'm sure it was because of this still spartan media bombardment that you paid attention to the mail mom and dad brought home most days.

Besides decoder rings, one prized item would be the National Geographic magazine . One article that I remember reading or perhaps viewing on NG news reels that started popping up on the big and small screen was about some far off South Pacific Melanesian bushman that seemed to enjoy jumping off towers. Their feet tethered with vines just short enough in length so the individual is arrested before the ground.
I believe this good fun was done to help ensure a good sweet potato harvest.

I wonder if this guy paid $180NZL
(I thought when I was booking this that it's like getting a hooker. Price is similar and if the rubber breaks, I'm screwed)

One thing I enjoy about getting older is that I have nothing or very little left to prove to anybody, mainly myself. I'm quick to not to do something just for the sake of doing it. I'm getting quick to find a way to do nothin' to prove some point.

Here I'm getting "READY TO RUMBLE"

"Do you want a punch-up"

(for those of you that still get into the ring once in awhile, no explanation needed why I don't trim my eyebrows)(It's really just lint on the camera lens)

Here taking in consideration where I was, what it meant locally(the original)/water zero) and globally and that it didn't matter that my Out of Country Medical Insurance wasn't playing any part of the outcome of any pagan ritual,  

I decided this will be as close as I will get to due my part, as I enjoy them so much, in helping towards a bountiful yam harvest.

Here I am dedicating this jump to the "Kumara". The local fish is quite often offered with this  fantastic "sweet potato" chip.  

Here I was close to living every sport fan's dream. Being in a Skybox. Unfortunately I had the excitemnet of being in the sky but  without the secutity of being in a box.

I admit that at this point I lost focus on why I was doing this in the first place.
Here I found myself briefly confused.
 Is it"measure once, cut twice. Or measure twice cut once"? Who sang "Neutron Dance"? When and if we move, do I really need a Walk in Microwave? Should I have portaged?

Hoping not to take away from tradition, here"bridge for Iron Horse" replaces the Towers of Bamboo. 

I try my best "POWER TO THE MELANESIANS" swan dive. 

On my way down I try to think of all the wonderfully different preparations and presentations of yams I've enjoyed over the years.

It was in between Nana's Christmas yams and Sweet Potato Latkes that I noticed that the further I fell, the faster I went.

I have to say that for a mili-second on my way down I felt like Oliver Twist when Mr Bumbles threw him out of  the 23rd floor window of the Parish's Orphanage reformatory workshop's cafeteria after asking for more gruel or whatever he asked for. 
It was weird because Tommy Lasorda played the Artful Dodger. I thought he was a Los Angeles  Dodger. I kept looking for his signal to steal third.

Prior to my jump, I had a brief conversation with a lovely couple from Australia. It wasn't long before they told me that they lived in Toronto for two years.

Hoping not to deflate my after jump glow, I cautiously ask Peter afterwards for my rating on "Style" points.
Much to my excitement, he said VERY high,
"if I was a eighty eight kilogram bag of tea"

I've been DUNKED!

Having spent most of my life in the Northern Hemisphere, I seemed to be quite comfortable hanging upside down here. 

Here for the first time I PANICKED! 

The idea of the recovery is that you grab a pole extended to you and they direct you into the raft. 

As soon as I saw the guy with a big stick in his hand, I screamed, thinking that he thought I was a Pinata.

"HAVE MERCY on ME"

Here as part of the closing ceremony, an attendant beats into my soul (shoe soles) that

"BLIGHT be GONE"

"POWER of the POTATO"

 Understanding the importance of being able to help, I still took a very serious look, before I decided to jump, at how this thing would end. It did not look good. It actually looked quite unsettling.
It was not just this morning that we came down the Routeburn track after a couple of days of some serious and hard hiking.

Here I was sadly left with no alternative but CLIMBING up a rather long set of stairs if I ever wanted to see Kate again and a rather large group of Asian spectators that extolled on me some international signals of success (and survival) and what must have been an exuberant 

"REJOICE IN THE TUBER"

Is there any greater reward in life than to see your work pay off.

KUMARA CHIPS
Best fries ever!

..... I thought it was the Pointer Sisters

EXCELLENT PHOTO CREDITS - KATE

STILL TO COME         -SOME NICE ASS

                                  -SAD, SAD, CHRISTCHURCH.  THE WALLS DID COME

                                  TUMBLING DOWN.

                                  -STAND BACK, I'M ON A DOCK TOUR,