The Nevis: bungy first, then the swing

When I booked the Nevis there was a note on the page: can't decide between the bungy and the swing? Do both. So I did both, one morning, back to back, in a canyon outside Queenstown you can only reach by 4WD.

The bungy went first. It is New Zealand's highest at 134 metres, and I have jumped around ten times in my life, which has taught me exactly one thing: it never stops being scary. You stand on the edge with the whole canyon dropping away beneath you, and there is no clever trick to it. You just go. So I went, the way I always do, because waiting on the edge only ever makes it worse.

Then the swing, with the adrenaline from the bungy still in my blood. The Nevis swing is one of the biggest in the world, a 300-metre arc after a 70-metre freefall. I asked the crew for the scariest possible setup, and they grinned and rigged me backwards, hands up, facing nothing at all.

They released it with no countdown. Dropping blind, unable to see where I was going, then snapping into a huge arc across the canyon at full speed, it was the most frightened and the most alive I felt on the whole trip. I came up the other side screaming and immediately wanting to do it again.

That is the order I would recommend: bungy first to break the fear, swing second to actually enjoy it. The bungy is the rite of passage. The swing is the one I am still thinking about.