World's Biggest Swing - Nevis Swing New Zealand

“There are only a few short minutes of nervous waiting before Cal and I are getting strapped into harnesses and hooked up to the actual swing, looking down 160m into the canyon. The operator is this crazy, curly-haired man who seems way too excited by my obvious terror, and he asks us if we’d like to say when he releases or if we’d like it to be a surprise. I get out “Surpr…” before he hits the button and drops us into the 70m free fall. I’m actually so scared at first that I can’t even scream; literally no noise is coming out. In fact, I can hardly breathe as we plummet down towards the bottom of the canyon. But my voice quickly returns as we hit the bottom of the free fall and start swinging out at 120kph, practically deafening poor Cal by screaming straight into his ear. When we stop swinging, we get lifted back up to the platform and I am giggling and screaming (in a happy way) the whole time, partially delighted and partially relieved to be alive.”

“They knew I was nervous, talked me through it and made sure I just kept my eyes on the horizon (even though I will admit I had a little bit of a freak out moment during this time and thought I may back out). I got the courage to sit in the swing and get my feet over the ledge. Here they take a few pictures of you. They give you the option if you want a count down or to be surprised – well, we couldn’t get an answer out before they released the swing and we were on our way! By the time we finished the first arc over the river I was laughing hysterically and so proud of myself that I faced my fear and did the Nevis Swing! We did a few passes over the river before the moment slowed down and we were pulled back up to the platform!”