New Zealand Travel and Adventure.

Kiwis and their modern derring-do

What is it about New Zealand that has seen most of the world’s adrenaline-rush hobbies originate there? Among many newfangled gadgetry and thrill-seeking hardware, new Zealand is where the worldwide phenomenon of the bungee jump was born.

In Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island, the bungee jump hasn’t lost any of its appeal since its inception, and tourists still flock to the Kawarau Bridge to launch themselves off a bridge and plunge 141 feet into a gorge. The party atmosphere in Queenstown could be a contributing factor to the lack of inhibition found here. A veteran jumper states, “No one’s ever gotten sick on the way down. For whatever reason, those reflexes just don’t seem to work when you’re jumping. Sure, some people lose it after they’re un-harnessed, but it’s usually because they’re hung over.”

Repeat visitor to the antipodal paradise is Richard Bangs, who tries to sum up this innovative spirit: “The country was populated by pioneering, bold-minded, resourceful visionaries who were willing to cross the world and pick up where they had left off. They’ll try what no one else has and they’re not conservative. Maybe it’s geographic isolation that’s contributed to this consciousness, and maybe topography — with high mountains, glaciers, fast rivers, oceans, almost every type of environment in a relatively small place.”

Since the bungee innovation, there have been contraptions like a giant inflatable ball that you get into the middle of and roll down a hill, and a wind powered craft suspended from a wire in the middle of a canyon that you steer around the axis. It sure is a lot of fun down there.