THOSE brave enough to bungy jump now have another reason to visit New Zealand’s adventure capital, Queenstown.
AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand co-founder Henry van Asch has launched the Nevis Catapult in the remote Nevis Valley near Queenstown.
The catapult sees thrillseekers experience up to 3G of force and speeds of almost 100km per hour in 1.5 seconds as they are propelled 150 metres out across a ravine before dropping suddenly towards the valley floor.
Henry says he came up with the idea when travelling around France during the 1980s with friend and (later) bungy co-founder, AJ Hackett.
“I played around with the idea by riding my mountain bike with a bungy cord attached, off bridges,” he said.
Specialist new technology was built in a testing facility in Christchurch and then brought to site for full scale installation, testing and commissioning.
Testing has been conducted out-of-sight over the past nine months – beginning with weighted barrels, before moving on to a test dummy phase and finally human testing.
Queenstown is a mecca for adventure tourism, boasting adrenaline-pumping activities from bungy jumping to whitewater rafting, river surfing and canyon swinging.
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