{"id":20516,"date":"2013-11-13T08:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T08:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/barbeques-balloons-and-bungy-jumping-at-the-kawarau-bridge-2\/"},"modified":"2013-11-13T08:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T08:41:00","slug":"barbeques-balloons-and-bungy-jumping-at-the-kawarau-bridge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2013\/11\/barbeques-balloons-and-bungy-jumping-at-the-kawarau-bridge-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbeques, balloons, and Bungy Jumping at the Kawarau Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queenstown\u2019s AJ Hackett Bungy blew out the candles on its 25<\/span>th<\/sup> birthday cake today <\/span>(Tuesday 12 November)<\/b> with a massive birthday bash that didn\u2019t disappoint the thousands who flocked to be part of the big day.<\/span><\/span>

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The leading tourism company celebrated the impressive milestone in style at the Kawarau Bridge,  the \u2018World Home of Bungy\u2019, with a fun-filled day of laughter, action,  balloons and of course Bungy Jumping and Zipriding.<\/span><\/div>\n

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People from all over the world came to take part in the birthday bash from Queenstown to Korea, from Australia to India and China.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"AJThey whooped and cheered as staff performed stunt jumps from the historic bridge, including a shopping trolley Bungy, a three-man Bungy and special Bungy Jumps from Streets\u2019 Lion Man, Bungy Man and of course Superman.<\/span><\/div>\n

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It wasn\u2019t all about superheroes though. Following in the footsteps of Queenstowner Jef Desbecker, the first customer to jump in 1988, today Australian William Nelson replicated the historic event as the first to jump exactly 25 years later.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Kicking off the day-long celebrations, 61-year-old William from Cairns said Bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge was \u201cone of my main reasons for visiting Queenstown\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"Co-founders\u201cI\u2019ve jumped twice in Cairns and loved it. I\u2019m always a little apprehensive at first but it\u2019s a huge adrenalin rush. I love it.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Visiting New Zealand for the first time he said it \u201cwas fantastic to jump in such an incredible location\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cThis scenery is just simply stunning,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n

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AJ Hackett Bungy co-founder Henry van Asch said this year\u2019s birthday celebrations were \u201cextremely special\u201d as the company marked a quarter of a century in business.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"Remarkables\u201cIt\u2019s been a great day so far,\u201d said Henry.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cI love seeing all the school children here at the \u2018Home of Bungy\u2019, learning all about the history and just getting excited about it.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s what inspires me seeing the next generation of Bungy jumpers excited and nervous about the experience. We know we\u2019re doing something right when you see the excitement on their faces after their first ever jump.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"A\u201cWatching the first paying customer jump today, 25 years after that very first jumper, is awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Henry and co-founder AJ Hackett spent the day mixing with children, staff, jumpers and watchers on, posing for photos, answering questions and joining in the party atmosphere.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The famous duo didn\u2019t disappoint the crowds as the pair jumped together to celebrate the 25 year milestone.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Taking a running jump from the top of the Kawarau Bridge, AJ and Henry were cheered on by school children from Queenstown\u2019s Remarkables Primary School, some of whom then stepped up to the plate to jump themselves.<\/span><\/div>\n

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One of the three lucky pupils taking the plunge was Matthew Bell who was \u201cexcited and stoked\u201d to try his first ever Bungy Jump.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"AustralianAfter braving the 43m drop Matthew said it was \u201cthe coolest thing I\u2019ve ever done\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve done every rollercoaster in the States – well almost – and this was just so much better than that,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to jump from something very high like a bridge and have that feeling of free falling down. It was so awesome. I\u2019m definitely gonna do it again.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\"AJ<\/div>\n
Children from all local primary schools joined the party throughout the day with pupils and a teacher from each school Bungy jumping in front of their class mates.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The youngsters were treated to a sausage sizzle, ice-blocks and class photos with AJ and Henry, and each took away a goody bag as a memento of their \u201cbig day at Bungy HQ\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Visiting Queenstown especially for the birthday, AJ Hackett said the last 25 years had flown by and Bungy jumping was still \u201cvery much in its infancy\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\"Bungyman\u201cAlthough we\u2019ve been going an impressive 25 years, Henry and I feel like Bungy\u2019s only just begun,\u201d said AJ.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s like jumping into a fast flowing river, it just goes so fast. You\u2019ve just got to ride the river, take the corners as they come and get to the end.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Finishing each other\u2019s sentences like the long-time friends they are, the duo said the last 25 years had felt like an apprenticeship in Bungy, just \u201cdipping their toes\u201d into what was actually possible.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s so much more to come. We\u2019ll certainly be here in 10 years and already today we\u2019ve been brainstorming some new ideas,\u201d they said.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Birthday celebrations continue long into the night, culminating with a VIP invite-only party at the Kawarau Bridge later this evening (Tuesday November 12)<\/b>.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019ll be a great evening and we can\u2019t wait to celebrate with staff, family, friends and everyone who\u2019s been such a huge part of this incredible journey\u201d, said Henry.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queenstown\u2019s AJ Hackett Bungy blew out the candles on its 25th birthday cake today (Tuesday 12 November) with a massive birthday bash that didn\u2019t disappoint the thousands who flocked to be part of the big day. The leading tourism company celebrated the impressive milestone in style at the Kawarau Bridge,  the \u2018World Home of Bungy\u2019, with a fun-filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}