Kawarau Bridge Bungee – My Tandem Leap In New Zealand
Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand and the birthplace of the modern bungee jump. Thus, it felt like if there was ever a place to bungee jump for the first time, the site of the first permanent commercial bungee jump would be fitting. In October 2024, my husband and I did a tandem jump at the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge Bungy and dove together headfirst 43 meters towards the river below. I still can’t believe I made the leap (and survived), but going tandem made it a lot easier. Even more amazing, I walked away wanting to do it again and can’t recommend it enough!
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History of Bungee
The Vanuatu tradition of vine jumping planted the seeds for the modern bungee jump . When AJ Hackett witnessed vine jumping, he was inspired and set out to invent the modern bungee (or “bungy” with a ‘Y’ in New Zealand). In 1988, he opened the Kawarau Bridge Bungy, the first permanent commercial bungee jump in the world. Since then, millions of people have jumped off the platform 43 meters in the air… myself now included.
AJ Hackett operates several bungee jumps in New Zealand, from Auckland down to Queenstown. In Queenstown, there are 3 options: the Kawarau Bridge Bungy (the original), the Nevis Bungy (the tallest in New Zealand), and the Ledge Bungy (seasonal, but conveniently located in downtown Queenstown).
The company has a perfect safety record throughout their 36 years of operation. Knowing this fact was incredibly helpful in getting me to jump! If no one had died before, I wasn’t going to be the first.
Booking Your Jump
You can book your bungee jump directly on the AJ Hackett website. For the Kawarau Bridge Bungy, there are 3 spots open for every 15-minute interval during business hours. It’s the same price per person whether you want to jump solo or tandem. When you book, you book solo jump tickets, there’s no option to indicate your preference to jump tandem. Instead, you just ask about it when you arrive day-of. There is a $20 discount if you book more than 20 days in advance.
However, if you’ve done another activity with AJ Hackett (another bungee jump, the Auckland SkyJump, etc.), you get a 20% lifetime discount. You do have to call during business hours to book using this discount. We did the Auckland Sky Jump on our trip to the North Island in 2023, so we were happy to call for a reduced price. They did tell us on the phone that we’d need to present proof that we did the SkyJump when we checked in (the t-shirt we got, a photo of us doing it, etc.), but no one ever asked on-site.
You can either opt to self-drive to the Kawarau Bridge or be transported from Queenstown (included for free with your bungee ticket). We chose the former as we were coming from Wanaka.
A couple days before your jump, you’ll receive an email inviting you to check in online. Filling out the online form, you’re asked if you have any medical conditions they should know about, sign the waiver, etc. Try not to let the fine print freak you out! You’ll still need to check in in-person when you arrive to be weighed, but filling out this form in advance will save you some time. Each jumper will need to fill out their own check in form.
What to Expect
The night before our jump, I barely slept. I tossed and turned most of the night, anxious about dying or jumping wrong and suffering injury. In the morning, that anxiety manifested physically and I was struck with digestive issues and nausea. I genuinely didn’t think I’d be able to do it or that if I did, I’d vomit. Thankfully, I took some medication and got my body physically back to normal. The mental side was still another story, but I knew that if I didn’t jump, I’d regret it forever. I kept reminding myself that I’d already done a canyon swing in Switzerland and jumped off the Auckland SkyJump, both of which were much higher, but something about jumping head first freaked me out.
When You Arrive
Arriving at the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge Bungy center, there’s a large free parking lot. There are restrooms in the parking lot, but more inside the visitor center as well.
Once you walk through the doors, you’re led down a spiral ramp to the visitor center, which features a check in desk, merchandise for sale, a café, bar, the Zipride area (another AJ Hackett experience), and large viewing platform. We noticed that lots of tourists come here just to watch friends or total strangers bungee jump. We took a couple minutes to watch a couple of jumpers before heading to the check in desk.
I recommend leaving most of your stuff in your car, but there are lockers on site to store belongings if needed (you need a $2NZD coin for the lockers). You can also leave smaller items like cell phones and wallets with the staff on the bridge.
Checking In
Check in for your jump is 15 minutes before your jump time, though it didn’t seem super strict. I reluctantly followed my husband over to the check in desk, where a cheery man greeted us and asked if we were excited to jump. I nervously nodded my head and told him we’d like to do a tandem jump, if possible. Per the website, I’d read that tandem jumps may not be possible if river levels are too high or if the weight difference between the jumpers is more than 30kgs.
After weighing us and writing our weight (in kgs) and jumper number on our wrists, he confirmed we’d be able to do a tandem jump. Then he printed out our ticket and pointed us in the direction of bridge.
Heading Out to the Bridge
As I walked out onto the bridge, I felt like my body was operating on autopilot and my brain started dissociating as a coping mechanism. A nice woman greeted us and showed us how to hold onto each other’s harnesses with one hand in order to not come apart and slam back into each other (which was one of my fears).
As she gave us our harnesses and showed us what to do and where to store our phones, she interspersed polite small talk, asking us where we were from. Presumably, this to get our minds off the fact that we were about to plummet 141 feet. I’m normally pretty talkative, but found myself answering questions in as few words as possible.
The harnesses were only a backup to the straps around our ankles. As long as everything goes right, these harnesses hold none of your weight.
The most important thing she told us was that they key to going tandem is not to jump, but rather just tip forward off the edge. That’s because it’s hard for 2 people to jump in sync. Also, this allows the braver person (my husband) to essentially just pull the scaredy cat (me) off the edge.
Getting Strapped In
After our quick briefing, we had to wait for 3 people to jump in front of us. I noticed 2 of them jumped barefoot, but we kept our trail runners on. According to the AJ Hackett website, you technically have the option to jump in the nude, but that’s up to the staff’s discretion.
Once we were on deck, they tied our safety harness to a pole while we scooted out. They put a towel around our ankles for comfort before tying on the strap and then securing it with another Velcro strap.
There’s definitely some math involved because the staff has to adjust the tension and cables depending on the weight of the jumper(s). They also asked us if we wanted to be dunked in the water, touch with our hands, or neither. We asked for a water touch, but it wasn’t a guarantee.
After our ankles were secured, they clipped us in with 4 carabiners and had another staff member do a confirmation safety check. I really appreciated all this built in redundancy. My life was literally on the line after all! It helped put me at ease as we shuffled out to the edge.
3,2,1 Bungee!
Once we were on the edge, we waved at the camera and immediately they were counting down. “5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE” and without hesitation, we tipped forward and fell off the bridge. My husband screamed the entire way down and I let out a cheer after the first bounce. As soon as I felt the cable pull at my ankles and I was confident I wasn’t going to die, a huge smile burst across my face.
Our form was perfect, so we weren’t whipped around very much and had no unwanted chiropractic adjustment . We came just shy of a water touch, but the thrill of the jump was so immense we didn’t care. It took more bounces than I expected for us to come to a stop. When we did, we were much higher than I expected – they had to lower us from above to get us close to the raft. In the meantime, my husband felt all the blood rush to his head. I didn’t have this issue, but instead felt immense pressure in my ankles.
The raft driver skillfully navigated against the current towards us while another person held up a large pole for us to catch. It took us a couple of tries, but once we grabbed it, they were able to quickly lower us into the raft. As instructed, we didn’t let go of each other’s harnesses until we were firmly in the raft. Then they unhooked us and we shimmied out of our harnesses before stepping off the raft and back onto land.
The whole experience from tipping off the platform to landing in the boat lasted about 30-45 seconds. However, it felt longer in the moment.
Being lowered into a boat rather than being pulled back up was one reason I liked this specific bungee. However, the downside is that you have to walk up a bunch of stairs afterwards.
Afterwards
Once we got our phones back, we headed to the iPads in the visitor center to look at our photos, but I noticed the link to download them was already emailed to me before we’d even climbed back up! We were also each given a free t-shirt to commemorate our experience.
We celebrated with a Coca-Cola and watched a couple more people jump, basking in the adrenaline rush and pride in doing something hard.
Final Thoughts
Every time I do something outside my comfort zone that scares me, I grow more resilient. The comfort zone also expands and I find myself taking on challenges I would have never even considered before. Two years ago, I couldn’t have imagined a world where I’d bungee jump – you couldn’t have paid me! And yet now I actually voluntarily paid to take on the Kawarau Bridge Bungy.
Getting to do this jump tandem was also a really special experience to share with my husband. If you’re planning a trip to New Zealand for your honeymoon, this would be an epic way to celebrate your marriage – a literal leap of faith!
Be sure to pin this post for future planning!
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