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Showing posts from April, 2018

Shotover Canyon Swing: ‘We don't do normal', say Chris Russell & Hamish Emerson

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The young duo of Chris Russell and Hamish Emerson has given Queenstown its newest and scariest adventure activity. Hamish talks to   MEENAKSHI RAO   about go at fear, extreme height drops and how their product is unique in the world. Excerpts from the interview: What on earth made you think of such a scary jump and swing? Chris and I (Hamish) spent years reconnoitring rock faces through every inch of the Wakatipu Basin, climbing, abseiling and swinging.  Swinging around on the end of a rope started from a passion for freefalling and jumping off things — we’d set up swings off local bridges to create a buzz ourselves and with our mates. The idea for getting a permanent location to jump off came from mates who enjoyed the rush and thought others would too. Is your product entirely unique or do you have similar things happening elsewhere in NZ or globally? We were pioneers in commercial swinging with freefall. Others have copied us since, but none are set up to provide the

Shotover Canyon Swing: Death defying wonder

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Two Kiwi youngsters have created the world's scariest jump — the Shotover Canyon Swing, which goes off a cliff and makes you fall vertically upside down into the 182-metre gorge down below — down below being a 109 metres jump, a 60 metre freefall and 200 metre swing across the Otago Valley.  MEENAKSHI RAO tells you how Queensland thrives & survives on such innovating and death defying adrenaline pushers A skywalk atop the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere at Auckland, a blood-curdling sky swing in Rotorua, the bungee jumps in an around Queenstown, the rolling ball in Nelson — there’s an adventure for you anywhere and everywhere in New Zealand. But wait, there’s a new and scariest baby in town — actually in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. And the rush to give yourself that ultimate push into heart-stopping fear is such that you need an appointment to get strapped and be thrown 109 metres into a canyon, 60 metres of which is a heart-stopping