Bungee from the Taranaki clouds
When Tim Hawkey pitched the idea to bring the world’s highest bungee jump to Taranaki, it was just because he wanted a cheap thrill close by.
CloudJump is the 400m high bungee jump idea that won Hawkey, along with team-mates Aaron Johnson, Eli Lamb, Eilish Baine, Nick Zenoi, and Naomi Kutner, first place at a recent startup business competition in New Plymouth.
The highest bungee jump in the world is currently 260m high in Zhangjiajie, China. At 400m CloudJump would be 72m taller than Auckland’s Sky Tower and more than twice the height of New Plymouth’s mothballed power station chimney.
CloudJump’s point of difference is not only its height, but that the bungee jump would be tethered from a helium balloon.
‘‘There’s balloon systems all around the world now and cables are used so it becomes pretty much a stationary platform in the sky,’’ Hawkey, a 27-year-old designer, said.
The team set their sights on the highest in the world rather than just New Zealand as it would grab the attention of tour buses.
‘‘You’ve got to try and justify tour companies diverting from their current route so if they can do the same height bungee in Taupo or Rotorua there’s not much to bring them all the way out here. But if it’s the biggest in the world it’s more of a drawcard,’’ Johnson, a 26-year-old mechanical design engineer said.
The balloon bungee is estimated to cost up to $8m to establish. It would cost $250 to make the leap, or $80 to watch a mate do it.
The purpose of the Taranaki Tourism Startup Weekend, hosted at Manifold Co-working Space in New Plymouth, was to solve a tourism-based problem.
Ideas were pitched on Friday night, top ideas picked by a vote, and then teams formed around them. The teams and industry mentors developed the best ideas and on Sunday night the winner picked by a panel of judges.
Hawkey’s problem is that there is no adrenalin-based tourism in Taranaki.
‘‘There’s surfing lessons but you can’t turn those in to a heavy adrenalin rush because it is so hard to control. Stuff like skydiving and bungee jumping don’t exist within Taranaki, so it’s completely unsaturated.
‘‘Those types of activities drive the tour buses because they get anywhere from a 20 per cent to 35 per cent commission.’’
As for where in Taranaki they would put the balloon bungee, they were weighing up between buying a property or leasing some land off a farmer where the cows could still graze.
‘‘A real Kiwi experience,’’ Baine said. John Haylock, coordinator for Tapuae Roa the regional economic initiative, said one of the keys to developing tourism in Taranaki was more paid activities and attractions.
‘‘Around New Zealand adventure tourism often forms a significant proportion of the market for paid activities and attractions. It would be great to see more adventure tourism businesses develop in Taranaki.
‘‘The CloudJump concept will need further work to test its viability but it is certainly a concept that would stand out in the marketplace. While this is still an early stage idea, we’re happy to work with the CloudJump team to see if the idea can be progressed.’’