Allan John ‘AJ’ Hackett

The ritual of land-diving originates from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, where villagers fearlessly jump off wooden towers with tree vines wrapped around their ankles. They believe it helps ensure a bountiful yam harvest.

In the 1970s, members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club became inspired by these jumps after seeing them in a television documentary. They travelled to Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and leapt off, but unlike land-diving, they used elasticated cords that reduced the impact on the jumper.

Another adventurous New Zealander, Chris Sigglekow, heard about the jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. He became the first person to bungy jump in New Zealand when he jumped off Pelorous Bridge near Nelson in 1979, with a borrowed parachute harness and a bit of cord cut to a random length.

Several years later, Chris met AJ – who had also seen footage of the Oxford Sports Club’s jumps – and in 1986 they jumped off the Greenhithe Bridge in Auckland. The pair travelled around the country and scaled new heights to jump off wherever they could – including the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

AJ was already an adventurer and active in skiing. Looking to explore a commercial opportunity for bungy jumping, he paired up with Henry van Asch, who he knew through Speed Ski racing in Wānaka. AJ and Henry wanted to formulate a way to commercialise bungy jumping, and they knew it would require calculating a safe, predictable bungy system. With help from New Zealand’s science agency, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), a mathematical formula was developed that ensured the safety of those who jumped. AJ Hackett explains how calculating a bungy jump came about:

“They came up with a formula that showed at seven times a single rubber cord’s length, it’ll break. But at four times its length you’re only using 15 per cent of its breaking strain. If we only stretched a bit of rubber cord four times its length, it’ll give you a factor of about six times safety.”

The team also calculated how a person’s weight affects how many strands of rubber are used in the cord, to ensure it is stretched to a maximum of four times its length.

“I didn’t want to get hurt throwing myself off tall structures,” says AJ. “But we discovered early on that as long as you knew the weight of the person jumping, the height of the structure, and the size of the cord – and obviously you had a good crew lowering you down from the bridge that you were jumping from – then it was perfectly predictable.”

Further developments were made to ensure bungy jumping was safe and could move from being a clandestine activity to a commercially viable offering. The team developed a harness that attached around the ankles, a rigging system to lower jumpers from the structure after bungying, and introduced a counterweight system to retrieve the bungy cords after the jump.

AJ took his bungy equipment to France in 1987, where he meticulously planned a jump off the Eiffel Tower. He and his team evaded security and spent the night hiding up the famous tower, waiting until dawn to take the 110-metre leap.

AJ successfully completed the jump and proved the safety of the bungy system. Beneath the Eiffel Tower, he described his jump as “an inspiration for the people of Paris, France, and the world”. Despite being arrested, the police seemed baffled by what had taken place, and AJ was released 10 minutes later. The jump gained worldwide media attention, thus launching the bungy phenomenon, and its now iconic ethos to live more and fear less.

“Immediately, the pressure came on from the general public who wanted to try bungy jumping for themselves,” says AJ.

In 1988, AJ and Henry had refined a safe and predictable bungy cord system, and the world’s first full-time commercial bungy site opened at the Kawarau Bridge, near Queenstown. The stunning natural setting and the bungy adrenaline rush proved to be an irresistible combination for adventure seekers, and visitors began to flock in from across New Zealand and around the world to take part.

The success of the Kawarau Bridge site paved the way for the growth of a tourism phenomenon. In 1997, AJ and Henry agreed to split the operation, with Henry focusing on the New Zealand-based businesses, and AJ continuing to develop sites around the world. AJ and Henry had pioneered stringent safety standards which were replicated across all AJ Hackett Bungy sites, and later set as industry standards. The pair’s dedication to safety and consistency has made bungy jumping one of the most accessible and safest adventure activities on the planet.

Reflecting on the journey to make bungy jumping a commercially viable activity, Henry puts it down to being:

“bloody good at doing adventure. We deal with adversity and the environment well. It’s in our DNA. And we’re very safe. With bungy we showed it was possible to commercialise an activity perceived to be dangerous, on a large scale, and I think we gave other adventure tourism businesses confidence.”

After more than three decades of operation, AJ and Henry’s bungy ventures still hold a proven safety record, and have helped to spark a proliferation of adrenaline-fuelled activities in Queenstown. From jet boating, white water rafting, paragliding, to skydiving, visitors to the southern New Zealand town are spoiled for choice and can find an adventure that suits their level of thrill-seeking. As Henry says:

“Bungy jumping is a personal challenge. It comes down to how you physically and mentally deal with fear and mindset. It creates a moment where you must push yourself beyond your limits and do something extraordinary. After you have jumped, you think: ‘if I can do this, I can do anything’. Live more, fear less!”