Kawarau Bridge: The Site of the World's First Commercial Bungy Jump

Queenstown calls itself the Adventure Capital of the World, and the Kawarau Bridge, in the Gibbston Valley just outside town, is a big part of why. In 1988, AJ Hackett and Henry van Asch launched the world's first commercial bungy jump operation at this exact site, taking a niche stunt — Hackett had famously jumped off the Eiffel Tower the year before, illegally, to prove the concept — and turning it into an actual, bookable business.

The bridge sits 43 meters above the Kawarau River, and decades later, it's still operating at the same historic location, now known as the "World Home of Bungy." It's a heritage-listed structure in its own right (Category I historic place), which means the bungy operation exists alongside, rather than instead of, the bridge's original historical significance — it still carries walkers, runners, and cyclists on the Queenstown Trail over the river, bungy jumpers or not.

What makes Kawarau Bridge worth knowing about specifically, rather than just booking whichever Queenstown bungy site comes up first, is that it's the original — the place where an entire global industry started, not a later addition cashing in on the trend. Visitors who've done bungy jumps elsewhere in the world often specifically seek this one out for that reason alone, the same way a music fan might visit the venue where a genre first broke.

The Kawarau Bungy Centre built around the site includes a free viewing deck, a café, and a shop, so it's a legitimate stop even if you have no intention of jumping — watching from the platform gives a clear sense of what the original commercial bungy actually looks like, decades after it started an entire adventure tourism category. Entry to the viewing deck is free, and it's an easy 25–35 minute drive from central Queenstown via State Highway 6.

If you're building an adventure-focused Queenstown itinerary, Kawarau Bridge deserves priority over the newer, higher, or more elaborate bungy sites the region has since developed — those exist because this one worked first, and there's something genuinely worth experiencing about doing it at the original location rather than one of its many descendants.