Is it a zipline, is it a rollercoaster? Hanmer hopes to launch its unique thrill ride for summer visitors. Photo / Supplied
Is it a zipline, is it a rollercoaster? Hanmer hopes to launch its unique thrill ride for summer visitors. Photo / Supplied
A Canterbury alpine resort is close to building a one-of-a-kind thrill ride to keep visitors in the mountains well into the summer.
Hanmer Springs Hotpools was granted a $2 million support package last year to build the contraption on the side of Conical Hill.
Part flying fox, part rail ride, it will be unique in New Zealand when it launches.
"The best way to describe it is a zipline which is able to go around corners," says GM Graeme Abbott.
Using technology being developed out of Christchurch, the fly-line will follow a twisting 850-metre rail track, high in the canopy, giving visitors the "sensation of swinging round trees."
Final designs have been drawn for Hanmer Springs' first-in-New-Zealand fly-line. Photo / Supplied
The cash injection given by the Provincial Growth Fund was granted last year in order to develop the project.
Hanmer Springs says detailed designs for the fly-line have been finished and are being evaluated by an independent commissioner, outside of owners Hurunui Tourism.
However, Abbott hopes they will be given the green-light at some point next month.
New Zealand Fly-Line developer Alex Schmid, left, with wife Andrea Schmid and one of the inventors Michael Wolfsgruber in the south Tyrol. Photo / File
Explaining the mechanics the attraction, riders have brakes to slow down the ride to a cruisey pace.
It's not a high-speed thrill, however. With a top speed a little above walking pace, the treetop descent takes nine minutes to complete.
Similar concept was first trialled in 2017 in the Austrian Alps, although the Hanmer Springs zip-coaster will be double the length of the Rittisberg course.
Graeme says the entire experience has been designed to have minimal impact on the natural environment.
Building and running the fly-line would create 25 new jobs and $4 million in revenue over the first five years, according to Hanmer's proposal.
Plans to launch a similar fly-line near Taupō were nixed last year by residents over concerns of the impact.
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If the Zip-line gets the go ahead it will join New Zealand's already large pantheon of unique transportation.
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