Safety and construction
Here is how the zipline course and the Skybridge are built and checked. We are honest about it: no adventure activity is free of risk, and we strive for constant improvement.
The zipline course: Aussie built and operated, Swiss design, engineering and equipment
The zipline course was designed and built from 2011 by owner Mike Thompson, an Australian mechanical engineer and former Army officer. The safety line and trolleys are Saferoller, designed and made by Kanopeo GmbH in Basel, Switzerland.
- Clipped on the whole way. Saferoller is a continuous belay system. Your guide attaches your trolley at the start, and it stays on the safety line through every platform until the end. You cannot unclip by mistake.
- Independently certified equipment. The Saferoller V3 trolley carries a CE declaration of conformity under the EU personal protective equipment regulation (EU) 2016/425, tested to EN 17109 and EN 795 type B by TÜV SÜD, an independent testing body in Germany.
- Checked by the maker. In 2023 Kanopeo reviewed our installation from our layout plan and photographs and confirmed that the system is correctly sized and redundantly attached at every point.
- Equipment with a service life. Kanopeo sets a working life for each trolley and its parts. Worn or out-of-date equipment comes out of service.
The Skybridge: engineered in New Zealand
The Skybridge was designed and built by Abseil Access Ltd of Wellington, New Zealand, in 2019. Its structural calculations were prepared by MNCE Ltd, consulting engineers in Lower Hutt, to SNZ HB 8630, the New Zealand standard for walking tracks and outdoor visitor structures.
- 120 metre span, with 7.5 metres of sag at the centre.
- Two 32 mm galvanised steel wire rope main cables, each with a minimum breaking load of about 644 kN (roughly 65 tonnes).
- Designed for 20 people at once, with a factor of safety of 3.5 on the main cables at the full design load, including the weight of the bridge itself.
- Wind cables of 10 mm galvanised steel brace the bridge against sideways movement.
Your guides and the weather
Guides run every tour and brief you before you start. We operate in the rain. If high wind or lightning makes it unsafe, we stop, and move you to another time or refund you.
Always improving
We are a small operator in the tropics, where heat, rain and salt air are hard on steel, timber and rope. We check our equipment, renew it when it wears and review every incident and near miss. If you notice anything that concerns you, please tell your guide or email us. We would rather hear it.