Greatest Kiwi Of All Time: No. 89 - AJ Hackett (No change)
November 1986. A man is standing on the edge of Greenhithe Bridge in Auckland as nervous commuters tentatively creep past him. The height, short enough to not be fatal if things didn’t go to plan, but far enough to hurt like hell. Were the calculations right? Oh well, only one way to tell.
The man - AJ Hackett - and this would be his first bungee jump. Inspired by a Vanuatu ritual called land diving, Hackett and Chris Sigglekow worked on a formula that would make bungee jumping safe, every single time. They plugged into the scientific prowess of the New Zealand DSIR who would help them with their calculations.
Sounds legit. Surely it would work. It did work. After several jumps around New Zealand, Hackett packed up his bungee cord and headed to Europe.
That’s right, he jumped off the Eiffel Tower.
Thankfully the gendarmerie wouldn’t keep him in the clink for too long. It was at this stage that Hackett knew he was onto something. The public had seen bungee jumping. They liked bungee jumping. They wanted to do some bungee jumping.
AJ Hackett Bungee was born. The first site was the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge in Queenstown. He’d soon expand to Australia, France, Germany and the United States. Adventure tourism wasn’t a thing in New Zealand until AJ Hackett. He would help transform Queenstown into the tourist mecca it is today.
Still alive after many years of bungee jumping, AJ Hackett is another in a great line of brilliant entrepreneurs that got their start here, in Aotearoa. You wouldn’t want to sell him life insurance, but Hackett is definitely one of Today FM’s Greatest Kiwis of All Time.
GKOAT 23 - Thanks to resene.
Today FM's Greatest Kiwis Of All Time, thanks to Resene - helping Kiwis decorate with NZ made paints since 1946.
