It all began with a huge hiss and a roar, strange faces, strange accents, STRANGERS from all over the globe made their way out to Gravity Canyon, willing to throw themselves off a perfectly fine bridge. For the next month and a half the site was chaos, English men, Irish men, Namibians drinking our liquor fridge dry, putting smiles on our faces and keeping us on our toes. It was great to see these people brightening up our country with their rainbow coloured spandex outfits, trying so hard to hold in our giggles while harnessing up customers (it just seems to accentuate part of the male anatomy.) We have video footage of these people singing there national anthems for discounted swings, some better than others. As all the supporters were strong believers in their country our pride was just as powerful. As the 23rd of October quickly crept up the day of the final had finally arrived, our lovely customers had made their way up country to Auckland ready for the big day. 9-8 to NEWZEALAND!!! Although the final was such a close game we still had mad respect for our French brothers, so being the kind kiwis that we are we offered all French passport holders a half price bungy. A couple weeks later we are sad to say that everyone had returned home to their own countries, on a brighter side our liquor fridge isn’t so empty anymore J - over and out.
As part of supporting our local community we open up our doors 2 terms a year on Friday’s for a Work experience student to come and spend the day with the crew. Here is what today’s Work Experience Student had to say about his experience;
Hi my name is Hamuera Kakukaka, today I did careers at Gravity Canyon, and it was the best career I’ve done all term. I did heaps of awesome things and jobs, I also got to do the flying fox, and it was a massive buzz.
I didn’t know much about Gravity Canyon until today, but I learnt heaps of exciting things and worked with heaps of cool people.
Thanks for your feedback Hamuera ! We enjoyed having you spend the day with us and who knows maybe one day in the future you will be part of our crew?
On Saturday the 13th of August, Gravity Canyon ise holding its annual Local’s Day!
All activities are half price all day.
To be a local you must live in the Manawatu, Rangitikei, Wanganui or Ruapehu regions, to receive the discount you must bring proof of your address.
You can ride the World’s most Amazing Flying Fox, Jump of the North Islands highest Bungy Jump or Swing from the North Islands most Extreme Giant Swing.
There will be a charity sausage sizzle as well.
Age and weight restrictions apply so please visit our website or our Facebook page for more info..
First Aid Day
Twas (imagine an Irish voice speaking) an early start for the crew at MGC (Mokai Gravity Canyon(we like to use brackets)) yesterday, for the annual first aid refresher course. The course is standard for a majority of workplaces in the NZ, benefitting the crew professionally and personally. It is a requirement of being employed at Gravity, along with Basic Swift Water Rescue, Bi annual medicals for Jump Masters and annual medicals for the rest of the crew, pre employment and random drug testing. Feeling safe yet???
Sandra Spier from Medi Train was our tutor and as always did an awesome job, teaching and answering our serious and ridiculous questions.
Check out the photos …
Nine weeks ago 123 girls entered the competition to become Miss Tui, they have now narrowed it down to 8 finalists and the chick representing the Manawatu region is 23 year old Krystal Leigh Shortland. There are two events left in the Miss Tui competition: Tui’s got talent and Tui degrees of separation. For Krystal’s Tui’s got talent event she has decided to come and visit us here at Gravity Canyon Sunday the 8th of May to try out our 80m Bungy Jump. Will she be able to do it??? We will let you know!!!
At the start of the summer season a group decision was made to throw the summer staff a farewell for their long hard efforts of the summer months, (seen as they seem to miss out on all the other staff activities during the year social club events and xmas party etc). Anthea and Shannan decided to take the responsibility upon themselves and organize a little something with a catch, they decided to make it a surprise trip for everyone.
They just gave us this list of what to bring
What we need to bring :
Towel - check
Toiletries - check
Spending money - check
Sporting attire - check
Swimming attire - check
Casual change for dinner - check
We were all meant to meet at Taihape B.P 9a.m on the dot but as usual the organizers of the Summer Mystery Trip (Shannan and Anthea) were running late. Once they finally arrived about 40 mins later we were given our small briefing on the trip and some camouflage face paint and everyone was to don the paint for our first activity, we all pilled in the vehicles and were on our way.
It actually wasn’t long at all before our first stop, Waiouru Army Museum. It was the first time for some of the staff and we were in for a bit of a treat. Once we got inside we were introduced to Nicola Bennett the Marketing Manager of the Army Museum and Mark Hayes who is the Educational Officer for the museum and they both spoke to us about the history of the museum and some of the training the soldiers of the NZ Army have to go though in the early days of joining the forces. Once the introductions were over were given a helmet and an army uniform each and we were taken for a bumpy ride through the Ngamatea Swamp at the back of the museum in a M458 Armored Personnel Carrier which was awesome fun. After the ride we all headed inside to have a bit of a look around the museum which had a lot of info about various stuff from the New Zealand Wars in the 1880s to World War 2. After about 40mins of looking around we were on the road again and heading to our next destination.
Next stop was Turangi and Burger King for a quick lunch break and then (to what we thought was our next activity) Tongariro River Rafting, but only for a bit of a hello to the crew and then we were on our way to our actual destination Tokaanu Thermal Pools for a dip and a bit of a relax. After a few competitions of holding your breath under water and some synchronized swimming from the girls we decided to keep on keeping on to the next location.
After a bit more driving, listening to Steph and her constant hassling for information on the where about we were actually going and a bit of shut eye for Tremaine (who was crashed out in the back seat) we finally arrived at our final resting place for the evening Taupo. First stop in Taupo was one of high recommendation from the staff, with thirst on everyones mind some kind of beverage had to be organized for them or they would have started to get restless so the bottle store for a quick stop before we got to our place of residence for the evening Lake Taupo Top 10 Holiday Park. With everything you could think of here that would keep the family entertained from a Giant Jumping Pillow, Basketball and Tennis Courts and Trampolines for the kiddies and for adults Pedal Go-Karts, Thermally Heated Swimming Pool, Sky Room with 42inch LCD TV. After getting settled into our rooms we had a couple of beverages and proceeded to our next activity.
Rapids Jet, with there 500 horse powered 496 Chevy V8 engine which is connected to a Hamilton 212 jet engine took us for one hell of a ride up and down the Awa Purua rapids and Gazza (our driver) even gave us a bit of a history lesson about the Aratiatia Scenic Reserve. After an awesome ride and getting absolutely soaked thanks to Jimmy (who was driving the other boat) we hoped off the boat and shot up to the office to look at the photos of the ride. Once the coldness and hunger started to set in we then we headed back into to town to get all cleaned up and stared to get ready for dinner. Back at the holiday park we were joined by Nick and Mel and had a couple of hours to waste so all went down the tennis court and volleyball grounds and had a few team games before getting ready.
Once we were all ready to go we headed to town and went to Element where Scott,Vanessa and some of the Taupo Bungy crew (Daz and George) were waiting for us. After some poker, dinner and a few drinks at element we headed back to the Holiday Park for some much needed r & r for the drive home the next morning.
All in all a lot of fun was had by all staff that attended & heres hoping it wont be the last.
Thats all for now
Peace
It’s 9.30 am Thursday on the 20th of January 2011 were sitting nervously and excited in the Palmerston North Airport waiting for our boarding call. Scott and Nick both headed up the day before, Scott by car and Nick by plane also. After a coffee and bit of food our boarding call finally came and we headed for the plane. Apart from Kayla’s emergency foot break outburst during the flight it was pretty smooth journey to Auckland.
Arrived about lunchtime, Scott was there to meet us and we made our way down to Mt Smart Stadium. Once there it was amazing to see how everything went down behind the scenes from setting up the stages to sorting out the fencing etc and watching it all come together was very cool. We also met our ‘V’ team who was to work with us during the next day all the girls were beautiful and very friendly. Nick, Scott and Derek Booth had already set up the main line and the two platforms we need and all that was left to do was the braking system and the anchors for the main line.
During the day we were lucky enough to have a couple bands (including Tool!!!!!!) doing sound check for their performance the next day which was awesome, kinda like having our own private show almost and a sound guy had us all in fits of laughter with his “check, check, 1, 2, hey, hey, hello, yeah, yeah.
After a busy day we went to Ascot Epsom Motel where we stayed for the few days while we were there and then to the Cock N Bull English Pub and Brewery for dinner. Back at the Motel after dinner we started to build the rigging we needed for the next day and then off to the Casino for couple hours. Nick went straight down to the poker tables and but changed his mind because the tables were way too packed, he watched for a bit and come back to the slots machines. After a few hours we all decided to leave and hit the sack
Friday the 21st of January, its 5:30 a.m and we are off down to Mt Smart, we’ve got 6 a.m start for the Breakfast show with Tamati Coffey and the crew for their morning show. After the crew had been and gone we were doing a few extra tests with some water weights and were lucky enough to have Justin Chancellor (bass player) from Tool and his wife come up and do a test ride as well.
11 a.m and the gates were opened and from the platforms we watched the hoards of people flood through the stadium like a plague of some sort, it very real cool to see but we didn’t get started until about 12.30 due to last minute hold ups from V and there paper work (or lack of it) still waiting to get a few consent forms signed, but that didn’t stop the punters who were keen and eager and had been waiting with registration forms signed and ready since 11. As soon as the paper work arrived we were straight into business with a very busy day had by all staff. 7 hours and 436 riders later we decided to close up and call it a day. We were all that exhausted we didn’t even want to stay and watch the headline acts we were just ready to leave, but could we even get out of there? No we couldn’t!! we got to one gate and the guards said we couldn’t leave for some kind of OSH reason and it took us about another hour to even get out of the stadium after being redirected to 3 or 4 different exit gates.
Once we finally got out of Mt Smart Stadium we went down to a little restaurant just around the corner from the Cock n Bull on Davis Crescent called Safran Cafe Restaurant. The food and service was amazing (highly recommend it) our waiter was awesome, did everything from getting our chairs and ash trays when we went outside for a ciggy to even recommending some of the food for us to order it was excellent service all round, Scott made sure he was well tipped. So back to the Motel we went and straight to bed after a long and busy day.
All in all was an awesome week and we really enjoyed our time and hopefully we will get to do something else like that in the near future.
Thats all for now
Peace
So a couple of on months ago the V Energy Drink Company had an idea for a ride at the Big Day Out. Running a mini flying fox called The Flying V like the one we have on site. But their where a couple of hiccups before anything could be set in stone.
1. Budget - would it fit in with the projected budget?
2. Operation - who would run the ride?
3. Fabrication - who would build the ride ?
So I’m guessing after a few discussions in the big V head office they approached us to run the Flying V, help with the construction of the ride and the estimation of a budget for them. After a few weeks of bumping heads, Scott (our General Manager) Nick (Staff) and Derek Booth (our Engineer for our own Flying Fox) had a budget and the fabrication (our failed small scaled attempt watch this) now sorted they just to select the team for the job. Nick was an automatic selection and the rest was just seniority order Kayla and Mel along with Scott were the team to make up the 4.
The Flying V ride will be 120m long and 12m high starting just to the right of the Orange stage on the North side of the stadium and you’ll finish just past the coat check next to the west stand of the stadium. durig the day you will be flying over bands like Deftones, Wolfmother, Lupe Fiasco, John Butler Trio and I Am Giant. If your a bit scared, take a mate with you with a max weight of 200kg well be able to take most tandem rides. This will the first time we will have this ride available at the B.D.O so make the most most of this awesome opportunity and fly with us and V at the Big day Out
Thats all for now
Laters
So over the past few years we have had an overwhelming number of our customers wanting to take away with them memory of their mind blowing Mokai Gravity Canyon experience; as a result we have just completed the installation of our new photo system (thanks to some help from Daz and George from Taupo Bungy)
The photo system consists of 2 digital SLR Nikon cameras, taking high quality photos of the Bungy and Giant Swing activities. The Flying Fox photos are taken from the on board camera system producing stunnig photos of you and your buddy during the flying fox ride.
You can purchase your photo package before or after you have completed your activity. the photo’s can be ready just minutes after you have completed your activity. We print two photo’s of each activity, we also include a CD-Rom which has all the additional photo’s that we have taken and a converted version of your dvd as well. This video is optimised for uploading to YouTube and Facebook, we’ve done all the hard work changing format and size, all you need to do is upload it to your account on our laptops in our High Times Cafe using our free internet services.
COMING SOON !! Because we are so technically advanced (lol) is a USB stick. the USB will have all the goodies that you find on your CD-Rom, also includes the full version of your activity in the un-altered format, so its big and ready to play on the big screen for your friends and family to all see !!!
Thats all for now
Laters
Emma, Antonio and Holly
The 3 surviving members of the Gap Year show unexpectedly called in to Gravity Canyon last week on their way down to Wellington.
Check out our clips on YouTube of the Fox ride and interviews
