Ride the World’s Longest ‘Flying Fox’ in New Zealand

New Zealand calls itself the home of adventure tourism, with many exciting activities for tourists around the country. One example is the Skywire ride — the world’s longest “flying fox” — found at Cable Bay Adventure Park, outside of Nelson, on the South Island.

A “flying fox” is what New Zealanders call a “zipline” — where a person uses a pulley to move down a cable that starts higher than where it ends. Gravity pulls them along the cable, often going very fast.

The Skywire is 1.6 kilometres long and moves at up to 100 kilometres an hour. It can carry as many as four people across a native forest about 100 metres below. After travelling down the cable at high speed, riders can enjoy views of the ocean, mountains and forest as they slow down, stop, and then are pulled backwards up the cable to return to where they started.

The ride costs about $70 for adults and about $50 for children. Riding the Skywire itself takes about 10 minutes, but once you include the drive through the forest to and from where it starts, the whole experience takes about an hour.

The Skywire is just one of many activities visitors to the Cable Bay Adventure Park can take part in. It has almost four square kilometres of forest and rivers, where people can walk, swim and ride bikes for free. There’s also a cafe and activities like horse riding, paintball, and quad bike tours that visitors can pay to do.