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Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Kawarau River and Bridge

Posted by James Turnbull, Sunday, 23rd July 2006

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The Kawarau River and Bridge in New Zealand both have notable claims to fame.

The river, which runs between Lake Wakatipu and Lake Dunstan, played its part in the Lord of the Rings films as Middle Earth’s Great River Anduin.

The Bridge, 43m above the river, was the site of the world’s first commercial bungee jumping when way back in 1988 a Mr A J Hackett thought that people might actually pay him to jump off a bridge. Here’s a Youtube I found of someone doing just that.

Thanks: Talullah

Countries: New Zealand

Posted in: ,

Related Posts: Google Sightseeing 2007 Awards, Lake Powell, Victoria Falls, Aruba Revisted Pt. 2, Happy New Google Earth in the News

4 Responses to 'Kawarau River and Bridge'

  1. 1. gesh says: July 23rd, 2006 at 7:29 pm

    There was a story about bungee jumping in the area on the NPR show The World.
    http://www.theworld.org/geoquiz/2006/04/27gq.shtml
    I guess they have one of the highest jumps somewhere in in the same stretch of river.
    Here are the website of the two jumps
    http://www.ajhackett.com/index.php/pi_pageid/17
    http://www.ajhackett.com/index.php/pi_pageid/29

  2. 2. stephen says: July 24th, 2006 at 12:33 am

    neat

  3. 3. aaron says: July 24th, 2006 at 5:01 am

    awesome shadow!

  4. 4. Compmouse says: August 11th, 2006 at 4:00 pm

    I actually visited this place a few months ago in April (2006) and here are some of my photos of the place so you guys can see it from a slightly different perspective.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/compmouse/tags/ajhacket/

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