Australian motorbike stunt performer Robbie Maddison yesterday claimed the highest moto bungy jump in the world from Queenstown’s Nevis Bungy.
Maddison took a 50cc KTM motorcycle from the platform, freefalling 134m for about 8.5 seconds in what was also a Queenstown first.
The 42-year-old beat his own world record, achieved in San Diego in 2011, for the longest motorcycle jump of 115m - but vertically at 134m.
In New Zealand to perform at the 2023 Freestyle Kings Tour in Christchurch this weekend, Maddison, a freestyle motocross rider, was on the hunt for a daredevil stunt which had never been done before.
"I had the idea to come and leap off New Zealand’s most notorious bungy jump on a motorbike ... I thought, ‘why not?’," he said.
In Queenstown yesterday, he completed a test jump - without the motorcycle - which he described as "some of the scariest freefall I’ve ever done".
"I’m a confident skydiver, but that is just a different rush, and when you’re watching the ground come toward your face, and then you’re bouncing back away from it, [it was] absolutely surreal."
And as soon as he was strapped on to his bike "I started feeling more at home" - so much so he pulled a backflip during the freefall.
