Kawarau Bridge Historic Reserve

The Kawarau Bridge Historic Reserve is a historic site located in Queenstown, Otago, New Zealand. It is the world birthplace of bungy jumping, where people leap from the equivalent of a 10-storey building held-safe by a giant elastic band. The site also features a suspension bridge that was built in 1880 to enable safe crossing of the notoriously windy Kawarau Gorge. The bridge was designed by engineer Harry Higginson, who won a world's top engineering award for his work in 1882. The bridge and surrounding site have been featured in the Lord of the Rings films and are part of the Queenstown Trail Arrow River Bridges cycle route. The site is also significant for its role in the gold rush of the 1860s, which transformed New Zealand's economy and led to the construction of the bridge to improve road access to the Otago goldfields