The fall is powered by gravity. The ride back up, these days, is powered by the sun.
For more than two decades, the return journey back up to the platform from the heart-pumping Shotover Canyon Swing sounded like a car engine because, underneath it all, that was exactly what it was.
The original winches used Mazda and Nissan engines, with the oldest featuring a gearbox and gear lever on the platform. It was a classic example of the Kiwi ingenuity behind Queenstown’s early adventure tourism industry: conceived from scratch, built to solve a problem nobody else had encountered and safely engineered for the task.
The Canyon Swing opened in 2002, after mountain and rock climbers Hamish Emerson and Chris Russell set out to turn their hobby of jumping from cliffs into a commercial experience. With no comparable operation anywhere in the world, the platform, systems, and processes had to be designed from the ground up.
Materials were carried into the Shotover Canyon by hand, without helicopters or earth-moving machinery. The original equipment was built locally, tested rigorously, and signed off by engineers before the first customers took the leap.
That pioneering approach has remained part of the company’s character, but the technology supporting it has continued to evolve. The petrol-powered winches have now been replaced by two custom-built electric models, bringing state-of-the-art engineering, automated safety features, and quieter, cleaner operation to the remote site.
Shotover Canyon Swing operations manager Roberts Krastins said replacing the original equipment was far from straightforward.
Nothing suitable was available off the shelf with the required speed and rope capacity, so the team spent almost two years working with an engineering company on a bespoke design. The system was independently peer reviewed and inspected throughout construction and commissioning.
The first electric winch was commissioned in December 2025, with an identical second model subsequently installed as a backup.
“The difference has been huge,” Krastins said. “They are smooth and simple to use, need far less maintenance and there are no oil changes or petrol fumes, which sometimes drifted towards customers. It is also much more peaceful on the platform.”
The electric system also provides more precise control, as the customer is winched back up to the 109m platform after the four-second 60m freefall and 200m arc.
“The winch always knows how far the customer is from the platform and automatically slows down as they approach the top, so they can’t be brought in too quickly,” Krastins said.
“The operator also has to hold down a button for the winch to remain engaged. As soon as they let go, it stops. Electric power gives us much more control, and those safety features improve our operations.”
The new winches have been nicknamed Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie takes its name from Italian electric motor manufacturer Bonfiglioli, with Clyde the natural choice for its partner.
The upgrade is the latest stage in Shotover Canyon Swing’s move towards renewable power. The off-grid operation installed its first 24 solar panels in August 2021, replacing much of the electricity previously supplied by a diesel generator running for about 10 hours each day.
Another six panels and three-phase inverters were added in October 2024 in preparation for the electric winches. The system now has close to 15 kilowatts of solar capacity and 60 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, powering the winches, customer building, media systems, computers, lighting and air conditioning.
The initial installation reduced generator use by at least 80%, with the operation able to run entirely on solar and stored battery power on many summer days. When conditions are right, electricity flows directly from the rooftop panels to the winches.
Before switching to solar, the business burned around 20 to 30 litres of diesel each day to power its generators, which would leave it exposed to sharp rises in fuel prices, such as the current fuel crisis. A generator remains on site as a backup during winter and prolonged periods of cloudy weather, but its use has been dramatically reduced.
And the company’s contribution towards regenerative tourism extends beyond electric power. The wider environmental programme includes wilding pine and broom control, native planting, rat and stoat trapping, feral goat control, and composting toilets on the Department of Conservation reserve. Together, these initiatives are helping restore native habitat, protect local biodiversity and ensure the business leaves a positive legacy in the landscape where it operates.
The original Mazda-powered winch has now been retired to the car park and will eventually be displayed in a glass case. It will preserve an important piece of Canyon Swing history and the inventive spirit that helped establish the operation, while Bonnie and Clyde quietly carry it into a more engineered, sustainable future.