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How did Spring Loaded happen?The Kaituna Jet, The Mud Bug four wheel drive adventure and scenic helicopter flights at Spring Loaded started way back in the 1980s when a clever spark took a jet boat up the Kaituna River and realised it was the ‘awesome-ist’ trip ever! After that came the Mud Bugs and then some time later we got us some helicopters and a couple of ugly pilots and Spring Loaded was complete!
The first commercial NZ jet boat trip on the Kaituna took off in December 1986 and the ride hasn’t stopped running since! Back then our Bay of Plenty adventure park was named Longridge Park and the boat was the Longridge Jet.
In the 1990s another someone had a stroke of genius and saw that the land our Bay of Plenty jet boat ran from was perfect for a NZ 4WD adventure. The 4X4 track became the second adventure attraction at Longridge.
In 2008 Longridge Park was sold to new owners, whom already owned Aerius Helicopters. They were kind enough to give Longridge Park access to helicopters and pilots and our Bay of Plenty attraction now offers scenic helicopter flights onsite.
In the winter of 2009 a new track was built and it was fun to watch! The 4X4 track took a lot of digging machinery, tractors and some clever planning – not to mention a number of hilarious adventures, getting literally stuck in the mud and the odd rogue vehicle rolling down the slope. After 3 months we had ourselves a brand new 4X4 track.
In January 2009 Longridge Park was rebranded to Spring Loaded with the tagline “Harden Up New Zealand”!
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