OUR STORY
Born over a beer & a yarn
Back in 2010, we (EcoZip’s founders) were friends who met occasionally to have a yarn and share a beer. Our common ground has always been a passion for the outdoors, particularly hiking New Zealand’s beautiful landscapes. Coincidentally, we also shared an appreciation for craft beer, which may be why the EcoZip story began in a small bar on Auckland’s North Shore with a big question; how could we introduce an experience that showcased everything we loved about New Zealand, the views, the native forests and these crazy Kiwi’s sense of adventure. We decided that a zipline was the perfect solution. So, after some deliberation, and a few more beers, the EcoZip idea was born.
We knew that to deliver the most spectacular experience, our ziplines needed to provide stunning long-range views from an amazing location, offer dual ziplines that would transform a usually solo experience into a social one, take visitors through stunning, original, native New Zealand forest, demonstrate that a successful business and conservation can naturally co-exist, plus have the latest, safest zipline technology.
A hard job, but someone had to do it.
Before we looked for a site, we had some rigorous research to do. Our investigation took us to Costa Rica, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Utah, Las Vegas and beyond, in our quest to develop the best zipline design, technology and most of all, experience. Then came the planning part, a few more beers and some interesting chats about what kind of business we wanted to be. We came up with three principles that summed up our approach. ‘Good things happen to companies that do good things’; ‘Business needs to be about more than profit’; and ‘What kind of legacy do we want to leave for our kids?’ Ten years later we’re proud of the fact that we’ve stuck to, and built on, those principles.
EcoZip Adventures has become an award-winning adventure and eco-tourism business, founded on the concept of ‘commercial conservation’— a successful and sound commercial business able to fund conservation and social initiatives.
Finally, when we opened the business, one of the first things we promised our new team was that we would continue to build a company that they were proud to work for, a business where they were happy to come to work every day. We’d like to think we’ve kept that promise.
From a casual chat to a journey neither of us could have imagined, we found the right locations. The expansive views from our sites are pretty incredible, but from your vantage points on our ziplines, they’re absolutely breath-taking.
Chris & Gavin
