Adventure can be one of the best team-building experiences because it takes people out of their everyday roles, encourages shared challenges, and creates memorable moments that strengthen connection and team bonds.
Whether your team is taking the leap, cheering from the sidelines, or tackling an experience together, you’ll learn in this article how adventure gives colleagues a chance to connect beyond the boardroom and see each other in a whole new light.
Looking for team building your colleagues will actually remember? You can enquire about bungy team building in Queenstown now, or keep scrolling to compare Pipeline (your own private bungy site!) and the Nevis Playground.
Corporate team building is about a shared experience
There are only so many trust exercises, conference-room icebreakers, and catered lunches a team can take.
If you really want to bring people together, sometimes you need to get them out of the office, out of their usual roles and just a little bit outside their comfort zones.
At AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand, corporate team building can mean travelling deep into the Nevis Valley to take on three of Queenstown’s biggest adrenaline experiences, or heading into the rugged backcountry of Skippers Canyon, where we’ll open an entire Bungy site exclusively for your team.
And before your least adrenaline-inclined colleague suddenly develops an urgent meeting they cannot reschedule, don’t worry. Nobody has to jump.
A great team day isn’t about forcing everyone to do the same thing. It’s about creating a shared experience.
Whether you’re the one standing on the edge, the one shouting encouragement from the sidelines, or the one who becomes inexplicably enthusiastic about watching the CEO scream, there’s something for everyone. AJ Hackett’s corporate experiences have something for everyone.
Why Adventure Works for Teams
If you like a few facts and figures before throwing your team off a bridge, this part’s for you.
As it turns out, getting everyone out of the office isn’t just good for the stories afterwards. There’s some solid science behind team building, too.
A major 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis looked at 51 studies, 72 teamwork interventions and 8,439 participants. The takeaway? Researchers found that teamwork interventions had significant positive effects on both how well teams worked together and how well they performed.¹
Creating opportunities for people to interact, tackle something together, and step outside their usual day-to-day roles really makes a measurable difference.
Another large meta-analysis, published in Small Group Research, found that team building positively affected team outcomes, including how people felt about their team and how they worked together. Researchers looked at four familiar ingredients: goal setting, interpersonal relationships, problem solving and role clarification.²
Which is the scientific way of saying there really is something to getting your colleagues out of their usual environment, giving them something to tackle together, and having a good laugh along the way.
We see the benefits of shared experiences firsthand every day at our bungy sites. Especially when teams step outside their comfort zones, take on something new together, and discover a different side of the people they work with.
So, What Does an AJ Hackett Corporate Day Actually Look Like?
First things first: you don’t need to organise every last detail yourself.
Our conference and incentive team can help you plan the experience from the early stages through to the day itself.
The exact itinerary depends on your group, but a corporate experience could look something like this:
Meet in Queenstown. Leave the laptops behind, then head into some of Central Otago’s most spectacular backcountry.
Then the fun starts…
Some people jump, some swing, others get catapulted across a canyon.
Many discover they’re far braver than they thought, while others keep both feet planted on the ground and become the team’s unofficial photographer, cheerleader, and keeper of everyone’s dignity.
Afterward, regroup over food, compare stories, and discover that Steve from Finance has been hiding an adventurous side all these years.
Whether you’re planning an incentive trip, conference activity, leadership day, client experience or simply trying to get everyone out of the office for something they’ll remember, the day can be tailored around your team.
And in Queenstown, there are two particularly good ways to do it.
Pipeline: Your Own Private Bungy Site
Want bragging rights? We’ve got some.
Hidden in the rugged Skippers Canyon backcountry, around 45 minutes from central Queenstown, Pipeline is the only exclusive Bungy jump site in New Zealand.
Meaning we’ll open it specifically for your private group.
No general public. Just your team, our crew, a historic suspension bridge, the Shotover River Gorge, and a 102-metre Bungy waiting for anyone willing to take it on.
The adventure begins before anyone even reaches the edge, with the journey into Skippers Canyon via a gravel 4WD road.
Once you’re there, Pipeline can become much more than a Bungy session. Groups can add catering, from simple lunch boxes to grazing tables and gourmet BBQs.
Want to turn things up? Bring in a DJ or live music.
Or prefer something more relaxed? Lawn games can be arranged. Marquees or stretch tents, transport, photography and videography can also form part of the experience.
You can even add a Bungy cord-building demonstration.
And because Pipeline is yours for the occasion, you can make it feel like a company event rather than another activity squeezed into the itinerary.
Inside, the venue accommodates up to 50 standing guests, while the outdoor area can accommodate up to 300. Transport can be arranged for up to 22 guests at a time, with other transport options available depending on the event.
It’s remote, It’s private, and it’s going to be considerably harder to forget than Friday drinks at the local.
Nevis Playground: Give Them Options
Your team may contain a mixture of personalities.
You’ve got the “I’ll do absolutely anything!” contingent. The “I’ll consider it after watching somebody else’s group.” And Dave, who has already informed everyone that “under no circumstances is he jumping off anything.”
Welcome to the Nevis Playground.
Around 40-45 minutes from Queenstown, the journey takes your team into the spectacular Nevis Valley, including a 4WD section through private Central Otago backcountry.
Waiting at the other end are three ways to test your nerve: Nevis Bungy, Nevis Swing, and Nevis Catapult.
People can choose the challenge that suits them (or take on all three!).
With capacity for up to 130 guests across the site, Nevis works well for corporate and incentive groups. You can also arrange exclusive activity time slots for smaller teams.
Your non-jumpers are very much still part of the day. The BASE area gives them somewhere comfortable to gather while enjoying views of the activities, and spectators can experience the Nevis Playground and travel across to the Bungy Pod without having to jump themselves.
Which means nobody needs to be pressured into participating for the team to share the experience.
They can cheer, film, and repeatedly tell you they’d definitely have done it if they’d brought different shoes.
What About Food, Transport, and All the Practical Stuff?
We know organising a corporate day can feel like herding cats with Outlook calendars, so we’ll help with the logistics.
For Nevis, access is via AJ Hackett’s 4WD transport, and the journey takes about 45 minutes from Queenstown. For standard Nevis Bungy trips, guests should allow around four hours for the overall experience from the downtown Queenstown Bungy Centre.
Depending on your event, we can deliver lunch boxes from the Bungy Café, arrange an on-site BBQ on request, or work with local catering companies on other lunch and dinner options.
Need something extra? Talk to us.
Depending on the venue and event, we can help arrange everything from catering and marquees to merchandise packs, souvenir photography and transport.
Here are some first-hand team stories from corporate groups:
The Boss Goes First
Our boss is one of those people who is annoyingly calm about everything.
Big presentation. Calm. Major deadline. Calm. Client crisis at 4:55 pm on a Friday… Somehow still calm.
So when we arrived at the Nevis, and he announced he was doing the Bungy, nobody was particularly surprised.
Then we saw his face.
For the first time in five years, our fearless leader looked absolutely terrified.
Naturally, this was fantastic news for the rest of us.
Suddenly, the person who usually stood at the front of the boardroom telling us to embrace challenges and meet KPIs was standing 134 meters above the Nevis River. At the same time, 20 employees enthusiastically reminded him to practice what he preached.
Then he jumped.
The scream that went up was ridiculous. Maybe something like a raccoon crossed with a banshee.
When he came back, his hands were shaking; he couldn’t stop grinning, and the composed boss we knew had temporarily disappeared.
“I cannot believe I just did that,” he kept saying.
Something changed after that. Not dramatically; we didn’t return to work on Monday holding hands and sharing our feelings, but we’d seen another side of each other.
We’d been vulnerable together and then come out the other side triumphant as a group.
Most importantly, we now had footage of our boss screaming all the way into the Nevis Valley.
Someone made a video where they put the boss over the Scrat from Ice Age falling from an icy peak.
He took it pretty well… I think.
HR Regrets Everything
The activity was my idea. I feel that’s important to establish.
I work in HR, and after years of organising team lunches, Christmas functions, and activities everyone politely described as “nice”, I wanted to do something people would remember.
So I booked the Nevis Playground. Excellent HR initiative.
Right up until somebody asked, “So what are you doing?”
Ah.
I had imagined myself in more of a supervisory capacity. Perhaps holding everyone’s bags, taking photos, making sure people were adequately hydrated.
Apparently, my colleagues had other ideas.
Twenty minutes later, I was harnessed up for the Nevis Swing beside a woman from Marketing who kept saying, “This is going to be amazing!” with the slightly unhinged enthusiasm of someone I no longer trusted.
I was terrified.
But standing there together, laughing nervously and hearing the rest of our team cheering us on, something shifted.
Then we dropped.
I screamed; she screamed. At some point I may have screamed a word that isn’t encouraged in the employee handbook.
And when we finally stopped, we were laughing so hard I could barely breathe.
That was the moment I understood why the day worked. For once, nobody was HR, Marketing, Management, or Finance, or even the CEO.
We were simply a bunch of people doing something ridiculous together.
And yes, everyone still brings up that particular ‘word’ I used. Apparently, that’s the price you pay for employee engagement.
Ready to Get Your Team Out of the Office?
Whether you’re an HR manager planning the annual team day, an EA tasked with finding something that ‘hasn’t already been done’, or a team leader looking for an experience that will bring people together, we can help build a day around your people.
Your next team meeting doesn’t need another boardroom. It might just need a bridge.
Talk to the AJ Hackett Bungy NZ corporate and events team about creating a Queenstown experience for your group.
Sources:
¹ McEwan et al. (2017), PLOS ONE, “The Effectiveness of Teamwork Training on Teamwork Behaviors and Team Performance.”
² Klein et al. (2009), Small Group Research, “Does Team Building Work?”
FAQs:
Does everyone have to jump at an AJ Hackett corporate team building day?
No. Nobody has to jump. Team members can choose the challenge that suits them, or simply cheer, film and support from the sidelines. The day is about creating a shared experience, not forcing everyone to do the same thing.
What corporate team building options does AJ Hackett offer in Queenstown?
There are two main options. Pipeline is a private Bungy site in Skippers Canyon that opens exclusively for your group. The Nevis Playground offers three experiences: Nevis Bungy, Nevis Swing and Nevis Catapult.
How many people can attend a corporate event?
At Pipeline, the indoor venue holds up to 50 standing guests and the outdoor area holds up to 300. The Nevis Playground can host up to 130 guests across the site, and exclusive activity time slots can be arranged for smaller teams.
How far are the bungy sites from Queenstown?
Pipeline is around 45 minutes from central Queenstown, reached by a gravel 4WD road into Skippers Canyon. The Nevis Playground is around 40–45 minutes away, including a 4WD section through private Central Otago backcountry. For standard Nevis Bungy trips, allow around four hours for the whole experience from the downtown Queenstown Bungy Centre.
What can non-jumpers do at the Nevis Playground?
Non-jumpers can gather in the BASE area, which gives them a comfortable spot with views of the activities. Spectators can also experience the Nevis Playground and travel across to the Bungy Pod without jumping.
Is food and catering available for corporate groups?
Yes. Options include lunch boxes from the Bungy Café, an on-site BBQ on request, or lunch and dinner from local catering companies. At Pipeline, catering can range from simple lunch boxes to grazing tables and gourmet BBQs.
Do I need to organise the corporate day myself?
No. AJ Hackett’s conference and incentive team can help plan the experience from the early stages through to the day itself, including logistics like transport, catering and merchandise packs.
