Eight years away, countless memories and possibly a few bouts of nausea later, New Zealand’s biggest theme park has brought back a family favourite ride.
Mitchell Hageman heads to Rainbow’s End and gets on board to try the revived Kiwi classic.
A racing heart, a nervous wait as the cold metal lap bar goes down and a lurch in your stomach as you feel that sudden rush of weightlessness. Then there’s the screech of the tyre-driven mechanism – that’s the feeling of riding the Rainbow’s End pirate ship.
Be it school kids on a trip, rebellious young ones looking for their thrill fix, or that person who doesn’t like rides and was “dragged along” because they were a “chicken”, the ride, which was first opened in 1983, was firmly cemented in the Kiwi pop culture zeitgeist for more than 30 years.
“Yes, the stories of people vomiting on others below them... they’re all true,” Herald senior sports journalist and former Avondale College school trip visitor Michael Burgess says.
“Before the roller coaster was built, and before the [FearFall drop tower] it was the signature attraction, even though bumper boats and dodgem cars were a lot more fun.”
Others felt the ride was the perfect mix of thrill and excitement without pushing the boundaries.
Waikato Herald journalist Malisha Kumar: “My mum was quite scared of rides and didn’t go on anything else, but the pirate ship was one we always went on as a family, and one she really enjoyed. I still remember the butterflies I had in my stomach when the pirate ship was at its highest as a young girl.”
The ship, the first ride as you enter Rainbow’s End, was bowled in 2017, with little sign it would return, until a surprise announcement in 2024.
And on Friday, the peeling paint of the sketchy-looking captain atop the cabin of the good ship Esmerelda was replaced by a newer version and officially opened to the public.
“Every data point told us that while her mechanical life cycle had ended, her market appeal was still burning bright,” Rainbow’s End CEO Susan Mudie says of the pirate ship.
“We could see again and again how very loved the old ship was. So we thought – what would it look like if we brought a ship back, bigger and better than ever? A nod to the old ship but upgraded for a new generation of riders.”
There was plenty of sadness with the 2017 closure, and even more curiosity when the space it previously occupied sat dormant in the years after.
Mudie, who became CEO in 2024, says there was always something earmarked for the space, but it was just a matter of what.
“We worked through [an] early pitch of the intent to bring her back, within the context of a long-term plan,” she says.
Rainbow’s End then worked through modelling in late 2022 and put a tender out in early 2023.
German ride manufacturer HUSS won the contract, with the new ship Pacifica measuring 13m long and weighing 25 tonnes, which is “the same as four African bull elephants”. It cost between $6.5 million and $7m to build and install.
Pirate ship rides offer different thrills for different customers. Sit at the back or front, and you’re going to feel a bigger stomach drop. Sit in the middle and you will get a less intense ride.
It’s also a ride that can cater to the masses, with a high rider turnaround meaning more bums on seats.
“Operationally, 50 guests means a lot of riding and less queue pressure. It became an obvious option to pursue,” Mudie says.
The old ride was called Esmeralda, in honour of the hulking figurehead on the ship. Her story remains a crucial part of the ride’s story, Mudie says.
“We still have that figurehead and she has transformed into a character – Captain Esmerelda, who has been in search of a new ship for our crew. It was really important for us to keep that authentic connection to the original. Esmerelda is the heart, soul and spirit of the ship brought to life.“
Park-goers can also expect to see a new Esmerelda live-action character wander around the park and interact with guests, similar to what happens at the likes of Disney theme parks.
While a new opening will likely increase foot traffic and fuel nostalgia, Mudie says this isn’t the end of Rainbow’s End’s investment in improving the park, with a “strong pipeline of refurbishments” in the works.
“It’s not always about new attractions – we spend a lot of time and effort keeping what we have in great shape, and over the next couple of years we will continue our recent work of building more theming into the park," she says, with older rides such as the log flume recently going through a multimillion-dollar refurb.
“New attractions are in the pipeline too. We started with a set of bumper boats 43 years ago, now we have over 20 attractions. We have always kept moving forward and always will.”
Waiting in the new shipwreck-themed queueing area, the rush of nostalgia hit early, as I remembered seeing my grandma (who gets a bit queasy on these sorts of things) sitting, waiting for me and my sister to get onboard the original ride all those years ago.
“We’re launching in the same location as the old ship. Guests would run from [the park’s] entry to get on the ship first of all, and so it was important to us for the new ship to have that same front entry hero position, to recreate that exciting pathway,” Mudie says.
After watching the first round of excited (and nervous) adults and kids step aboard, I prepared myself to take on the challenge with 49 others (making it the largest ride capacity of any in the park).
You have to be at least 110cm to ride, and 120cm to ride without an adult.
Mudie tells me this ship sits a few metres higher than the old one, so at its very top swing, riders in the back couple of rows will hit just over 20m in the air. I somewhat foolishly took the back row.
The gentleman next to me, who had ridden it before, tells me it was “a lot more intense” than the old one. Other murmurs from the crowd comment on the feeling of weightlessness and the coolness of the metal lap bars, that have once again made a return.
Sounds of a sea shanty jig and a pirate chuckle play over the speaker as the ride starts, with one terrified child across from me gripping his mother’s arm as hard as I was gripping the bar.
Slowly swinging, the tyre drive motor still makes a small screech (although it is a little less jarring) before the rocking motion gets higher and higher. Memories rush back like the wind on my face: the feeling of rising off the seat slightly, my sister screaming, and, of course, the inevitable queasiness after.
While there was no need for a barf bag this time, it still felt as intense, if not more so, than when I rode it all those years ago. And I think one go was enough for me.
Mudie tells me a story of the old crew from Cobb & Co Manukau, who visited years ago with a group of kids to ride the ship for a first birthday party.
“I believe they had the baby on the ship – it helped rock her to sleep.“
While there are no babies allowed on this vessel, “as safety regulations have moved on a little”, there’s still plenty of memories to be made as this ship sets sail into the throes of Kiwi pop culture infamy once again.
Pacifica: The Pirate Ship is now open at Rainbow’s End in Manukau, Auckland.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.