Sixteen-year-old Ella Bijl from Taipa does a backflip off the new bridge. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Sixteen-year-old Ella Bijl from Taipa does a backflip off the new bridge. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Taipā's new bridge had been officially opened for less than an hour before locals were doing backflips into the river below.
Originally the design for the two-way, $19 million bridge included a facility for the time-honoured Northland summer tradition of doing bombs — the art of creating as big asplash as possible when jumping off a bridge.
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones had barely finished declaring the bridge open before 16-year-old Ella Bijl, from Taipā, was putting it to the test with a series of backflips.
Ella said the new bridge was a major improvement on the old one.
''It's harder to get over the rail but it's higher and it's much better. It's more stable too — the rail on the old one was a bit rickety.''