Daredevil tot sets Skyswing record (+ video)

For those who have been too afraid to give Rotorua's Skyswing a go, a 2-year-old boy may be just the inspiration after he became the youngest person to ride it.

Finn Cunningham, from Auckland, was determined to give the ride - dubbed "Rotorua's highest and fastest adrenaline rush" - a go on New Year's Eve. And now the video of him riding it with his parents is going viral.

The Skyswing hoists riders 50m above Skyline Rotorua, before dropping them in a swing which reaches 150km/h.

Skyswing manager Keegan Corbett said he was surprised the toddler was tall enough for the swing - "Finn's very tall for his age".

There is no minimum age but riders must be 1.1m or taller.

Mr Corbett said it was a busy day and an excited Finn just wanted to get straight on. Even watching those before him didn't put him off.

"I could just tell he was so excited and happy when I was putting the seatbelt on, he was awesome."

He said Finn had wanted to do it again as soon as he got off and loved going fast.

"He's a very brave little boy."

Mr Corbett said Skyswing put videos up every now and again and Finn's had an instant response. Within 24 hours it had more than 90,000 views.

Mr Corbett said it was the best video they had done by far, and it had "smashed" one of All Black Sam Cane taking the drop.

He said yesterday they noticed they had more young children coming on and a lot of people had said they had seen the video.

Finn's mother, Danielle Cunningham, said her son saw the ride and said 'I want to do that one', so she and husband Christopher explained what happened and he watched it about three times.

He couldn't wait to "be like Superman", she said.

She said they felt quite assured as the Skyswing staff had obviously done tests and found 1.1m was safe.

Mrs Cunningham said they were "really, really surprised" at the attention the video had had on social media.

"We thought that it was pretty cool he's the youngest kid, but didn't expect it to get that much attention."