Family's rollercoaster horror ride at Rainbow's End

Rainbow's End said the rollercoaster shut down automatically when a safety mechanism showed it was overheating. Photo / 3News

Family vow fun-park trip their last after getting stuck at the top at Rainbow’s End

An extended family of nine, holidaying from Canterbury, vow they have had their last ride on a rollercoaster after being trapped at the top of the Rainbow's End corkscrew ride yesterday when the Manukau theme park's major attraction apparently overheated.

But Rainbow's End says the rollercoaster riders were never in danger.

The Pilcher family expected to be frightened when their turn on the rollercoaster came, but the breakdown turned the ride into something truly terrifying.

"It was horrible," Dee Pilcher said.

"All nine of us were up there. The kids were at the back and we were probably about the third car down. It took off and everything and it was going up the highest peak and it stopped right at the very top."

Mrs Pilcher's 14-year-old son, who was seated in the back carriage, was "absolutely beside himself", she said.

"My daughter was in front of him and all he wanted to do was hold her hand but he couldn't reach because you were still strapped in. You still had your harness on so there was nothing you could do."

Three staff members climbed up to inform them there had been a power cut and that the situation was under control.

"The staff were really good. they spoke to everybody in every cart and reassured everybody that they were going to attempt to restart the rollercoaster," she said.

"They told us it was going to roll back then roll forward and then hopefully it would kick back into action.

"It was more scary when the staff left ... to attempt to restart it ... and the wind came up. It was like 'you've got to be kidding'."

Passengers fled the ride as soon as it reached the bottom after being restarted. "Everyone was trying to pull off their harnesses and scarper when we got to the bottom because it was pretty scary."

The families got a refund but they had no plans to visit another theme park any time soon, Mrs Pilcher said.

"That's definitely it for us."

Rainbow's End chief executive Chris Deere said it was a busy day and the ride would have been close to - if not at - capacity of 28 people. It stopped near the top after a fault notification showed it overheating.

Mr Deere said passengers had to wait for about 10 minutes while maintenance crew assessed the problem.

"I guess because it stopped at its height it made it appear a little bit worse [than it was]. No one was in danger, there were no safety issues - our staffed handled it as they have been trained."

He said the operations manager spoke to passengers as they exited the ride and happily agreed to refund the cost to those who had asked.

The ride was expected to reopen later today.

- Staff reporter