A ride at Auckland's Rainbow's End was stopped mid-cycle and lowered after children continued spitting after they were asked to stop, the theme park says.

Power Surge ride at Rainbow's End Source: Rainbow's End

It was reported that school students were left stranded upside down after a malfunction on the Power Surge ride.

However the park says "the ride did not malfunction, was stopped mid-cycle and lowered manually due to children spitting, having ignored previous warnings".

Chief executive Chris Deer says at about 2pm the Power Surge was in action when the operator noticed a group of children on the ride were spitting.

The operator tried to tell them to stop, when they didn't, he stopped the ride and manually lowered the group to the ground, removing them from the ride.

He says this is not usual practice but was the right thing to do as they don't tolerate that sort of unpleasant behaviour on the rides.

He says a group of children at the top were hanging upside down momentarily because the ride was stopped mid-cycle but they made no complaints when they got off the ride.

He says the supervisor checked everyone was okay as they got off the ride and they were.