Flying high

Just an average day today really. Got up. Made pancakes for breakfast. Had a shower. Went paragliding.

Pretty cool stuff really. Thanks for the early birthday pressie David, Petreena, Fiona, Steve, Christopher and Michael.

We were due on the 9am flight this morning, but for the first time in a while it rained last night (quite glad of the rain as QT was the hottest place in the country yesterday) and the cloud was still too low first thing this morning.

So, we headed off at 10.30, up 2500m to Coronet Peak, with a trailer full of paragliders in tow. It was still a little hazy when we reached the take off site, but most of the cloud was above us and there was a little wind.

I chose Shi as my pilot for the tandem paraglide, based partly on the fact that he had been chatting away about his paragliding experience when he picked us up that morning, and partly because his in-flight photos looked far superior to the others in the sample book. Both of us steered clear of the guy who'd had had a 'little incident' yesterday, and Alec opted for a guy who looked freakishly like Kel from the Aussie comedy Kath and Kim.

Paragliding sounds like such a big thing, but (luckily) there was no drama involved. It all went pretty smoothly and was pretty straight forward. Okay - my input was limited to running fast down hill at the beginning and running (and falling over as it turns out) when we hit the ground at the end.

Alec was first to head off and swooped down in to the valley below, proudly flying beneath his KFC paraglider. The poor bloke - he was feeling a little travel sick after the journey up the hill and hadn't quite recovered by the time the flight took off. He still enjoyed it, though he opted out of the acrobatics.

The woman in front of me lost her shoe on the run down the hill, so I checked mine were tightly fastened whilst we waited our turn as a couple of handgliders took off. Safely strapped into the harness it was, literally, a case of running down hill until Shi told me to stop running and sit back in the harness. The wind did change just as we took off, which meant we came back down slightly but I was still running, as instructed, and we were airborne within seconds.

From there it was very surreal. All the landscape laid out in front of us as we swooped around catching thermals. It looked, for all the world, like a massive cinema screen spread out beneath us as I sat in the rather sturdy harness.

We caught a few good updrafts and I think I was probably in the air the longest out of the group - about 15 mins all in. I guess it pays to flatter your instructor before take off. ;)

Just towards the end of the flight I was given the option of some basic acrobatic manoeuvres and agreed. This was the only time my stomach really flipped over as Shi swung us from side to side and spun us round whilst decending. All good fun though.

The landing is pretty basic. Most people just skidded in on their bums, but Shi decided we should run in. Not a great move as I fell over about 5 paces onto the ground, but quickly recovered with nothing bruised by my ego.

All in all it was a bloody good flight and I would do it again in an instant. Maybe we'll even take it up seriously when we get back to the UK.

After the excitement of the morning we were back to the old favourite - packing - this afternoon as Larry and Lesley leave tomorrow which means we're out of the luxury apartment and back in the tent. It's been great to see them and I am sure they'll have a great time in the N Island before heading home via Singapore.

This evening Alec took me to the ice bar which varies between -5 degrees and -10 degrees. It was actually very pleasant after the heat of QT the last few days. Fully suited and booted up we headed into the ice bar with a group of merry Aussies to drink cocktails out of glasses made of ice, while sitting on seats made of ice and admiring the ice sculptures. Pretty cool, if you'll pardon the pun.

And, to round off a great day we went out for a lovely meal with Larry and Lesley this evening. Looking forward to seeing them again sometime this year.