Paraglide

Today was a beautiful day in Queenstown. So I headed up the mountain on the Gondola to see the view from above.


Once at the the snow last night left it's evidence on the tree tops, it was so pretty. After checking out the view from the lookouts I walked over to the paraglide folks to see the prices. I was thinking of maybe doing this on Friday... After talking to the guy he told me that there was a snow storm coming in for tomorrow and after 5 pm today the winds and the weather probably wouldn't allow any gliding until Sunday...Humm, I leave Saturday.. He then said, you don't get a better day than today, and I have a pilot how bout now? Sure.. Away I went with Clarke, we took the luge chair lift up the mountain, walked over to a take off point.


Clarke looked at the winds and said, up for a hike? So I said sure. He tossed our gear in the back of a 4-wheeler, radioed someone about running it up the hill, and we were off.. up into the mountain o n a hill that was fairly steep, and becoming more and more snow covered as we went up. about 15 minutes later we are the top of the mountain, such a view. After setting up the gear and getting my harness on, a quick review of the commands and off the side of the mountain we ran, he said we were about 2000 feet up.


We floated over the newly snow powdered pines and out over the town, it was fantastic!


Closer to the landing site we did a spin and then Clarke asked if I was up for a fast spin, of course I was! So in a fast spiral we headed towards the earth below, so much better than a roller coaster.


Ahh, what a great time! Much more fun than riding the Gondola back to the bottom.