OMG, too great a flight-a great trip, really fun.

My pilot was really good with me as I was a little afraid but he turned it into one of the best day I've had in New Zealand. And I've got the photo's to prove it!

Reviewed almost 15 years ago

How can we possible rate this experience?

Jess had an awesome time - definitely not an adrenaline rush, but loads of fun cruising through the sky over gorgeous Queenstown with a friendly instructor. She scores it an 8. Rose, on the other hand, nearly died. As we all reached the top of Coronet Peak the clouds were coming in thick and fast and the instructors knew we all had to hurry. Fortunately, Jess was able to take off almost straight away. Rose and her instructor, on the other hand, stayed on the peak for some time, wrestling with the pesky parachute which had become tangled after catching on the intrsuctor's camera pole. After much sliding down of slopes and wrestling with cords and wind, to no avail, the instructor turned around, observed the gathering clouds, and said "I'm not flying through that". Consequently, Rose was lumped with an enormous backpack, roughly the same size as her body, and told "The best thing you can do is to take this and walk. The lift closes in 10 minutes". Rose attempted to do this, but found it rather more difficult than she may otherwise have done, had she not been wearing Converse sneakers (she didn't know she was going to the snow that day!). After many minutes of struggling and gaining no ground at all as she alternately sunk to her knees in the snow or slipped over on the ice (or was pulled over by the weight of the pack), eventually the instructor was able to make it up to the lift to ask them to keep it open long enough for their descent. Finally, Rose was able to make it to the lift (once she had been relieved of the pack) as the clouds set in, wheezing and coughing from the cold and altitude, as one might expect after struggling to walk UP a black run (which is indesputably geared towards sending people DOWN as fast possible). There was silence on the chairlift as Rose and the instructor coasted down the mountain, relieved to live another day. Jess rates this experience highly, but Rose overrules. She has been traumatised.

Reviewed over 15 years ago