While the skydiving companies and bungy companies take top tourism awards for excellence in New Zealand, the hang gliders are the quiet and unsung step children.  Hitting their peak long before bungy and skydiving became a household name, these guys are hardly an icon of entrepreneurial talent.  When I tried to arrange a hang glide session, they said “we just call the guys and they will show up in a van pretty much when ever you are ready.”

They didn’t have the gleaming brochures or the posh boutique stores in downtown Queenstown.  They didn’t identify with the service and tourism industry.  In fact, they hardly talked to my friend and me when driving up the mountain.  They didn’t care where we were from.  They didn’t want to know how long were were in New Zealand for.  They were underground.

I couldn’t even pronounce the name of my glide master, but I knew he was from Sweden (or Switzerland) and he would have no bullshit on his ship.

We got out of the van 4000 feet above Queenstown and he started assembling the glider.  Still no small talk; still no safety briefing.  He looked at me and said “we are going to practice running now.” So we practiced: Step, step, run run run.  And that was it.  He didn’t tell me anything else. So I pried “So after we just run, what happens?”  He looked and me and said “You just run.”  He later told me that “The Less you know, the better off you are.  If you know to much, you don’t end up running and we all get in trouble”

This along with the lack of brick and mortar building, scarred me to say the least.  I thought “WTF is this shit?  Who does this guy think he is?”  The answer was that he was a glider, not a sales man, not a customer service rep, just a glider.

We ran off the cliff and it was extremely smooth.  From there he had me hold onto the controls and taught me how to fly.  All I had to do was lean.  Left goes left, right goes right, back slows down, and forward dive bombs.  It was easy.

There was a wind meter that would beep and warn him of oncoming wind.  It was a sobering beep that would alert the pilot of the ability to climb.

Just as I was getting comfortable, the pilot said ” hold onto me, I’m going to scare you now.”

The Video is the landing that followed.  Watch the trees that we nearly collide with at the end

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