The four day fine weather window in Aspiring national park turned into 2 days sunshine and four days rain so having

hicked up to the Aspiring hut we cut our losses and headed back down into the valley where the weather was more

settled and we could get some walking done in the valleys.

A big high pressure zone heading for South Island indicated a longer period of good weather so we headed off in to Mt Cook

National park to see if we could get high into the mountains. En route we stopped off in Omarama to try our hand at flying a glider.

Omarama is recognised as one of the top five “soaring” destinations in the world and has hosted gliding world championships in the

recent past.                                                        The “Tug”

The parachute being strapped on. I was told how to get out of the planbe and how to open the chute...but not how to land????

Gliders rely on three methods to obtain lift and stay airborne, firstly the “tug” or airplane that pulls them up into the air, secondly using thermals

Or currents of hot air that can lift them 10’s of thousands of feet in minutes or thirdly by using what glider pilots call a “wave” created by wind when

air is forced upwards by large hills or better still mountains. Omarama has all three of these conditions and although it was not hot enough for good

thermals to form we did use the tug to get airborne and find what the pilots descibed as excellent wave conditions.

Terry imagining he is the Red Baron or a bird or knows what he is doing!

But he did love the soaring and proved adept at handling the controls, bringing the glider in almost to touch down...a natural.

Conditions under the wave were a little bumpy and we had to circle around to try and find the edge, but once we did we quickly gained

height up to over before the pilot decided that we were high enough and in these conditions would have a little trouble getting down!