Matt Stanford above the Cook Strait in New Zealand. Photo: Matt Stanford
Matt Stanford became the first pilot to cross New Zealand’s 30km Cook Strait by paraglider earlier this year.
In Cross Country 148 he tells his story.
“It looks do-able, eh Mark?” Mark Hardman and I were driving when a road atlas caught my eye. I was looking at the thumb-width of water that separates New Zealand’s North and South Islands. In that moment a plan formed that took 16 months to come to fruition until, on Saturday 2 March 2013, I became the first paraglider pilot to cross the Cook Strait.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. How could it be when it would involve a helicopter, 3,000m and a D-bag. Oh, and all those wind turbines must means it’s almost permanently windy…
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