Sunday 14th March

Today was a diversion to enable Ben to achieve a lifetime ambition – a flight in a glider in New Zealand from Omarama; this is an internationally recognized glider site providing fabulous gliding conditions. During Ben’s research he discovered that the Chief Flying Instructor was a colleague from RAF gliding days so contact was established. Ben had a morning flight in a brand new Duo Discus XL, which is a high performance 2-seater. He was towed by aeroplane to 3,500 ft above sea level to a local ridge – this did not provide any lift and it looked like an early return to the airfield. In the event he found some scrappy wave rotor thermals away from the ridge and eventually climbed to 7,000 feet when some mountain wave was encountered. From then it was a steady climb to 12,500 feet with some fantastic views of the mountains – including Mount Cook. Ben was offered the opportunity to fly to Mount Cook, which would take about an hour each way if the lift was reliable – he declined as Liz had been left on the ground and he had already been airborne for nearly an hour. He then had an ‘interesting’ flight back to the airfield and landed after over 1½ hours flying - and was a very happy bunny! After paying the (enormous) bill we drove about 40 kms towards Mount Cook and had an excellent view of it from the east. We then returned to Wanaka through the Lindis Pass which again provided some outstanding scenery. Today’s pictures are from Ben’s glider and one of Mount Cook from the road.