paragliding – Trails 2 Travel

Paragliding.

An activity that I’ve wanted to do for years but wanted to experience for the first time somewhere truly epic. When we booked our trip to New Zealand, I knew this would be the place. The unique lakes and incredible mountains would make the perfect backdrop for my first open air flight. Best of all Queenstown is a mecca of paragliding with multiple take off hills and competitive pricing. (It’s cheaper to paraglide in Queenstown than it is in Utah) We almost didn’t get to fly due to prolonged bad weather for all 3 days we were visiting, but luckily the morning of our departure, the clouds lifted and the wind died down making for perfect conditions for flying.

Which paragliding tour to choose?

There are two mountains for take off in Queenstown- Bob’s Hill and Coronet Peak. I knew I didn’t want to do Bob’s hill as it isn’t very high and we’d get a similar view just from taking the lift up and luging. So with Coronet Peak our take off of choice- we had 2 companies to choose between. Coronet Peak Tandems and Skytrek. They were pretty evenly priced and reviews were mainly positive for both. Ultimately we chose Coronet Peak Tandems since they were a hair cheaper and we knew the price of our photos and videos wouldn’t cost too much compared to an unknown price with Skytrek.

Coronet Peak Tandems was AWESOME. They communicated wonderfully in the few days before our flight- texting us about weather conditions and rescheduling to a time that worked best for us. The pick up and drop off in downtown Queenstown was seamless and the flight was exactly as expected.

About flying with Coronet Peak Paragliding

There are 2 take offs on Coronet Peak- the main takeoff and higher take off. Make sure to choose the higher take off for the longest flight possible as well as to experience some acrobatic flight tricks. The higher take off is the highest paragliding take off in Queenstown and sits at 5,400 feet. This company has the most tandem flight records from Coronet Peak (vs. Skytrek) and has an incredible team of pilots with year of flight experience. They offer tandem hanggliding and combo flight deals for both hang gliding and paragliding.

Tour costs:

Higher take-off flight: $151 USD/ $236 NZD per person
All videos/ photos taken during tour: $40USD/ $60 NZD per person->
Latte in the landing zone: $3 USD/ $4.70 NZD

From the take off you have AMAZING views of Queenstown city, Lake Wakatipu, and the Remarkables mountain range- making this one of the big reasons for choosing Coronet Peak for take-off. The flights last around 20 minutes with the pilots doing their absolute best to keep you in the air as long as possible. All of the pilots we met on our tour (about 10 of them) were crazy passionate about flying and so excited to be in the air. You could tell they love flying- adding to the feeling that you will get the best absolute flight experience.

Tips for the best flight experience:

Even if it is a warm day, pack a warm jacket or coat. It gets cold up there. Dress warm in general with pants and definitely closed toed shoes.
Our pilots provided us with gloves and sunnies, but if you have a special preference for the look of your sunglasses in photos- pack a pair that fit well.
You can’t have any lose articles AT ALL so if you don’t have a gopro mount for your clothing then you will just have to rely on the footage they take. If you don’t have zipping pockets to secure your phone, wallet, etc.. then your pilot will store your things in their bag for the flight.
Morning is an excellent time to book for great lighting and to better weather.
Schedule your tour for the your first day in Queenstown. Then if the wind/ weather isn’t right and they have to reschedule you, you have plenty of options.

Our experience with Coronet Peak Paragliding

We signed up for the 2^nd tour of the day at 9:30 AM so we could sleep in. We met them just outside the art museum by their van where they picked up the 8 of us that were going at that timeslot. We drove about 10 minutes in that van to another location where we picked up the pilots and climbed into a larger bus/ van. We were all paired with our pilots based on body weight and height and take off location. It was then another short drive of 10 minutes or so to the very top where the higher take off tour was dropped off first.

The view from up top was just honestly incredible, I’m not sure if you can drive up there on your own since it is part of a ski resort/ dirt roads, but if you can, I highly recommend it. We figured out our order for take off and got a quick debriefing of how the flight would go. My pilot, Jack, explained that you will set your sights straight ahead and try to run toward it as the pilot pulls up the glider and gets ready for take-off. There’s no running off a sudden edge, in fact the take- off hill was actually pretty mild of an angle.

The flight

I didn’t time it but I’m sure I was up there for 15- 20 minutes. Jack explained a few things about thermals and how the warm air coming off the mountain offers lift (which you can definitely feel). The more thermal activity, the better as it will continue pushing you higher. He let me steer a couple times and we did some photos/ videos before moving towards the landing zone. The last descent we did some “tricks” which pretty much involved going into a sort of tight spiral with a couple of swings that bordered on going upside down. Basically I had no way to keep track of which direction was which, but it was very fast and VERY fun.

Photos from my incredible flight. The bottom picture shows Coronet Peak itself.

The landing

Upon landing you get very close to the ground and then sort of hop (what feels like jumping down off a 1 foot curb). I’d say it was easy but since my legs were all jelly from the flight still I kind of collapsed in a heap. Definitely don’t do that! My poor pilot struggled to get me back on my feet as the seat is really awkward and we still had to unclip everything! Haha

*It was a little embarrassing

Braden and his pilot with the landing zone smiling up from far below

Braden had the BEST flight of everyone in our group. His pilot, Rene, caught some awesome thermal energy and ended up at the same height as the peak where they could see all the way to Wanaka! With all the lift they got, their flight probably lasted 5 more minutes than mine and looked like an absolute best.

If you want to go with a pilot with the absolute most thrill and stoke- definitely ask for Rene. That being said, Jack was also great but a bit more reserved.

Some of the photos Braden got from his flight. We were so high up!

On the ground

Back on the ground of the landing zone there’s a small coffee shop where you can look over the gopro footage from your flight. We had about 15 minutes on the ground before the lower take-off flights met back up with us. Then it was a short journey back into town, again transferring vans to go into the center.

All in all, this is a must do in Queenstown. (I guess you could go sky diving but that’s a lot shorter than paragliding) It’s just the right amount of thrill without being terrifying with a super easy take off and landing.