Wanaka, NZ

By Jesse Hall

By KAVU

February 18^th, 2025

This winter, I was fortunate enough to get a small break from the cold mountains in Utah to go check out New Zealand for my first time ever. The commercial flight to that part of the globe was no joke... with the longest leg being 13 hours over open ocean!

The approach into Queenstown was like nothing I’ve seen before flying in a Large jet; passing below the tops of mountains into a narrow little valley was exciting to say the least. The scale of the mountains was hard to comprehend at first! The dramatic and rugged relief seemed to go on forever into the distance, towering into the sky.

From Queenstown, we took an hour drive through the mountains to Wanaka,which would be our home base for the next two weeks.

The gorgeous home we stayed at was a work of art, with windows opening directly onto a large lake and all you could see from the patio was mountain, sky and water. It was the perfect place to enjoy and absorb the beauty of New Zealand. In the distance, the glaciers and waterfalls hinted of what we would be soon exploring.

The mountains are so vast and large here we decided to use a helicopter to access the jumping. Most of the jumps would take all-day hiking just to get to the bottom of the climb. It was obvious to us that these mountains were not the safest place to get injured without a helicopter nearby.

Our group was eight jumpers, including one "local-born-and-raised" from this exact area. The helicopter pilot also grew up in the area, and is one of the best pilots we’ve ever flown with, so we were in good hands.

We started off with more "mellow" jumps; big walls with nice, big, grassy landing areas. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.... packing our parachutes in a field full of wildflowers next to a waterfall! Pretty Next Level KAVU Days!

One of the most scenic parts of the jumping was flying through the glaciers, and looking at all the waterfalls pouring down into green valleys, and down to the lakes. It was truly one of the most pristine locations I have ever been by far! Drinking straight from the rivers was wonderful!

As the week went on, we slowly stepped up our game and got into more technical stuff; shorter starts and tighter landing areas. But, we still played safe with the goal being to hang out as a group of good friends in a beautiful location.

We cooked most of the meals in the beautiful home we stayed in, but we had to go out and get a couple meat pies being the local favorite! The town sits on a beautiful lake with a beach to walk and lots of happy people enjoying the amazingly scenic location!