Testimonials
What you said about your skydive adventure...
Jeannine, November 2007
I had the pleasure of skydiving with you on Monday - the first plane up. I just wanted to tell you that you were absolutely wonderful that day. I really appreciated your patience making sure I felt safe and comfortable. Distracting me from what we were about to do by showing me the sights from the plane's window was perfect. I liked hearing where everything was in relation to where we were flying.
I had the best time and felt 100% and secure the whole time. I could not have asked for a better person to go with. I know I kept saying over and over and over and over how pretty it was up there, and I am still awed by it all when I think about it. Just magnificent! Once the parachute opened, the gliding down was my favorite. I could have stayed up there forever!!
Thank you so much for making my first (but not last!) skydiving experience an amazing one!
Abygail and David, UK, July 2007
We've been home in England now for almost a month and the skydive that we both did at Lake Wanaka is definitely our highlight and the one thing that we seem to talk about most from our trip of New Zealand. We just wanted to thank you all for a fantastic experience.
You were all so much fun and helped us feel as relaxed as you can be when your are about to jump out of plane at 15000ft!! Thank you to Shawn and Simon our tandem masters and we especially wanted to say thank you to the dvd guy who we never thanked on the day. The dvd was worth every penny. All our family and friends have seen the dvd endless times. Many thanks and thanks once again.
Stephen James, UK, February 2007
Just a very belated thank you for the skydive I experienced back in Feb. this year. We were in NZ visiting our daughter who had worked the season in Treble Cone. I could not miss the chance for my first skydive and probably chose the best place on the planet to do it. 100% professional, never felt in the least bit worried and even now can remember every second. Wearing my skydive tee shirt here in Suffolk, England has started more than one conversation - well done guys it was great. Many many thanks.
Karen Mcdonald, New Zealand, January 2006.
I came skydiving on Monday January 23rd with the wonderful skydiving instructor, Geoff. I must say what an experience!
From walking in the door to the welcoming reception from the ladies behind the desk, to the scenic plane ride and then the amazing skydive!
Thank you to my skydiving instructor Geoff for the footage he took, I could never have captured the amazing New Zealand scenery with just a few stills photos. Please put me on your database to advise me of any skydiving specials that you may have in the New Zealand winter season.
I’m going to put together a girl’s weekend of skydiving, adventure and excitement, and a few wines as well!
Irene Coma, March 2006.
Antoinette and I would like to thank you very much for making our skydiving experience so enjoyable.
We appreciated you taking the time to talk to us last Tuesday, show us the skydive video and let us watch the people who were skydiving that day. It certainly helped me get a better idea of what to expect and it also helped me to convince Antoinette to skydive too.
My family got some great photos and we have a great skydive video that we have enjoyed showing people. At times I think it’s good we had the proof, as I am sure some of my friends didn’t think we had it in us to skydive in New Zealand!
Thanks again. I would recommend your company to anyone thinking about making a skydive in New Zealand.
Chris & Rosemary Chrissotimos, USA, August 2005.
My wife and I went tandem skydiving with you guys in New Zealand on the 24th August this year. We had an unbelievable experience!
Thanks so much for the opportunity for that life-long memory of New Zealand! We wanted to thank your experienced skydiving crew for doing all the work for us, so all we had to do was sit back and relax.
Boris was a great tandem skydiving instructor, full of interesting facts and gave a mind-blowing crash course on tandem skydiving. Grant was excellent too and kept Rosemary calm, which helped her enjoy her tandem skydiving experience.
Eugene and our other skydiving cameraman did a superb job with both the skydiving photos and DVD. Please thank them all for us. We picked up our wing photos off your website last week as well and they look great too!
Thank you for a wonderful memory of New Zealand.
Elizabeth Rees, UK, February 2006.
I am writing to say a massive thanks for my skydiving DVD. I have only just had a chance to watch it and it’s great.
I would also like to say thanks for the excellent customer service and a truly fantastic New Zealand skydiving experience.
I will definitely be recommending Skydive Lake Wanaka to all that I meet on my travels in New Zealand.
Gina, Bailey & Kendall Theriault, USA, Dec 2005
I have been meaning to write to you for some time. My children and I made a tandem skydive with Skydive Lake Wanaka in New Zealand in December 2005.
Your tandem skydive instructors are awesome! Your facility is top notch! The view of the New Zealand mountains and lakes spectacular!
My daughter was just 6 at the time of the jump and my son 10. The tandem skydive instructors did such a great job with them. I was a little concerned about letting them skydive at such young ages, but after 2.5 weeks in New Zealand and doing tons of different things, they both said their most favorite experience was making a tandem skydive. They loved it!
They have both asked to go again since returning from New Zealand and are very upset to learn that they have to be 18 years old to tandem skydive here in the United States. I am constantly hearing about how they need to go back to New Zealand so they can jump again.
You gave them such a great opportunity to challenge themselves and do something really wonderful that they will remember for the rest of their lives. I know they are proud of themselves and it will only make them more confident people.
I liked skydiving so much; I have made a second tandem skydive here in Colorado where I live. I am planning to learn to skydive solo soon. My whole family is now hooked!
We thank you so much for a truly amazing experience!
PS. Please thank Geoff, Eugene and Hank. We think they are the absolute best tandem skydive instructors around!
Skydiving Poem by Vicky Hodgson (aged 8)
Flying, flying, flying, falling down
Floating simply over the sea, ‘hope I don’t drown
Flying, flying flying, through clouds like fluff
Tumbling through the universe and through this white stuff!
Magically falling
Below us people calling
Just jumped from the plane
I really am insane!
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, through this hidden world
Tumbling down through mists, my body is all curled
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, where on earth will I land?
My entrance back to earth will be amazingly grand!
In a magic world
Every cloud is pearled
This IS a sensation
Or is it just my imagination?
Floating, floating, floating, where is that parachute?
I am just SO small, that I didn’t fit the suit!
Floating, floating, floating, It’s magical up here!
Oh, my ride is nearly over, I can see that the ground is near!
I see Mum and Dad waving
That really was amazing!
I’m coming down to land
Oh, this really is grand
Landing, landing, landing, the ground is near my feet
I hope we land all proper, so it looks really, really neat!
Landing, landing, landing, Wanaka is great!
This skydiving place is cool, but my Mum is in a state!
Robyn Jankel
Dear Skydive Lake Wanaka team (and particularly Eugen),
I just wanted to send you an email to thank you for my fantastic experience I had on Sunday afternoon. Since I jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet, you have doubtless had dozens of other customers and I am nothing more than a distant memory to you. But for me, you will all remain sharply in my mind for a very long time to come.
Doing a skydive has long been in my top ten of Things To Try Before I Die. But to be perfectly honest, I always thought that it would be something I would do just to say that I had done it; it never occurred to me that it would be something I would enjoy so much that I would want to do it again - and as soon as possible. And yet, that is exactly what has happened.
I want to apologise for my lack of interesting conversation on the way up in the plane. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be reduced to petrified silence on the way up, but my usual ability to chat incessantly was left further and further behind as the plane climbed higher and higher, and looking back, I can't believe how little I had to say for myself! (This silence, other than a few choice swearwords on a repeat cycle, is very unusual for me!) I can say with absolute certainty that I have never been so terrified in all my life. The fact that I'm afraid of flying probably didn't help, but I think it was the sheer enormity of what I was about to take on which simply overwhelmed my nervous system. Grey-faced, mute and almost paralysed with fear, I wondered whether I would have the gall to open my eyes on the way down, if I would lose my stomach like on a rollercoaster, or if I would scream in terror until I reached the ground. The moment Eugen opened the door, I swear my life started to flash before my eyes. The last few seconds were a blur. We were inching to the side of the plane. I was smiling for the camera. (Well, I say smiling; more like grimacing). The last instructions were uttered. The correct position was assumed. I considered taking up religion. Then suddenly - we were out of the plane.
What shocked me most was that it didn't take any time to get used to. Instantly, I loved it. All my fears seemed to have vanished into thin air. What had I been afraid of? What exactly had been making me so sick with worry? This wasn't just fun; this was the most incredible experience of my entire life. Whistling through the air, I shrieked as I had thought I would; but rather than the sounds being screams of agony, I felt only euphoria. The 45 seconds zipped past me faster than the mountain tops were rushing towards me, and all too soon the parachute was being deployed. I wished I had taken the 15,000-foot option, but then I wouldn't have been able to afford the handicam, which was possibly the second-best purchase of my entire trip to NZ (the first being the skydive itself, of course!). Still the five or so minutes that we were surveying the ground from the air, with nothing but a strip of nylon keeping us from crashing headlong into it, were almost as fantastic as the freefall. I felt invincible. I felt as though nothing could touch me. I wondered why it had taken me 22 years to do it. I vowed to do it again as soon as possible, to make up for all the wasted opportunities so far!
I'm sure you've had first-timers who were far more adventurous than me. I expect you've had freefallers who've twisted and turned and flipped their way through the oblivion of open sky, whilst I simply dropped, directly, astounded, but ecstatic. I'm certain you've had people who've piloted their own parachutes, who've performed acrobatic manoeuvers and dramatic feats of strength and agility. I've no doubt that you've had people who've cried with joy at reaching the ground, clung on so tightly to the arm of their instructor that they've cut off their blood supply, had endless witty repartee with the cameraman and displayed the perfect parting shot and quick-fire responses to give their DVDs that little extra edge. I was probably quite boring in comparison to these people. I jumped, I landed, I had little to say for myself in between. I was yet another first-time skydiver with an instructor who had done this thousands of times before. But despite this, I was amazed at how comfortable Eugene made me feel. He wasn't patronising towards my almost incapacitating fear, and he didn't laugh at me as I struggled onto the plane (and, indeed, out of it). Despite having been through this rigmarole countless times, he appeared to remember well the feelings I can only imagine he, too, experienced the first time he leapt out of a plane into sheer nothingness. He was comforting and sensitive to my feelings, at the same time as being clearly safety-concious, which reassured me tremendously and allowed me to relax (as much as one can, 12,000 feet in the air) as he took over without making me feel as though I were simply another jumper on a conveyer belt of skydivers. I never got to thank him properly, other than a grateful hug when we reached solid ground, and I wanted to let him know how grateful I am for remembering how it feels the first time, and for letting me enjoy myself to the fullest extent, but at my own pace.
So, thankyou. I know that my experience was no different to every other first-time skydiver, and I know that you herd thousands of us through your doors every year, but I wanted to write and let you know exactly how I felt, in case you'd forgotten, or in case nobody else ever gets back to you!! I have been reliving my experience every minute of every hour since I did my jump four days ago, and I am planning to schedule another jump when I get back to England. But the scenery will never be as spectacular as it was at Wanaka, the instructors will probably not be nearly as friendly and fun as yours, and I will never again feel the heart-stopping fear in quite the same way as I did the moment before I stepped out of a plane for the first time in my life. Thank you for making this an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. Thank you for helping me to tick this off my list of Things To Try Before You Die. Thank you - thank you. I will treasure my memories and my DVD, and even as 7th October 2007 becomes just another day for all of you, it will forever remain for me as The Day I Jumped Out Of A Plane (And Bloody Loved It!). Thank you!
Best place on the
planet to do it!!! 
Stephen James - UK
Feb 2007
Just magnificent!!!
Jeannine
November 2007