I am sailing, I am sailing (well, actually gliding)

In my last post I forgot to mention all the birthday presents I got spoilt with this year. Well, actually I didn't forget, but though I had already rambled on enough by the time I wanted to talk about them. But anyway, this year I got extra spoilt.

I got money from Grandma and Grandpa and along with some that Mum and Dad had given me I went on a shopping spree, which I hadn't done in SO LONG. Just by myself, and in the mood to shop, and actually having money to shop with, AND actually finding stuff that I wanted. I had such a good time! I got mostly clothes, a real girly spend-up! Mum also bought me a pamper kind of gift pack which had a lovely soft bath robe (it's so warm and cosy), some body scrub, shower gel, lip balm and body lotion all in the same rosey kind of smell. Adrian bought me lots: a gift pack from Lush (always a winner), a motorbike magazine (for dreaming), a creme egg (good boy) and tickets for us both to go to the NZ Symphony Orchestra next month. Paul (Adrian's dad) bought me a voucher for a facial and full body massage at Ataahua day spa in Lower Hutt. Anna (my sister) bought me a pack of mini Dior perfumes which has Miss Dior, Addict, Midnight Poison (sooo good) and J'Adore. See? Spoilt a!!!

Also, Mum and Dad got me a voucher for a glider trial flight at the Wellington Glider Club which is at Paraparaumu airport. I was a bit nervous when I saw the 'trial flight' bit. Not being a commercial, tourist-y, money-making enterprise, I think the Glider Club offers these vouchers to try and get people interested in gliding more often, and then of course they will join the club. So I turned up at 2.50 for my 3pm booking. At about 4.05 I was being taken to the glider. Turns out that you can't really have bookings for gliders, cos they just go up and stay up there for as long as they can, pretty much until they need to go to the loo. Would you believe a glider can stay in the air for more than 4 hours? That's what people at the club yesterday were doing. I wouldn't have thought that, but since there is no petrol needed, just warm air (of which there is a lot on the Kapiti coast), they just keep going.

So anyway, I was taken to my glider and introduced to my pilot, Ross. He seemed pretty cool. i think I went in one similar or the same as the Schmepp-Hirth Janus here. I got in - my bum only just fit in the seat :( And it's a bit strange cos you kind of lie down and your feet and lower legs end up about level with your chest. Turns out when you're in the air the glider is always facing slightly down (makes sense, I guess) so that's why it feels a bit queer when you're on the ground. Ross got in the back seat and started showing me all the controls and how they work (here's the trial bit). I was like hmm... not sure why he's telling me this, I don't really want to fly it! I'm happy just for the ride! But he showed me nonetheless, then after telling me not to touch anything red or yellow, the tow plane turned up and we got attached by someone else. Ross said "Now, the rope is going to go tight, then he's gonna gun it, then we'll just follow him up, ok?". Ahh, yeah, ok. I was kinda freaking out... the plane started going, fast of course, I had to shut my eyes for a few seconds cos it was scary bumping along the ground (those things must have pretty good suspension).

As soon as we left the ground it was much less scary. Hmm, that's slightly ironic isn't it?! It was smooth, but then got kinda bumpy as we got higher. Ross mentioned a good analogy - this part (the tow) was like riding in a boat out to sea, smacking against the waves. When the tow plane lets you go, it's more like surfing, because you catch the thermal ('wave') and just go with it. We started heading toward the Tararuas (map here) (a view similar to mine here) where there would be a warm, strong northerly coming up the hills. Ross: "In a minute, the tow plane will let us go, and we'll be gliding, ok?". Again, ahh, yeah, ok. A few seconds after that, there was rather a loud clunk, and the tow plane had dropped us at about 2150 ft. I had expected that the descent would be quite rapid, but I could now see why people could stay up here for hours on end. We circled on the thermal(s?) above the hills (view here) for probably about 5 minutes, and never dropped more than 20 ft or so. We only started dropping height as we moved away from the ridge toward the coastline (view here). Ross let me take the controls for a little while, it was just my job to try to keep the wings level. After a little bit I started doing some banking into turns, then got kinda freaked out and asked him to take over again. I probably flew for about four minutes. After that Ross said "I'll just show you what the gliders can do, ok?" I didn't really have time to answer before he had put it in a steep banked turn and we were feeling lots of positive gs. I love that feeling, it was so cool. We did another couple of these, and after enquiring if and how you could do negative gs in a glider, he showed me a small amount by 'bunting over' which is when you push the nose of the glider down fast, on purpose. That was more scary, like on a rollercoaster (except of course you're not attached to the ground like on a coaster). That was pretty much it, we landed surprisingly smoothly and I got a wee certificate saying I'd successfully completed a Glider Trial Flight.

A very cool present! I'd like to go back someday and do a longer one :)