7-year-old fearlessly jumps out of plane
A 7-year-old who jumped from a plane 3.5 kilometres above Lake Taupo¯ says she is keen to go again.
Visiting from Colorado, Stella did a 12,000-foot skydive with her mum Katie Brown on Sunday.
Brown said she found the skydive scarier than her daughter. ‘‘The hardest part for me as a mum was the fact Stella jumped first,’’ Brown said.
‘‘Watching your kid go out of a plane can definitely make your heart skip a beat.’’
Brown said her daughter had wanted to jump ever since she saw her mum skydive in Fiji.
‘‘In Colorado, you have to be 18 years old to skydive,’’ she said.
‘‘When we booked a threemonth trip to New Zealand, skydiving was number one on the to-do list.’’
Stella said she had not been scared to jump.
‘‘When can I go again?’’, she said to her mum, upon landing.
Brown said her daughter loved the experience with Taupo¯ Tandem Skydive, so she would be happy to let her jump again.
‘‘I was also quite reassured by the number of safety checks they put in place.’’
Tandem master Danny Overeem took Stella on the jump.
He said he had taken plenty of children skydiving in his eight years as a tandem master but 7 years was the youngest he had jumped with.
‘‘She was a very brave girl.
‘‘You could tell it was her idea and she really wanted to do it,’’ he said.
‘‘Normally, with kids that age, you don’t know how they’re going to respond in the plane when you get up there.
‘‘But she definitely wanted to jump out, so good on her.
‘‘I let her fly the parachute around and from what I could tell, she had her eyes open the whole time and soaked it in, enjoying the moment,’’ he said.