Paragliding solo! [ENG]

Because I knew I'd have spare time, I had decided back in UK that I'd learn paragliding in  New Zealand. As soon as I got a car, I got my introduction day, mainly focused on ground handling and one glide towards the beach at the end of the day.

The site is located 40min south of Auckland, at Karioitahi beach, a wonderfull beach with black sand a fairly constant sea breeze.

Yesterday was my second day. More ground handling, more glide to the beach but at the end of the day a soar from a higher site few kilometers away on the cliff.

The conditions were pretty good, I was then expecting a 15 minutes soar, but because I made a mistake during my second turn, I left the uplift wave which were blowing against the cliff. I started to loose height, so my instructor asked me, by radio, to land on the beach. The 15' soar expected became a 2' glide. Even if it was too short, the feeling was absolutely amazing. 

In France paragliding is called "vol libre" which can be translate by "freedom flight". This is exactly the idea. You've got your wing/harness in your backbag, you climb a hill, a cliff or even a mountain, and off you go!