Breaking the New Zealand paragliding distance record with a nine hour flight along the backbone of the Southern Alps on Christmas day 2015. Lots of cirrus around early on but it was fast flying anyway, in the dry country east of the main divide. In the first two hours I covered over 30km/hr. The Pukaki airmass around Mt Cook was the first hurdle which was much slower but it was back to full speed after that until the Arrowsmiths. Here a detour slowed me down and the flight changed from strong desert thermals to gentle valley breeze soaring in the shade. I landed on the West Coast - no lift on the face and a very light valley breeze. See my full report of this and other flights at sharemyjoys.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/new-zealand-paragliding-record-continued/ The tracklog for this flight is at www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1320226 Some history of records in New Zealand can be found here www.nzhgpa.org.nz/competitions/pg-competitions/pg-online-cross-country-competition Footage, edit, and voiceovers by the pilot Nick Neynens

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