Sky High

Back in 1975 Australia's first martial arts film, 'The Man From Hong Kong', was released to Australian and International acclaim. In the opening sequence a young spunky (70's speak) Rosalind Spiers hang glides into the Royal Hong Kong Police Training School in pretty spectacular fashion, while the hip tune 'Skyhigh' performed by British Jigsaw (not to be confused with the Australian band Jigsaw, again a 70's thing) provided the soundtrack. Later on in the movie hang gliding sequences were filmed at Stanwell Park on the Australian South Coast and then also used in a spectacular finale for the film. 

So this was probably the first time that this sport was introduced to the Australian public via the mass media.

I was reminded of all this the other week, when having a spare few minutes at work, I drove up to Newcastle's spectacular Strzelecki Scenic Lookout to just take in the wonderful Newcastle coastal vista. While I was there, the guys from Air Sports - Newcastle were preparing  to perform a couple of tandem flights and so I grabbed my trusty go anywhere friend, the Sanyo S1275 camera to capture the fun, colour and excitement of a tandem hang glide. However, I must admit that I hadn't kept the batteries in the camera fully charged and a result I could only take a limited amount of shots on this occasion before the batteries expired. Not very professional at all on my behalf!  

My failing battery issue aside, these flights look spectacular as they leap from the sheer cliff face, over the azure blue ocean and soar up to 3.000ft, taking in what must be one of the most unique sightseeing adventure tours in New South Wales, if not in the whole of Australia. 

Now you may not want to hang glide into a Chinese Police compound and you may not even want to take on an evil Australian drug lord in the Sydney CBD, but if you want to get a different perspective of Newcastle then contact the crew at Air Sports - Newcastle http://www.air-sports.com.au/  and jump into adventure.


Also make sure you always take your camera on your travels and make sure the batteries are always fully charged!