Skydive Abel Tasman

Great dropzone in amazing scenery. Friendly and fun! The best in NZ :)

A great dropzone with friendly staff, great plane, good facilities and stunning views at the top of the South Island.

Would recommend it to anyone for tandems, AFF or sporties - Skydive Abel Tasman is great.

While holidaying in New Zealand I went on a bit of a dropzone crawl across the country. It's a real shame that many of the places that I went to have taken the direction of deterring sports jumpers from visiting. Skydive Abel Tasman is NOT one of those dropzones. From the moment I arrived I was made super welcome and got straight into checking out the amazing scenery from 15,000ft. The only negatives I could point out are that there is no camping area for visitors (but thats because they cant have one near the airfield) and that there isn't a cafe (I believe one is planned for construction some time soon)..
Thanks for having me guys, Blues skies!

I had a great bunch of jumps at Skydive Abel Tasman right before New Year. Thanks a ton and I'm looking forward to coming back!

Skydive Abel Tasman has a great vibe about it. It's relaxed but totally professional. Their systems work like a well oiled machine - you know your load well in advance and the Pilatus Porter has quick turn arounds.

The crew there are absolutely awesome and really accommodating to newer sport jumpers such as myself. Everyone was looked after really well. Did some coached FS jumps and lots of 2 ways plus a couple of solos. A variety of sport jumpers kept turning up, and there were the usual lot of tandems too. The pros were helpful with plenty of tips right from load organizing, dirt dives, free fall, canopy flight and help with packing too.

Motueka, where the DZ is located, is a really cool little town. There are some nice cafes and pubs, plenty of accommodation options, and the stunning Abel Tasman park right next door. It's fairly easy to get to the DZ from Nelson (nearest airport). The drive is about 45 mins and there are buses and shuttles around. As a bonus, the weather is generally pretty good.

Do I recommend Skydive Abel Tasman - oh yes, 100%+ :)

Sport jumpers are made to feel welcome and at home. Like all DZ's tandems pay the bills, but here they have a small population of local sport jumpers, the staff take time for fun jumps, and it has the vibe of a cool place to hang out when the turbine stops. This is a must visit DZ for any sport jumper touring S. Island.

Staff are very accommodating from your first tandem to AFF students and every sport jump afterwards.
As a sporty your made to feel welcome rather than a inconvenience to the tandem operation you get at other 'organisations'. cheap as jump tickets to ride in the porter to altitude in no time!

Facilities are sweet as, clean, tidy and professional (I hate messy packing mats!!) with plenty of space outside for family an friends to chill out an watch the canopy's land right outside the base on the lush grass landing area.
As I mentioned above the MASSIVE TV to watch back your jumps for debriefing is ridiculously cool! B)

Stu Bean is a LEGEND for opening his DZ to sportys for Good Vibes and Lisa is an absolute ANGEL for organising the whole thing, one of the best weeks of my skydiving career so far!

Cheers guys for an all round awesome place to feed my addiction, Look forward to many more jumps at Skydive Abel Tasmen.. :)

A great dropzone with friendly staff, great plane, good facilities and stunning views.

Would recommend it to anyone whatever your plans are, tandem, AFF or sporties - Skydive Abel Tasman is the place :)

Amazing DZ nothing bad to say about it.
Awesome location plane is fast as hell.
All the staff are awesome

Made my AFF in December 2011. Had one of the best weeks in my life. Beautiful location close to the sea. Perfect view across to the North Island. Mountains on the other side. Food stall in front of the hangar with yummy burgers!
Great place to learn! Not too big. Great people! Lovely town! Amazing country! MS

I did my AFF with Skydive Abel Tasman in Jan '12. These guys were excellent. Great gear, friendly people, brilliant location. If you are in this neck of the woods I would definitely recommend these guys. JK

I did the first three AFF levels, completed over two days due to weather. the crew all made me feel like one of the team, and got me stoked to jump.

all the instructors were great and i had an awesome time! cant wait to live in motueka again!

Was at ATS around Christmas and had a great day at the Orphans boogie. I felt home and accepted by all the skydivers and staff, made a few awsome jumps together!! They even tried to arrange an helicopterjump! It was clear that on this DZ having fun in skydiving is very important:D. Thanx!!

Abel Tasman was the first dropzone I visited after getting my license in Germany / so I was really nervous jumping somewhere else for the first time. The people are awesome and took really good care of me with the briefing and being at the dropzone itself. I felt very welcome and would have loved to stay longer than my three jumps. Thanks to you all - especially Lisa for helping me out and checking everthing I needed.

I spent almost two weeks with Skydive Abel Tasman while working towards my A licence and would highly recommend them to anyone, from first time tandem jumpers to experienced sport divers.

During this time I had one on one tuition with my instructor, Mike, whose teaching style was clear, concise and structured (when it needed to be) but also friendly and informal in between dives. His easy going character made him very approachable when it came to asking questions and he was always keen to teach me new skills. It is still unclear to me if his motivation for this was purely professional or to keep the beer fridge well stocked! (the house rule is anytime you do something for the first time a contribution is gently expected; a contribution I was more than happy to make!)

My tuition didn’t end with Mike. On many occasions I picked up pieces of information or refined skills thanks to chatting to some of the other professional divers or the pilot who were always willing to answer questions or help out in a sport they were all clearly passionate about. The guys that packed the chutes were particularly helpful when it came to learning their trade, a skill you have a vested interest in not screwing up! And the girls that worked the front of house always did their best to get me as many jumps as I could. On many days I found myself on back to back loads, which was great. I also had the opportunity to jump out of the drop zone’s new, larger plane which has increased the dive shop’s capacity.

The airfield is a twenty minute walk from town in which there are a number of hostels and motels, most of which have bikes you can borrow making the trip to and from the drop zone very easy. The town itself has everything you would need for an extended stay with a selection of stores, two large supermarkets and a couple of half decent watering holes (Hot Mamas and the Sprig & Fern were my favourites). And you are a stone throw away from the national park so if the weather isn’t great for jumping or if you just want to do something different you can go hiking, kayaking or just have a lazy day on the beach.

Skydive Abel Tasman is a well organised drop zone, professionally run and situated in an area of extreme natural beauty, which from altitude is truly breathtaking. But their strongest asset is the team of people that make up the Skydive Abel Tasman family, all of whom I wanted to spend time with after their working day.

I figure if you are going to jump out of a plane it should be with people that you like, respect and trust. Skydive Abel Tasman has those types of people in abundance.

Just finished my A license here, had Mike coaching me the whole way with help from Kevin, Mr O and Scruffy and can't say a bad word about them!

Friendly and welcoming, didn't take long till the beers were cracked open and felt one of the group straight away.

People make places so this is the best!

i think the only people id recomend not coming here are recovering alcoholics!
as i was doing the course through the winter there was a bit of waiting around but just hanging around the DZ was a laugh.

one bit of advice is not to fart in the fletcher with kevin in the plane, hes not happy when you reach the ground!

I did my AFF in Abel Tasman and I'm glad I did it here because the way they teach you is relax, fun and serious at the same time. The instructors -Kevin and Mike- are very good.

The only thing is that skyding is a lot of waiting and hanging around that can be very frustrating when you're travelling for a short time in NZ because you don't want to waist any single day. My course lasted for 8 days so for 9 jumps it's quite long but that's alright because I had a great time.

Skydiving is awesome, I will come back to this drop zone next time I'm in NZ! Thank you!
And I will always remember to shout Ouiiiiiii when I exit the plane :)

Just completed my A-Licence at Abel Tasman and am delighted I did it here.

I travelled round New Zealand a while ago and visited several dropzones but got the best vibe from Abel. Bit of research before hand checking the website, prices and contacting them supported my assumption, so was buzzing to go. I can gladly say that I made the right choice.

Kevin and Mike, two instructors are absolute legends! Very passionate with different styles of teaching so you can vibe off both of them. Excellent instructors, both with a great sense of humor. Can’t speak highly enough of them.

Everyone at the drop zone is willing to give you advice and share things with you.

Extremely friendly and social place. My beer belly has grown substantially!!!

Stunning location. Beaches, the sea, national parks and snow capped mountains very impressive. Awesome spot to check out even when your not jumping.

Massive bonus for me was that you can walk to the drop zone from town so great if you don’t have a car. Most people will give you a lift though.

I also attended the Good Vibes boogie, which as a student was a little frustrating as I couldn’t jump as much as others however everyone who attended the event seemed to have a great time and I met heaps of people. All of whom said I was learning at a great place with excellent instructors. You can’t argue with the pros.

Took a while to get my A-Licence but its a great place to spend time.

Fantastic spot!

Rocked up with an A Lic from Australia. Kevin quickly sorted me out with my currency training, as I snoozed and didn't get a jump in for several months. The whole crew was super helpful and really watched out for me as I got back into jumping. The weather is almost always amazing and you can even see the North Island on a clear day. A must jump DZ!!!!

Hi

Just want to post this review cos I think Abel Tasman skydive deserves it. As you might not know, to go fun jumping in New Zealand is pretty difficult as most DZs are tandem factorys and cant be bothered with foreign jumpers and if they are you might only get 1-2 jumps in a day.
I rocked up in Abel Tasman, everyone was real friendly, got a good DZ brief, gear check and off I was. The drop zone wants to keep a good allround operation and not just focus on tandems. There is alot of AFF and plenty of fun jumpers around if you want to jump with others, and the DZ will help you find someone your own level and manifest you up. The drop zone is based at the top of the south island, and views are awesome, good planes, having a Fletcher (9 people) and a Pilatus porter as well, jumps from 15000ft possible, prices are very affordable. So if ya wanna go jumping in NZ, got to visit Abel Tasman, very year they organise good boogies (Good vibes). Be careful though there are beer rules, so if its your 1st jump, need to get the beers in.

The people at Skydive Abel Tasman are what truly make this DZ a must-visit if you're in the area. I spent about a week here to work on my A license and it was hands down the best part of my trip. <-- No small statement because the hiking and mountain biking this region are EPIC!

Instructors Mike, Fiona and Kevin are excellent coaches that take pride in teaching people at all skill levels. The experience base here is great and they will cater to whatever pace you are comfortable. Making a mistake is all in good fun and nobody here loses sight of that. As long as you keep a positive attitude it will be matched in spades!

On the packing floor Frick, Matt, Dave and Yuki are beyond helpful if you are new to the sport and just learning. Nobody is too busy to explain or demonstrate technique. Their work ethic and attention to detail is key to making this DZ operate efficiently and above all, safely. (Thanks again, Frick, for sparing me from that reserve ride!)

Though a lot of their business is tandems; the owner is all about getting the sporty's up, too. I was able to knock out 22 jumps in fairly rapid succession under the circumstances. The only hangup is their Fletcher is limited to only six passengers, so you may sit it out for a few loads. Soon, however, they should be taking on a PC-6 Porter without the PAX limitation so my only 'con' will be a moot point. Even still, the ride to 13,000ft only takes about 20 min, and if you have the high altitude course banged out; 16,500ft is available also. The DZ is at sea level so there's plenty of time to play. The landing area is large, flat and well kept. There's a coffee stand at the DZ too, with some good eats and even better brew (the caffeinated kind).

Speaking of brew (the fun kind)... If you find yourself saying, "I just had my first _________!" Be prepared to pay homage to the universal dropzone tradition.

Overall, I recommend this DZ to anyone visiting the top of the South. Whether you're a new or experienced jumper, the staff here will make the experience unforgettable. And I'll be doing my best to make it back there soon!

I showed up and within a few minutes I was briefed and ready to go. Everybody was friendly and went out of there way to say "hello" and shoot the breeze. The plane was small but I still got on all the loads I wanted. I would definitely recommend checking out Abel Tasman if you're a visiting jumper and don't forget the beer!

Skydive Abel Tasman is located between two mountain ranges which means they have jumpable weather almost all year round. At the time we were there, the aircraft was a Cresco 10-seater with plenty of slots for sports jumpers, which the manifest staff tried to accommodate as much as possible. Since the DZ is so sportie-friendly, you're likely to come across other sports jumpers so there's always someone to jump with - not to mention the breath-taking scenery of the Motueka orchards, the coastline and AT national park. All the DZ staff are friendly and approachable, being sporties themselves! There were both AFF and coaching jumps underway when we visited also. We can't wait for Good Vibes next year!

I got to the dropzone and talked to Kevin, he is the head instructor, got briefed by him I had the feeling I got all the info about the dropzone from him. I was treated very nicely by Kevin and Fiona the host, Thank you!

I started my AFF here, gotten my A and has proceeded as a sportie on my way to the B-license. The instructors was really professional, and I love the atmosphere. I find the staff being helpful and doing their best to get me and my mates up in the air. They also helped me a lot on the search for a rig when I was lost! I have nothing bad to say about this place as I have nothing but good experiences!

99% of the Drop Zone in New Zealand are tandem factory. I had recomandation that Abel Tasman DZ is different, but when I arrived it was the same: totaly tandem priority, I was kicked out of the plane for tandems. They put you only if they have a spare slot, and it is almost impossible to jump with other fun jumpers.
The management should change their attitude because it is a totaly tandem place !
I met 2 AFF students, they didn't do any jumps even when the weather was perfect - because it was not worth to lunch the airplane without tandem clients. They wasted about a week with only one jump.

Hope for the DZ that it will get better...