Who Said “Skiwis” Can’t Fly?
She has yet to start Year One at school, but this pint-sized “Skiwi” (half Skippy, half Kiwi), recently became world’s
youngest person to jump from Queenstown’s most iconic attraction.
At age six, Yasmine “Peanut” Clarke made the leap from the top of Ben Lomond, before landing - somewhat appropriately -
at a local primary school.
“She’s certainly the smallest and the youngest kid we’ve taken up,” confirmed Mike, her jump-buddy and the Director of G
Force Paragliding. “She couldn’t touch the ground, but that didn’t stop her little legs from running down the launch
strip. Amazingly, the only screams came from the ridge-top, where her mother was standing watching us make the jump!”
When asked if she was scared, the plucky thrill-seeker answered nonchalantly; “I closed my eyes twice but opened them
again because everything looked like a cute town made of really small toys.”
Travelling around the South Island on a family vacation, the Gold Coaster is no stranger to adventure. At the tender age
of four, she piloted a Scuba-Doo underwater vehicle off the coast of Borneo and already has more weightless ambitions in
her sights.
“Next, I want to learn to scuba dive,” she continued “Then become a pilot just like my brother.”
“She has her mind set on becoming Australia’s first female astronaut,” explained her mother. “But NASA should be warned;
unless her space suit comes in a fashionable shade of pink, she’ll flatly refuse to wear it!”
ends