Thrill ride back on its feet, as is new owner
Monday, 17 November 2025
A Waikanae solo dad who suffered 16 bone fractures in a paragliding accident is back soaring through the air - but this time minus his wings.
Matt McGregor is the new owner of Kāpiti’s Fly By Wire, a white-knuckle self-powered “rocket” ride where “pilots” lie in a cockpit-like capsule as they scream above Paekakariki’s craggy shoreline at speeds of up to 80kmph.
The original Fly By Wire was launched in 1989 by its inventor, Wellington’s Neil Harrap. It was all but destroyed in 2003 after a record-breaking downpour released a massive landslide from a steep hill above the township, knocking out everything bar the cables that span the 400-metre-wide gorge the ride takes in.
Harrap rebuilt the attraction over a period of 16 years. It reopened in late 2019, just months before the Covid pandemic forced New Zealand’s borders to close. Tourism took a hit and in 2023 Harrap put it on the market.
“It’s not a thing for an 80-year-old guy [to] run … It’s something for a younger person,” he said at the time.
Enter McGregor, a former go-karting manager and, more recently, ex para-gliding student. McGregor has spent the last year simultaneously recovering from a nasty para-gliding accident and working to get the Pāekākāriki extreme ride ‒ once described by a “fizzing” Jeremy Clarkson as “a shattering thrill” ‒certified, insured and back up and running.
“I've been a business owner in the past, and I was looking for another business to get into. I saw this, and I was like, Oh, that looks like me …”
Repairs to the ride were one thing, repairs to his body were another. McGregor crashed on a training jump in Christchurch’s Port Hills in September 2024. It was just days after another accident in the same location and six months after experienced flyer Hayley-Marie Bushby was left with a broken back, pelvis, legs, and ribs and severe internal bleeding when a wind gust slammed her into the ground below the hills.
“The [first]morning I turned up … a paragliding instructor, hit the ground,” McGregor said. “This was 10am on day one. It should have set off warning bells and I should have left immediately. However I continued. Four days later I met my fate, hitting the ground.”
Airlifted to Christchurch Hospital McGregor spent a week in intensive care and underwent three operations.
Yet, while the accident might have put him off paragliding - “ I got to experience it and it was great for a short time”, he says without rancour - it hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for “the buzz” provided by similar high-octane activities.
“People that go go-carting are there for that, the fun of it. They are happy they are going to do this thing. It’s that atmosphere I really like. So that was a huge drawcard for me.”
McGregor has lowered the entry fee to make the ride more accessible and, depending on how things go, may drop it further.
“The economy’s not great, you know, but I really want people to be able to experience this, so it’s about finding a sweet spot.”
Harrap had grand plans for Fly by Wire, with forays into the United States and Queenstown. The Queenstown business ‒ which had featured in Jack Osbourne’s (son of the late Ozzy Osbourne) Adrenaline Junkie television show and was the scene of a serious accident in 2001 ‒ closed in 2008, while the American set up was destroyed, somewhat ironically, in a major flood.
Ōtaki MP Tim Costley is booked to take flight in the Pāekākāriki rocket-plane at an official opening on December 11. More info at flybywire.co.nz