The thin white line snaking across the ground between the glider and the plane looks more like a flimsy bit of string than a robust cable.
"Yeah, sometimes they snap, but there's plenty of runway to play with," says glider pilot Richie McCaw in his casual drawl.
That's the All Black captain wedged into the seat in front of me, making light of the tow rope that's about to haul us 1000-or-so metres into the air above the Mackenzie Country in North Otago.
It's too late to freak out though.
The glider - a $250,000 space age-looking thing - trundles along the grass runway at Omarama Airfield behind the tow plane, its long, slender wings flexing slightly with the bumps and then, lift-off.
We follow the plane, the tow rope straining and then relaxing, as we get steadily higher.
Almost immediately after McCaw detaches the tow rope with a loud snap and clunk, he asks if I want to do a 360 degree loop.
I'd seen him do two during a practice run earlier, and it made me squirm just watching it from the ground.
I'm terrified of heights and not a great fan of flying, so now that we're more than a kilometre up in the air I have no qualms about politely chickening out in front of the All Blacks' captain.
"I don't know Richie.
"I might pass, eh? This is a big move for me just being up here," I say, meekly.
Flying or, more specifically, gliding, is McCaw's other sporting passion besides rugby.
He stars in the new Discovery Channel series, Sportstar Insider, hosted by Australian rugby league great-turned-TV host Andrew "ET" Ettingshausen, which looks at the science and know-how behind extreme sports like acrobatic flying, big wave surfing, and free diving.
A few years ago McCaw played a part in inspiring the idea for the series, after convincing Mandy Pattinson, the head of the Discovery network in Australia and New Zealand, to do a show about gliding.
"I chewed her ear off about it."
This tiny little junction town, on State Highway 8 about two hours' drive north of Queenstown, is a world famous gliding spot.
Its unique mix of landscape, wind and beautifully hot and sunny weather during the summer months combine to create ideal gliding conditions.
Put simply, the climate around Omarama creates "thermals", gliding speak for the vertical up-drafts that give the gliders lift.
When you go through them you feel a short, shuddering bump.
Another key feature of this area is how the wind hurtles over the Southern Alps from the west, creating a "standing wave" on the lee side - that's the sheltered side - of the alps.
When conditions are right, lenticular clouds form and the glider can run along the front of these clouds at a fast rate of knots and at high altitudes.
"The perception people have is that you just float around and it's relaxing.
"And it is relaxing, but figuring out how to stay up there is the hard part," says McCaw.
"You're using the atmosphere, the wind, and whatever the sun is doing, and you have to learn how to use those elements to stay up in the air and then be able to go somewhere.
"That's the real art and sport of gliding, I reckon."
Flying is in the McCaw family's blood.
His grandfather was a fighter pilot in World War 2, flying Typhoons, Tempests and Hurricanes; his dad, Don, and his two uncles fly gliders and McCaw has loved flying since "before I can remember".
He's had a licence to fly fixed-wing aircraft since the early 2000s - he flew to Omarama from Christchurch in his little plane to meet us here - and did his first solo glider flight in 2005.
The old family farm in the Hakataramea Valley, where Richie grew up - about 50km from Omarama - had an airstrip, from which the North Otago Gliding Club operated.
"I used to jump in the back of the tow plane with Dad and loved it.
"I guess that's where I got the bug.
"I just loved it and I knew it was something I was always going to do.
"Dad and I talk more about flying than we do rugby," says McCaw.
There are similarities between the two sports, he says.
"Gliding is about being aware.
"Aware of where things are, the conditions, and it's about being able to process all that, I suppose that's what you do in rugby."
This airfield is his escape.
"The people here don't care too much about rugby," he says.
"On the airfield a lot of them watch the rugby but they don't get carried away with it.
"Coming here, you fit in with what they are doing and you're not the centre of attention.
"I learned off these guys.
"So you get back here and forget about things for a bit and have some fun.
"That's what it's all about.
"If you have a weekend here you get home refreshed.
"If you don't have these sorts of outlets you'd go nuts."
Back in the sky, we haven't had much luck finding quality thermal action.
But still, McCaw tries to coax some action out of the atmosphere by spiralling around and around.
Surprisingly, today's soaring experience is far less harrowing than the erratic turbulence I'd experienced during the flight from Auckland to Queenstown the day before.
But, sadly, the conditions today are a "dead dog", reckons McCaw, so we head for home.
"I suppose that was a boring flight for you?" I ask him.
"Nah.
"I just love being up there.
"It's the closest thing to having wings on your back."
