Mt Avalanche: 1st jump from David Walden on Vimeo.
David Walden (45) stepped off a rock on the north shoulder of Mt Avalanche in Mt Aspiring National Park, near Wanaka, two days before Christmas.
He descended 1840m and landed four kilometres away, crossing the Bonar Glacier as he flew at terminal velocity of 150kmh before landing safely.
Mr Walden jumped wearing a wingsuit to get a glide and landed with the assistance of a parachute.
''You fly down over a glacier, and over a frozen lake, and over a huge waterfall, over a forest, and over tussocks, and you land on one of the beautiful flats, next to a river.''
''There are a lot of nice things about it.
''It's not just about making the biggest jump.''
Mr Walden, who was born in South Africa, began base jumping six years ago and has completed 450 jumps, mostly in Europe.
Mr Walden said he chose Mt Avalanche because he wanted to do a ''big jump in the high mountains'' and it offered an ''exit'', or jumping off point, with the required vertical face of 150m.
''That is one of the few places in that area where the cliff is steep enough.
''We jump with a wingsuit, but the first part of the jump, you still go down like a rock.''
Mr Walden said he had been dreaming about doing the jump for two years, and preparations included two ''scoping'' trips to the launch site where he used a laser to determine the cliff face was steep enough.
''I'm very methodical about my jumping,'' Mr Walden said.
He was accompanied by his wife Renee, who skydives but does not base jump.
Mr Walden said there are no official records in base jumping and he had not set out to make or break records, wanting only to ''make a nice jump''.
''It turns out at the moment it's the biggest jump, but there's a lot of terrain in New Zealand and it's probably not going to be long before there's an even bigger jump.''
