96 year old Pryce Parry is a resident of a Rest Home in Timaru and the oldest living former student of Timaru Boys High School. During WWII, after serving in the Canterbury Yeomanry, he joined the RAF and flew as a wireless operator in Lancaster bombers.
In September 2009, he expressed a strong wish to do a sky dive and Sky Dive New Zealand at Pudding Hill in Canterbury suggested that, provided that he could step off a chair and do a sit-up, then they would consider him for a jump.
On 17 September 2009, Pryce visited the Sky Dive base and was assessed by the team. The staff at SDNZ was the epitome of kindness and after all consideration concluded that they could not offer Pryce a jump.
But, by way of compensation, they offered him a flight in their new Cessna Caravan aircraft and installed an extra seat beside the pilot. After the jumpers had left the aircraft, Bill, the pilot, gave Pryce a brief Cooks Tour, and he was thrilled to see Mount Cook and both the Tasman Sea and the Pacific from 15,000 feet.