Richie McCaw's other passion - gliding

Gliding All Black Richie McCaw. Photo / Supplied

You'd think the tow rope would be a bit thicker. 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 beautiful mountains, valleys, and plains of the McKenzie 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 (although I've never let it get in the way of me going anywhere), 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.

He's okay with it, and recounts a story about flying here with his dad when he was a young fella. "When I was about 8 or 9, my dad and I got reasonably high, about 8000 feet [2400m], and Dad said, 'Right, do you want to do a loop?' And we just did about a dozen, all the way down ready to land.

"I love that sort of stuff, it's a bit like a rollercoaster. As you pull through you get a bit of G [force], then you see the ground come around. It's a bit like doing wheelies, I guess," he laughs.

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," he says. Earlier this year they filmed McCaw at Omarama for the show, which screens on November 5.

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.