Kids fulfil teacher's skydive dream

Tears streamed down the face of a Mount Maunganui teacher as she sat with her legs dangling out of a plane at 10,000 feet.

But all was forgotten the moment Nicola Logan leapt out of the aircraft door and glided back down to earth.

The Mount Maunganui Intermediate teacher was the winner of a competition organised by radio station Classic Hits to throw a teacher out of a plane.

"It was the most amazing experience," Mrs Logan told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"For a while I didn't think I was going to be able to get out of the plane but once the door was open there was no going back."

Skydiving was something the 48-year-old had wanted to do for many years but health problems meant she had to put her dream on hold. "I wanted to do it for my 40th birthday but then I was diagnosed with cancer, which meant I couldn't do any adventure activities.

"I've been in remission for two years and my sister was going to buy me one as a Christmas prezzie but then it was my dad's 80th so she spent the money on flying us down to Wellington for that instead ... so this is a long time coming and it's always something I've wanted to do."

The Year 8 teacher was nominated by two of her students - Hannah Josephs and Colleen Fahy - for the competition, which generated more than 200 entries.

In the entry form, Hannah said she wrote about how nice Mrs Logan was and that she deserved to be rewarded "because she [was] a really cool teacher".

Classic Hits breakfast show co-host Will Johnston said some of the competition entries were from children wishing to give their teacher a treat while other entries were from students who wanted to give their teacher a scare.

He and his co-host, Bridget Hastie, arrived at the school yesterday morning to surprise Mrs Logan and the class.

The school's principal Lisa Morresey was aware her colleague had won and had phoned parents and gained permission for students to watch the skydive from Tauranga Airport.

The class got into mini-vans supplied by Tauranga YMCA and went to Tauranga Tandem Skydive, who donated the jump.

Before take-off, Mrs Logan said she was nervous but excited. Afterward she couldn't stop smiling. Asked if she would do it again, Mrs Logan said: "Absolutely. In a heartbeat."