Kiwi thrill-seeker Gwillym Hewetson died in a wingsuiting accident in Switzerland, shortly after taking this photo of the view where he would jump from. Photo / File
Kiwi thrill-seeker Gwillym Hewetson died in a wingsuiting accident in Switzerland, shortly after taking this photo of the view where he would jump from. Photo / File
It's been a year since Hawke's Bay wingsuiter Gwillym Hewetson's death, and his mother still finds it hard to believe he has gone.
Gwillym died last year on October 4 after something went wrong as he glided down a Swiss mountainside in a wingsuit, a high-risk adrenaline-filled activity similar tobase jumping.
The 37-year-old film editor lived in London, but was born in New Hampshire in the United States, before moving to Hastings when he was 16 and attending school in Havelock North.
His mother Robyn, who is based in Hastings as a voice coach and a therapeutic speech teacher, was in China in the mountains south of Xian on the anniversary of Gwillym's passing.
She said some of his ashes will be laid in Hawke's Bay after she returns on October 15.
"With our family and friends we will lay a stone in his memory. His life and message lives on and his mantra always was: 'If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room'.
"I try to bring that into my life of teaching and to allow the students to have lots of room and to try myself to take up less - so they have room to play."
Kiwi thrill-seeker Gwillym Hewetson took a photo of the Swiss scenery moments before he jumped to his death. Photo/ Supplied
Robyn remembers her son as a talented movie editor who travelled far and wide to do his work.
"He was so often away from us. All of this [ travelling] was about "seeing".
"'See' was Gwillym's first word when he was a child. He always climbed to the top of things and on our first day back in New Zealand, we went out to Piha and the next minute he was calling out from the top of Lion Rock."
As a teenager Gwillym loved to climb and during his movie years, he began to sky dive, Robyn said.
"In February of last year we met up in Hawaii and I went tandem sky diving with him. This was one of the most powerful moments of my life.
"I put my life in my son's hands and he lead me into an experience I would never have had without him. We jumped at 16,000 feet over the north shore of Hawaii.
"I had a chance to feel what it was like to free fall through the sky and see the world so freely. It formed a huge bond between us."
Robyn Hewetson, of Hastings, mother of Gwillym Hewetson, remembers him as a loving and generous friend. Photo/ File
Gwillym gradually progressed in the thrill-seeking community, taking up wingsuiting.
"He went to Norway, to Switzerland, to Italy and more, to fly from mountaintops, where he had to walk for several hours to get to the top, and then pack all he had taken to fly down with him.
"He was so good at sharing this and sent us all many videos of these flights and of the places he was seeing.
"He was a loving and generous son and friend."
Kiwi thrill-seeker Gwillym Hewetson died in Switzerland. Photo/ File
Robyn recently went to Temple New Hampshire the US to lay some of his ashes at Andy's Summer Playhouse - his summer programme where he learned to "love the theatre and formed his life path to become an editor," she said.
