Spontaneous dive notched up - at 90

Ian Williams, aged 90, back on terra firma after skydiving from 9000 feet in the Bay of Islands last weekend. Photo / Skydive Bay of Islands

Fellow residents at Whangarei's Jane Mander Retirement Village joked that Ian Williams didn't have to jump out of a plane 9000 feet up to prove that he was a man.

But the 90-year-old says that wasn't the reason he leapt from a plane above the Bay of Islands last Sunday - it was just to tick something else off his bucket list and a continuation of his latest adventures.

Mr Williams was heading to the Bay of Islands last Sunday with daughter Robyn Low and her husband Don so that Robyn could do a skydive that she had been given for her birthday.

"I suppose it (having a jump) was in the back of my mind, but when we got up there and I saw all these people coming down from the sky I thought 'there's nothing much to that, I can do it,' so decided to give it a go," Mr Williams said.

"I really enjoyed it."

Robyn and Don were proud of him and he joked he may have stolen some of his daughter's thunder, but it was one thing ticked off the bucket list.

"And it's a pretty big bucket too," he said.

"But that's what I do if I see something. I saw an ad in the paper for a trip to Alaska and Canada and thought 'I'd really like to do that' so I did and came back in August. I've not got any more adventurous things planned at this stage, but I'll let you know when I do."

His good-natured response to ribbing from guys at Jane Mander was typical - "that's because half of them can't jump out of bed," he joked.

Mr Low said he was mightily impressed with his father-in-law.

"He was so matter-of-fact about the whole thing and there was no hesitation. He said he was too old to be worried about anything," he said.

Jo Sutcliffe, from Skydive Bay of Islands, said Mr Williams was the oldest person the company has taken in the two years or so it has been running.

"He turned up, had a look around and said 'I'd quite like to do this'. Everybody thought he was joking at first and one of our instructors Brent Suckling thought he'd call Ian's bluff, but Ian said, 'Let's go, this could be my last chance to do it'," Ms Sutcliffe said.

"His daughter jumped from 16,000 feet, and Ian from 9000 in tandem jumps. He was really amazing."