Emergency services have rescued a paraglider left dangling over a cliff by his parachute for more than three hours on Tuesday.
Whakatane police say the man in his 40s got his parachute caught on a pohutukawa tree overhanging a 50-metre drop near Ohope Beach.
Senior Sergeant Bruce Jenkins says it was poor weather for paragliding and the man was probably blown into the tree by a gust of wind.
"It was a reasonably small pohutukawa tree and the branches up that high were pretty flimsy, so a pretty precarious situation - not something any of us would really want to find ourselves in."
Emergency services set up a complicated system of ropes and pulleys to support the man's weight so they could cut him free.
The paraglider was not injured in the incident.
