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Tauranga woman Joy Macgregor could be forgiven for celebrating her 90^th birthday with a quiet lunch – instead she marked the occasion by jumping from a plane 10,000 feet above ground.

Tauranga woman Joy Macgregor celebrates with tandem instructor Paul Johnson after the big jump. Photos: Cameron Avery.

The Bob Owens Retirement Village resident turns 90-years-old on Tuesday and this morning completed a tandem skydive as part of an early birthday present from her son Graham.

'I was preceded by a 90-year-old man who did it about a month ago and I thought right if he can do it, so can I,” says Joy, who hopes she's the oldest woman in Tauranga to complete the jump.

'If I don't do it now I never will. It's something I've always wanted to do for such a long time.”

Described by her son as a curious, active and adventurous woman, Joy has completed many daring activities in her lifetime.

As well as enjoying a glider flight above the city, she's bicycled down Mount Haleakala in Hawaii and climbed Mount Egmont at age 21.

'I don't mind heights but I could never go caving,” says Joy. 'I get quite claustrophobic.”

Joy Macgregor and tandem instructor Paul Johnson about to land.

Counting herself lucky, Joy is also one of the few surviving members of the 1931 Napier earthquake.

At age five, Joy and her family were forced to relocate into a tent after their two-storeyed family home was damaged by the earthquake.

'My mother was badly wounded and its chimney came through the roof and almost cut her foot off.”

Completing a skydive about eight years' ago, Graham says when his mother told him of her birthday wish he was more than happy to pay for the jump.

'If she wants to do anything or go anywhere, do it. If she's doing what she wants to then that's great.

'We're fatalistic that you get out and enjoy life and if something goes wrong, tough and you deal with it.”

Tandem instructor Paul Johnson, known as Tiger, has completed more than 5000 jumps above Tauranga since taking his first leap from a plane in 1981.

He says Joy is one of the oldest women in Tauranga to take the jump.

Joy Macgregor ready to jump.