John Morrison's 80th birthday celebrations were not for the faint hearted, when the adrenaline junkie leapt from a plane today.

The Englishman also celebrated his 100th jump when he made the leap with Tauranga Tandem Skydive.

John Morrison and Tauranga Tandem Skydiving instructor Tiger. Photo: supplied.

John has been jumping since he was an 18-years-old in the British Army.

'I have done a few jumps in New Zealand and must have done about 100 jumps or more,” he says.

'I love it. I have been here (Tauranga Tandem Skydive) quite a while jumping, and I love it here. It's a nice place and they're good boys. Tauranga is a beautiful place.”

John, who lives in Tairua, travels to Tauranga four or five times a year to jump out of a plane.

Talking about his time in England, John remembers how 'you had to know which way to land” to avoid breaking a leg when you hit the ground.

'In those days,” he adds, 'you hammered into the ground and you had to know which way to land and you had a round 'chute. That has all changed now.”

John remembers one jump in New Zealand where a woman on the ground was saying 'lift, lift” but with her accent he thought she was saying 'left, left” and ended up out at sea.

'I once jumped with two blokes either side of me so they could pull the rip cord if I didn't.

It was a Wednesday and I went up and felt all cold and funny.

'One of the guys I had jumped with disappeared and then came back and touched me with his finger and I went on my back and couldn't get back.

'I pulled the rip cord and it wrapped around my leg. I pulled the other cord and the shoot opened and I managed to get the other cord off my leg.

'When I came down, my leg was three times the size and I spent 10 days in hospital.

But it didn't stop me parachuting.”

John's wife Celia says she is not worried about her husband taking the plunge out of a plane.

She says he would find it quite boring if he had to choose another hobby.

'He's 80 and he still likes adventures. It doesn't worry me. He is in safe hands here in Tauranga,” says Celia.