Now they are married, fully immersed in the adventure sport they became addicted to within seconds of launching themselves in Queenstown, and organising the inaugural Magic Land Adventure Sports Festival in Wānaka in March.
The couple belong to what is considered one of the fastest-growing adventure sports clubs in the country — the 2000-member Southern Lakes Club of the New Zealand Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.
"The sport is growing.
"It has a huge drawcard at the moment.
"The club year by year is growing at a vast rate.
"We are gaining a big community and we don’t even know everyone any more.
"We are now the elders," Zadrozny said.
Southern Lakes members are based in the Upper Clutha, Central Otago and Queenstown areas, with Queenstown’s Louis Tapper the most prominent New Zealand competitor on the Paragliding World Cup circuit.
Zadrozny and Pugsley met in about 2010, after Zadrozny moved to Queenstown from Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Neither were paragliders then.
"The first time I ever saw it was at the gondola in about 2010," Zadrozny said.
"I had met Dan at AJ Hackett, where he used to work, and he was learning to fly and was talking about it all the time.
"I decided to try. I swapped a bottle of port for a tandem flight and from the first moment it was a total feeling of addiction."
Their lives were soon running in parallel to the paragliding lifestyle, as the pair travelled around the world, gaining experience and working as tandem flight pilots in Queenstown and Wānaka on their return.
Then they realised Queenstown and Wānaka were "magic land".
"One of my favourite launch places is Coronet Peak.
"It is world class," Pugsley, who grew up in Port Lincoln, South Australia, said.
"Yes, we travelled the world to find that the best places are in our backyard."
Their list of fabulous local launches is long — the Richardson mountains, Mt Earnslaw, Glenorchy, the Cascade Saddle, Aoraki-Mt Cook.
One of Pugsley’s best cross-country experiences was flying from Hāwea to Mt Cook one day, staying the night and flying home the next.
"I think that is every cross-country paraglider’s dream flight."
Zadrozny’s favourite launch is at Treble Cone.
"It is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
"If you can fly from Treble Cone home to Hāwea, we are stoked."
Zadrozny is the club’s event co-ordinator and has been working many hours with other club members, including her husband and other flight sports clubs, to pull the Magic Land event together.
The festival is a family-friendly camping festival and participants are expected from hang gliding, paragliding, speed flying, skydiving, paramotoring and wing suiting communities.
The wider Wānaka community and those with a passion for outdoor activities, water sports, climbing and mountainbiking are invited.
"There have been a lot of people working on events to draw people together and get people talking about their sport," Zadrozny said.
"It will be a wind down after a busy season of flying before everyone heads off to their next adventure in Europe," Pugsley said.
The festival does not include the Paragliding National Championships, which are regularly held in Wānaka.
This year it is Rotorua’s turn to host them, early next month.
However, Magic Land will include qualifying events for Acrofest — a paragliding acrobatic competition — weather depending.
There will also be cross-country coaching with Wānaka flight exponent Doug Patterson, as well as guest speakers Ben Kellet, of Queenstown, and Red Bull athlete Kinga Maztalerz, who describes herself as a paragliding "nomad" between New Zealand, Europe and the Himalayas.
Other talks and events such as films and music are being confirmed.
