While the cabbie was a bit nervous en route I wasn't too worried. Thanks to no bags to check and the e-pass RFID I can just stroll up to the gate and walk on, and in today's inclement weather the flight is bound to be delayed. As it turned out I had enough time to visit the koru club lounge. It was packed as ever on a Friday evening, but even moreso with nearly every flight delayed an hour or so. The food offering was pathetic - much smaller quantities than there used to be with the containers and trays spread well out as if to hide what used to be a bench brimming with food. The hot food was some lousy pasta and had been polished off and wasn't being replaced (that I saw). So I grabbed an apple and a drink and hopped on the computer. The state of weather up and down the country was such that the flight could be cancelled, in which case I'd need to rebook, or it could be diverted to Wellington or Palmerston North and passengers bussed over the hill, in which case I'd likely be spending the night somewhere in the region and throw my travel for tomorrow into chaos. I'd also arranged to meet up with BlackCloud later back in Auckland so checked to see if the weather was affecting his travel.
Amazingly the flight to Masterton was showing as on time, about the only flight in a board filled with cancellations and ever-changing delays. As the PA system was not keeping up with all the changes some flights were not being announced and I simply left the lounge at the appropriate time. Through the back door and out into the terminal I was struck by how the humidity had risen even just in the short time I'd been here and it was uncomfortably hot and wet inside and no better outside. Down by the prop gates the flight was still showing on monitors as on time despite no boarding call, but just a few minutes late we were called.
The almost full load of passengers (just 3 empty seats) boarded quickly. Sitting near the front I could hear the pilot request a ground power unit as he'd been told by air traffic control that they had a 15 minute wait before engine start, and it was incredibly wet and sticky inside. After what felt like a long wait finally an engine was started and we got some air flow. We taxiied out and held short of the runway while a long procession of aircraft appeared out of the gloom one by one just before landing. Finally, 30 minutes after boarding we moved onto the runway, paused, the engines were briefly revved and we did a u-turn and headed back off the runway.
What was happening? Was bad weather in Masterton preventing our flight? Or perhaps an indicator light for a fault? No, it was a fast approaching Pacific Blue aircraft that was too close to landing which we had to make way for. The false start over we were back on the runway a few minutes later and rolled off into the wind-blown dampness. Hardly were we off the ground and we were enveloped in wet greyness and banked away to the south.
10 minutes later we emerged into the sunlight, dodged a few thunderclouds and were then in clear air. There was no view other than extensive cloud, initially cumulus and towering cumulonimbus and then flatter almost featureless stratus sheets. I read a bit and tried to get a brief sleep.
The sun sank below the horizon as we flew by Palmerston North (by my reckoning). If we'd been on time we could have had great views of the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges, and the Wairarapa valley, for the cloud had begun breaking up. Instead we saw dark hills and farmland.
It was humid but much cooler here, with patchy low cloud. We flew through one last patch about a minute before landing then saw the lights of Masterton off to the right of the airport and close by. We landed to the south, turned at the end of the runway and taxiied back to the terminal at the other end. It wasn't raining and 20C felt fresh.