Inside Gisbornes pleasant terminal, I was dismayed to see that my flight to Wellington was delayed. So much so that I was to be cutting it fairly fine with my next flight. I went through the options. I had a early commitment in Hamilton tomorrow morning. I could fly back to Auckland now for an extroburant price, I could fly to Wellington and then rent a car and drive to Hamilton if I missed my flight, or I could arrange a WLG to HLZ direct instead of going through AKL. Happy with my last option, I opted to wait around for my flight to Wellington. Whilst ordering a coffee from the Airports small cafe, the inbound aircraft from the capitl landed. It taxied to the terminal and shut down. I managed to finish my coffee before boarding was called.

I was really pinning my hopes on the northeaster that gave us a few bumps on the way down from Auckland, to help us make up time on our way south. It was really looking like I wasn't going to make my WLG to AKL flight. We taxied along the runway, turned and then took. I had seat 3F, which should give me good views along the North Islands East Coast. We pretty much ran parallel to the coast the whole trip down, leaving it for a time though as we crossed Hawkes Bay. Napier looked splendid huddled against the sea with the snow capped Kaimanawas and Kaweka Ranges behind it. Mt Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro were visible in the distance, and on the far horizon, Mt Taranaki. It sure was a amazing day to be in the air. We flew over the towns of Waipawa, Waipukurau, Dannevirke and Pahiatua before starting our descent over Masterton. We had a beautiful approach into Wellington, and a glance at my watch told me that the Northeaster had served us well. The connection was still tight though. We banked a flew low over the Bluebridge Ferry before skipping onto Wellingtons runway from the south. We had a quick taxi to the gate. I was disappointed though to find it was one of the far prop gates. Inside the terminal, I had a mad dash through the terminal, glancing at the screen to find my AKL flight was 40minutes delayed. I breathed a sigh of relief, and slowed my pace down.