I caught a Corporate Cab out to the airport from the centre of town. Hamilton's airport lies around 15km south of the central city. It was a overcast drizzly day, with a fairly strong wind from the west. At the airport i was surprised how quiet it was. Looking at the departures telly it seemed that my flight was the only one scheduled to depart for a few hours. It was a very quiet time of day. I checked in via the SCI Machines. Happy with my existing seat selections, and BPs in hand, i dumped my bags off at the Bag Drop and made my way upstairs to the lounge. The lounge was super quiet. A sole Beechcraft 1900D was parked up on the tarmac. I had a coffee while watching the AC be prepped for our flight up to Auckland. Boarding was called early and i made my down to the gate.

BP scanned we had a short walk to the AC. The FO welcomed me aboard and i squeezed my way back to Seat 5F, a emergency exit window, which really makes no difference. The Captain announced our departure information and weather and played the Safety Briefing. We started up and taxied out to the runway. We took off to the south, the westerly wind pushing us around a bit. We banked and made our way north. The land below disappeared as we passed through the cloud layer. We levelled off at 9.000ft, still engulfed in the cloud layer. Hamilton is served to/from Auckland a few times a day using Beechcraft 1900D AC.

In no time at all, we started our descent into Auckland. We had another safety message. Below the cloud layer the view out the window revealed we were passing over the Manukau Heads. The weather seemed much the same here as in Hamilton, only less drizzle. It seemed only a minute or two later we passed over the piano keys and skidded onto the runway. We had a lengthy taxi to the gate. Inside the terminal, i already had my onwards BP, so it was straight up to the lounge.