Blenheim to Wellington (BHE-WLG) on NZ Beech 1900D

Woodbourne airport has a modest new terminal, small café but no koru club (much to the annoyance of mad_atta). The airport has a large runway, a legacy of it’s use as both an airforce base and, in the past, as a major airfreight centre.

But today it’s back on the usual aircraft for Blenheim, a Beech 1900D. The aircraft is full but I still get my preferred seat. The inbound flight is 10 minutes late but some time is made up in the turnaround and we leave only 5 minutes late. The take off roll uses a tiny portion of the runway and we climb steadily over Blenheim and out into Cook Strait.

For this very short flight the cruise altitude is a mere 5,000 feet which means we skim in and out of the thin cloud layer. Below the progress of the strong tides through Cook Strait is marked by the sharp contrast in water colours – dark blue meeting bright bluegreen.

Just minutes after reaching cruise height we are already descending over Wellington’s northern hill suburbs. We ended up arriving early, making up time even on this little 20 minute flight between the main islands of New Zealand.

Arriving in Wellington there are plenty of aircraft everywhere and so no surprise to get a parking position a long way from the prop finger pier.