WELLINGTON to NELSON (WLG-NSN) on NZ Q300

This flight is on time. As usual boarding is announced in the lounge late so no wait at the gate – a few steps across the tarmac dodging the rain drops, up the stairs and into my seat. Another passenger was in my seat. When I checked in in Auckland the row in front was empty (indeed as it turns out I was the last passenger to board so the row in front was really empty) and so I volunteered to the FA to take a seat there however she would have none of that and so the other passenger returned to her seat and I took mine. The seat pre-allocation on this flight was rather odd with no passengers in either of the front 2 rows.

There were lots of Air New Zealand aircraft taking up all the airbridge gates and many prop aircraft parked up across the tarmac. On the other side of the terminal was a lone Qantas 737. We had a short wait taxiing to the runway, to allow several flights to land and some to take off ahead of us. While the wait was tiny compared with some major airports (London Heathrow for example) it was still a little annoying on such a short flight to spend so long on the ground.

With the wind in Wellington being a southerly and likely a northerly in Nelson I hoped there was a reasonable chance of the southern routing being in use – directly over the mountains of the northern South Island (as opposed to the more common northern routing over the Marlborough Sounds). I like this routing with the spectacular mountain views (when skies are clear) and the pirouette on descent into the airport. For the first time in many flights between Wellington and Nelson I get the southern routing. Unfortunately the cloud cover is still extensive, so the views are limited to the peaks of the Kaikoura mountain ranges as well as glimpses of mountains and deep valleys below.

On the Nelson side of the ranges the cloud cover is much patchier so we have views of the bays, estuaries, plains and hills. We descend over the ranges and cross the airport. However instead of the expected pirouette to land we head straight across the forested Rabbit Island and the Moutere Hills, a thin layer of ground fog filling the gullies. We then circle to the south, completing a slow lap of the patchwork Waimea plains in nearly as much time as the rest of the flight, with good views of mountains out to the right throughout. On landing the reason for the delay is obvious with 5 aircraft (including ours) landing in a short period thanks to weather delays caused by the low cloud.