NELSON to HAMILTON (NSN-HLZ) on NZ Beech 1900C operated by Vincent Aviation

It is an early start to the day but despite the hour the small airport is a hive of activity with full loads on 5 flights taking many commuters to the main cities in the next 50 minutes. I use the quick check machine and get all my boarding passes. On all flights I was offered no choice of seats due to flights being full. With a seat assignment in row 2 I wasn’t happy remembering that on the Beech 1900D this is a non window seat. But I was not so unhappy as to wait in line for the check in agent to ask for a seat swap.

Boarding is called and I take a long walk across the tarmac to one of the farthest possible gate positions. Despite my carry on being easily small enough to fit under the seat in front of me, I am invited to put it in the “closet” (in reality a nook opposite the door with webbing holding the contents in). Thanks – gives me more legroom. I didn’t see anyone else being offered use of the closet, so perhaps the offer was made upon spying the status on my boarding pass? I am pleased to see the layout of Beech 1900C is indeed different to the Beech 1900D and row 2 has windows. Yay.

Once the engines are started and thick condensation wiped off the front windows (dang FT auto-censor ), we taxi past the early golfers at the course next door and then take off to the south, banking sharply back towards the north. The mountain ranges have sheltered the bay and so good views of the waters, inlets and even the sandy finger of Farewell Spit which partially encloses Golden Bay. As we head through the skies, the drone makes me sleepy, or is that the lack of coffee? Once over the western expanse of Cook Strait, well away from the mountains, we encounter cloud cover which reduces the views. However there are enough gaps to see the plains of Taranaki and volcano, and we fly a zig-zag course around towering thunderstorms over the hill country. We descend over the farmlands and small towns of Waikato and land at the airport.

A Freedom Air aircraft painted with the Warner Bros colour scheme, is waiting to take off for Australia. Otherwise the airport is quiet. Even the ongoing construction in the terminal is stopped at the moment. With no checked bags I am quickly on my way into town.