AUCKLAND to WANGANUI (AKL-WAG) on NZ Beech 1900D

After my meeting in Auckland was rescheduled I dreaded the dash to the airport during rush hour which is never pleasant at the best of times never mind trying to beat the check in cut-off for the only flight of the evening to Wanganui. Fortunately the meeting finished early for the central city resembled a parking lot thanks to incidents both northbound and southbound on the motorway. Even with some aggressive driving it still took 90 minutes, much of this time taken in the first kilometre or so.

So I was relieved to arrive at the airport ahead of the closure of check in. Again no real choices of seating offered by the quick check machine. Through security to the lounge and just barely enough time to sample a couple more of the approx 15 seasonal beers (this on top of near dozen different regular beers!). I’ve been slowly working my way through the offerings but summer is fast running out so I suspect I will not get to sample them all. The food is slightly disappointing – greasy looking sausages, 3 different salads, roasted vegetables, salsa, rolls and fruit. So I give the masses milled around the servery a wide berth and catch up on some emails. Indeed the lounge is the fullest I have seen it in a while, literally standing room only despite the 250 seats.

Boarding is called for several flights in quick succession for this is a very busy time of day with lots of business travellers and commuters returning home. I make my way to the prop gate lounge and then to the furthest gate of all. I was surprised not to be paged en route as I normally am on the prop flights.

As we taxi out I notice Reg Grundy’s private jet is still sitting on the tarmac as it has for the past 2 or more months. We scurry out after a bank of arriving aircraft, quickly take off and bank steeply away to give the following jets taking off some more room. With clear skies most of the way we have great views from 15,000 feet of the varied landscapes below. Our path is more to the east than that used by jets flying between Auckland and Wellington or Christchurch, thus loosely follows the Waikato and Waipa rivers south – along much the same route as taken by the main trunk rail line over which I rode last year. Again I marvelled at the ingenuity of the engineers who plotted the course – even from this height it isn’t obvious that there is an easy way through the rugged hills and plateau.

We had a couple of big bumps coming in low over the hills on the outskirts of Wanganui before turning over the small city and landing at the airport just across the river from the city centre.