zoovet

And going back even further, flights on the old NAC DC3s. They had a cruising altitude of just 8000 feet so a window seat gave great views of the country-side below. Also because they used a tail wheel while sitting on the tarmac there was quite a steep walk to get to your seat, as they had a similar rear entrance to the present ATRs. Several years later I was flying from Auckland to Queenstown, and the flight route included a CHC - Mt Cook - ZQN sector. Once in the Southern Alps the flight flew down the Murchison Glacier to the Tasman Glacier before arriving at Mt Cook. A beautiful scenic flight on a fine winter's day.

My wife and I also traveled to Rarotonga in 1970 to visit expat friends there before they had an international airport. We flew to Nadi in an AirNZ DC8 and then flew to Rarotonga via Pago Pago in a small turbo-prop plane. The whole journey took about 15 hours!

SilverTP

The breakfasts for domestic Business flights were great - the Dunedin airport cafe prepared them for the 7:30 am departures and there were usually one or two left over to purchase. I needed to fight off the taxi drivers to get one...
I remember using the teletext on the TV in the Koru lounge at the top of stairs beside the (one) airbridge at Dunedin airport. If the last flight in was delayed, the guy from Avis and I would be allowed in to get updates on arrival time. I'd also go and look at the AA road information if roads around Otago were frosty/icy/flooded so I could let our customers know of any road closures.
Frosty Dunedin mornings meant that we would have keys in all the car ignitions, running heaters and windscreen wipers to defrost cars in time for NZ501 9:35 am flight from Auckland via Christchurch.

pbl22

• Watching the grandparents fly to Aussie on DC8s (I think) from that outdoor viewing deck at CHC.
• Everytime we went to CHC airport, my parents would drive the back roads to get great views of the airfield, sometimes parking up with many other cars.
• Coming back WLG-CHC after being on Wheel of Fortune in 1993 and having a bit of a session in the airport with a fellow contestant, before getting paged numerous times - then these two plonkers doing the walk of shame as the final two passengers right down to the back of the plane, each of us clutching our embarrassing Wheel of Fortune board game prizes!
• Sitting one row behind the smoking section on CHC-BNE in the 80s - disgusting!
• Going on a Boy Scout exchange to Sydney in 1986 (first trip away on my own), wearing my Scout uniform and rocking up to security for CHC-SYD with a forgotten pocketknife still in my pocket! Which they then checked through on its own. Upon arrival at SYD, one of the lady hosts said, "I'll bet I'm the one who gets to host the idiot who tried to bring a pocketknife on a plane" - she did.
• Then getting delayed for 19 hours (!) on the return SYD-CHC.
• The 77Es from CHC-AKL that were tag-legs of NRT-CHC. I had the whole PE cabin to myself once in 2011
• The 733s from AKL-SYD in early 2000s
• The French guy at the LAX T2 NZ lounge in early 2010s who seemed to be the only person at NZ who had a clue about FQTS/FQTV
• Flying numerous $29 Nightrider returns AKL-WLG in 2012/2013 to get 12SPs each way - no lounge though as they were shut
• A look at the first newly arrived 77W at a special open day in AKL to which Gold Elites were allowed to attend

trooper

And what a memory he had!!

Dweeb007

- Somewhere around here I still have a Junior Jet Club logbook from when we emigrated to NZ...DC8 from Lax island hopping over the pacific via HNL and NAN .. I'm sure there was another stop somewhere in between as well Pago Pago I think? either way the book meant a trip to the cockpit to get the captain to sign it, was an awesome experience for a five year old

- My first trip back to the UK on a 747, movie projector so we all watched the same bad movie, more smokers than the smoking section could hold and people would happily trade seats on a regular basis for everyone to get their fix, easy transit thru LAX no customs or drama just a long walk if you wanted coffee and arriving into gatwick rather than heathrow.

- Outdoor observation areas at AKL terminal, was always my favourite place to wait for a flight

- being able to get close enough to the 737's at Hamilton airport to feel the jet blast from the engines as they ran them up before leaving the terminal, my neice as a toddler always wanted to be taken out to see/feel it I'm sure I did her hearing no favours

Markhm

HighFlyingKiwi

Now this thread has brought back some memories!!

*Flying HKK-WSZ-WLG on the old Friendships. A grand flight on a nice day, but really turbulent on a not so nice day! :P The draughty old terminal at WSZ.

*The little Bandits! Used to fly between Wanganui and Auckland a lot on them. Not pressurized so low and slow! And then connecting to the death pencil Metroliner to Gisborne mostly. The stoop and shuffle down to your seat. The frozen bags that were stowed in the nose cone.

*The WAG-TUO 1900D flights. A real favourite. Simply fantastic views over the Central Plateau, and I think the pilots used to enjoy that route too.

*Being able to fly to places like Wanaka, Masterton and Oamaru!

*The Saabs with their 1+2 seating configuration! Plus I remember being served Fish and Chips on a Saab from WLG-TRG.

Looking around now, hasn't it become all rather boring! Q300s, ATRs and A320s, that's our domestic fleet. Reliable and cheap to run, but I almost miss being squeezed into a Metro, with one foot in the aisle, screaming down to Gisborne doing 3 times the speed of sound! Maybe not that fast, but I do recall some seriously quick trips!!!

ANZ787900

Reminds me - I took the first CHC-MON-ZQN flight when they reinstated it for a trial season back in December 2012 (actually unknowingly during the flight with a fellow FTer who has commented on this thread!) - wow, what an experience being in an ATR 72 into MON! To this day, it remains my favourite and most scenic approach and departure - I guess the ATR isn't capable of doing the glacier approach - we approached and departed over Lake Pukaki. We got extremely lucky with the weather.

mad_atta

Ah yes, the Bandits and the Flying Pencils, I remember both well (I preferred the latter to the former, which were all in a fairly crappy state by the time I flew them). The B1900Ds that replaced them were vastly superior from a comfort perspective - I miss them (and the scheduling choice they allowed between BHE and WLG).

On a non-NZ note I also really enjoyed the BAe146s that Ansett NZ and the short-lived Qantas NZ flew, even if their reliability wasn't the best. Never did get to try one in NZ colours though.