The Wilderness Survival Course Before I set out on the flight around the world, I had carried out a ditching and water survival course. I decided to attend this course because of the very large amount of water I’d be flying over during the trip, and the fact that the piston engine in my C182R could never approach the level of reliability of a turbine engine. The course was extremely helpful and really changed a lot of my thinking and…
The Australian government had recently announced that quarantine-free travel would soon be allowed from New Zealand to Australia (although not back again). I had covered a great deal of New Zealand in the time that I had been there, but there was still an enormous amount of Australia to see, so I decided to retrace my steps a little and fly back west, over to Australia, to tour some more of the country. The Pacific Islands still had their borders…
The next morning we enjoyed a lazy breakfast with Bruce and Rae before going our separate ways. Ann back to her home in Christchurch, and me north in Planey. Before returning to Nelson I had decided to make a weekend visit to Wellington, a city that I’d never visited but had heard good things about. I had come across a hitch hiker, Milo. Originally from South America, Milo was now resident in New Zealand and working as a baker; he…
It had been a great pleasure to see more of New Zealand from the air; but, you miss a lot when travelling by aircraft as it’s not practical to just pull over and stop! The complete lack of tourists (caused by New Zealand’s borders being slammed shut) meant that the cost of car and camper van rental was at an all time low, so I acquired a small camper van for a few weeks in order to explore some of…
There are a few small airports in the Nelson region which I had not previously visited; and some which I had, but were worth a return visit. The first new airport was Motueka, just up the coast from Nelson and home to a busy flight training center, an aero club, and plenty of private owners. Apparently the field had become busier since the latest managers of Nelson airport started to introduce policies and inflated fees that seemed designed to drive…
I had to head back to Auckland to finalise some paperwork for the aircraft. This was a bit inconvenient, but at least New Zealand is not too huge a country to fly the length of, and the trip could be completed in just a few hours. I took an “Uber” out to Air Milford, where I chatted for a while with Ant and the others about the current weather conditions. It was blowing hard from the west, condition which cause…
My next destination was to be the city of Queenstown. New Zealand’s main city, Auckland, was currently under a travel ban and I was therefore expecting Queenstown to be fairly quiet; my suspicions turned out to be correct. I still had plenty of fuel on board after my flight down from the North Island so I set straight off from Nelson, on a direct track to Queenstown. The terrain south of Nelson rapidly becomes mountainous. On this morning there was…
A few days later it was time to head out of Auckland towards New Zealand’s South Island. First though I’d spend a few nights with a friend in Rotorua, as well as visiting the “Hobbiton” filming location from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. The good weather was back and the sun beat down on me as I pulled Planey out of the hangar and closed the doors behind us. Even late winter in North Island New Zealand…
After two weeks in quarantine it felt very strange to be standing on the street in Auckland, not wearing a mask and free to go on with my day. I jumped on a bus back out to the international airport to go and collect my rental car; given the lack of tourists some truly excellent deals had been available. Half way to the airport the bus broke down. Things were off to a typical 2020 start. After collecting my car…
The next morning Juvy was up for the sunrise, getting some great photographs as the day dawned. We walked over to the nearby Fort Buford historic site, which we had been camping next to, to take a look around. Fort Buford State Historic Site is the preserved remnants of a frontier plains military post. The fort was built in 1866 and became a major supply depot for military field operations. Features still existing on the site include a stone powder…