Here are the notes I made at the time. More pikkies at
New Zealand March 2005
24/02/2005 - Departed Moorabbin to Port Macquarie at 4pm. Arrived just after dark and refuelled, ready for tomorrows trip...
25/02/2005 - A beautiful day for flying. Light winds and scattered clouds are forecast all the way to Norfolk. Hopefully the weather will continue on to New Zealand. Had 10 knots of headwinds all the way to Norfolk. A few bumps in the circuit at Lord Howe but no other turbulence to speak of. Lord Howe is beatiful. Glad we are staying two days on the return leg.
26/02/2005 - Another lovely day. We were airborne at 9am for the 3.5 hour leg to Whangarie. The aero club were out to meet us on arrival (along with the friendly customs and MAF staff). Customs searched the plane quite thoroughly after going through Rochelle's passport (and seeing stamps for Jordan, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Liberia etc). Had a lovely flight down the coast to Ardmore (NZ's busiest aerodrome) which is just south of Auckland.
2/03/2005 - Flew Rochelle and Bill around Auckland. Saw where 'The Piano' was filmed.
3/03/2005 - Flew down from Ardmore to Hamilton to visit CTC aviation. Lovely VFR flying weather.
4/03/2005 - Arrived in Masterton via Wanganiu. Filed and flew IFR from Ardmore, due to low cloud and drizzle around Auckland. Cruised down the coast over broken cloud. Wanganiu weather was broken at 4000 ft when we arrived. Windy in Wanganui, but had smooth flying over the Tararua's to Masterton.
5/03/2005 - Staying in a small cottage in Martinborough. Lots of people in the small town for the annual country market.
6/03/2005 - Took Rochelle's Grandmother to see the plane at Masterton Aerodrome and saw Peter Jackson out with his antique WW1 fighter planes out flying. Had our own little airshow!
7/03/2005 - Lots of wind overnight. I must have tied the plane down well as it was still where I left it come Monday morning! phew. Weather will improve tomorrow so we will head down to Christchurch.
8/03/2005 - Arrived at Jackie and James' in Christchurch. Very windy today and there were many bumps flying down from Masterton. Winds were very strong over the Cook Strait, and encountered some interesting mountain waves. Smooth flying, but only could maintain altitude at full power and best rate of climb speed.
10/03/2005 - We are currently in Christchurch. Leave for Wanaka and Queenstown tomorrow. Good weather is predicted so we should get some great views of the mountains.
11/03/2005 - Had a lovely flight over the mountains down to Wanaka and Queenstown on Friday. Had smooth clear conditions, and flew past Mt Cook.
12/03/2005 - Flew around to Milford but was covered in cloud. Flew over the site of my rescue in '99. Flew to Dunedin for lunch and after struggles getting fuel, was back in Queenstown at 6pm.
13/03/2005 - Stayed on the ground! Spent the day driving around Arrowtown, Glenorchy and Queenstown.
14/03/2005 - Another lovely day. Flew from Queenstown to Milford (beat most of the tourist flights out there) and then tracked coastal to Nelson on the north of the South Island. After stopping for fuel and lunch we headed over the Cook Strait to head up the west coast of the North Island back to Ardmore. Need to schedule an oil change for tomorrow then to Lord Howe on Wednesday.
15/03/2005 - Oil change completed this morning by Aero-Tech at Ardmore. Took the plane for a test flight over Auckland on another lovely sunny day.
16/03/2005 - Lovely flying day again. Flew from Auckland up to Whangarei (7:30am departure) at 1500ft coastal. Lovely smooth flying conditions. Customs fellows were there to meet us and we were airborne for Norfolk at 9am. Saw some fishing boats north of Cape Rianga and then nothing until Norfolk Island. We had a about an hour on the ground there (inclusing a nice sandwich from across the road from the terminal) and was soon airborne for Lord Howe. Again nothing was sighted until we reached the island. Senior Sargeant Buckley did your customs and quarrantine clearance and we were soon at the place we were staying. We have bikes!
17/03/2005 - Spent the day cycling and swimming and sleeping and eating on Lord Howe Island.
18/03/2005 - Nice weather at Lord Howe and Melbourne. Shame what was in the middle. A large trough coming down from a tropical cyclone up north spewed a lot of very bumpy wet clouds in our way. We spent 2 hours in cloud off the coast of australia, and then popped in the clear near Sydney. We landed at Wollongong for fuel and lunch (food in the terminal - yay!) and then neaded off on the last leg to Melbourne. We were on top of solid cloud at 10000ft. Did not see much of the Australian alps at all (we flew past mount cook on Monday). A VFR arrival into Moorabbin and we were home again...