Taking to the air

Thistles and Kiwis

I had to head up to Hawke’s Bay again this week for work, which means flying up in a smallish plane for about 50 minutes. Here is what I saw on Thursday morning.

Daleks at the airport! Where is the Dr? No need for concern…they are advertising the current Dr Who exhibition in town. The bird? A reminder that many years ago The Lord of the Rings was filmed here.

When you fly on regional domestic flights in New Zealand, such as from Wellington to Napier, there is no need to go through a security check. As a frequent flyer, I just wander up to the regional lounge, then go downstairs for easy boarding, just using the app on my phone to go to the gate. There are frequent reminders about gates so you don’t end up heading for Invercargill by mistake.

It was a lovely smooth flight, with water, a snack and one of the (in)famous Air New Zealand boiled sweets offered prior to landing. I was sitting in a window seat with a good view of the wheels on this trip as you can see.

Outside the terminal building is this sign showing how far away we are and that the region is a member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.

Now I have to hope for a smooth trip home…..

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

43 Comments

    1. 😀 reminds me of our first time to NZ flying from Auckland to Wellington. Gorgeous sunny day, view of Mt Ruapehu, the quiz on the monitors (which helped with jet lag)….and then the cabin staff asked a couple of children to hand out the lollies…it was such a first impression!

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  6. Glad you had a good flight home, and some boiled sweets… it seems a long time since we had some, but randomly we flew to Melbourne during Covid ( special permission to do that) and we had some sweets and a glass of wine!

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  7. Those ubiquitous boiled lollies (as we called them). I still look forward to them – great memories of my children being chosen to hand them around on some of our many flights on Air NZ.

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    1. We don’t have much choice here – no intercity trains (apart from scenic tourist ones). For a work trip. I always fly. There is a bus that goes to Napier, and of course, one could drive, but it takes 4 hours so not feasible.

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      1. But Christchurch is still in-country! I loved it when we were there in ’09, but I wonder how different it is since the earthquake in ’12. The Dux-delux was one of the coolest pubs anywhere.

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        1. I was told the security thing was something to do with the size of the planes. Not sure if that is true though! I didn’t visit Christchurch pre earthquake but I know when we first visited in 2013 the whole of the city centre was still a waste ground. It has come back to life now though, although most of the new housing is in suburbs around the city I believe.

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  18. these pictures are so neat i like them a lot also would anyone like to visit my blog.

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  19. Pingback: If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea… – Thistles and Kiwis

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