I survived the Tron, 2017 edition

For those following the New Zealand weather news recently, you'll know it has been foggy in Wellington the last couple of days. The lack of appropriate navigation technology at Wellington airport has meant the weather played absolutely havoc with airline schedules, with Wellington all but closed for a day and a half.

Time then for a quick, same day return trip to Hamilton starting yesterday.They say timing is everything. I got out OK, but the return trip was stuffed [that's a technical phrase] with my return trip cancelled, and the alternate later trip cancelled also. This meant an unexpected overnight stay in the first class suite at the Cambridge Hotel [actually some relatives... :-)] with the first available flight back to Wellington at 3:50pm today.

Today I arrived early to the airport. after checkin I used one of my complementary Koru lounge passes to get into the lounge. Air NZ's regional Koru lounge is pretty basic, but very comfortable and well laid out [loads of places to charge via wall socket or USB]. In any case, a basic comfy lounge is better than none. Just a pity it cost me one of only two lounge passes. Oh well!

Anyway, here are a couple of photos. They are both Mount Cook Airline [part of Air NZ] ATR-GIE ATR72-600's, ZK-MVH and ZK-MVI. ZK-MVH was my ride home and looked like it had been parked up for a while. ZK-MVI arrived and departed to Christchurch while I was waiting.

ATR-GIE ATR-72-600, ZK-MVH, operated by Mount Cook Airlines/ Air NZ

ATR-GIE ATR-72-600, ZK-MVI, operated by Mount Cook Airlines/ Air NZ

ATR-GIE ATR-72-600, ZK-MVI, operated by Mount Cook Airlines/ Air NZ

On the plus side, Air NZ's communications throughout were absolutely top-notch. Clear comms [txt and via their app] along with options for self-service schedule changes made things easier. Given it was a work trip, having a travel company was also useful when the last flight out on Wednesday was cancelled...

Lesson for next time though - pack a change of clothes, even if only going on a same day trip... then again, I now have new socks and underwear! Ha ha ha