A visit to Christchurch

In what was my first commercial flight in over a year, I had a trip to Christchurch earlier today. The occasion was a Flying NZ executive team meeting [our first face-to-face meeting since the conference last year].

After the meeting a couple of us ended up in the Koru Lounge for a bite to eat and a quick drink. It was fairly quiet but the food was nice enough. This was about the first time I have taken my DSLR camera out of its bag in several months also. Both flights were with Air NZ on their ATR72's. 

I'm glad they were booked on Air NZ instead of Jetstar, if only because Air NZ is still requiring vaccination passes, while Jetstar does not seem to be routinely checking for vaccination passes. I'd rather fly knowing the person sitting next to me is vaccinated, than not being sure... The statement from Jetstar's webpage [https://www.jetstar.com/nz/en/travel-alerts#Fly%20Well%20Program, as at 22 January 2022]:

Excuse me while I grab a pinch of salt to read that with...

Anyway, here are some photos from the Koru Lounge.

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air NZ

Airbus A321-271NX, ZK-NND, operated by Air NZ

Airbus A321-271NX, ZK-NND, operated by Air NZ

Airbus A320-232, VH-VQE, operated by Jetstar Airways

New Year's Day and nothing much happening at Wellington

Yesterday was a quiet day at Wellington airport. I went out to a good spotting location I haven't been to in a while, an elevated location in the hills behind Strathmore [location "C" on my Spotting Locations map]. Aside from few aircraft movements, the weather has gotten a little worse, with low cloud around.

Anyway, here are three pictures I took.

First up is an Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, which is operated by Air NZ.

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air NZ

Next up is an ATR-GIE ATR72-600, ZK-MVN. This aircraft is operated by Mount Cook Airline [part of the Air NZ group].

ATR-GIE ATR72-600, ZK-MVN, operated by Mount Cook Airline/ Air NZ

Last up is one of the local Flying Trash Cans :-)

Dunedin to Wellington... the camera photos and videos

Further to my last post, I took a number of photos and videos on my phone camera. It is allowed since we were on an Air New Zealand operated Airbus A320 [ZK-OXG], although I'm still not convinced of the wisdom of allowing people to play with gadgets when they should be paying attention... oh well, little worse than books I suppose...?

First up are the pictures, and then the videos.

Pictures were all taken within the aircraft, and yes, it had been raining...

Winglet of Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG. Pretty obvious it's Air New Zealand

This ATR72 arrived while we waitied to depart. Dunedin is perhaps a busy little airport at times. In the hour or so I was there, including my flight, arrivals were 3 x A320, 1 x ATR72 and departures were 1 x B737, 2 x A320, 1 x DHC8.

ATR-GIE ATR72-600, ZK-MVG, operated by Mount Cook Airline/ Air NZ

Lining up on the runway.

Wing and winglet in cloud just after takeoff

Out of the cloud a short time later. Much nicer.

Ok, now for the videos! The first one is the takeoff from Dunedin and into the clouds.



Next up is video of us cruising what appears to be just above the cloud. It's probably higher above than I was thinking, but still...


Lastly, this is the nigh-time approach into Wellington. It takes a few seconds to get to the city lights, but I think it's worth the wait... ok, the video is a bit shaky, but it's ok for hand-held, night time, and me being somewhat inexperienced at this stuff!

Work trip to Dunedin

I had a work trip to Dunedin [ICAO code: NZDN] today. I left early and arrived home late [read: dark in Wellington both times], so not much photography to undertake there. Once at Dunedin it was off to work with no delay, so I had to wait until the evening flight home to get some photos at Dunedin. Weather was a wee bit windy in Wellington, and cold in Dunedin. In fact, we had fog in the morning [nothing to stop our arrival though], heavy hail 30 minutes before leaving for the airport and rain. Rather cool also - 2 degrees celsius on arrival. Arrrgggghhhhhh.

First up is my ride home to Wellington. This is a Bombardier BD700-1A11 [Global 5000], N689WM, with what might be the coolest livery I've seen in a corporate jet ever! I'm not sure what it is doing in Dunedin, but it was there this morning and still there this evening. BTW - no, it was not really my ride home... I wish!

Bombardier BD700-1A11 Global 5000, N689WM

Next up is another Bombardier, in this case a DHC8-311, ZK-NED. This aircraft is operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ, and was also not my ride home as it was only heading to Christchurch.

Bombardier DHC8-311, ZK-NED, operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ

Getting closer to my ride home is this Airbus A320-232, VH-VFJ, operated by Jetstar. Thankfully not, and in any case, it was heading to Auckland, not Wellington. Jetstar does not yet fly between Wellington and Dunedin, although this route is to start up shortly.

Airbus A320-232, VH-VFJ, operated by Jetstar

Not at all close to a ride home was this Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIH, and operated by Virgin Australia. Clearly this was not my ride home as it was heading to Australia. Note in the second picture, the rooster tails from the jetblast on the wet runway :-)

Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIH, operated by Virgin Australia

Boeing 737-8FE, VH-YIH, taking off from Dunedin

Finally, my ride it. This is of course an Air New Zealand operated Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG. This is a new aircraft, having only been delivered in February this year. It was flying direct to Wellington, which was convenient, as I was also :-) Still a pity it wasn't the first Bombardier! :-)

Airbius A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air NZ

The next post will have a few phone camera photos, maybe some video, from the flight north.

A wee bit of aircraft photography today - 1/3

With today being a public holiday, and the Aero Club closed for the day [the weather was forecast to be rubbish for GA flying], I headed out to the airport to catch a few photos. This time I choose location 'A' [from my Spotting Locations page]. It wasn't the ideal time of day for this location, but with the cloud cover it didn't make much difference...

This first post has the Air NZ aircraft.

Bombardier DHC-8-311, ZK-NEU, operated by Air Nelson/ Air NZ

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXE, operated by Air NZ

Boeing 737-319, ZK-NGG, operated by Air NZ... a dying breed here in NZ!

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air NZ

Today's Airbus' and a Boeing

Before, during and after the first lot of rain there were a small number of movements. Unfortunately, Wellington is usually fairly quiet on the weekends... and I have to work during the week. Mind you, there's not such a large range of aircraft at any time that I can't see each type over a few weekend hours... :-)

So, here we have a few of the Airbus and Boeing aircraft that came through today.

Airbus A320-232, VH-VQF, operated by Jetstar Airways, leaving late morning

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OJR, operated by Air New Zealand

Airbus A320-232, ZK-OXG, operated by Air New Zealand. Clearly it's raining now...

... ZK-OXG just getting airborne

Airbus A320-232, VH-VQF, landing 3 hrs 15 minutes later, mid afternoon

Boeing 737-838, ZK-ZQD, operated by Jetconnect/ Qantas