Pitt Island Plane - A welcome return...

A nice little pice from Dianne on Pitt Island in June's issue of the Chatham Islander... it reflects Pitt Islanders' gratitude to Air Chats and the somewhat different lifestyle between Pitt and Wellington... and if you happen to read this Dianne hope Jo was well :-)

Greetings and Kia Ora folk from the Wellington airport, a very different look from my Pitt Island view. Here I am sitting in a very different place looking at the many varied people coming and going and drinking a cappuccino. The idea is to write this article while waiting for a much later flight to Timaru, but the fascination of watching these variations of humanity is very distracting. One hears about fashion, reads about it and sees it on TV. I’m telling you folk I could wear my pyjamas here and no one would look sideways. Going back a few paces firstly was the return of the baby plane to Pitt. Yes, folk, it has returned after a good while so thank you Craig and Air Chats. Without a doubt it is convenient, so much quicker and one doesn’t have to think about sea sickness. If one had to ditch it so to speak, I’d have forgotten where the axe was, how to dispatch/open the life raft and in the confusion totally forgotten was I meant to do something with the life jacket. Thankfully that has not been necessary as I have complete faith in the pilot, the plane or the boat and the skipper in the dozens of times crossing Pitt Strait. Over the years when crossing Pitt Strait mostly during sea sickness, have thought do I say an Our Father, a Hail Mary or just plain bugger and leave it up to those at the helm and they’ve always delivered me safely to my destination, whether by boat or plane. Leaving our Pitt airstrip in gum boots and overalls due to wetness and muddy gateways along the way and arriving in Wellington in shoes and taking that long walk from the plane into the inner terminal on concrete, then carpet is a different feel on the feet than the usual farm land feel. It is definitely gum boot weather at home and we have clocked up a bit of rain in the last week or two so no mud will be a nice change. Our flight to Wellington was pleasant and seemed quite fast arriving before midday NZ time. As I now look out this window in front of me a misty fog is coming down so we were fortunate indeed. The hills in front of me are smothered in houses people living cheek to jowl in such closeness it would be suffocating, but perhaps not for those who do as that is possibly the only life they know. The longer I live and the older I get, I will be forever thankful for where I live and how I live as well, to me it is very earthy, natural and satisfyingly complete, but understandably not everyone’s cup of tea or cappuccino for sure.

Source : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OcswQ6_z-OZnBrVHVmUnZJNEE/edit

A pic of the Pitt plane can be found here... http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/terry-t-sent-in-this-stunning-picture.html

More on Air Chathams' Cessna 206s can be found here... http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/cessna-206s-of-air-chathams.html