The Electoral Commission has been forced to think outside the box to transport ballot boxes from the Kaikōura township to Blenheim for counting. State Highway 1 between Blenheim and Kaikōura has been closed since the November earthquake, and the highway between Kaikōura and Christchurch was closed on Friday because of slips. So the Electoral Commission chartered special flights with Sounds Air to pick up the ballot boxes from Kaikōura - one to deliver the early votes on Friday, and one to transport election day votes on Sunday. Kaikōura electorate returning officer Simon Caley said poor visibility prevented the Sounds Air plane from landing on Friday. The plane was unable to land in Kaikōura on Friday, but successfully landed there on Sunday morning. "Fortunately, SH1 reopened on Friday afternoon and we managed to get ballot boxes from Kaikoura south by road to link up with one of our vans," Caley said. "We then diverted the original flight to Christchurch and sent the van to Christchurch airport." The pilot waited on the tarmac for the van to arrive, and then flew the ballot boxes up to Blenheim on Friday evening, Caley said. "We finally got everything in by 9.30pm, in time for the count of advance votes on Saturday." The Electoral Commission had to do a lot of contingency planning to make sure people had access to voting services in Kaikōura and voting materials could be moved in and out, given the closure of State Highway 1, Caley said. A commission spokeswoman said votes cast in Kaikōura on election day were counted that evening so they could be included in the preliminary totals. Sounds Air finally made it into Kaikōura on Sunday morning to pick up the last of the ballot boxes, and flew them into Marlborough Airport so they could be officially counted in Blenheim. Sounds Air went "above and beyond", helping to get the ballots through through on time, Caley said.
Photos of the ballot box flight can be found here :
How's the twin purchase going?
ReplyDeleteWhat are they getting?
ReplyDeleteWas B1900D or SF340
DeleteThey probably have worked out it being too expensive with certification costs and double the running costs. The returns they are getting from the PC-12 with low operating costs single pilot, single engine would be hard to beat.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha so when is Air NZ replacing its 50 regionals with 200 PC12s
DeleteI should imagine never, why would they? But for a smart operator like Sounds Air it seems the PC-12 is hard to beat. The right plane for the routes
DeleteShame it’s not a 16 seater
DeleteMax 14 pax SPIFR under part 125
DeleteSounds Air is a smart operator... Their reason to look for a Beech 1900 or Saab 340 was the traffic on the CHC-BHE route. I would suggest they are doing due diligence so IF other routes came up they had already done their homework. At the moment, as stated above, their formula seems to be working okay.
ReplyDelete