Pluses and Minuses

The first MINUS on the 23rd of August was this text...

Come on Air New Zealand ops... you had five hours to organise another aircraft if it is engineering especially when Gisborne is so far away and there are not multiple flight options. So there were no other options out of Gisborne and the four of us were looking at a six hour drive to Auckland. It seems today it is really easy to push the cancel button.

but then I had a phone call, Eileen and Andy offering us a flight to Auckland, the first PLUS...

This is not the first PLUS, but nonetheless a nice pic of Air Napier's Piper PA32 Cherokee 6 ZK-ELK enjoying the Gisborne sun before the courier run to Napier after 5pm.

But then the second MINUS... I was delighted to be able to get Piper PA46 Meridian ZK-UTE with its new "Andy Stevenson Aviation" titles...

But the MINUS was somehow, after taking my photo of ELK, I managed to switch my camera to manual focus resulted in blurred photos...

One of the others took this on their phone... he needs some lessons on aircraft photography, doors closed, side on

The PLUS was I noticed just as we were boarding... the last MINUS was that I forgot to rephotograph it in Auckland. Other than that the flight was all a big

PLUS

Back tracking at Gisborne... on the tarmac, Air Napier Piper Cherokee 6 ZK-ELK, Avia Air Charter Piper Navajo ZK-LTD, Air New Zealand Bombardier Q300 ZK-NEF and Air Gisborne Beech King Air ZK-SKL

Uniform Tango Echo rolling 14

Gisborne departure

Gisborne departure

Gisborne Airport on the climb to 27,000 feet

Waipaoa River

White Island in the distance... the highest point is called Mount Gisborne

White Island and Volckner Rocks to the left

Whale Island

Mount Maunganui

Motiti Island

Mayor Island 

Karewa Island and shipping waiting to enter the Port of Tauranga

Descent into Auckland

Pakihi Island with Waiheke Island in the cloud

Wairoa River and Whakakaiwhara Point

Wairoa River

Whakakaiwhara Point

Waikopua Creek and Howick beyond

Uniform Tango Echo cleared to land 23 Left

Again, a big thanks to Andy, Eileen and Rayden for a big PLUS