In Flight

Tonight I've had one of the most surreal experiences in my life, and one that qualifies for blipmadness!

At 4.35 I boarded a flight bound from Christchurch to Hokitika, 3 or so hours by road, or 25 minutes by air. It's fair to say it was always going to be a marginal flight, as we've had literally hurricane strength winds in the South Island for the last 2 days. I was going across to present at a business association meeting.

Not really thinking too much about the sort of plane, I bundled my data projector, computer and of course camera into several carry on bags. Only to discover the plane was Beechcraft 1900D, a small 18 seater. Okay, that's fine, very intimate, watch the pilots through the open door sort of plane. So we took off, in seriously the shortest amount of runway ever, flying into the gale, and then climbed to 19 000 ft to try and avoid the storm (over the Southern Alps).

We've all seen place crash movies, and I swear this was like one. No view, turbulence that would beat any roller coaster, and a small intimate interior with only 4 passengers. Being near the front I got a birds eye view of the pilots, and the flashing lights - what were they! Anyway, after what could have been an hour, but was only 20 minutes, they announced we were coming into land, no sorry, they announced the weather was too bad and we were heading home.

Some 45 minutes after takeoff we landed again, somewhat shaken, back in Christchurch. I asked the pilots what they thought, they said it was the worst they'd fly in, although safe, it's just too uncomfortable. Yeah right, as Tui (beer) Says!

So home now, and relaxing with a nice Aussie red ;-)