The first flight segment of the day started from Wanaka, NZWF, and took us northeast to Rangiora, NZRT, for a fuel stop. Rangiora is a town in Canterbury, 29km north of Christchurch. The longest of the three pairs of runways at Rangiora Airfield is 1180m long. Dodging Christchurch's airspace, we flew north along the east side of the Southern Alps. Low clouds had come in from the Pacific Ocean to the east and were trapped by the mountain range, so a lot of the flight was VFR-on-top. Eventually I spiralled down through a hole to get underneath the cloud deck.
Leaving Rangiora, we flew up the coast to the north, passing Kaikoura Aiport, NZKI, a 700m paved strip 4 NM southwest of Kaikoura at Peketa, 180 km north of Christchurch, but we elected not to land there due to the weather. The Kaikoura area was heavily damaged by the 2016 earthquake, which uplifted the bay and surrounding region by as much as 2m. There are often sperm whales and pods of dolphins in this area but we did not see any.
We continued past the Dominion Salt Works and the famous Sauvignon Blanc vinyards in Marlborough and over Big Lagoon (Waikarapi).
Omaka/Blenheim Aerodrome, NZOM, has three pairs of turf runways arranged in an asterisk shape, the longest 1003m . You are not supposed to overfly the adjoining wine vinyards, making the approach a little bit odd. The airport is very near Woodburne (Marlborough) Airport, which is co-located with RNZAF Base Woodburne. Omaka is home to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Center which has WW I and WW II exhibits. We only had time to visit the WW I exhibits, created by the special effects team from the Lord of the Rings movies under Sir Peter Jackson.
Omaka:
After lunch at Omaka, we continued counterclockwise over the Marlborough Sounds to Nelson Airport, NZNS, a towered commercial airport with three pairs of paved runways, the longest of which is 1347m. Nelson (Whakatu) is the oldest city on South Island and is the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park. We spent the night in Nelson.
The following day, January 15th, was a non-flying day. We spent it in Abel Tasman National Park, had a terrific dinner in town, and spent the night in Nelson.
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Last modified 21 February 2025