New Zealand Flying, Day 8: Northern South Island

We left Nelson, NZNS, and flew along the shoreline of Abel Tasman National Park to Karamea. Karamea is the northernmost settlement of any size on the west coast of South Island, 96km northwest by road from Westport. It is surrounded by the Kahurangi National Park, New Zealand's second largest. Karamea Aerodrome, NZKM, has two pairs of runways, the longer of which is 945m. There is a fence and a rather-tall hedge right at the approach end of the runway, which is compacted gravel (the other runway is turf). Despite its small size, Karamea has a landing fee, and fuel is available.

We continued from Karamea southward along the west coast to Hokitika for our lunch stop. Hokitika Airport, NZHK, has two pairs of paved runways, the longer of which is 1176m long. It is the closest airport with scheduled flights to Greymouth, 40m further north, the largest settlement on the west coast. We had lunch and walked around on the beach. Jade carving is popular here.

From Hokitika we flew south through the Southern Alps, mostly VFR-on-top, back to home base at Wanaka.

VFR-on-top over the Southern Alps:

Back at Wanaka, I got my chance at a flight in a de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth. This biplane was built in the 1930s as a primary training aircraft. There is no electrical system, so it needed to be hand-propped, and visibility from the rear cockpit, where you fly it, is very limited, especially when on the ground. It has ailerons only on the lower wings. It was pretty docile in flight, but I was too tired after the long flying day to opt for aerobatics in this plane though it is capable of them.