Traveling South - Day 1

Travel in the time of Covid.

Flying south from Wellington yesterday was a slightly surreal experience. New Zealanders have clearly begun to enjoy their own country; the airport long term carpark was full and there were plenty of people – many with children enjoying the airport lounge.

It looked like business as usual: except the only aircraft in sight were ATR’s; there was no security to pass through at Wellington airport; no airbridges and Air New Zealand, while doing a stalwart job of keeping the nation moving, kept tweaking flight times. Even with an amended schedule, the flight out of Wellington was an hour late.

The delay didn’t bother Cavan and me. We toasted each other with a glass of bubbles, and nibbled happily on lounge food. A large proportion of the passengers though were families heading for Queenstown and skiing during the school break. When we arrived in Christchurch, they had a mad scramble across the tarmac to make the connection to their flight.

The majority of the rest of the passengers disembarked at Christchurch headed for the rugby game.

Our Invercargill flight timetable had also been tweaked so we arrived in Invercargill at 5.40pm yesterday. It was already dark, which was a pity, as I’d have enjoyed seeing something of the town.

We reached our motel, directly opposite the Victorian water tower building and had an early night.