Birdseye views

On a clear day, a flight from Wellington to Nelson offers wonderful views of the terrain below. The plane is small and flies low enough for good visibility.

The plane takes 40 passengers  plus hostess

Leaving Wellington

Leaving the north island

South island, heading for Nelson

The photos were taken by my seat neighbour, a young Dutch woman on a two year work visa. She was snapping photos out of the window so I handed her my phone and she took a few for me as well.

It's windy though, said the pilots

Qantas pilots discuss matters arising

Waiting at Brisbane airport to come back to Sydney after Peter Grimes,  I visited the Watermark Books and Cafe for a Campos coffee. Next to me were three Qantas pilots discussing their flights.
"Weather looks alright," they said.
"Yes, but it's windy."
A friend said later that comment would have stressed her out,  but I was so busy trying to sketch the pilots without being obvious that I didn't really think about what they were saying
It was a bit bumpy in the air, but nothing like the lumps and bumps on the way up two days earlier. 

A movie marathon

I made it home safe and sound and the flight back did not seem as long as usual.

Partly that must be due to the three excellent German movies I watched:  Mr & Mrs Adelman, My blind date with life (Meine blinde Date mit dem Leben) and SMS for you (SMS für Dich). I recommend them all - charming, witty and insightful. 

Singapore Airlines knows how to pick them.  I watched Barbara on the way over and it was also excellent (about the difficult choices people had to make about living in East or West during the DDR days).

I listened to Jonas Kaufmann sing his way through Mahler's Lied von der Erde, a new recording from Vienna with Kaufmann singing both tenor and baritone parts. I enjoyed it so much (with noise cancelling headphones - best travel investment ever) I listened to the whole thing twice.  I think I'll have to buy the CD. There were still some hours until landing so I watched a New York production of Romeo and Juliet with Orlando Blum playing Romeo.

No wonder the flights seemed shorter - and in fact they are, an hour and a half shorter than the other direction and you notice the difference.

Now I'm back in NSW. It must be winter as lots of people on the train had colds although the temperature is about the same as Hamburg in early June. The difference is that houses here are chronically underinsulated and underheated so it seems much much colder.

Above the clouds

In the air, flying back to base from the land of the long white cloud. You don't have be a space traveller to realise how small our world is.