australian letters This is a weekly newsletter published by the Australian bureau. sign up To get it by email. This week's edition is written by Melbourne-based reporter Natasha Frost.
Last week, nearly 32 years into my career as a veteran aviator, I experienced what felt like my first flight: the flight of an angel, the flight of a millionaire, the flight of dreams. (I was still in coaching class.)
On a recent reporting trip to New Zealand, I now spend the weekend visiting an old friend who lives near Havelock, a town of about 600 people at the top of the country's South Island, about 80 miles due west of Wellington. I made plans. I was traveling from
With the Cook Strait in the way between New Zealand's North and South Islands, the easiest option was to take a domestic flight. His flight is one of hundreds that fly around the country every day.
Flying within New Zealand is only slightly more demanding than taking a bus. If you don't have any luggage to check in, you can walk through the airport doors 30 minutes before your flight departs. No one checks his ID at any point, there are no liquid restrictions, and he usually doesn't even have to show his boarding pass to go through security, which takes a minute or two. Some small airports have no security at all.
To get to Havelock, I booked a seat on a flight operated not by Air New Zealand, the national carrier, but by Sounds Air, one of the country's half a dozen much smaller 'regional carriers'. reserved.
By flying Sounds Air from Wellington, you can completely avoid security checks. The boarding ticket is nothing more than a reusable green laminated piece of paper that says 'Boarding Pass to Blenheim'. Do you want to check in your bag? They threw it into the back of a nine-seater plane. There is no need to go to the merry-go-round upon arrival. We will give it to you when you get off the train.
The company's chief executive, Andrew Crawford, said the lack of wrongdoing was entirely intentional, with some frequent flyers flying the equivalent of 10 round trips across the Strait. He said he was buying a ticket.
“That’s what makes us different,” he said. “This is what people like.”
The airline was founded in 1986, ferrying people to the Marlborough Sounds in a single nine-seater Cessna Caravan. Today, his fleet of 10 12-seater planes, the largest in the company's fleet, transports approximately 120,000 people a year, primarily on routes with no alternative other than road.
Some of the passengers are commuters. Others are tourists. And some people live in rural areas and need specialized medical care in big cities. “If you're going to have cancer treatment or day surgery, that's what happens,” he said. “It's a big part of our business.”
These small airlines play a vital role in helping New Zealanders get around countries where rail networks are very limited and many people live far from essential services. I am.
But it was the flight itself that fascinated me.
Under normal circumstances, when flying elbow-to-elbow with a stranger, the dignity of flight is somewhat replaced by the discomfort of being inside a pressurized metal tube, making it easy to realize that you are thousands of feet up in the air. I'll forget. (Some people want to forget that.)
But the miracle of flight is extraordinary, as at an altitude of about 6,500 feet, it's so low and slow that you can see wind turbines and rocky hills unfolding before you, as if you were flying in a dream. It looked like…a miracle.
The wind blew through the cabin and I could see into the cockpit, over the solo pilot's shoulder, and out the windshield. As we entered land through the vineyards for which this region is famous, we could almost see the vines. It wasn't hard to imagine myself as an early aviator, and I had a hard time keeping the smile off my face.
Overall, I told my waiting host that this was an experience that was right in between riding in a minivan and traveling on a private jet.
This week's story is here.
Are you enjoying our Australian bureau placement?
Please share your thoughts with us at NYTAustralia@nytimes.com.
Like this email?
Please forward it to your friends (could use a little fresh perspective, right?) and let them know they can sign up here.
Enjoying Australian Letters? Sign up here or forward it to a friend.
For more Australian coverage and discussion, start your day with our local morning briefings and join our Facebook group.