Well, what a week I have had! On Sunday I boarded a plane for Hokitika. Now, one would think that when Air NZ checks a passenger in and checks a bag through to Hokitika they *should* have known (and informed me) that all flights for that destination had been cancelled that day. I guess it was much more fun for them to have me arrive in Christchurch to find that the weather over the Alps was stormy and no planes were flying. No rental cars available at all, and no public transport to get me to my final destination in Greymouth left me wondering how the heck I was going to get there in time for the start of my RMA Accreditation training by 9am on Monday morning. All flights the next day were fully booked, so I was happy to take up the suggestion that I wait around a few hours in case the weather broke.
Finally, around 8pm an Air NZ staff member said they saw a “window of opportunity” and “would take a chance” at getting the tired and grumpy stranded passengers into Hokitika. They wished us luck as we boarded the plane which didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
The plane was tiny, and decided to imitate a roller coaster crossed with a bungy and I was not at all impressed when one of the crew mentioned that he hoped we would see the runway before we landed.
As you can no doubt tell, I got there safely - and survived the drive from hell through a nasty, nasty storm to Greymouth.