How can you fly when you are taller than the plane
Trip Start
Jan 11, 2005
1
12
57
Trip End
Nov 29, 2005
Stewart Island, New Zealand
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Since we decided to plan ahead - which means calling the night before we wanted to go over to Stewart Island, a 9am flight was the only thing that was available to us. Now for those in the common world (or just those who have a job), 9am is not very early and quite easy to obtain. For those in my world, 9am in barely viewed as a good option of travel time. I believe that I am usually having a cup of tea while laughing at something that happened during the night. 9am seemed to be a death sentence for us, but staying another day in Invecargil seemed even worse so we promptly booked the flight over.
Our next thing was to call a shuttle to take us. The conversation went something like this. Driver: You are going to the airport for Stewart Island. Us: Yes we were told to be there at 8:30 in order to check in. Driver: I will pick you up at 8:25. Us: We would like to go a little earlier as we still need to pay for our flight, etc. Driver: The counter doesn't open until 8:30 so I will pick you up at 8:25. Us (cheekily): You mean we don't have to go through strict security lines and cavitity searches. Driver: Good bye girls, see you tomorrow.
Our driver picked us up and delivered us steadily to the airport at which we waited in line for the counter to open up. The first guy was ready. I made some crack about how he was going to have to weigh in for the plane by standing where you put the luggage to make sure the jet doesn't go down. Thinking I was making this up, it was to my horror that it was reality. He hopped up on the counter and his weight was recorded. My realization of this was that the plane was not going to be very big. Helen and I died in laughter. We were being stupid in line and didn't really care as how were we going to see again from there. Finally, we got ourselves checked in, weighed, and our boarding ticket (a laminated card).
Our flight number was called for the 6 of us waiting to go over to Stewart Island. We walked out to the plane when lo and behold the check in guy was our pilot too. He was an everything man - put the luggage on the plane, checked us in, and flew us over...all in one swoop. That will teach us for saying a lot of dumb things to ticket counter people!! The plane was hysterical. It was a ten-seater and I was literally taller than the plane. We hopped in and the pilot gave us the energency drill to which Helen and I were dying of laughter. There was a 5'X 7' instruction card of what to do in an emergency and where to escape. I hate to be mean but there were three doors..two by the propellers...where do you think that you would escape from??? All giggles aside, the pilot started up the plane and off we went.
It was only a 15 minute flight that was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was just rising and there were beautiful pictures to be taken. It was like our own little scenic flight just to get over to the island. It was probably one of the best things that we decided to do. As the plane climbed, all of the sheep started to look like little ants and soon we were lost over the ocean. There were tons of little islands around and when we came upon Stewart Island, the size was incredible. It is all forest with bits of houses on it. We took a couple of turns near some of the bigger bays and then it was dinally time to land. We lowered into what looked to be a group of trees when at the last moment a little runway appeared and the pilot landed on it. As we got off the plane, a shuttle van approached to take us to the main office in Oban (Halfmoon Bay), the main city on Stewart Island. The first thing you notice about the island is the quietness of society and the larking of birds. It really is heaven on earth and a hiker's paradise!
