After the Glacier walk we spent the night at a large but almost empty, commercial campsite on the shore of Lake Wanaka, and got up early the next day to see the sun rise. Then we drove the rest of the way into Wanaka with the intention of passing through and heading further north. But when we reached the small airfield Lawson suddenly said that he'd like to go flying.
There is a flying school at Wanaka airfield and it was readily agreed that Lawson would fly one of their planes with me as a passenger, accompanied by one of the instructors.
By the time a plane became available there was not a cloud in the sky, and we had a glorious flight over the mountains of the National Park, including the circumnavigation of the peak of Mount Aspiring.
We could even see Mount Cook in the distance and the flying instructor said that such days, when the peaks were free of cloud, were few and far between.
It was a 4 seater plane. Lawson and Devon, the instructor, sat in the front seats and I had the back 2.
I had a headset so that I could hear what the others were saying but once we'd taken off it didn't work very well. I wasn't that bothered; I gawped at the scenery and clicked away with my camera.
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| Mount Cook |
Every now and then Lawson or Devon would turn round and say something to me and I would smile. They gave me some funny looks though. Lawson was too busy concentrating upon flying in this environment for the very first time to enquire whether there was something wrong, and I suppose Devon didn't like to ask. He probably thought I was a poor simpleton whom Lawson was taking out for the day.
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| Lawson & Devon Sandsbury who came from Zimbabwe 'in search of a more stable country'. |
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