We caught the 9:00 Ferry from Auckland for a 90 minute ride to an “open preserve” island, Tiritiri Matangi. Most visitors go for a day trip, but there are bunkhouse accommodations if you want to spend the night. Which is what you’d have to do if you wanted to see kiwi or little penguins.
Leaving Auckland
When the Maori first splashed onto the shores of NZ in the 1300’s Tiritiri Matangi was teaming with life...reptiles, flightless birds and marine mammals and heavily forested hills and valleys. In the 1850’s, “the Crown” took possession to build a lighthouse and soon after the forests were burned to open the landscape to grass for sheep. By 1971, when the lease was cancelled, less than 6% of the native forest cover remained and introduced non native pests (rats, possums and rabbits) had pretty much decimated the native animals.
It was hoped that the native bush would regenerate, but by 1985, a more diligent replanting effort began with seed collected on the island, and grown in special nurseries for the restoration effort. Over 30,000 plants were planted annually by for 10 years. Access and predator control are strict and now the 220 hectare island is an amazing biodiversity recovery story.
Everyone who comes here comes to enjoy the native forest, bird life, and hiking trails. Volunteer guides met us in small groups and were crucial for pointing out special insects (giant weta cricket) reptiles (24” endangered tuatara lizards) and abundant avifauna. Sadly for us, kiwi and little penguins are only visible at night, but the tree canopy was crazy with New Zealand Robins, white heads, fantails, bell birds, and the noisy tui birds which feed on the pohutakawa tree. These gorgeous trees are loaded with red flowers for three weeks in December and are called “New Zealand’s Christmas Tree.”
Tawharanui Regional park north of Auckland
by Carolyn
Through Becky’s many, many birding contacts around the world, she connected with Chris Thompson, who is a “friend of a friend”. Chris was more than happy to take her day off from work and drive us to the Tawharanui Regional Park about 90 minutes north of Auckland. The day was stunningly beautiful and after stopping for coffee and sandwiches for lunch in Matakana, we were soon winding our way up and over into the park.
The tree covered in red blooms is a Pohutukawa, or New Zealand Christmas Tree
The various habitats yielded all the desired species - 35 total. I’ll try to link to the eBird report that Becky so diligently compiles for these excursions while I just have the fun part of looking around for more birds. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50650979.
Tidal marshland
Beautiful trails
Stunning beaches
Dense forests
This park has a special mammal proof fence and there are traps set throughout the park to catch any stray rats, possums, cats or dogs. New Zealand has no native mammals and it was the introduction of the Polynesian rat when New Zealand was first discovered by Polynesians in the 1300 that started the decline in native bird populations. Introduced non native birds began after European settlers arrived in the 1800’s.
At one point we entered a dense part of a forested area where we had to disinfect our shoes. There is a soil borne fungus that is gradually killing one of New Zealand’s major native trees, the Kauri. We saw these disinfectant stations all over New Zealand.
Disinfecting our shoes
The view from our picnic spot
After a quick picnic lunch, we headed back to Auckland just before rush hour.
The final leg of our journey before "pausing" the trip for three weeks in New Zealand was from the small island nation of Niue/NIUE to Auckland, New Zealand/NZAA on December 11 (arriving Auckland December 12 due to crossing the international dateline).
At 1,350 NM (1,550 SM), this was not a particularly long flight and the weather forecast was excellent.
The Niue airport is unusual in that they advertise being open 24x7. However, with almost no traffic (perhaps one or two flights a week), we could not understand what the airport staff does during all the "down time." Regardless, we arrived at the airport at 0630 local time and the handler, security, and AFIS were on-duty. We were able to quickly complete our pre-flight chores, got the IFR clearance from AFIS, and were on our way into a beautiful early morning sky in just about 30 minutes.
We said good-bye to the AFIS controller on VHF (he optimistically said "See you next time...") and called Auckland Radio on HF.
The Wonders of High Tech - SELCAL
For this trip I had a new gizmo installed - a SELCAL decoder. SELCAL stands for SELective CALling and it is a means to use HF without having to monitor hours and hours of static while on standby for a possible call from ATC. It is fairly old technology, but very useful and makes our long overwater flights much more enjoyable.
Here are the basics of how SELCAL works. You register your airplane with a central authority and get a short code that is assigned to your plane (our code is CHEG). Ground stations convert that code into a short series of loud tones that are effective in penetrating the normal static. When you first contact a ground station on voice HF, you (or the ground station) can request a "SELCAL check." The ground station sends the tones associated with your code and if all goes well, magic happens...
A SELCAL light illuminates in the cockpit indicating a ground station is trying to contact you. Once you confirm a good SELCAL check, you can turn-off the audio from the HF radio and enjoy silence. If the ground station needs to reach you, they transmit your SELCAL code on the assigned frequency and the SELCAL decoder box connected to the HF radio in the airplane receives it (even when the crew is not listening to the HF audio) and illuminates the SELCAL light in the cockpit at which point the crew turns-of the HF audio and responds.
It is a simple technology, but makes these long distance flights outside VHF communications range much more enjoyable.
SELCAL rocks!
Cruising to Auckland
After a good SELCAL check with Auckland Radio (let the choir sing hallelujah!), we cruised toward Auckland on a basically direct course with no weather issues. The wind was very strong (about 70 KTS at one point), but mainly a crosswind from the west (our course was south-southwest) and thus did not have a huge impact on our groundspeed. The air was smooth as silk.
Along the way we passed one very interesting place...Raoul Island which even has a 1,600 FT grass airstrip. We just caught a glance of the island under the clouds as we passed...
One of the most enjoyable parts of this trip is learning about some of the unusual places we fly over, even if we don't land. For example, Raoul Island is a part of New Zealand, but uninhabited except for a small research station. The Wikipedia article on the island tells more of the story of the island, but suffice it to say these sorts of ultra-remote places fascinate me.
Form an aviation standpoint, what sort of airplane do they operate there from a 1,600 FT grass strip when the closest airport in New Zealand is more than 1,000 NM round-trip? Twin Otter? PC-6 Porter? Cessna 208 Caravan? After much searching, I could not find any information on aviation operations there. A mystery.
Arrving Auckland
After about 4+30, we are instructed via HF to contact Auckland approach on VHF. They must have a strong VHF transmitter and/or a remote outlet because more than 200 NM from the Auckland airport we picked them up loud and clear.
Auckland is a busy international airport and Josh and I spent more than an hour briefing all the details unique to NZAA that we might experience. In particular, the airport has some non-standard procedures that we wanted to understand so we didn't look like (or sound like) "dumb GA pilots."
One of the many oddities of Auckland was they use a single runway, but it is designated 23L and 05R (left and right). I can't see any evidence of their being another runway now or in the recent past.
Josh and I scoured the notes on the airport to attempt to determine why the single runway was designated R and L (right and left). If anyone else can solve the mystery, let us know!
Weather was good on arrival to Auckland and traffic was not too heavy. We were primed for another unusual procedure at NZAA, but did not get it. Often once assigned a STAR (standard terminal arrival route) at NZAA they will give you a specific time to cross a specific fix on the STAR. For example, we were assigned the EXOPI 6A STAR...
ATC could have given us an instruction like "Cross EMRAG at 1453 zulu." If they had, we would have needed to adjust speed to hit that restriction. We heard them give such time/fix instructions to airliners, but not us. Probably assumed we were dumb GA pilots!
Auckland has a LOT of airport notes including two separate modes of operation - WHITE and YELLOW. WHITE operations are when the full length of the runway is available. YELLOW operations are when they reduce the available runway in order to allow work to proceed on one end. The airport was in WHITE mode (no NOTAMs to the contrary) when we arrived, so we briefed the 10 pages or so of Jeppesen airport notes for that mode. There were many, many details to review. Most did not apply to our operation, but some did. For example, when landing runway 23L, turboprops are supposed to exit on the A6 high-speed, turn right on A, hold short of B6 and only then call ground control.
Here are just a few examples on the airport information notes from Jeppesen (there were a lot more) with some of the information we thought relevant to our flight highlighted...
None of this stuff is particularly difficult, it just takes some time to read it and digest it all. Moral of the story is when arriving at a big international airport, allow an hour or two for briefing the airport particulars.
We were assigned the ILS DME RWY 23L and flew it about as planned except for a short vector off and then back to the final approach course. We got a couple of speed restrictions which were easy to meet.
On short final for 23L at NZAA...
A friend on the ground got a neat video of us landing at Auckland...
And finally at the FBO at Auckland where the plane will stay for about three weeks until our departure on January 2, 2019...
The Plane
Knocking-on-wood, the plane has performed perfectly on the trip so far. No maintenance issues at all. Many thanks to Pilatus for designing such a rugged and dependable aircraft and the professionals at Levaero Aviation (my Pilatus Service Center) for getting the plane prepared for this trip with a very thorough inspection (and installation of SELCAL!). This trip is a team effort on many levels and Pilatus and Leavero are definitely key parts of the team.
Signing-off for now
So, that is the story of flying from Austin, Texas to Auckland, New Zealand. We will resume the trip January 2, 2019 and so don't expect to see any more aviation geek blog entries until the New Year.
While aviation is a big part of what we are doing, we are also enjoying a wonderful time in New Zealand which is a gorgeous country. I'll close with a photo from today at the summit of a the biggest climb of the cycling part of our New Zealand exploration. It has a bit of an aviation theme if you look closely...
Just a quick note to say we arrive in the tiny island nation (pop. 1600) of Niue AOK this afternoon. First flight where we had to do some zigzagging for weather (crossed a front near the equator), but managed to keep the ride smooth and stayed out of all precipitation and ice. Leave for New Zealand early AM tomorrow and cross the dateline on the way.
By Jack [We are in New Zealand until the RTW resumes January 2, but I am getting caught up on the last two aviation geek posts regarding the flights from Tahiti/NTAA/NTTB-Niue/NIUE-Auckland/NZAA.]
After six wonderful days in Bora Bora, French Polynesia (well described by Carolyn in other posts), on the morning of December 10 it was time to leave our island paradise. While Bora Bora is gets a lot of "hype," I must say much of it is deserved just in terms of breathing-taking beauty.
A short ten-minute boat ride from the dock at our hotel to a dock at the Bora Bora/NTTB airport and a 30 second golf cart ride and we were at the plane. Josh and Becky had stayed on the main island of Tahiti, so it was just me and Carolyn for the short flight (~45 minutes) from Bora Bora/NTTB to Papeete, Tahiti/NTAA.
Our ride waiting for us at the Bora Bora airport. We were the only GA (general aviation) aircraft on the ramp which surprised me...
There was a short delay getting our flight plan filed, but then we were off for a beautiful departure to the west (runway 29) with a sweeping left turn back to the south. It was a great view of the island from the opposite side from our arrival...
Reunited with Josh and Becky at Papeete, Tahiti we did a quick refueling before departing for Niue/NIUE. We encountered a problem on the ramp I had never had before...crabs...
For the flight from Papeete, Tahiti to Niue the forecast was we would encounter the first significant weather of the entire trip. There was a weak cold front just below the equator between Tahiti to Niue which is kicking-up some tall cumulus clouds and a few thunderstorms.
This was the satellite and lightning photo with the most direct plotted the morning before departure or about six hours before we would reach that area...
The high altitude significant weather forecast for approximately the same time showed a line of scattered and isolated thunderstorms, but not the solid line you might expect from the satellite image. While I am not an expert on oceanic equatorial weather, my experience is you will often see tall cumulus clouds in the equatorial region over the ocean that may contain rain showers but are not necessarily convective (thunderstorms). For instance, this line of tall clouds showed no lightening (the hallmark of a fully developed thunderstorm). Some are convective, of course, and must be avoided. But it isn't like Texas where any 30,000 FT cumulus is almost certainly a thunderstorm.
Regardless, we decided to change our flight plan to go around the north end of the line of clouds because we had a good "out" to divert further north to very clear air. Like is often the case, an indirect route that looks large on the map is only a few minutes in reality. For example, we modified our flight plan before departing Papeete/Tahiti to a more northern route around the send of the system...
The idea is with some further deviations, if needed, we could stay completely clear of any precipitation or icing.
With the flight plan filed (with the modification above which Tahiti clearance delivery quickly and easily accommodated), we called for push-back. Once again we had to do push-back the old-fashioned way with manpower and the senior captain steering via the nose wheel due to a lack of a towbar to fit a PC-12...
An easy departure from runway 04 and a left turn to the northwest and we were on our way to Niue...
The original flight plan was about 5+50 at max cruise power with an alternate of Vavaʻu, Tonga/NFTV.
The less direct flight plan only added about 10 minutes to the flight plan still leaving plenty of reserve fuel. Unlike Easter Island, there were several alternate airport option along this route including the filed alternate of Tonga/NFTV, Aitutaki, Cook Islands/NCAI, Atiu, Cook Islands/NCAT, Rarotonga, Cook Islands/NCRG, and Pago Pago, Somoa/NSTU among others.
About two hours into the flight at FL300 (30,000 FT) clouds appeared ahead and we turned-on the onboard weather radar which was an essential tool for this flight. Unlike back home, there is no NEXRAD radar downloaded via satellite to consult, so the onboard weather radar is the primary tool for weather avoidance along with your eyeballs when not in cloud.
Although we were IMC (in the clouds) for about two hours, by zigzagging using the weather radar we were able to safely navigate around all the precipitation. We were talking to Auckland Radio on HF (which was very clear) and they gave us approval to deviate up to 50 NM (later 60 NM) left or right of "track" which gave us all the flexibility we needed to avoid any bad weather.
Back home, I normally do not use the onboard radar at a range of more than about 40 NM because downloaded NEXRAD is available for the "bigger picture" of weather. But, in this situation, we used primarily the 80 NM range and occasionally 160 NM. At the longer ranges one must be careful because the radar energy is dispersed over a much larger area and thus it has less resolution and is more susceptible to "shadowing," but so long as one is aware of those limitations and keeps scanning up-and-down and at a variety of ranges, it is not difficult to navigate around the weather that is likely to be turbulent.
A typical weather radar depiction on this flight showing us deviating right of track...
While we did a lot of zigging and zagging along the route, it all worked well as we avoided all precipitation and encountered no icing. Mainly a smooth ride with occasional light turbulence.
While it is generally a bad idea to second guess weather decisions after landing, I could not resist looking at the satellite images once we were on the ground and back at the hotel. Turns out the weather along the more direct route did dissipate and we likely could have had a smooth ride on that route as well.
The satellite image about an hour after landing...
Oh well, we had a safe and comfortable ride with several easy "outs" if the weather had been worse than expected. It only cost us a few minutes of flying time and some attention to the weather radar, so I was still happy with our routing choice.
Once behind the cold front the skies cleared and Auckland Radio (on HF) told us to descend "when ready" ("pilot's discretion" in the US) to FL240 (24,000 FT) which is just below the floor of Class A airspace in the area. Class A airspace is where an IFR flight plan and communication with ATC is required. Outside of Class A airspace, you can fly VFR if weather conditions permit. Auckland Radio told us to contact Niue Radio on VHF 118.1 when reaching FL240.
We started our descent in good weather and contacted Niue Radio as instructed. Niue Radio is an AFIS and thus is not a formal air traffic control facility. Their main job is just to provide information, but they do not provide clearances to land, take-off, etc. We contact Niue Radio and the person in the "tower" (such as it is) was very casual and not very easy to understand. We asked him to repeat until we understood, but he was basically gave us current weather conditions and said "you are on your own."
Niue is a tiny island nation (population 1600) loosely affiliated with New Zealand. They have a once-a-week Air New Zealand flight from Auckland which is the main excitement at the airport. By odd coincidence, the weekly Air New Zealand departed just before we arrived and we heard them on the Niue Radio VHF frequency saying they had established contact with Auckland Radio on HF and thanking Niue for their help (Kiwis are very friendly people).
Based on the weather conditions (which were very good), we told Niue Radio we would use runway 28 via the GPS approach (just used for situational awareness as the weather was good VFR)...
Some scenes of this very sparsely populated and remote island on the approach...
After landing, the handler and airport crew were efficient in getting us refueled...
When we asked how many GA (general aviation or private aircraft) they handle, they said we were the second GA aircraft in 2018! So, were were definitely an unusual event for Niue International Airport...
After clearing customs (a lady hanging out in the now empty terminal building) and getting what I think is a rare Niue passport stamp, we retired to our hotel (which was very nice) for a good night's rest before heading on to Auckland the next day (December 11).
Niue passport stamp...
I'll pick-up with the Niue-Auckland flight story with the next post and then we will be on "sabbatical" until January 2, 2019.
