We've had the trip of year (decade) with the wonderful people from Pilatus Australia (Terry, Sebastian, Bruce and Ruedi), their Pilatus PC-12 and a visit to the land of the long white cloud, Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.

Stewart spent most of the nine day trip in the right hand seat and got to fly the aircraft manually, take-off and land and learn the involved systems (involved for a private pilot not used to modern turboprop equipment). He was in seventh heaven and now aspires to improve his flying credentials so maybe he could fly this aircraft himself - in case our ship comes in!

We left home on Monday 9th June in a pea soup fog which was covering the whole region. We met the Pilatus crew at VH Aviation, Canberra Airport where we cleared customs and then loaded our bags into the PC-12. After a wait of about half an hour we were able to take-off through the clouds and head east to New Zealand. We flew direct to Christchurch and saw little of the country or ocean because of the solid cloud cover.

For those of you not familiar with the PC-12 it is a single engine turboprop nine seat aircraft - we had no qualms about travelling such a distance over water. Neither Stewart or I gave this any thought but had to justify our decision to many friends and family.

The flight to Christchurch took just over five hours. We had a beautiful lunch en-route and we found the aircraft extremely comfortable. It even has a toilet 'just in case'. The ground crew at Christchurch was brilliant and looked after our every need (aircraft parking, customs, transport, fuel). Thank you Tony McFarlin and Murray Hudson. The following day we flew down to the alps near Queenstown and back to give Callum McPherson and the staff of Pacific Wings magazine a real experience of the aircraft.

Wednesday we had to de-ice the PC-12 before we could take-off for Lake Tekapo. A most interesting experience and the first time this particular aircraft was de-iced (photos going online shortly). Lake Tekapo was of particular interest to both Stewart and I as it is the home of three Australian built Nomads, one of our favourite aircraft. Air Safari Services (Richard Rayward) owns and operates the Nomads along with a Cessna Caravan, a new Gippsland Aeronautics Airvan and a couple of Cessna 207s.

The Nomads and Airvan are particularly suited to the sightseeing services offered by Richard and his friendly team. We had to have our photographs taken with one of the Nomads because they are diffult to find these days, especially ones still operating. Thank you Richard and Tim for a delightful visit, we hope to return again and do one of your senic flights.

Next stop for the day, Queenstown. Visibility was a problem and our pilot would have to decide whether we turn back - thank heavens, we found Queenstown under the fog layer. It is a most interesting approach even for those of us in the rear of the aircraft. A mountain on the left wing and ski slopes off the right wing and water just ahead of the airport. A beautiful landing and taxy to meet another delightful ground crew operator, Dianne Aitcheson manager of Airline Ground Services. Again everything organised to perfection, even discounts at some of the local shops!

Queenstown is a very pretty setting, the village sourrounding the lake and hemmed in by steep mountains. We did a lot of walking to take in the town centre (and shopping for one member of the team, not me) and sights. This helped us walk off the effects of being still in an aircraft for a few days. We walked again after dinner even though the walkways were iced over and slippery - a most enjoyable day.

Next morning we found the airport cloed by a pea soup fog and locals felt it would not lift until the afternoon. So a trip to Wanaka was organised, a fun trip with four large males and one smaller female in a medium sized car. I don't need to tell you who was the one squished in the middle of the back do I? The Fighter Museum was an interesting diversion and the workshop across the road even more interesting for the aircraft it held. We were ably shown around by Clarrie who served with the RNZAF.

BAck to Queenstown which was now clear of fog, refuel the PC-12 and take-off for Wellington. Stewart did this take-off and hand flew the aircraft to 25,000ft to 'see what it was like' then it was back to auto pilot. He hoped we didn't know in the back - but we did, the auto pilot is so smooth making minute adjustments all the time. We arrived near Wellington in the dark, in clouds and the route is from the north to clear the mountains on the west of the city. We didn't see anything until we were on finals and we came under the clouds to see the city lights and water near the airport.

Another city, another perfect ground crew. This time Peter van Dyk, the boss of Capital Jet Services looked after us and delivered us safely to our hotel. Next morning Peter arranged our refuelling before we taxied across the active runway to the other side of the airport to visit Vincent Aviation. Peter Vincent and wife Jill are now operating charter flights out of Darwin and we found them extremely interesting and friendly (a running theme for this trip). We were to spend a couple of days here as the PC-12 decided it didn't want to fly today.

The problem proved to be a dirty microswitch but it took Pilatus's engineer Ruedi travelling from Adelaide to Wellington with his toolkit and spare parts to solve the problem. This threw up some interesting aspects as to who may or may not touch an Australian registered aircraft in New Zealand and sign off on any repairs. Vincent Aviation offered us the run of its premises and staff to solve any problems - this gave us all time to become acquainted and learn more of each others businesses.

Saturday afternoon we took off for Auckland ahead of the All Blacks rugby game against England. We're glad we didn't have to see the sad faces the following day - it was bad enough in Auckland, The Kiwis as a nation take rugby much more seriously than we do - this is Stewart's favourite sport.

Auckland was wet and dark and we seemed to taxy forever to reach Air Center (sic) One's parking area. Dare I say it, another city and another perfectionist ground crew. Raynor Simich was responsible for all our air services here and around NZ, she certainly picked the right people to make our trip so easy. She had a mini bus operated by Claud Nine standing by to take us to our hotel - a beautifully appointed Ford transit van converted for small group travel (the conversion was done in Belgium). Claudia was our driver and a very astute business person to boot. We highly recommend Claud Nine's services.

We managed a visit to the MoTaT museum, aviation section to see the flying boats. One member of the team saw his first Lancaster and was mightly impressed. For Stewart, Terry and myself the highlight was the Sunderland and Solent and speaking to the gentleman who flew the first Solent to New Zealand. This museum is full of enthusiasts like our HARS and other restoration groups - and like all these groups it needs support to rebuild the wonderful aircraft that make up so much of our recent aviation history.

Monday morning we were at the airport ready to depart early for Norfolk Island. Raynor made sure our customs clearance was easy and we had more food on the aircraft than six people could eat in two days let alone for a two and half hour flight. The weather forecast was not encouraging for Norfolk but a local on the island said it way fine - and it was. A beautiful sunny day and a shimmering island in the middle of the blue ocean. It was a public holiday on Norfolk so it was fairly quiet at the airport - but we had a welcoming committee of interested persons.

We cleared customs and found our motel. Those not working (a demo flight) were able to take in the island by car visiting the historic penal colony and looking at the views from various parts of the island (5km x 8km). The restored buildings are beautiful and are claimed to be the best in Australia for the period. It is sad that so many of the building were destroyed by locals removing the stone for use in their own homes early last century. It must have been a dreadful place for the convicts at the time but the site doesn't have the brooding presence you feel so strongly at Port Arthur (and that was before the modern massacre).

We experienced locals bringing a fishing boat in from the sea - using a gantry, winch, 4 wheel drive on a high pier above a boiling sea. The eprson in the boat has to reach up and hook his boat on the hanging wire without hitting the pier and rocks, the moment it is hooked the 4 wheel driver reverses quickly to lift the boat above the sea and pier, the trailer is pushed underneath and the boat lowered onto it. This is how all food and building materials are delivered to the island because there is no normal wharf due to the shape of the island and the reefs surrounding it.

Next morning we took off for Lord Howe Island. This is a very different place and appeared out of the cloudy mists as a brooding place with a tiny airstrip. The winds were strong and giving the aircraft lots of turbulance right down to landing. Sebastian did a great landing and we taxied to the apron and organised fuel, customs and a trip to The Pines for lunch - by Police van!

The short time we were on the island it was wet and extremely windy and we couldn't see the mountains because of the clouds. The island is 3km x 8km, so it is very small. We walked from the Pines to the museum to take in the island's history, especially the Flying Boat services prior to the airstrip being built. A friend, Bryan Monkton was responsible for these services with his airline, Trans Oceanic Airways which operated ex-RAAF Sunderlands on this route. Sadly Bryan passed away on 28 May in Moss Vale, NSW just before our trip. There's a very interesting book in Bryan's words waiting to be published, he didn't live to see this happen.

We had lunch and walked back to the airport (we were drowned twice) in time to see the daily Qantas Dash 8 make its landing. We were quickly airborne and heading direct to Canberra. Sebastian and Stewart swapped seats and Stewart hand flew the aircraft most of the way home and did the landing in Canberra as the final part of our great experience. It was sad to say goodbye to the Pilatus team and the PC-12 as we'd all become good friends and shared some wonderful experiences over the past nine days. While we waited for our Bungendore taxi to arrive the PC-12 waited for clearance to take-off for Adelaide the final leg in this jolurney - and the worst weather conditions of the whole trip - who'd believe it!

We can't thank Terry, Sebastian, Bruce and latterly Ruedi enough for this experience. It is something we will both appreciate for the rest of our lives. I'm sure we'll see more of Pilatus and Stewart will be writing his own experiences of the PC-12 (good and bad) in his own words. What you've read here is my experience of the trip and I'm not the aviation writer in this business. We both felt so welcome in New Zealand, we hope when they visit Australia they feel the same.

I still have four rolls of flim to scan but you will find a photo gallery of the trip by following the navagation below. I hope you enjoy these images mostly taken by Sebastian Lip or his camera with the occasional shot from our digital camera.