WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Today I drove a 4 seater plane, flew over a huge section of the North Island at only 2000m above the ground, drove a quad-bike for the first time ever, visited a tunnel, saw a wool shed and ate steak and drank white wine.
Up at 5.30 and went off with Les around his farm to check on everything before heading off for the flight. He was an amazing host and took time to tell me all about the farm and animals etc. The area is really hilly and made of a crumbly rock called P??? . I think that it is a volcanic rock. The farm borders on a fast flowing river which is often sulphurous. In order to get round the farm Les uses a quad bike. I had never been on a quad bike before and so it was great to have a ride. It felt like we were going very fast and I was surprised that we managed to ride over such rough terrain without a problem. The dogs seemed to manage to balance and hold on better than I did (2 dogs where also riding on the back of the quad bike with me). It was a lovely sunny morning.
Les has 7 dogs - 5 working ones and 2 "toy" ones - as he calls them. One of the dogs is a little thing which Fraser (Les's son) has very aptly named "DOG". Dog ran around after us chasing all of the sheep. If sheep had brains they would realise that he is a quarter of their size and work out that they do not have to run! It was very funny to watch.
The farm has an underground natural water supply which is pumped around the farm to troughs to provide drinking water for the sheep and the cattle. Les has to check that these are all working and top up the petrol of the pumps reasonable regularly through the week. It was really interesting to learn how the farm works etc.
There are great views of Mt Ruapehu (a huge Volcano in the middle of the North Island) from most of the farm. It is covered in snow at the top and is very pretty. I was surprised to hear that they have never climbed up it.
Once we had gone round the farm on the quad bike, we went to the runway and the hanger where Les's plane is held. It is such a lovely lovely little cute plane. Les showed me how to check that the fuel did not have any water or bubbles in it by pouring off a little bit from different parts of the plane and I cleaned the windscreen. You have to clean it using downward strokes so that if you do scratch it by accident it does not look like powerlines for the pilot. It was really interesting to learn all about flying.
Les has had the plane for 5 years and been flying for much longer. Fraser (his son) is currently training to be a commercial pilot. Les uses the plane to get to his other farm that he rents out around Whanganui. Apparently it costs about the same in fuel to get there by plane and truck. However, the insurance for the plane makes it much more expensive to run. It takes well over 1 hour to get to Wanganui by car and only 20mins by plane.
I loved the fact that I could see all of the controls and that Les talked me through what they all did. The take off from the farm was awesome. There is one longish runway which is tarmacked, on a gentle slope and stops at the top of a hill. On the other side of the hill is a very steep, short, grass slope. We took off from the top of the hill going down the steep grass slope and were up in the air in seconds. Absolutely awesome!!!! That runway is only occasionally used as it is dependent on the wind direction. Before we took off Les told me about the fact that they had a bit of an interesting landing a couple of weeks ago where another guy (Tom) was landing and came in too fast and short on to the long tarmacked runway and only just stopped in time before going off over the lip of the hill and down the short grassy runway on the others side (when he would have had to take off again).... not always good to hear about these things just before you take off in a little 4 seater plane....It is amazing that planes to actually fly!
The flight down to Whanganui only took about 15 mins. The great thing about a little plane is that they can fly really low and you can see so much more. As the day was so clear and sunny the views were absolutely amazing. We came into land parallel to the sea over the town.
We picked up Les's dad (Mervin) at the airport at Whanganui and then took off again. We were flying then for about 1 hour over a distance of about 400km. Les took us over the National Park and to see where Mervin grew up, their old family farm, their friends family farms, over a massive waterfall and other general sites of interest. On the West of NZ there is a big volcano called Mt Egmond and then in the middle there are 3 other volcanoes called Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe, and Mount Tongariro We flew between them and I could see one set out of one side window and the other set outside of the other window. I could not believe that Les had been so lovely to bring me along. It was amazing. We were flying so low that when we flew over Mervin's house we could clearly see Les's mum waving up at us with a broom. She knew that we would be flying over. I could count the number of sheep in the field.
When we got back to Whanganui Les introduced me to his friend Charley who runs the flying doctor from the airport. Charley kindly showed me the inside of the plane which they use to transport patients to different hospitals around NZ and explained how it all works. As the population of NZ is so small in comparison to the UK they only have specialized hospitals in a few cities and so they often have to transport patients from rural areas to the major cities. There were 400 flying doctor flights from Wanganio last year. Les sometimes goes along too. The patients that they carry then to be stablised before they fly. It costs a lot of money but saves loads of lives.
Charley also has a 9/10 sized spitfire replica in the hanger which I had a look at. Very cool.
We had coffee and cake at the little airport cafe. I had originally thought that I would head off today in the afternoon to the National Park but as the morning progressed and I was having such a great time it started looking less and less likely....
As soon as we had taken off on the flight back to Les's farm, Les said "Off you go then" and let me take the controls for about 10 mins!!! I enjoyed is so much. I just love heights. At first it really felt like we were pointing towards the ground and loosing height but we were in fact staying straight. Les showed me how to trust in the instruments and what I was supposed to be looking out for. He even let me do the turn towards the farm where the plane is over at an angle. I think I might have giggled for the whole 10 mins.
We had to fly low over the runway at the farm once to scare off all of the sheep from the runway. Apparently sometimes it takes many fly overs before he can land without sheep in the way. We landed on the tarmac runway this time. Every landing was really smooth and I felt very safe with Les as the pilot.
I took my GPS tracker with me to record the route but forgot to change the settings from the bike settings and so it only recorded every 2 minutes. Therefore the flight looked really straight even though it was not. It was cool to see the route we took.
When we got back to the farm Les took me out again on the quad bikes and let me drive that too. It was quite difficult as the break and the accelerator are all controlled by the right hand levers. At one point I got the 2 slightly confused as we headed up a blind hill top with a drop off the other side......oops. That was far more scary than the flying.
He showed me the sheep shearing huts. It is a real factory like process with 5 machines to do the shearing and a queuing system for all of the sheep. It takes a group of about 7 shearers a couple of days to do all of his sheep. Several of then shear the sheep while the others collect and bag the wool. Over the last few years farmers have been getting less and less for the wool and the number of sheep farms has decreased considerably with a lot of farmers turning to diary instead. A NZ farmer gets on 25% of the money from the sale of meat in a super market or butchers. It is strange as each of the out buildings are so big that when I arrived yesterday it looked to me like there were several other houses and farms next to Les's but in fact they are all part of the one big farm.
When we got back Les and his two children, Nicky and Fraser, took me to the tunnel through to the river at the edge of the farm. The tunnel was built to allow water to pass under the road so that the road could go round rather than through the hill. It was really cool. They have a tunnel on their property!!
The lambs that are rejected my their mothers or their mothers die are taken on as pets by the family. They have a small field full of really fat, friendly sheep that run to you for food when you enter the field. It was great feeding them bread and apples..... The most friendly one is called "Honey".
Kate (Les's wife) cooked us a great meal of steak, sausages and salad and we spent some of the evening planning tomorrow's walk. I managed to persuade them that they should do the Tongariro Crossing walk with me as it is only down the road from them and they have never done it.
A really great day :-)
Up at 5.30 and went off with Les around his farm to check on everything before heading off for the flight. He was an amazing host and took time to tell me all about the farm and animals etc. The area is really hilly and made of a crumbly rock called P??? . I think that it is a volcanic rock. The farm borders on a fast flowing river which is often sulphurous. In order to get round the farm Les uses a quad bike. I had never been on a quad bike before and so it was great to have a ride. It felt like we were going very fast and I was surprised that we managed to ride over such rough terrain without a problem. The dogs seemed to manage to balance and hold on better than I did (2 dogs where also riding on the back of the quad bike with me). It was a lovely sunny morning.
Les has 7 dogs - 5 working ones and 2 "toy" ones - as he calls them. One of the dogs is a little thing which Fraser (Les's son) has very aptly named "DOG". Dog ran around after us chasing all of the sheep. If sheep had brains they would realise that he is a quarter of their size and work out that they do not have to run! It was very funny to watch.
The farm has an underground natural water supply which is pumped around the farm to troughs to provide drinking water for the sheep and the cattle. Les has to check that these are all working and top up the petrol of the pumps reasonable regularly through the week. It was really interesting to learn how the farm works etc.
There are great views of Mt Ruapehu (a huge Volcano in the middle of the North Island) from most of the farm. It is covered in snow at the top and is very pretty. I was surprised to hear that they have never climbed up it.
Once we had gone round the farm on the quad bike, we went to the runway and the hanger where Les's plane is held. It is such a lovely lovely little cute plane. Les showed me how to check that the fuel did not have any water or bubbles in it by pouring off a little bit from different parts of the plane and I cleaned the windscreen. You have to clean it using downward strokes so that if you do scratch it by accident it does not look like powerlines for the pilot. It was really interesting to learn all about flying.
Les has had the plane for 5 years and been flying for much longer. Fraser (his son) is currently training to be a commercial pilot. Les uses the plane to get to his other farm that he rents out around Whanganui. Apparently it costs about the same in fuel to get there by plane and truck. However, the insurance for the plane makes it much more expensive to run. It takes well over 1 hour to get to Wanganui by car and only 20mins by plane.
I loved the fact that I could see all of the controls and that Les talked me through what they all did. The take off from the farm was awesome. There is one longish runway which is tarmacked, on a gentle slope and stops at the top of a hill. On the other side of the hill is a very steep, short, grass slope. We took off from the top of the hill going down the steep grass slope and were up in the air in seconds. Absolutely awesome!!!! That runway is only occasionally used as it is dependent on the wind direction. Before we took off Les told me about the fact that they had a bit of an interesting landing a couple of weeks ago where another guy (Tom) was landing and came in too fast and short on to the long tarmacked runway and only just stopped in time before going off over the lip of the hill and down the short grassy runway on the others side (when he would have had to take off again).... not always good to hear about these things just before you take off in a little 4 seater plane....It is amazing that planes to actually fly!
The flight down to Whanganui only took about 15 mins. The great thing about a little plane is that they can fly really low and you can see so much more. As the day was so clear and sunny the views were absolutely amazing. We came into land parallel to the sea over the town.
We picked up Les's dad (Mervin) at the airport at Whanganui and then took off again. We were flying then for about 1 hour over a distance of about 400km. Les took us over the National Park and to see where Mervin grew up, their old family farm, their friends family farms, over a massive waterfall and other general sites of interest. On the West of NZ there is a big volcano called Mt Egmond and then in the middle there are 3 other volcanoes called Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe, and Mount Tongariro We flew between them and I could see one set out of one side window and the other set outside of the other window. I could not believe that Les had been so lovely to bring me along. It was amazing. We were flying so low that when we flew over Mervin's house we could clearly see Les's mum waving up at us with a broom. She knew that we would be flying over. I could count the number of sheep in the field.
When we got back to Whanganui Les introduced me to his friend Charley who runs the flying doctor from the airport. Charley kindly showed me the inside of the plane which they use to transport patients to different hospitals around NZ and explained how it all works. As the population of NZ is so small in comparison to the UK they only have specialized hospitals in a few cities and so they often have to transport patients from rural areas to the major cities. There were 400 flying doctor flights from Wanganio last year. Les sometimes goes along too. The patients that they carry then to be stablised before they fly. It costs a lot of money but saves loads of lives.
Charley also has a 9/10 sized spitfire replica in the hanger which I had a look at. Very cool.We had coffee and cake at the little airport cafe. I had originally thought that I would head off today in the afternoon to the National Park but as the morning progressed and I was having such a great time it started looking less and less likely....
As soon as we had taken off on the flight back to Les's farm, Les said "Off you go then" and let me take the controls for about 10 mins!!! I enjoyed is so much. I just love heights. At first it really felt like we were pointing towards the ground and loosing height but we were in fact staying straight. Les showed me how to trust in the instruments and what I was supposed to be looking out for. He even let me do the turn towards the farm where the plane is over at an angle. I think I might have giggled for the whole 10 mins.
We had to fly low over the runway at the farm once to scare off all of the sheep from the runway. Apparently sometimes it takes many fly overs before he can land without sheep in the way. We landed on the tarmac runway this time. Every landing was really smooth and I felt very safe with Les as the pilot.
I took my GPS tracker with me to record the route but forgot to change the settings from the bike settings and so it only recorded every 2 minutes. Therefore the flight looked really straight even though it was not. It was cool to see the route we took.
When we got back to the farm Les took me out again on the quad bikes and let me drive that too. It was quite difficult as the break and the accelerator are all controlled by the right hand levers. At one point I got the 2 slightly confused as we headed up a blind hill top with a drop off the other side......oops. That was far more scary than the flying.He showed me the sheep shearing huts. It is a real factory like process with 5 machines to do the shearing and a queuing system for all of the sheep. It takes a group of about 7 shearers a couple of days to do all of his sheep. Several of then shear the sheep while the others collect and bag the wool. Over the last few years farmers have been getting less and less for the wool and the number of sheep farms has decreased considerably with a lot of farmers turning to diary instead. A NZ farmer gets on 25% of the money from the sale of meat in a super market or butchers. It is strange as each of the out buildings are so big that when I arrived yesterday it looked to me like there were several other houses and farms next to Les's but in fact they are all part of the one big farm.
When we got back Les and his two children, Nicky and Fraser, took me to the tunnel through to the river at the edge of the farm. The tunnel was built to allow water to pass under the road so that the road could go round rather than through the hill. It was really cool. They have a tunnel on their property!!
The lambs that are rejected my their mothers or their mothers die are taken on as pets by the family. They have a small field full of really fat, friendly sheep that run to you for food when you enter the field. It was great feeding them bread and apples..... The most friendly one is called "Honey".
Kate (Les's wife) cooked us a great meal of steak, sausages and salad and we spent some of the evening planning tomorrow's walk. I managed to persuade them that they should do the Tongariro Crossing walk with me as it is only down the road from them and they have never done it.
A really great day :-)
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