John & Anne Wiley

We spent another night in downtown Auckland, then picked up a rental car and tried not to break any laws. Especially by driving on the right (wrong) side of the road. We enjoyed a new angle on the city from the “left” side of the highway bridge, and my new cellphone easily captured this quite sharp pic.

170637 First Drive

As the only authorized driver in the rental, I got the hang of driving on the left fairly quickly – except for the “turn signal,” which turned on the wipers and thus reminded me to think opposite. Having not yet flown GA “down under” I was eager to find a friendly pilot as we rolled into Whangarei and drove out to the aerodrome (airport). I went door to door until finding one open at the Whangarei Flying Club, and we went in to meet the cheerful friendly Penny who set us up with her also gregarious pilot hubby Rusty.

9549 Penny & Rusty at Tecnam P92 G5

Though she wanted to come along Anne was less disappointed to not join us in this 2-seat Tecnam “light sport” plane, than I was excited to get airborne with Rusty. I’d been itching to meet NZ pilots and see it from small planes.

151812 Up At Last

For U.S. pilots lucky enough to visit this part of New Zealand, we highly recommend the club as a very inexpensive alternative to getting a N.Z. license and checkride for any rental plane you can find. Rusty mostly flew out across the shallow bay to those jagged peaks not far from the airport, while I tried to get good pix through the windows that don’t open.

9360 Ancient Stone

The wizened rocks riddled with caves speak of eons and beg the question of whether ancient peoples once slept there dreaming of flying nearby.

9412 Geological Reduction

The process that created these rocks has long since given way to the gradual erosion taking them back down into the sea. But after a few minutes along the coast and cruising past more rock sculptures, we headed back for a look at Whangarei where we’d booked the Cell Block (a former jail converted to a hostel) for a night. By the way, have you tried to pronounce the name of this lovely small city on a river by the sea?

9522 Whangarei

If you’re curious how the locals say the Maori name of their town, the title of this post is an approximation. We had fun learning and practicing it. Here’s another pic of the city, looking back past the airport as we approached to land.

9548 Whangarei Airport

They have commercial airline service, yet the field is friendly to small planes including excellent carefully home built aircraft. It turns out Rusty also keeps an AutoGyro Europe MT03 Eagle there, and he happily agreed to take me for a quick flight before his students arrived from Auckland for training in it. What an absolute thrill that was!

9563 AutoGyro MT-03

The performance is very similar to a light helicopter, but at an order of magnitude less operating expense. I couldn’t take pix, not having prepared a camera for such an exhilarating open-air experience, but the view was spectacular and much akin to simply levitating off the ground unaided. Great way to begin my quest to fly GA in NZ! 🙂

Seems to me Maui is not an island, it’s a mellow scenic state of mind. Our first extended stay there on this trip began with dear friends who introduced scenes like this.

7528 Mauna Kahalawai

Sitting in another outdoor restaurant gazing at this, quiet conversation with Paula, another long-time friend, included plans to take a hike. We also invited Jim & Jori with whom we enjoyed many delights like breakfast on this screened balcony.

115149 Greeting New Days

So one of our days included going to the Waihe’e Coastal Dunes & Wetlands Refuge for a custom hike led by Paula, who leads larger hiking groups to her favorite Maui marvels.

152747 Wandering Waihe’e

Anne and I also explored some via car, pondering whether we’d see the volcano on the other side of the valley.

7534 Haleakalā

So we drove back to the airport for my “check ride” with the flight training, tour, and Cessna rental company Maui Aviators at OGG, hoping they’d be better than Moore at HNL. After 15 minutes aloft their lead instructor said, “You’re good.” For other pilots wanting to rent or anyone looking for a relatively inexpensive private aerial tour of the islands, I’ve posted our summary of the two HI companies we used. We dropped the instructor off at the airport and went for a short tour back across the valley including the short water crossing to this view of the small islet where snorkeling tour boats go.

7764 Molokini

The Molokini sanctuary is beautiful from the air, and offers wonderful experiences on and in the water. Flying back wearing big smiles, we again passed these smokestacks that are a landmark used by air traffic. Driving “home” for another evening with J&J we snapped this view of it shaded by one of the many clouds that would obscure peaks and shower on us for most of our Maui days.

7547 Cane Plant

We’d heard from our friends and others that sugar production was about to end there bringing joy to environmentalists and many residents, and unemployment to others. Hopefully there will be new jobs as the economy adapts. After our days of delights we felt both excitement and sadness to take another airline back to HNL for our flight to New Zealand. We got this fresh look at Molokai.

150212 Molokai High

This high altitude perspective had me wondering if we’d manage to get back there in a GA rental plane. While lovely, this view only served to further whet my appetite. In minutes we said Aloha again to Waikiki.

151926 Aloha Tower

Having been to the top of Aloha Tower it was surprising I couldn’t spot that tall landmark as we zipped by. Only now looking at the pic can I make it out (arrow) among skyscrapers that loom behind it. The next day dawned clear and bright. The airliner taxi for takeoff kindled hope that such calm air with few clouds would expand our GA flying options upon return to Maui in late December.

100043 HNL Taxi

As now familiar HNL slipped beneath our wings and disappeared from our expanding view, thoughts of Auckland turned our attention forward.

100233 Farewell HNL

We favor the thread of philosophy encouraging us to notice the Perfection in all things. It’s implemented in our Five Step journey model, noting that the first step isn’t actually planning.

0. The Trip We Dream.

We dreamed a trip flying small planes (aka General Aviation – GA) over all the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, and Australia.

6998 Chasing Rainbows

1. The Trip We Plan.

We’d planned for months with online research and countless phone calls, emails and texts, to set up the Cessna 172 rental at Moore Air so we could fly from HNL around Kauai and other islands. Already we’d released that part of the dream, due to the marginal weather and adverse orientation of the company. But by anticipating and finding the Perfection, we had a Plan B of flying Mokulele Airlines relatively low to Maui via Molokai.

1. The Trip We Take.

So when a rainbow framed Waikiki our hearts were Perfectly ready to soar light and bright. We could delight in the differences between dreaming, planning, and unfolding our journey.

For example, flying GA it’s unlikely due to airspace restrictions that we’d have enjoyed this overview of Diamond Head providing a completely different perspective on the iconic silhouette.

7029 Diamond Head Crater

We’d also dreamed of snorkeling with the tame colorful fish at enchanted Hanauma Bay as we had on that first romantic journey long ago, so we smiled as it slipped beneath our wings, refreshing memories.

7053 Hanauma Bay

Now some may say Molokai is less interesting and beautiful than the other islands, but we beg to differ. We were greeted by the muted red dirt roads between brilliant red/green of irrigated farms on the flat terrain of the West end.

7088 Red, Green, Blue

But the real magic began after the stop at little MKK airport in Kualapuu, when our Mokulele Air pilots treated us to a departure below the clouds along the towering cliffs. The cliffs of Molokai alone would be spectacular, but the innumerable waterfalls are breathtaking! Our fav was this one leaping in rainbow mist from a cliff.

7278 Flying Falls

Despite low light from thick clouds, haze and mist, milky airliner windows that don’t open, and of course reflections on the inside of the windows; Anne managed to capture this that I was able to tweak into something close to the majesty we saw.

7276 Impression of Wonder

It’s tall, starting above what you can see in the first pic, rests briefly in misty pools on the way down as you can see in this pic, and the blown mist is making tiny new waterfalls at the bottom-right. Obviously we have many more pix of this day, especially the flight, so I’m saving some future views of these areas and moving now to our Kahului arrival.

7425 PHOG Approach

Unlike KSBA and other mainland airports, those in the Pacific islands start with P as in PHOG which also goes by the “name” OGG. It’s surely nothing to do with Fog or P-HOG, but the distant rainbow over the runway delivered on the promise of a wet walk to the terminal building. We laughed as the rain stopped the instant we stepped under the shelter, and set out to meet dear friends who live nearby. They took us for a delightful dinner at the open air restaurant in Kihei. Early Hawaiians created an ancient fish farm from a rock enclosure next to Kalepolepo Beach, providing a seafood bounty like the one we enjoyed there. Out beyond the quiet beach, everyone watched the colorful end to this Perfect day.

7505 Sunset Over Lahaina