When flight NZ5251 left Tauranga Airport at 7.13am on Tuesday, the passengers were probably expecting a bit of a bumpy landing in the capital, where strong northerlies were forecast.
But instead, gale force winds saw them in a holding pattern over Levin, a bit of a tiki tour over Cook Strait, then a return to the runway they’d taken off from some 140 minutes earlier.
On board were four MPs heading to parliament for the final week of the current sitting block: National’s Tom Rutherford and Sam Uffindell, ACT’s Cameron Luxton, and Labour’s Jan Tinetti.
When they touched down in Tauranga at 9.40am, they didn’t wait for the next flight. They decided to hire a car and drive the seven-hour trip to Wellington instead.
“There were no more seats on other flights for that day and limited the next day. I know all our whips were keen for us to get to Wellington,” Tinetti says. “The guys have experienced road trips from Wellington to Tauranga before but I had never experienced that before.”
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When they touched down in Tauranga at 9.40am, they didn’t wait for the next flight. They decided to hire a car and drive the seven-hour trip to Wellington instead.
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And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.