Warbirds Over Wanaka - on the cheap!

Friday 3 April

Friday dawned with a watery moon behind Banjo & the vans and a shepherds warning sunrise in front.

First day of Warbirds Over Wanaka but none of us had Friday tickets so some set up the chairs by the vans to watch the overhead air displays from the comfort of our lovely camp, some cycled over to the airport and we made complicated arrangements with the very helpful Wayne Senior to collect our generator which he had kindly ferried down from Christchurch for the price of a box of beers!

Once that was all sorted we packed a picnic and hopped on our bikes for the short cycle down to the airport where the event was taking place. What a massive undertaking - despite the military of several nations pulling out at the last minute thanks to Donald F*cktrumpet - there’s a full flying programme every day and huge numbers attending, plus even more checking out the freebie alternative viewing options like us.

We hung out by the fence at the far end of the airport for a while, watching several planes taxi in & out, take off & land, being almost flattened by a chopper taking off right next to us and getting neck ache staring up into the sky at the aerial antics above us. Spent a while checking out some of the aircraft along the fence line at the airport, and watching their proud owners tend to them - checking the oil, filling with fuel etc. First afternoon activity was a race down the runway between a chopper and an Aston Martin - the car won! But the down draft from the helicopter rotors nearly took us right out - I had to leap over and catch my bicycle before it fell to the ground.

Behind us up on one of the ridges was Criffell Station - an official NZMCA camping site during the airshow - everyone parks up on the ridge at great expense (three day Warbirds Pass plus 3-4 nights' worth of accommodation) and many choose to just line up their chairs and watch from up top on some of the days.

We watched three Pitts planes take to the skies for an aerobatics display which were so cool; and I met a new friend - a darling blue healer/Foxy cross 🖤🩶🤍

Then Louis checked out a track up the ridge behind us, found there were no signs or security to discourage us, so we cycled up to the top of the ridge and joined about 20 others with a brilliant grandstand overview of the airport and all the air displays. One of the first up from our grandstand view was the Harvard - an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1970s - this one was not only liveried up with the word NAVY it was a very elegant navy blue!

In the absence of the modern military planes which had been pulled from the programme just a week or so prior (thanks to Mango Mussolini and his imperialist Iranian invasion) - the Blackhawk chopper Kahu had been signed up to fly a display twice daily and it was incredible, a very threatening looking aircraft.

Next up were the transporter planes - a very jaunty red de Havilland Beaver, and a functionally green Broussard, a French, six-seat utility monoplane.

Then, the Biggin Hill darlings of WW2, the Spitfires took to the air. Apparently they black and white stripes on the airforce blue Supermarine Spitfire mimics the paint jobs used at D-Day.

There was an unmistakable roar of jet engines as the next crowd pleasers went up and executed their display - a 1940s de Havilland Vampire and two British Strikemasters (AKA "Blunty" - named for their stubby noses and no relation to James Blunt!)

Another highlight was the Top Gun style American Eagles display team in their Aero L-39 Albatros high-performance jets. They zoomed in formation up and down the valley, executed crossovers in front of the grandstand, inverted, looped the loop, flew corkscrew turns, dropped below the hard deck, felt the need... the need for speed and other Top Gun moments!

After an hour or so the wind got a bit too cold & gusty so we cycled back to Banjo, beating the mass exodus on our E-bikes - it only took us about 10 minutes!

We grabbed a wee siesta then hopped back on the bikes to cycle down to the lakeside for the free evening display with Sue & Marty.

Thousands of people down there for the display and one of my favourite moments came from the kids where we were sitting.

6 kids sat down with their bikes right in front of us then 4 decide to wander off and then come back

Kid 5 (lying under bike) says - “you’re gonna lose your spot”

Kid 6 (standing) says - “I’ll just do some insane man-spreading” 🤣

Oh, and we met two gorgeous dogs - the collie came and adopted us, leaning heavily on us and demanding pats and love 🖤

It was so cool watching the planes and a chopper doing their thing in front of a silvery sun and the epic mountainous backdrop around Lake Wānaka. The Strikemasters & Vampire roared up and down, a rescue helicopter gave a rather damp display of how a monsoon bucket works to dampen fires, and a YAK-3 left wonderful dual vapour trails as it zoomed back and forth.

One kid swam out to the Pontoon for a more exclusive view of proceedings and set a precedent with 3-4 more following - making for some cool silhouette photographs... only the buoy behind made for some odd alien human shapes!

A slightly more relaxed cycle back to our vans then we had leftovers supper and turned in for a well earned sleep!