I had earlier posted the part of my flight in Carenado's ATR72 lifting off from Whangarei (NZWR) Airport. Here, I pick up the rest of the story of my trip to the historic town of Gisborne (NZGS). I'd mentioned that Gisborne's Kaiti Beach (east of the city) is the place where British navigator Captain James Cook had made his first landing in New Zealand on the Endeavour. It was on his first of three voyages into the (uncharted waters of) Pacific Ocean that James Cook and party had sighted New Zealand (being the second Europeans to visit there, following the first European discovery by the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, 127 years earlier). New Zealand's Young Nick's Head is thought to be the first piece of New Zealand land sighted by Cook's party, and so named because it was first observed by cabin boy Nicholas Young on 6 October 1769. Young Nick's Head is a headland at the southern end of Poverty Bay in New Zealand's North Island (see further note and images below).  

James Cook had also expertly mapped the entire NZ coastline (NI and SI). If one examines his nautical maps (easily found on the internet - one may e.g. search for "james cook map new zealand") that he had drawn (two and half centuries ago) in 1769-1770, these manuscripts rival the modern maps of New Zealand, in terms of their accuracy, exhibiting Cook's remarkable cartographic skills (without the benefit of any such current techniques as global positioning systems and satellite sensing devices etc. used in modern map-making).

As part of this flight, on my way south, for a bit of sightseeing, I've visited NZ-NI's (highest) Mount Ruapehu (9177') located 250 miles (inland) west of Gisborne. See one (easily identifiable) screenshots of it. And, also, for a bit of historical appreciation, I've flown past Young Nick's headland, see two screenshots of it, (in memory of (and made famous by) the Endeavour's cabin boy Nicholas) - a bronze statue of Nicholas Young now stands at Churchill Park on Waikanae Beach, Gisborne. Finally, my flight tracks back up north across Poverty Bay to land on Gisborne's RWY 32.

[Note: This post concludes my manual/sightseeing mode of flight over NZ-NI scenery with this aircraft. However, I do plan to take up a flight, soon, for myself, making use of a proper flightplan with this aircraft's CDU.]

Thanks for your interest, and hope you enjoy these images. [Carenado(ATR72)/Orbx(NZ-NI)/REX]

Hi Folks:

Today, I was exploring a bit, further, the flight routes between (Whangarei -> Gisborne) for replication. Here, below, is one (direct route) from SimBrief FlightPlanner.

[SF Q520 KAWAU Q665 UPLIN Q789 HOOKS Q741 RD H117 OTOKO]
(please see the associated screenshot below, which also nicely shows the contours of NZ-NI and its eastern coastline that the flight would track; you may notice, here, the Young Nick's headland extension south of Gisborne, across the Bay)

And, for more realistic flights, FlightAware shows that Air New Zealand operates 1-stop flights from Whangarei (WRE) via Auckland (AKL) to Gisborne (GIS), with their  DHC8 (de Havilland Dash 8-300 (twin-turboprop)) aircraft.

For example:
WRE-AUK: ANZ8223 (27min total travel time)
AUK-GIS: ANZ8173 (45min total travel time)

Good Day!

Edited December 7, 20196 yr by P_7878

Fantastic!! Love that Livery.

Fantastic presentation from start to finish!

John

Great post!

Patrick, John, nisx: Thanks for the kind comments, and glad you liked it!
[Yes, Patrick, this "All Black" NZ livery looks nice...along with the country's classic fern mark....]

This reminds me, I need to fire up Virtualcol's free ATR42/72 birds.. I know they're not MD-11s, but still I should vary my simming now and again!