Day trip turns into three-day tour of New Zealand... with no end in sight

Ilona Hanne woke up this morning in Auckland after her day-trip from Taranaki to Wellington turned into an epic tiki tour of the country

In the past 36 hours or so I have become an expert in the domestic airports of New Zealand.

I know where the best coffee can be found, which bookshops don't growl at you for browsing their displays for more than an hour at a time and where you can plug in your phone to charge it.

This wasn't an education I sought out — but an accidental one, a byproduct of being stuck because of weather-related flight chaos around the country.

It started innocently enough: a friendly text message from Air NZ on Wednesday afternoon cheerily informing me my flight from Wellington to New Plymouth was cancelled because of the weather.

A hotel was booked for the night and I rescheduled my flight for the next day.

The new schedule was to fly to Auckland, then to New Plymouth.

So on Thursday off I set, again, for Wellington airport.

The flight to Auckland was busy but uneventful other than the loud snoring of the gentleman in front of me who told me had been unable to find a hotel on Wellington for the night so had slept (clearly poorly) on airport seats.

Our flight was late arriving in Auckland, meaning a quick sprint to get the connecting flight.

Around the time we were due to begin our descent, the plane instead turned around.

High winds were preventing us from landing, we were told, so off we went back to Auckland.

As we re-entered the regional departure lounge we walked into chaos.

It felt like half of the country was crammed into the area: flights across the country had been cancelled or delayed.

Ilona Hanne in Wellington on Wednesday.

One hour before the next (and last) flight to New Plymouth was due to board, came the dreaded ping of a text message from Air NZ: we are sorry, your flight has been cancelled.

Another night, another hotel.

Today, I am one of many travellers waiting for a seat in flights that are now overbooked as they try to fit the passengers from yesterday's numerous cancelled flights.

Adding to the queues and chaos is a broken luggage carousel meaning domestic travellers now have a long walk and an extra long queue to check-in luggage.

Ilona Hanne is editor of the NZME Stratford Press newspaper and website.