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A passenger travelling from Australia to Wellington said they felt as though they were “sea-sick on a boat” after gale-force winds prevented their flight from landing in the capital last night.
The traveller was supposed to arrive shortly before midnight and said there was no hint of the stormy weather ahead after a calm departure from Sydney.
But as his Air New Zealand flight approached Wellington, the man said he started to feel turbulence kick in.
“The plane started shaking and you go up and down, you think that’s just standard for Wellington,” he said.
“But then you twist side to side and you think ‘oh, this is rocky’. Suddenly we burst out and reached altitude and at this point, I started to feel a little nauseous.”
Feeling unsure of what to expect ahead, the man watched out his window as the plane approached the runway and pulled up again at the very last second.
Passengers flying into Wellington last night had their flights diverted after weather hampered their landing. Photo / Supplied
“You just hope to get down at that point.”
But the flight failed to reach the tarmac, with the pilot instead making the call to divert to Auckland. He told passengers he’d flown into Wellington for 25 years and last night’s approach was one of the worst it’s been.
Strong southerlies were forecast for Wellington on Wednesday night with gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour in exposed places.
Once safely on the ground in Auckland, the passenger said families with young children and people with urgent matters to attend in Wellington were scrambling for hotel rooms to stay in.
He believed the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup possibly limited the number of rooms available for those who needed to stay the night in Auckland.
“People had to be out again at six o’clock the following morning, so they were given blankets and a thirty-dollar food voucher,” he told the Herald.
“Some were more keen [to sleep at the airport] than others, you have to appreciate the difficult situation.”
Wellington Airport told the Herald in a statement it was “very windy” last night, which led to an Air New Zealand flight being diverted after two failed attempts to land.
Because this flight was unable to land, an outgoing flight scheduled for Melbourne this morning also had to be cancelled.
“We also had an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland that had to divert to Christchurch to refuel before eventually landing here after midnight,” a spokesperson from the airport said.
They said there were no further weather issues this morning.
