With the national carrier entering its 75th year, here's a wee stocking-filler for the sky-gawping plane nerd in your life.
Air New Zealand: Celebrating 75 Years is a cheerful pictorial romp through the highlights of three-quarters of a century of big aviation in our skies. From the establishment of Tasman Empire Airways to the arrival of the Dreamliner, the fun parts are all in here.
The book touches only briefly on the subject of Erebus, and the Mediterranean crash of 2008 is barely noted.
So, it's about the good times. And you'd have to be a bit of a Grinch to deny the airline the right to a biography. It's their party, after all, and with new routes opening, new planes rolling down the runway and new profits in the bank they have cause to pop the bubbly.
Not to judge a book by its cover but the front of this one is a little underwhelming. The iconic koru might have been a more simple and striking image. But many of the pictures inside are magic.
