Warbirds- Part 1

Warbirds Over Wanaka is well over and we have returned to Lowburn for a few days. We have had a fabulous time not only enjoying the airshow but enjoying the company of many like-minded people. We invited the other Ultima owners over for "Happy Hour" on Saturday night along with a few of our other neighbours.

On Saturday, David & I, along with many of the others watched the airshow from up on the plateau where we had a birds-eye view of the displays.

On Sunday, David & a few of the men spent time talking "shop" & comparing notes. I went down to the show to take some close up photos from the runway fence line (we all had tickets as part of our parking package). And look at that blue sky! While most of New Zealand battled a "weather bomb", we had a hot sunny day.

 

I won't say how many photos I managed to take over the three days, suffice to say that other than the "good" ones that I've pulled out as I skimmed through the pile, I don't think the rest in the folder are going to see the light of day any time soon! And I'll take this opportunity of apologising for the number of photos that will be posted, especially if you are on limited data. It was just about impossible to choose which shots to run with.

I'll start the photos with this beautiful & graceful bomber (can a bomber be graceful?)

The extremely rare Avro Anson; this aircraft is the only remaining airworthy wartime Avro Anson MK1 in the world.

 

 

 

 

I'm still having trouble uploading photos & posting to my blog so I'll keep this one short & hope I can post more tomorrow.

Continued on in Part 2

Live from Warbirds

I'm jumping the queue to post this one while it's hot off the press.

Yesterday morning we were up at 5:30am ready to leave our site in Wanaka having hitched up and prepared for an early departure the night before. This was so we could queue with a couple of hundred other Movanners waiting to gain access to the "plateau", a high terrace above the Wanaka Airfield in preparation for the long weekend watching "Warbirds Over Wanaka". We are on a private farm and the gates were open from 7-10am only, we all had to be parked up by 10 and can not leave here for 3 days.

You can see the track up to the plateau above the third (from the right) motorhome.

While the weather has raged right around us and over most of New Zealand for the last couple of days, we have had it relatively good. Just a few passing showers the night before last and a couple of sprinkles yesterday afternoon with a cold breeze blowing in late afternoon. 

There are over 220 mobile homes of every description parked in two paddocks up to four vans deep in some places. We were lucky enough to find ourselves beside a number of fifth-wheelers including two other Ultimas. There are also another two Ultimas parked in the other paddock.

Ring side seats-

A very dusty, rocky & steep descent gets us access to the airfield. The climb back up is a killer!

Dress circle-

There's an amazing array of gourmet food stalls, Friday was practice day but today this area will be wall to wall people.

Some of the aircraft on display & airborne-

This will be my last post for a few days, the local cellular network is under extreme pressure caused by the 60,000 plus visitors to Wanaka over Easter. I'm having great trouble connecting & uploading photos.

Happy Easter everyone, I hope the weather has settled in your area and you can relax a little for the remainder of the long weekend. Keep safe.

PS- Apologies for any errors in this post, I can't see the photos!

"Knights of the Sky"

Today we visited an amazing museum, the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre which has permanently on display the "Knights of the Sky" exhibition, featuring Sir Peter Jackson's own collection of WW1 aircraft, artefacts & memorabilia. The story of aviation in the Great War (1914-1918) is brought to life in magnificent sets created by Wingnut Films & Weta Workshop. 

 

Etrich Taube (The Dove)

The life size and realistic looking mannequins show what exceptional talent Weta Workshops have & why they have won so many international awards.

DH-2, Pilots said it was like flying a witch's broom ( I thought it looked like a flying pram!) 

David got a fright when he caught sight of this guy lying in bed behind a glass window, he thought it was a real person for a moment.

 

The display of memorabilia was incredible, it all had very informative labels and a lot came with their own stories of how they ended up in the collection. This is part of the Allied Display cases.

 

 

Wartime Posters

Curtis Flying Boat

Part of the Central Powers display cases, this one of particular interest to me, it was all about the Zeppelin Airships. We have been to the home of the Zeppelin; Friedrichshafen in Germany many times, visited the Zeppelin Museum & watched a lot of airships take off & land at the Friedrichshafen airport which was right beside the exhibition centre where we attended EuroBike for our bike shows.

 

 

 Grid's Great Escape- (click to enlarge)

The British weren't very charitable to their pilots; no parachutes were handed out in case they took the soft option & wasted a valuable plane!! 

Grid's Great Escape

Fokker Triplanes- including the most famous of all; The Red Baron

Crash in the Snow- Nieuport 27 & Siemens Schuckert

The Baron's last Flight



Nieuport 24

Not quite the poppies "In Flanders Fields", but quite appropriate all the same, these yellow poppies were on the verge & in the field beside the museum.

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.