A great turn of events

A turn of events and chance meeting changed my target of getting to all 26 airports a little more of a reality.  I had heard through Flyertalk that there was a meeting planned with the top brass at AirNZ in Wellington in a sort of roadshow to come and talk with their customers (primarily it appeared as the travel budget holders for large companies) and some regular fliers mixed in.  I managed to get myself on the guestlist after asking someone at AirNZ.  I will to save embarassment, not mention any names....

Most of the top people were there to talk to about the upcoming changes for the Tasman route including new A320's to operate those routes and the new 773 planes for some longhaul routes due in November.  I believe that the older A320's will be put on the domestic network, presumably with a refreshed cabin?  The Tasman route and restructuring has caused much dischord amongst the frequent flier community, with the abolition of Business class from the 763 and A320 planes flying to Oz and the Pacific Islands.  Most of the angst was also concerning the removal of Space+ and no tangible benefits for holding NG *G or *GE.  Anyway there is plenty of discussion of this on Flyertalk so will leave that there.

After a good evening chatting to a variety of AirNZ people, I received a phone call at work the next day from Eagle Airways, part of the NZ group.  They had heard about my quest and wanted to find out which airports i had left.  I explained my remaining list and that I wasn't bothered about staying for any length of time.

A few days later I got another call from Eagle Airways and that they were arranging an itinery for me to get a couple of airports off the list.....

So the next few flights are courtesy of AirNZ and Eagle Airways as it happened that the routes I was after were all on the Eagle Airways network....and of course this means plenty of B1900D flights!

I cannot say enough to thank the people at AirNZ and Eagle for arranging many of the following flights.  especially as some of the itineries are rather hectic and fun!