A Busy Day in the Heart of Australia to Mountains of Kiwi Country

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Yesterday with Sydney being a featured airport, I flew to one of my favorite airports in the world, Queenstown, New Zealand. I’ve flown to Queenstown a few times from Auckland, but never from Sydney. I was going to use the Air New Zealand A320, but the Virgin Australia 737 livery was too good to pass up. The 737 is the biggest plane allowed at Queenstown as there is a tricky approach and a short 6,000 foot runway. Virgin Australia and Qantas both fly their 737-800s in from Sydney. My flight time was 2 Hours and 40 minutes

And as a note, Virgin Australia’s callsign is VELOCITY which has to be one of the greatest callsigns in aviation

Flight Details

YSSY-NZQN / SYD-ZQN
Sydney to Queenstown
Virgin Australia
Boeing 737-800
2:40

@julianb

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Holding short of the runway behind a departing whale in Sydney
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We takeoff out of Sydney in front of the International terminal with 2 Qantas A380s and a Hawaiian A330 on the taxiway It was really a 767 but A330 seems more realistic lol
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Putting the gear up as we climb out of Sydney
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The Qantas A380 that took off in front of us turns north toward Singapore
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Crossing the coast over Botany Bay ready for 2 hours over the ocean
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The first view of the Southern Alps when we cross the Southwest New Zealand coast
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The never ending view of New Zealand’s mountains. This was one of those flights where the scenery is amazing when you’re flying, but when taking screenshots the mountains get a little repetitive.
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Queenstown becomes visible off the right side of the plane as we prepare to follow a mountain-like before turning North toward the runway
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Approaching Queenstown on a Sunny early afternoon in the heart of summer
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Touching-down in the mountains of Kiwi country

As always please let me know your thoughts and your favorite photo!

37 Likes
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Great looking shots, the color really pops off of those photos!

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Incredible shots! The first four are exactly like spotting at Sydney. The text on this livery is still wrong and it bugs me

I’ve never heard someone say that haha

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The runway is really looking small in the picture, but a challenge is always rewarding if successfully completed, right?

Also the picture are once again stunning! Some pictures are like IRL spotting and one again from the passenger view, very well done, thanks for sharing!

Though choice, but my favourite is:

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Thanks! It means a lot :)

The color was really vivid in-game

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What’s wrong with the livery in game?

and whenever I take the pictures, they always seem bad and boring until I post them and then I realize they’re not terrible 😂

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Thank you! I try to make my departure picture look a lot like Real life and I can’t even imagine what this flight would look like in real life, the passengers would have an absolutely amazing view approach Queenstown

and the runway is short, only 6,000 feet and it is also considerably narrower than a lot of other runways

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It looks similar to the runway in Firenze (from the dimension not the layout), which is always a challenge. Touchdown as close to the 1000 feet marker as possible and then full reverse and brakes (and a big smile)!

Must have been fun for the “passengers” (Me: Imagines himself glued to the window ;))

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Again lighting makes these so much better!!! I love seeing all the other aircraft at YSSY too.

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It was a fun touchdown, one of those that was like, I have to put this thing on the ground right away or throttle up and climb

And I definitely would be glued to the window, I want to fly into Queenstown next time I go to New Zealand

Which will probably be never because I’ve never been anywhere close to New Zealand 😂

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It was fun to see so many jumbos in Sydney! Busy airports are always fun

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I believe that is a Hawaiian 767

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The text is the wrong font. It looks almost like Calibri.

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Great photos! That’s a Hawaiian 767 tho!

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Read the spoiler

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Me neither, but what isn’t yet can be at some point, right?

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That one is my favorite! Absolutely stunning views!!

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@BadPlane and @Siddhansh read the spoiler!!! 😂

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It’s definitely one of the places in want to go to!

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Thanks!! The views were awesome, especially on the descent

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