Until we left the South Island for Auckland, the kids and I had only ever flown through the Auckland airport, the biggest one in New Zealand. We are so used to the security rigamarole at American airports where we must line up, wait a while, remove our shoes, sweaters, jackets, watches, take laptops out of bags, place any 3oz. or less liquids bundled together in their Ziplock bags in the little bins, and on and on. Then sometimes if we're lucky we're pulled aside for extra searching (especially if you're of an indeterminate ancestry like my husband, who is nearly always rewarded with an extra search).
After knowing only that security process, and with a similar one in Auckland (though you don't usually have to remove shoes, hoodies, etc), it was quite frankly disturbing to realize that there was no security at the Nelson airport. None. Have any of you (non-Kiwis) ever seen that before?? Back to the 70s again... awesome.
Excited friends and family can still go in and watch from a little patio and meet their visitors as they get off the plane. It's so ... lost in time!
When I told my ever-astute father-in-law about all of this, he replied, "Where would somebody go in a prop airplane from an island nation in the middle of the South Pacific? That sucker doesn't have enough range to reach anywhere."
Lol! Good point, Gramps! :o)
Ahhh, the good ole days when there was no such thing as airport security! Think of all of the jobs it created! Doesn't actually produce anything except aggravation, but it's a job :)
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