Kingston is a great destination if you are looking for a flight with plenty of variation. Departing from Alexandra in calm conditions, I climbed to 8500ft and contacted Christchurch Information. The weather forecast was good, but there was frontal conditions coming in from the west. The wind at Queenstown was steady at 15kts on the ATIS. However, a check using the GPS gave me an actual 30kts wind at 8000ft. A good idea not to get too close to those mountains.
After flying along the Nevis valley, I dropped down the face of the Hector mountain to arrive at the Devils staircase. From there it was just a short low level flight along the lake to Kingston.
A short distance from the town is the airfield. There is no landing chart in the AIP yet, but I could see a new hangar with a plane in it and taxi-ways being constructed.
Kingston is a definitely on the 'Where to go' list. Allow a good 30 minutes flying time each way and take care crossing the ridge into the valley.
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| Garvie Mountains (left) Hector Mountains (right) |
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| Approaching Kingston |
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