Welcome to the South Island

You may never leave

Jon

Lane sits at Nelson Airport, his carry-on tucked neatly against his side.

He has started to feel a little stressed, he says. This is his second trip to the airport within two days.

It would take him another day before he could finally head home.

Due to fog and storms, Lane, 26, has been unable to fly out of Nelson to Wellington, forcing him to continue staying with friends until the weather improves.

His new job starts next week – and Lane is beginning to worry he will have to attend through online meeting software Zoom.

Lane flew into Nelson last Friday. He went skiing at Rainbow Skifield over the weekend.

Initially, Lane was meant to fly out of Nelson Airport on Wednesday. However, extreme fog caused his flight to be cancelled, and Sounds Air didn’t have space for him on any of the later flights.

He was booked on a midday flight on Thursday. Lane paid $40 for a taxi from Richmond to get to the airport, only to find this flight had been cancelled, too – this time, due to extreme wind in Wellington. His 7pm flight was also cancelled.

What was meant to be a fiveday sortie in the South Island has been extended to a week.

Lane said he was beginning to feel nervous. His new job with the Ministry of Education starts next week – and while he still has time, he wants to be at home so he can start preparing for his new role.

Lane said he had been trying to get an Uber to take him from Nelson Airport back to Richmond, but was surprised to see that no cars were available.

‘‘It’s a little bit different here to

Wellington,’’ he added.

Sounds Air operations manager Olivia Jacobs said the weather was forecast to be around 90 to 110kph until 9pm on Thursday night.

On Thursday, the morning return flight from Nelson to Wellington went ahead. The 3pm return flight was consolidated onto the 5.45pm flight.

Air New Zealand cancelled flights to Wellington and Auckland from Nelson scheduled for Thursday evening.

As of 3pm on Thursday, all flights in and out of Wellington had been cancelled due to severe wind.

According to the Nelson Airport website, most flights had resumed yesterday morning, with a few having new arrival and departure times.

Lane was finally able to get on a flight and returned to Wellington yesterday.

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF Wild weather caused massive delays and cancellations at the airports in Nelson and Wellington. Jon Lane was waiting for three days in Nelson to fly back to the capital from Nelson Airport.