Tim Holland and Ross Crawford had fans watching their every move as they flew two new light aircraft from Australia's Gold Coast to Tauranga.
The flight's progress was tracked by a new GPS system in the cockpit called Spidertrack that transmitted the plane's position via the internet.


Caption: Tim Holland with one of the Jabirus he brought back from Australia.

Tim says it was quite a big undertaking for a light aircraft,
'We had to take a lot of safety equipment - a life raft, a life jacket, flares and two GPs systems each in case one packed up.”
The planes are Jabirus – a new version of the classic Cessna plane, only these are much faster, fuel-efficient and cheaper. Their progress across the Tasman Sea was watched with great interest by the manufacturer.
'We later heard the people at the Jabiru factory were all watching our progress throughout the trip,” says Tim.
They flew the journey in three stages; the first to Lord Howe Island where they had their first fuel stop before flying on to Norfolk Island where they refuelled again before their final leg to New Zealand.
'The whole trip went without a hitch although it was very turbulent approaching Lord Howe Island and we were on visual flight rules which meant we had to stay out of the cloud and it got quite rough as we got near to Cape Reinga too.”
The two planes are a part of the Euro Flight International, pilot training school based in Tauranga.
Tim hopes to bring another Jabiru to Tauranga and says he will provide SunLive readers with a link to Spidertrack so they can follow his next trip.