‘Like a seagull in a stiff breeze’: what it’s like flying into Wellington, the world’s windiest city

Anyone who has frequently landed in New Zealand’s capital has a hair-raising story to tell, and this year’s ‘super’ El Niño could only intensify the winds It had been a smooth late-July flight from Auckland, until the plane started its descent into Wellington. Then the bumps and swaying began. “The more we went down, the rockier it got,” says Laura, a Wellington resident who wished to give her first name only. “There was one point where we must have got a horrible cross-wind and it felt like the plane was about to flip over. At that point, the entire flight screamed.” “I genuinely felt like I was about to die, which was pretty awful … and I had eaten a horrible burger before going on the plane – that all came back up.” The plane lurched back up into the sky. The pilot announced the weather was set to worsen and the plane returned to Auckland. “We often call it a ‘Welly welcome’ when you get a bumpy landing, but this was a different level of scary, and obviously the pilots knew that because they didn’t land and didn’t try to do it again,” Laura says. Anyone who has frequently flown into New Zealand’s capital has a story to tell. Wellington is t