The Trucker safely stored in its travel bag, I checked it into oversize baggage yesterday at Auckland International for the flight to Incheon in South Korea, and then wandered through the terminal building to find a cup of tea.
Every time I am in that building, I find myself drawn toward Jean Batten’s Percival Gull that hangs from the ceiling above a stairwell. I always feel a sense of wonderment that she made such long flights in such a small and seemingly fragile aircraft.
The details of her record-breaking flight in this Gull are etched into a glass protective wall on the second floor: in 1936 she flew from England to New Zealand in 11 days and 45 minutes, the fastest flight at that time between the two sides of the world. Further, her flight from Australia to New Zealand – ten and a half hours – was also the fastest on record at that time.
Ten and a half hours just about got me to South Korea today. Sitting in economy class for half a day is nowadays a means to an end, not the most comfortable experience. At least I could stand up, go for a walk, and go to the loo. Not really an ordeal compared to Jean Batten’s long flights.
But surely the greater ordeal is the flight that takes place annually many thousands of meters below. Our flight replicated the route of the godwits as they leave New Zealand in autumn for their feeding grounds in the Yellow Sea, where they replenish their strength before crossing the north Pacific to their breeding grounds in Alaska.
Keith Woodley, manager of the Miranda Shorebird Centre and author of Godwits Long-haul Champions, tells us these habitats are dwindling as a result of coastal development in North and South Korea and China. The restaurant in the hotel I am staying in is on the nineteenth floor, from which there is an extended view in both directions of urban, high-rise development along the coast.
After I arrived, I took a stroll through a park opposite the hotel. It follows a riverbank for about two kilometers, is very well laid out and spotlessly tidy, but I didn’t see a single bird.
Off now to catch the next big bird to Paris…
Saturday 18 August 2013
