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Air New Zealand planes at Auckland Airport - Source: ONE News -
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The extended stopover for tourists stranded in Auckland due to the European airspace lockdown is being made more bearable thanks to the generosity of locals.
Auckland Airport, the tourism industry and community volunteers have mounted an initiative to help passengers stranded in the city as a result of the air chaos.
Airport corporate relations manager Richard Llewellyn says despite the efforts of airlines, New Zealand is starting inevitably to see the effects with some travellers stuck and unable to return home.
Some can't afford accommodation and he says their numbers are likely to rise every day.
The extended stopover is being made more bearable thanks to the generosity of Auckland locals.
"The response has been absolutely overwhelming, Aucklanders have really risen to the challenge and shown their true Kiwi hospitality," says visitors services manager, Glenys Black. "We've had a lot of people who have just offered their rooms, upward of 70 homes," she says.
A local volunteer programme has been put together and people able to help by billeting passengers can call 0800 AUCKLAND.
Llewellyn says offers will be recorded and then matched with any stranded passengers.
Stranded passengers can also call the same number.
Llewellyn says the initiative is a case of the tourism industry and New Zealanders opening their homes to strangers in need.
Cancel or defer
Air New Zealand says people should either cancel or defer their trips to Europe in the wake of volcanic ash closing airspace in northern Europe.
The airline's London flights are currently only going as far as Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
Spokesperson Ed Sims says the airline can not promise that people who want to go further will reach their destination and that it is much easier for people to get a refund now, than get half-way and find themselves in a very difficult situation.
He says anybody who decides to take a chance will be doing so without any obligation from the airline to look after them and strongly advises passengers not to add to the operational disruption.
Anzac attendance in jeopardy
A young Northland woman is waiting to find out whether she will be able to fly to the UK for an Anzac Day service.
Jackie Kendall, a 19-year-old from Hokianga, is currently in France but is due to fly to London in a couple of days where she is involved in an Anzac dawn service at Hyde Park and a performance at Westminster Abbey later in the day.
However her plans are likely to be disrupted by the volcanic ash spread across Europe.
Kendall says on her Facebook page that she can't afford the alternative of catching a train to Paris and then the Eurostar to London, so it could mean missing the performance.
New Zealand not immune
Scientists says a volcanic eruption like the one in Iceland could potentially strike New Zealand. Section manager at GNS Science, Gill Jolly, says a major eruption in the North Island could overwhelm large parts of the country.
And Jolly says the most serious scenario would be a major eruption in or near Lake Taupo, including Mt Tarawera. She says Taupo has a history of large and violent eruptions but they are often a thousand or more years apart. The last was 1800 years ago.
Jolly says a much more likely threat comes from the cone volcanoes in the central North Island. She says Mt Ruapehu has small eruptions every 12 or so years and large eruptions about twice a century.
She says as most of the population lives some distance from New Zealand's volcanoes, wind-blown ash will be the most likely hazard people face.
