Anyway, I managed to drag the aircraft to the runway and the instructor made the engine at the full throttle. After some seconds of running, he just told me "O.K. Could you pull the lever please?” and so I did. I felt a sort of sensation of losing gravity and off we went. I might be addicted with this feeling.

The aircraft passed the sky of Auckland city and arrived over the ocean. Now we could start playing without the risk of falling into the residential area. Actually controlling the aircrafts is totally different from cars as we are require three dimensions of space recognition. Coincidentally, I knew the words of "yaw", "pitch" and other special words thanks to 3D graphic software. I'd never imagined making use of these words in real life. At the very first, I was quite nervous but flew well after I relaxed.

After getting used to the flying, I asked the instructor to switch the control to him as I wanted to shoot some photos from sky. He agreed but went too far and started an acrobatic flight. Oh man, it's too much service. I just wanted to get some nice photos. Due to the unusual gravity, a little motion sickness attacked me and if we'd flown longer it would've been quite disastrous.

As landing is too difficult for a beginner, it was the time for the instructor. Somewhat surprisingly he landed on the grass not using the runway but his landing was very professional. I felt little impact and the plane landed very smoothly. He showed me the aircraft after this and the analogue meters and structures were surprisingly simple though considering the year of manufacture it was obvious. I suppose the recent hybrid cars would have more complicated structures.

I asked the instructor how much it would cost if I tried to get the real license and his answer was "no more than 10,000NZD". It's a quite good deal indeed. If I tried it in Japan it would cost more than 5 times this. Later, I googled the details of flight licenses and found that we can easily switch the license from other countries to Japanese. Actually not only New Zealand but many countries have flight training programs for foreigners with competitive prices. Well, maybe I'll try it in the future.

Well, I have a very special feeling towards New Zealand. When I visited this country around 15 years ago with my family, I couldn’t communicate with people in English at all even though I was supposed to do so as I’d already started learning English more than a year previously. I was just too shy to utter a single word of greeting. It was quite enjoyable staying though, the strong regret remained in my mind too.

And Grant with whom I stayed in Auckland at this time had in fact helped me to overcome the trauma. In a few years after our visit to New Zealand, he came to Japan with his wife and we went to Tokyo Disney Land together. At the time, my parents were too busy taking care of my younger sisters and they forced me to be a personal guide for Grant and his wife. Considering the circumstances, I must not have kept silent. Although my English was not sophisticated enough, I managed to communicate with them and this event changed my confidence towards English radically.

"No matter how good or bad, I should try to communicate", thanks to the lesson from this experience, English conversation become my favourite subject during my school days. In terms of the 'survival English', I was doing quite well when I started learning English again in Australia though my English hasn't improved yet for some years. Besides, I became painfully aware that I shouldn't be complacent about my English in Australia but it's another story anyway.

All in all, I was so pleased to talk with people in Auckland as I found my improvement. Yeah, no trauma any more.

Grant told me that nothing had changed in the city but I did walk around the Auckland city centre. As I didn't have clear memories in 15 years, the city looked very new to me. The town which is called the City of Sails had many luxurious yachts in the harbour. I wish I could use such beautiful ships someday.

What's more, I found people in Auckland are very gentle. I'd say, there are so many aggressive people in Australia. Not only the contentious Aboriginal people, but many migrants and pure Aussies, I think they, especially for males, are socially forced to be macho in Australia. On the other hand in New Zealand, everyone I saw there was very relaxed and laid back. Even the officers at the airport were smiling at us. This city could be a great candidate in which to stay after retirement.