Friday at Warbirds has traditionally been a ‘‘preview day’’. However, the opening day’s programme has been extended for 2026, featuring three and a-half hours of flying, with the bill headed by the Mark XI Spitfire, as well as an incredible close-flying display by the American Eagles L-39 Jet Team.
This year’s event is taking place in the shadow of conflict in the Middle East and the resulting fuel crisis, leading to the withdrawal of the headline act, the F-22 Raptors, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
For Warbirds Over Wānaka’s outgoing general manager, Ed Taylor, who is overseeing his fifth and final edition of the event, the withdrawal was heartbreaking.
‘‘I planned to retire two years ago, but someone mentioned the possibility of the F-22 Raptors and I decided there were only two more years of my dwindling stock left,’’ Mr Taylor said.
‘‘We got this close to getting the Raptors, and a fantastic effort was made by a lot of people, including Christchurch Airport, to make them welcome, and to have it pulled at the last minute was gut-wrenching.
‘‘There were tears in the office,’’ Mr Taylor said.
Mr Taylor’s tears of sadness were replaced by tears of joy as the event opened yesterday.
‘‘I was standing near the front gate when one of the pilots started hooning around showing off and I heard a little kid screaming, ‘mum, mum oh my god look what he’s doing!’.
‘‘I got a tear in my eye and started crying.
‘‘I thought, bloody hell, that’s why we do it,’’ Mr Taylor said.
One attendee not disappointed by the lack of modern military was Rod Anderson, an 80-year old volunteer firefighter who has attended every single day of Warbirds Over Wānaka as an emergency responder since the first event in 1988.
Asked to reflect on the changes he’d observed in the event, Mr Anderson said, ‘‘Oh, the aircraft have changed.
‘‘It’s quite good to see it going back to the older style.
‘‘Being from a different generation, that’s the sort of aircraft I enjoy, so I’m not too disappointed about the modern planes not being here,’’ Mr Anderson said.
Mr Anderson, who has lived in Luggate all his life and volunteered for the fire service for 53 years, said he had seen it all at Wānaka Airport, from a cousin landing a plane on the runway when it was just ‘‘tussock and the odd rabbit’’, to the crash of a de Havilland Chipmunk that had done ‘‘one too many manoeuvres’’ in 1994.
As events wound down at the airport, Wānaka’s lakefront began to fill up for the second iteration of the Warbirds Over Wānaka community show.
In 2024, the community airshow was performed with significant support from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, but following their withdrawal due to the fuel crisis, Mr Taylor said the vintage aviators at Warbirds had ‘‘stepped up’’ to put on a show for the town.
