Flying High in New Zealand's Fiordland

"I booked a flight with Wings and Water, a small seaplane company run by Jim, a hard-nosed pilot full of strong opinions about modern pilot training, government regulation, outsourced maintenance, and the overreliance on technology; he insisted experience and instinct matter. Jim joked to the other passengers that he’d “make me a man,” slapped my back, and after a sputter of the engine we ascended smoothly—he reassured me matter-of-factly that if weather worsened he could just land us on the big bodies of water below and wait it out, and that the plane was stronger than people." - Matthew Kepnes