You know it's been a tough day when an entire plane-load of passengers begins to clap and cheer as their aircraft comes in to land.

Weary travellers rescued from an airport nightmare by the historic Southern DC3 plane couldn't hide their joy as the faithful old craft touched down in Wellington today.

"Woo hoo," shouted Rotorua's Helen Hindmarsh.

"Thank you so much."

The DC3 was pressed into action this afternoon to ferry a handful of desperate travellers from Christchurch to Wellington, after hundreds were stranded due to atmospheric ash.

The "museum piece" plane - which comes complete with real curtains on the windows and fake roses for each passenger - was still able to travel because it flew below 10,000 feet and had a propeller engine.

"We were built in 1944," flight person Geoff Cambridge proudly told passengers before take-off.

"Jesus," came a response from one Canterbury farmer.

Evana Hardwick, who was trying to meet a connecting flight to Thailand, chose that moment to confess to her fellow passengers - a friendly bunch - she was a little nervous about the flight.

"Did I tell you I'm scared of flying?"

Hardwick's fears were soon allayed, however, as the old DC3 did the pilots proud and took off without a hitch. Passengers were allowed to view the flight deck and even use their cellphones in-flight.

"This is better than normal flying because there's not so far to fall from here," Hardwick said.

"I could get used to it."

Clyde McIntosh and wife Rachel were relishing the moment more than most.

"It's our daughter, Maggie's first flight," McIntosh said.

"She's nine weeks old and already been on a DC3, that's pretty cool." Maggie thought so too - she slept the whole flight.

Pilot Dave Horsburgh said the DC3 team were only too happy to be able to help the travellers - after all that model of plane was famous for its mercy missions.

"This plane has done many, many of them of course, throughout history," Horsburgh said.

"The DC3 has been the reliable plane, it did the Berlin airlift and among many things it's now done the Christchurch airlift."

The one-way flight cost $380 per person, with 24 people taking up the offer of emergency transport, including TV3 presenter John Campbell.

Cambridge said the DC3 plane would fly the Crusaders rugby team to Wellington tomorrow.

"They were going to bus up and go by ferry, but they've always been very supportive of us, so we want to support them now."

Stuff, with the Press