Diamond Twin Starring My Way Up the North Island

It seems as if the Diamond DA 42 Twin Star is the light twin of choice for New Zealand flying schools, as we have 16 of them registered here to date.  I photo'd a selection of them on my trip back from Wellington to Warkworth

Massey University School of Aviation operate two DA 42s from Palmerston North:  ZK-MTS (c/n 42 AC 151)

and ZK-MTR (c/n 42 AC 142).

Covered up at Matamata in the fading light was the Middle Earth Flying School's ZK-DUM2 (c/n 42.182).  The single engine DA 40B in the front is their new ZK-DIM2 (c/n D4.006).  (They remind me of a Jim Carrey movie that is not what the flying school would want for their image!).  Although registered to the Middle Earth Flying School, the aircraft are marked up as "New Zealand Aviation".

Further up the road at Ardmore the next day was ZK-ZYX (c/n 42 AC 126) of Eagle Flight Training Ltd from Gisborne.

And at North Shore airfield was ZK-CTL3 (c/n 42.104) of the L3 CTS Airline Academy (NZ) Ltd, up from Hamilton.  They operate a fleet of eight Twin Stars.

I find the Twin Star a difficult aircraft to get a good photo of but I will keep trying.