Piping hot pizza will soon be winging its way across the skies of Huntly, in a New Zealand first that's bound to bring a buzz to the north Waikato town.

Yes, you read that right, Huntly will be the first place in the country to receive pizza and courier packages delivered by drone.

SkyDrop is the first company in New Zealand to gain approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to launch regular 'store-to-door” drone deliveries, beginning with pizza, from its hub in Huntly.

A CAA spokesman confirmed to Stuff yesterday that SkyDrop has been granted approval to do this.

Founder and chief executive Matthew Sweeny says after years of extensive testing in the United States and New Zealand, SkyDrop would take to the skies above the mighty Waikato, 'in the next couple of months”.

SkyDrop drones operate autonomously from a central hub, and are monitored by a human controller in case something goes wrong. They are also fitted with a parachute.

Each drone is able to make a 10km round trip carrying up to 3.5kg from its hub to your front door. They can operate in most weather conditions, but would pause for heavy rain, thunderstorms and high winds.

Matthew hopes to set up a network of SkyDrop hubs around the country.

Huntly was once known for its busy coal mine, full employment and blue collar jobs. Bypassed by the Waikato Expressway the town has struggled to attract investment and fresh blood in recent years.

So why Huntly?

'Two main reasons, one is logistics. Huntly has a river running up the middle, and we've been testing over that.

'It's also similar to a small town called Wise, a former mining community in the Appalachian Mountains, where we started our first service.”

The company first made history in 2015 when it conducted the first fully approved drone delivery in the US.

Matthew says he has been working with pizza company Domino's in Huntly, and is now looking for more local partners to deliver goods – anything from small packages, doctor's prescriptions, food, auto parts, and medical items, such as defibrillators, that could be at a medical emergency in a matter of minutes.

'We would like to partner with third parties and other courier operations with their existing delivery fleets.”

SkyDrop will be hiring remote operators and drone monitors, 'but we are really interested in maintenance technicians for our growing fleet of drones”.

A Domino's New Zealand spokesperson said the company was proud to be part of SkyDrop's drone delivery trials in Huntly and was preparing for a full six-week commercial trial later this year.

The drone, named Te Kaahu (The Hawk) by local iwi at Waahi Paa Marae, safely delivered Domino's orders to customers as part of a three-day pre-trial.

Matthew says companies could negotiate over pricing, but it would be about the same as other road-based couriers at around $10 a trip, 'but we are faster and greener, our goal is door-to-door delivery in 10 minutes”.

Waikato district mayor Jacqui Church says Huntly is a key town in the Waikato, is well-placed between Hamilton and Auckland, and she's not surprised it was chosen for the SkyDrop rollout, but is not aware of its plans.

SkyDrop also seems to have beaten Alphabet, Google's parent company, to the punch after it registered its drone delivery business, Wing Aviation NZ Ltd, earlier this year.

Wing Aviation has been commercialising its small parcel drone delivery service in Australia for the past eight years.

-Matthew Martin/Stuff.