A Qantas plane made an emergency landing at a New Zealand military base on Saturday, with passengers stuck in a sweltering cabin for four hours while emergency work was carried out on the plane.

Passengers aboard the Boeing 737, on flight QF171 from Melbourne to Wellington, were stuck on the tarmac at the Ohakea military base, about 150 kilometres north of Wellington.

A woman whose partner was aboard the plane said passengers were told there was a problem with the plane, and it needed to divert to the base because it had better emergency services.

"Then they had to get really low, because apparently the wing flaps were gone. They couldn't get them to work," she said.