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- Jul 17, 2004
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Yeah I couldn't think of a better title for the thread so sue me, but for those who were in Napier in 2009 would understand the joke.
This was my 3rd time in New Zealand this year, previous reports can be found here and here.
Now my trip reports aren't going to match Anat0l's efforts, not sure if anyone has been following his latest *A, *A Flights... Across two oceans and the USA... (including Star Mega Do 2) I am not going to try and top that effort but I hope to give a few readers a quick overview of my travels and gives you some ideas when planning your own flights and what to expect.
This was another Flyertalk inspired trip, Wijomas organised the [FONT="]*A / Air NZ Mega DO - AKL and CHC 11 - 12 December 2010[/FONT] the event was organised to concide with the Star Alliance members get together being held in Queenstown on December 13. The Queenstown part of the Do was dropped and a group of us had a good weekend in New Zealand in Auckland and Christchurch and were shown some interesting parts of the Air New Zealand Engineering bases in Auckland and Christchurch.
Something that I thought may have effected our visit to Christchurch, we were lucky
Prologue link to wiki.
[FONT="]BNE-AKL QF125 J 1A 737-400 ZK-JTS DEP 5:35PM[/FONT]
I was able to find one of those nicely priced JASA awards to get me to Auckland Friday night. 36,000 points + Approx $137 in taxes for 80SCs isn't too shabby.
I online checked in at the 24 hour mark to secure myself a seat in seat 1A, can that number get any better. The one thing I like about this flight that I can spend the whole day at work and get a fed a nice meal across the Tasman and arrive into Auckland at midnight, really 10pm, I can be at the hotel by 1:00am NZ time really 11:00pm Brisbane time so it doesn't effect the body clock too much.
The flight departed in time and soon after service commenced, firstly with the arrival cards for New Zealand plus the handing out of DVD players to those of us in business class, remembering this is an old style 737-400.
There were 3 choices of meal, beef, chicken or fish. Usually I don't choose the fish but it had a nice selection of side dishes that seemed more appealing than the other 2.
With a few drinks in and dinner being served I watched the movie Made In Dagenham.
The flight time was expected at just over 3 hours with a flight cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, and bumps were expected closer to New Zealand but surprising there was more light chop at the start of the flight than at the end, after talking to the FO in the front galley he mentioned that they found smoother air at 29,000 feet.
I had been to NZ a few times already this year so it was fast through the automatic entry for Australian and New Zealand chip passport holders and outside in the arrivals area. I went to the shuttle bus stop for the Holiday Inn and didn't find the other 2 Australians so I went and spent a few minutes sucking up the free Qantas International lounge wifi, they haven't changed their password in 3 years. A few minutes later the other 2 almost arrived at the same time then we waited for our respective buses which turned up at almost the same time.
11 DEC 2010
[FONT="]We spent the day in Auckland, first stop was Air NZ parking where we had breakfast and had a chat with the Air New Zealand GGM for Australasia. [/FONT]
[FONT="]We had a tour of the Air NZ engineering base in Auckland, where Air NZ does some of their own engine maintenance. [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Engine Casing of a GE CF-6 used on NZ 763s by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
[FONT="]We also had a look through an Air NZ 777-200ER that was going through it final engineering checks before it was being used for the overnight service to LA. [/FONT]
We also got to have a good look through the aircraft including the crew rest area.
Currently this photo is the top 10 of the last week on airliners.net so it is quiet a rare shot, no not mine, but I did alert Nick to our tour.
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200ER crew rest by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
After a stop for lunch we [FONT="]traveled up to the RNZAF Base Auckland Whenuapai and had a look through the RNZAF 757 and C130s. [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]RNZAF Boeing 757-200 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
[FONT="]We bussed it back to Auckland Viaduct harbour area for dinner. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Our host again chose a good restaurant and it did include chips as one of the menu items, no need for anyone to make a quick trip to the local fish and chip shop. The rest of us enjoyed the meals and the great New Zealand wines.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]12 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]AKL-CHC NZ513 Y 5E 737-300 ZK-NRO Dep 7:51AM [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Air New Zealand Boeing 737-300 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
Air New Zealand operates the worlds newest 737-300s, these 737s will gradually be replaced by Airbus A319/A320s.
I checked out of the hotel which is thankfully near the airport and caught the shuttle bus to the airport to check in for my flight down to Christchurch. My 5 year old Air New Zealand frequent flyer card doesn’t work on the check in machines, but as I don’t fly enough Air NZ don’t want to issue me a new one.
I caught up with the others in the Air New Zealand koru club lounge where I got some breakfast
The flight down to Christchurch was called about 20 minutes before departure. My seat in row 5 is part of the space plus of the all economy cabin.
The safety demonstration on the Air New Zealand 737-300 domestic fleet.
[FONT="]YouTube - Air New Zealand - Crazy About Rugby - Safety Video
[/FONT] [FONT="]There were 3 choices of snacks available. biscuit, fruit and vegie chips. Water was available when the snacks were handed out with tea and coffee available featuring Nelson one of New Zealands 27 now 26 destinations [/FONT]
[FONT="]We landed into Christchurch and had a look through the Air New Zealand engineering base in Christchurch. I had previous been to this place before but we did get a slightly different tour. There was no stripped down Air NZ 737-300 like last time so we had a look around the floor. There was a Virgin Blue plane under going some maintenance.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The majority of Virgin Blue has their engineering work done in Christchurch, and if Virgin Blue under go a repaint of their fleet you will most likely find them being done there, as long as the price is right. [/FONT]
[FONT="]We spent the afternoon walking around Christchurch city centre[/FONT]
Christchurch had a force 7.1 earthquake on 4 September, there is some buildings with damage but a majority of the place seemed to be up and running like normal.
Some stores may never open again, but it seems like spelling are some inspectors strong point.
And in case you had any doubt that New Zealand is crazy about Rugby they were displaying a board about the upcoming world championships.
We had dinner at a hotel near the airport before half the group flew back to Christchurch and some of us went to the casino. Whos idea was that, mine, but I was wanting some expert tutoring from the master and I came away with NZ$140.00 more than I started.
We all thanked our host for a great weekend.
13 DEC 2010
CHC-AKL JQ250 Y 2F A320-232 VH-VQD DEP 3:20PM
I spent the morning with one of our New Zealand suppliers.
I was dropped off just after lunch and checked in via one of the self service kiosks.
Christchurch airport is one of the few airports in this part of the world to have wireless internet which took a bit of working out to follow all the prompts.
What does surprise me on LCC flights is all the good seats are exit row only so how are you able to purchase a seat with more room on an LCC(Low Cost Carrier) especially someone like Jetstar. There was a passenger who was seated in row 1, and the cabin crew had asked him that he couldn't sit there so I am wondering where you seat someone who is walking around on crutches with their leg in plaster and needs some extra room. Our flight wasn't delayed so it seems the problem was handled quickly.
Flight departed on time with the cruise altitude of 37,000 feet. New Zealand lived up to its name of the long white cloud so not much sight seeing available.
Jetstar being low cost meant buy on board. The flight landed just before 5:00pm and I was able to catch the 5:00pm shuttle to the city.
I caught up with a few friends for dinner at a local Thai food restaurant.
[FONT="]
14 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]AKL-SYD AR1182 J 6D A340-200 LV-ZRA DEP 10:40AM [/FONT]
I received a text message during the night to say that Aerolineas Argentinas were running 1 hour late. According to expertflyer the service runs 53 minutes late 49% of the time so I had planned it in my connecting flight to Brisbane so I wasn't too worried with the delay. No status credits on Aerolineas Argentinas but I didn't have to put up with the O'dark thirty wake up call.
It meant a more leisurely trip to the airport. After checking out of the hotel I caught the shuttle bus back to the airport. Check in was quick as it seems most passengers had already checked in, there is a lot of connecting passengers from South America who would have already waiting air side.
Business class passengers use the Air NZ Koru Club lounge, with the lounge providing the usual range of breakfast snacks. I did consider hopping over to the Qantas business lounge to make use of my Qantas any time access but couldn't be bother and instead purchased some duty free. Even with the 3% credit card fees most duty free spirits are 15% cheaper in Auckland.
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Aerolineas Argentinas A340-200 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
The flight departed 1 hour late, The seating is old style seating.
A light snack was served on the flight across the Tasman, I guess it was more lunch than breakfast. I watched the movie The A Team and kept watch of our progress across the Tasman via the main screen.
The flight landed at 12:20pm an hour later than schedule. A new airline and new aircraft variant added to my list.
[FONT="]14 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]SYD-BNE QF530 Y 29F 767-338 VH-OGV DEP 2:05PM [/FONT]
This was a usual afternoon flight up to Brisbane, what was different was the new start to the Qantas safety briefing.
YouTube - John Travolta in QF safety demo
Our flight arrived a few minutes late, back into the humidity that is Brisbane during summer, Don't like.
And that completed my last flights for 2010.
This was my 3rd time in New Zealand this year, previous reports can be found here and here.
Now my trip reports aren't going to match Anat0l's efforts, not sure if anyone has been following his latest *A, *A Flights... Across two oceans and the USA... (including Star Mega Do 2) I am not going to try and top that effort but I hope to give a few readers a quick overview of my travels and gives you some ideas when planning your own flights and what to expect.
This was another Flyertalk inspired trip, Wijomas organised the [FONT="]*A / Air NZ Mega DO - AKL and CHC 11 - 12 December 2010[/FONT] the event was organised to concide with the Star Alliance members get together being held in Queenstown on December 13. The Queenstown part of the Do was dropped and a group of us had a good weekend in New Zealand in Auckland and Christchurch and were shown some interesting parts of the Air New Zealand Engineering bases in Auckland and Christchurch.
Something that I thought may have effected our visit to Christchurch, we were lucky
Prologue link to wiki.
The 2010 Christchurch earthquake was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which struck the south Island of New Zealand at 4:35am on 4 September 2010 local time (16:35 3 September UTC)
The quake caused widespread damage and several power outages, particularly in the city of Christchurch New Zealands’s second largest city.
On the 26 December 2010 a swarm of more than 26 shallow aftershocks occurred with the largest a 4.9 quake that caused further damage to Christchurch which lead to closure of the central city. I think some of the residents are over the continuous and would like it to stop.
[FONT="]10 DEC 2010[/FONT]The quake caused widespread damage and several power outages, particularly in the city of Christchurch New Zealands’s second largest city.
On the 26 December 2010 a swarm of more than 26 shallow aftershocks occurred with the largest a 4.9 quake that caused further damage to Christchurch which lead to closure of the central city. I think some of the residents are over the continuous and would like it to stop.
[FONT="]BNE-AKL QF125 J 1A 737-400 ZK-JTS DEP 5:35PM[/FONT]
I was able to find one of those nicely priced JASA awards to get me to Auckland Friday night. 36,000 points + Approx $137 in taxes for 80SCs isn't too shabby.
I online checked in at the 24 hour mark to secure myself a seat in seat 1A, can that number get any better. The one thing I like about this flight that I can spend the whole day at work and get a fed a nice meal across the Tasman and arrive into Auckland at midnight, really 10pm, I can be at the hotel by 1:00am NZ time really 11:00pm Brisbane time so it doesn't effect the body clock too much.
The flight departed in time and soon after service commenced, firstly with the arrival cards for New Zealand plus the handing out of DVD players to those of us in business class, remembering this is an old style 737-400.
There were 3 choices of meal, beef, chicken or fish. Usually I don't choose the fish but it had a nice selection of side dishes that seemed more appealing than the other 2.
With a few drinks in and dinner being served I watched the movie Made In Dagenham.
The flight time was expected at just over 3 hours with a flight cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, and bumps were expected closer to New Zealand but surprising there was more light chop at the start of the flight than at the end, after talking to the FO in the front galley he mentioned that they found smoother air at 29,000 feet.
I had been to NZ a few times already this year so it was fast through the automatic entry for Australian and New Zealand chip passport holders and outside in the arrivals area. I went to the shuttle bus stop for the Holiday Inn and didn't find the other 2 Australians so I went and spent a few minutes sucking up the free Qantas International lounge wifi, they haven't changed their password in 3 years. A few minutes later the other 2 almost arrived at the same time then we waited for our respective buses which turned up at almost the same time.
11 DEC 2010
[FONT="]We spent the day in Auckland, first stop was Air NZ parking where we had breakfast and had a chat with the Air New Zealand GGM for Australasia. [/FONT]
[FONT="]We had a tour of the Air NZ engineering base in Auckland, where Air NZ does some of their own engine maintenance. [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]Engine Casing of a GE CF-6 used on NZ 763s by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
[FONT="]We also had a look through an Air NZ 777-200ER that was going through it final engineering checks before it was being used for the overnight service to LA. [/FONT]
We also got to have a good look through the aircraft including the crew rest area.
Currently this photo is the top 10 of the last week on airliners.net so it is quiet a rare shot, no not mine, but I did alert Nick to our tour.
[FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200ER crew rest by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
After a stop for lunch we [FONT="]traveled up to the RNZAF Base Auckland Whenuapai and had a look through the RNZAF 757 and C130s. [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]RNZAF Boeing 757-200 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
[FONT="]We bussed it back to Auckland Viaduct harbour area for dinner. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Our host again chose a good restaurant and it did include chips as one of the menu items, no need for anyone to make a quick trip to the local fish and chip shop. The rest of us enjoyed the meals and the great New Zealand wines.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]12 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]AKL-CHC NZ513 Y 5E 737-300 ZK-NRO Dep 7:51AM [/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]Air New Zealand Boeing 737-300 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
Air New Zealand operates the worlds newest 737-300s, these 737s will gradually be replaced by Airbus A319/A320s.
I checked out of the hotel which is thankfully near the airport and caught the shuttle bus to the airport to check in for my flight down to Christchurch. My 5 year old Air New Zealand frequent flyer card doesn’t work on the check in machines, but as I don’t fly enough Air NZ don’t want to issue me a new one.
I caught up with the others in the Air New Zealand koru club lounge where I got some breakfast
The flight down to Christchurch was called about 20 minutes before departure. My seat in row 5 is part of the space plus of the all economy cabin.
The safety demonstration on the Air New Zealand 737-300 domestic fleet.
[FONT="]YouTube - Air New Zealand - Crazy About Rugby - Safety Video
[/FONT] [FONT="]There were 3 choices of snacks available. biscuit, fruit and vegie chips. Water was available when the snacks were handed out with tea and coffee available featuring Nelson one of New Zealands 27 now 26 destinations [/FONT]
[FONT="]We landed into Christchurch and had a look through the Air New Zealand engineering base in Christchurch. I had previous been to this place before but we did get a slightly different tour. There was no stripped down Air NZ 737-300 like last time so we had a look around the floor. There was a Virgin Blue plane under going some maintenance.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The majority of Virgin Blue has their engineering work done in Christchurch, and if Virgin Blue under go a repaint of their fleet you will most likely find them being done there, as long as the price is right. [/FONT]
[FONT="]We spent the afternoon walking around Christchurch city centre[/FONT]
Christchurch had a force 7.1 earthquake on 4 September, there is some buildings with damage but a majority of the place seemed to be up and running like normal.
Some stores may never open again, but it seems like spelling are some inspectors strong point.
And in case you had any doubt that New Zealand is crazy about Rugby they were displaying a board about the upcoming world championships.
We had dinner at a hotel near the airport before half the group flew back to Christchurch and some of us went to the casino. Whos idea was that, mine, but I was wanting some expert tutoring from the master and I came away with NZ$140.00 more than I started.
We all thanked our host for a great weekend.
13 DEC 2010
CHC-AKL JQ250 Y 2F A320-232 VH-VQD DEP 3:20PM
I spent the morning with one of our New Zealand suppliers.
I was dropped off just after lunch and checked in via one of the self service kiosks.
Christchurch airport is one of the few airports in this part of the world to have wireless internet which took a bit of working out to follow all the prompts.
What does surprise me on LCC flights is all the good seats are exit row only so how are you able to purchase a seat with more room on an LCC(Low Cost Carrier) especially someone like Jetstar. There was a passenger who was seated in row 1, and the cabin crew had asked him that he couldn't sit there so I am wondering where you seat someone who is walking around on crutches with their leg in plaster and needs some extra room. Our flight wasn't delayed so it seems the problem was handled quickly.
Flight departed on time with the cruise altitude of 37,000 feet. New Zealand lived up to its name of the long white cloud so not much sight seeing available.
Jetstar being low cost meant buy on board. The flight landed just before 5:00pm and I was able to catch the 5:00pm shuttle to the city.
I caught up with a few friends for dinner at a local Thai food restaurant.
[FONT="]
14 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]AKL-SYD AR1182 J 6D A340-200 LV-ZRA DEP 10:40AM [/FONT]
I received a text message during the night to say that Aerolineas Argentinas were running 1 hour late. According to expertflyer the service runs 53 minutes late 49% of the time so I had planned it in my connecting flight to Brisbane so I wasn't too worried with the delay. No status credits on Aerolineas Argentinas but I didn't have to put up with the O'dark thirty wake up call.
It meant a more leisurely trip to the airport. After checking out of the hotel I caught the shuttle bus back to the airport. Check in was quick as it seems most passengers had already checked in, there is a lot of connecting passengers from South America who would have already waiting air side.
Business class passengers use the Air NZ Koru Club lounge, with the lounge providing the usual range of breakfast snacks. I did consider hopping over to the Qantas business lounge to make use of my Qantas any time access but couldn't be bother and instead purchased some duty free. Even with the 3% credit card fees most duty free spirits are 15% cheaper in Auckland.
[FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]Aerolineas Argentinas A340-200 by ANZ787900, on Flickr[/FONT]
The flight departed 1 hour late, The seating is old style seating.
A light snack was served on the flight across the Tasman, I guess it was more lunch than breakfast. I watched the movie The A Team and kept watch of our progress across the Tasman via the main screen.
The flight landed at 12:20pm an hour later than schedule. A new airline and new aircraft variant added to my list.
[FONT="]14 DEC 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]SYD-BNE QF530 Y 29F 767-338 VH-OGV DEP 2:05PM [/FONT]
This was a usual afternoon flight up to Brisbane, what was different was the new start to the Qantas safety briefing.
YouTube - John Travolta in QF safety demo
Our flight arrived a few minutes late, back into the humidity that is Brisbane during summer, Don't like.
And that completed my last flights for 2010.
