anat0l's Audacious Australian and Asian Adventure Aboard Abundant Aircraft

[anat0l]

Mon 25 May: CNS-BNE-MEL-ADL (part 3 of 3)

Flight: Qantas Airways QF693 Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1) - Adelaide (ADL T1)
Depart: 1625h Sched; 1654h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VYJ "Cann River" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 400 mi (644 km)
Class: Business (operational upgrade from Red e-Deal)
Seat: 1F

As I took my seat, I was glad that I had made the flight and feeling more like pinching myself at a second operational upgrade in the same day. Outside the heavens started to open again, blanketing MEL with a light sprinkling. Turns out that I wasn't the only one that was late for the flight. Our on-time departure was very much in vain as the captain came onto the PA to announce that a connecting pax was listed as on this flight but hadn't boarded yet. They went so far as to search for his luggage from the hold so they could unload it and we could be on our way, but the luckily for the b*****d he turned up just in time and was allowed to board. Once the tardy pax was seated, we pushed back and was on our way. We had quite a bit of turbulence during our ascent, so the seat belt sign wasn't turned off for some time. Nothing unusual, except that some idiot in Y needed to be prompted repeatedly by the CSM to sit down with his seat belt fastened.

MEL-ADL is a short 1 hr 10 min flight, but that doesn't mean that you don't get a decent "refreshment" in J! Once again I selected the warm choice for a refreshment, which was a steak sandwich. Although ugly by appearance, the sandwich of steak with spinach, tomato and onion on white bread was actually not too bad at all; if I really wanted to be critical then the steak was slightly chewy. I partook in a glass of red to accompany the meal, along with the sweet side which was a small Manna from Heaven tea cake with a bit of cream. The warm bakery of rolls was offered, but in this case was quite unnecessary.

Steak sandwich "refreshment"

I chatted a bit with the pax in 1D, who was returning home after a meeting in MEL and also expressed intrigue when she saw me photographing my meal before I ate it. The trays were cleared just as the cabin was to be prepared for landing.

Once we touched down into ADL, we docked into gate 23 and it was off to the baggage claim. Once again, priority baggage was quite patchy but I at least managed to find my bag with only a few orange tags passing by. Next, it was up the stairs back to the departures floor and then all the way to the end of the departures drop-off concourse to catch the Jetbus into the city.

For those that have never travelled to ADL before, ADL airport is pretty close to the city centre. The Jetbus is cheap and a great way to get into town. I ran all the way to get the bus that was already waiting at the stop (you never know when it is going to leave!) and asked the driver for a ticket. Funny enough, he asked whether I was a concession card holder and I mentioned I was merely a university student from Queensland, but he still offered me a concession rate! I lugged my checked bag on board and we were soon on our way. I alighted the bus just a bit beyond the tram line; once again, for those that have never travelled on a bus in ADL before, with some of the older buses (not sure of the new ones), if you disembark via the rear doors, they do not automatically open - once the bus has stopped, the doors get "released", then you must pull apart the doors in order to open them (although after that they remain open until the driver "unreleases" the doors before moving off again). This proved a bit difficult when carrying a bag on the back plus a ~20 kg baggage down a few steps and using one hand to push open the doors...

Next part of the journey to my accommodation was to walk back to the tram line and take the tram to the South Terrace. Travel within the city centre between the North and South Terraces is free on the trams. I made my way on board amidst the latter part of the evening rush hour. Once I got off the tram at South Terrace, I finally had to walk another 400 m or there abouts to the Country Comfort Adelaide.

Hotel: Country Comfort Adelaide
Room Type: Standard Double
Room Location: Ground Floor

The Country Comfort motel has two floors of rooms and is situated right next to The Chifley, who are both part of the same hotel group (Constellation Hotels). The Chifley reception is used to manage both properties.

I was glad to finally make it to my accommodation because, somewhat surprisingly, I was getting quite tired of lugging my baggage (I'm putting this also down to lack of sleep, but I digress). Strided up to reception and received my room key in little time, so I picked up my bags again and lugged it over to the motel complex to my room, which was luckily on the ground floor since I'd probably be buggered lugging my baggage up the stairs.

My room at the Country Comfort Adelaide

For the price I paid, the room was fairly modest. When I was selecting out where to stay in ADL, I rubbed out the major hotels after checking their prices and balancing out the times that I would actually be staying at the hotel itself. There were a few more options closer to Rundle Mall, but in each case the photos didn't tell a great story, although I should have been more sage like and read Trip Advisor before I jumped and booked (not to mention that the Constellation Hotel group charges 3% for Amex ). Nevertheless, I comforted myself in that I was really only there to sleep, and the sort-of dingy bathroom issue was easily accounted for by the showers available at the QP.

I put my bags down and unpacked my still-partially-wet clothing from my bag and spread them out to dry. There was no free wireless in the area, but I used part of my phone credit to get a bit of internet time (the wireless provider they had allows payment via premium SMS). I was tempted to grab something from the in-room dining, but after scanning through the range in the disheveled menu, I decided against it (prices for the stated food were enough to balk at - might as well have the Hilton's room service!) After putting some of my other devices on charge, I headed out for a walk, since I hadn't really done enough steps that day.

Being a small city, ADL is fairly dimly lit at night in some areas, more so on the edges of the city centre (e.g. South Terrace) since the city centre is encircled by a green belt (of trees, parks, grass, etc.). I took the tram back up to the street where the Jetbus runs along (Currie St). Had a walk around all over the north side of the city centre, clocked up some steps and walked all the way back to the South Terrace and back to my room.

Once back inside, I started fiddling on my eeePC to try and get my camera talking, and in the process managed to stuff up Windows from starting up; great, more problems to deal with. At least an hour later, I decided to do something else about it the next day, so soon enough I drifted off to sleep.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 May: ADL-SYD-CBR-SYD-ADL (part 1 of 3)

Tuesday, 26 May 2009

With the first flight of the day leaving at 0930h, I woke up at 0745h and it only dawned on me slowly that "anat0l, do you realise you have a non-refundable booking this morning?!" I guess the proximity from the city to the airport had dulled my sense of judgement. I showered and got dressed quickly and prepared my back pack for the day before heading out the door and off towards the tram stop. I had to wait about 8 minutes until the next tram arrived; about 5 minutes later at Currie St, I strided to the Jetbus stop. The Jetbus timetable isn't printed on the bus stop signage (only a notice saying that there is at least one bus every 15 minutes); I think I ended up waiting the full 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive! When I finally got to ADL airport, it had taken anywhere between 45 min and 1 hr for me to get from accommodation to airport.

Luckily I only had carry-on bags for the day and had OLCI'd for my flights, because as I started moving through security my flight was being called, which meant there was not even any time for me to head into the QP to grab a bite to eat for breakfast, although I did stop at the front desk to grab my BPs for the day, then it was off in full stride to gate 21 for boarding.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF738 Adelaide (ADL T1) - Sydney (SYD T3)
Depart: 0930h Sched; 0929h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VZB "Lake Macquarie" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 725 mi (1,167 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

All my flights for the day were marked as "Refreshment" flights, which meant no breakfast until I arrived in SYD two hours later!

After take off, the morning refreshments were handed out, once again featuring a choice of either National Breast Cancer cup cake or apple tea cake, served from the elaborate box. I chose the tea cake and a cup of black tea and as I was regaling to the FA that I was quite tired and hadn't had a bite for breakfast as of yet, on her suggestion I also requested an apple. Upon returning to clear the rubbish, the FA asked if she could get me anything else. She suggested another apple or pretzels, but I just replied to her that some more fruit if there was any (besides another apple). She disappeared for a bit and some minutes later returned with a small side bowl of fruit from one of the J refreshment trays. It wasn't a lot more to eat nor was it any sort of standard practice, but I thanked the FA all the same for going through the hassle.

Morning refreshment of tea cake and apple

Fruit bowl from a J refreshment

I caught up with a bit of sleep on the flight and woke up just as the seat belt sign was reactivated. We landed into SYD; as we passed by SYD T1, I noticed a parked QF 744 which had been repainted with oneworld livery. Eventually, we pulled up at T3 at gate 8.

Qantas Boeing 747-400 in oneworld livery

I disembarked the aircraft and did a round of the airport before making a bee line to the J Lounge. Once inside, the all-day menu had already been put out, so I heaped on a plate of ham, salad greens and cous cous salad plus a glass of water with lemon. I couldn't find a table next to a window with a spare power socket, so I had to use one of the bench areas where there are telephones. Luckily this was also near a coffee machine, so I made myself a cup of green tea, whipped out the eeePC and plugged it in. I eventually managed to find another way to get photos off my camera, which annoyed me heartily because it would have meant a lot less stuffing around (although it was not an obvious solution at the time), plus now I still had a bricked Windows to deal with.

I decided to leave some time before boarding calls were made because I needed to get some steps for the day, so I did a couple more rounds of SYD terminal before heading down to gate 16 to board my flight to CBR. (Gates 16 and 17 of SYD T3 are used for the QantasLink Dash 8 shuttle services between SYD and CBR; they are the only QantasLink (indeed, Dash 8) flights to leave from T3).

Flight: QantasLink QF1479 Sydney (SYD T3) - Canberra (CBR)
Depart: 1255h Sched; 1259h Actual
Aircraft: VH-QOM Dash 8 Q400
Distance: 148 mi (238 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 5C

I tried to get a more forward seat than 5C, but OLCI wouldn't let me select anything else. When I got onto the aircraft, the load seemed fairly light, more so when only a peppering of passengers assumed the seats in rows 1-4. Then just before I thought it was time to depart, a whole bunch of people clamoured on board and the first four rows filled up without so much as a blink. Only one conclusion: they must be CLs...

There isn't enough room at SYD for the Dash 8 aircraft to simply turn out of the parked position, so aircraft need to be pushed back. Our pushback was slightly delayed, much to the annoyance of some of the operational vehicles attempting to cross the tarmac (who ended up having to line up and wait whilst pushback procedures were being organised). Luckily, there wasn't too much more dramas after that so we took off soon after for the short hop to CBR.

SYD/CBR flights are always small refreshment flights; in this case, we were offered a "light lunch", served in the usual elaborate travel box made by the Sydney Biscuit Company (sbc). The contents of the box ended up being a small sundried tomato and cheese loaf, accompanied by a mini-tub of chilli jam (and an obligatory plastic knife). The texture of the loaf was not unlike that of a scone, but being that it had to be stored before serving it was still a bit cool and moist, which isn't completely a bad thing. The chilli jam had a bit of zing in it, thank goodness.

QantasLink and sbc lunch box with sun dried tomato and cheese loaf with chilli jam

A 55 minute flight doesn't exactly leave one a lot of time to eat and appropriately enough after tea and coffee service the rubbish was cleared and we touched down into a rather cool CBR and parked at one of the far stand-off bays, entering the terminal at arrival gate G.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 May: ADL-SYD-CBR-SYD-ADL (part 2 of 3)

Instead of heading straight for the J Lounge, I decided to walk a bit and do a little exploring. I strided off to the non-Qantas end of the terminal (where DJ and TT have check-in and gates). I went through security to an area which looked larger and more open than the waiting area at the Qantas end of the terminal. I found the Virgin Blue The Lounge near the far end of the terminal on the upper floor, just beyond one of the few aerobridges on the non-Qantas side of CBR terminal.

The Lounge was...how should I say this simply...deserted, save for a couple of people. The lounge attendant was on the phone but she still greeted me as I glanced around. I said I was just having a look and I wasn't a member, but she said if I wanted to I could have a better look and wander around (I assume this means welcome in but get out soon). So I went inside to survey the facilities. The bar and food offerings weren't any more exciting than the QP or QF J Lounges; computer workstations were located in a compact, separate room with dividers between workstations. I snapped a few photos inside, then went out back to the terminal.

Images taken of the Virgin Blue The Lounge in CBR

I had a wonder in the upper floor of the non-QF end of the terminal, which sported a cafe (supposedly for those who wished to pay a little less for refreshments than that on board), which the QF end did not have. In any case, it was getting close to boarding for my return to SYD, so I headed back to the QF end and up to the J Lounge.

Ramp walkway leading up to QF J Lounge at CBR

Once in the J Lounge, I asked the desk agent whether I could improve my seat from the one I had been given at OLCI; when she looked at my current BP, she gave me a very odd look and replied that I had already got a fairly good seat for such a flight and a further check on her part confirmed this fact. I went into the lounge and grabbed some food and a cup of green tea. I then spent the rest of my time in the lounge on my eeePC trying to get Windows going again from a backup, eventually without success (i.e. waste of time). Just as I was about to leave, I saw the first bits of some hot food come out - it was a Malay curry that could be eaten with rice. I grabbed a small bowl to try and washed it down with a sparkling water with lemon from the bar. I could only manage a bit of it because it came out so hot and time was not on my side. I left the lounge and headed down to gate 16 with still a decent boarding line extending out from the gate. Then it was down the stairs and out of the terminal onto the tarmac.

Flight: QantasLink QF1476 Canberra (CBR) - Sydney (SYD T3)
Depart: 1455h Sched; 1505h Actual
Aircraft: VH-QOH Dash 8 Q400
Distance: 148 mi (238 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 6B

I had seen VH-QOH parked at SYD earlier; VH-QOH is a special DH4 due to it being painted in a special pink livery supporting the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Our flight was quite full, and as usual some fat cats (in some cases, literally, except for the cats part...oh, wait a minute ) decided to board fairly close to the flight closing. Perhaps it was for this reason that our flight departure was slightly delayed.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 May: ADL-SYD-CBR-SYD-ADL (part 3 of 3)

QantasLink Dash 8 Q400 VH-QOH as seen earlier in the day at SYD T3

Once everyone had been located and seated, we taxiied out and took off without fuss (as it should have been since there were virtually no other aircraft at CBR at the time). Refreshment on the flight was a couple of small sbc lemon and lime biscuits. Many people must have had a case of the afternoon sleepies, because plenty of people (my fellow pax in 6A included) simply slept most of the flight. A quick flight (and/or a quick nap) later, we thudded into SYD again (waking up the sleeping pax in the process) and parked at gate 16.

Given that my connection was only 50 min, there wasn't a lot of time to do much, but I did manage to go to the J Lounge to get a green tea and surf the web. Then it was back out of the lounge and onto gate 9 at the far circular concourse to board my flight back to ADL. Well, it would be as straightforward as that if my BP didn't red-beep me at the gate....

Flight: Qantas Airways QF765 Sydney (SYD T3) - Adelaide (ADL T1)
Depart: 1625h Sched; 1626h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VYK "Moree" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 725 mi (1,167 km)
Class: Business (operational upgrade from Red e-Deal)
Seat: 1A

I was sent to the gate desk and with a bit of fiddling behind the counter, new BPs were issued and found myself with, to quote the desk agent, "a much better seat". I was greeted on board warmly by the CSM and accompanying FA as I took my seat and thankfully managed to find space in the smaller row 1 overhead locker for my bag. It's always nice to fly the longer domestic flights in J; this flight being just under two hours in flying time (and according to the captain, a bit faster that day due to favourable conditions).

Once we were airborne, orders were taken for pre-meal drinks. I asked for a sparkling water with lemon, which came back with a packet of nuts. Once again I opted for the warm refreshment on this flight, which turned out to be a lamb curry pie, sided with a wholegrain roll and the usual small tea cake from Manna from Heaven. The pie was actually quite good, with the lamb curry having a bit of spice in it (although I also did empty my sachet of pepper into it as well). I took up the offer of a glass of red wine to go with the meal, and a pleasant glass of Innocent Bystander Shiraz-Viognier 2005 was poured and imbibed.

Pre-meal drinks on the way to ADL, served with a packet of almonds and cashews

Business refreshment of lamb curry pie

Innocent Bystander Shiraz-Viognier 2005

Trays were cleared soon after and I opted for a few more cups of tea. Before we had to prepare for landing I went for a bathroom break and on the way back to my seat I thanked the CSM and her fellow FA for their immaculate service during the flight. They were both attentive and friendly from boarding, but I wanted to let them know rather than at disembarkation, when it would be almost too difficult to thank them.

By the time we landed in ADL, it was already dark. The aircraft pulled up at gate 21 and as soon as I got back into the terminal, I made a bee line for the ADL QP so that I could catch up on more emails and OLCI for my flights the next day. I managed to get 4C for every flight the next day except for my MEL-ADL flight of which I selected 4A, as well as my ADL-CBR flight which I had to settle for 6A (obviously a 734 which had 5 rows of J configured). I managed to stay in the QP and get some emails sorted out before closing time.

Once back at my accommodation, I thought about the next day: 0605h was my first departure :shock:. Although the first Jetbus would get me to the airport on time, there wasn't a tram that would get me to Currie St in time to catch it. The idea of walking 1.5 km with a ~20 kg bag at around 3.30am - 4.30am in the morning was balk-worthy, so I asked at the front reception to book a taxi for me the next day, as well as a wake up call. Although I had the wake up call, just for extra insurance, I set my phone alarm before packing up as much of my stuff as I could, followed by drifting off to sleep.

 

[Flashback]

That lamb pie looks similar to the ones they offer in the J Lounge (domestic).

 

[QF WP]

Very nice thus far anat0l. Keep it coming (as I haven't read the FT version)

 

[anat0l]

Wed 27 May: ADL-MEL-ASP-MEL-ADL-CBR (part 1 of 3)

Wednesday, 27 May 2009

I woke up only slightly earlier than the wake up call I ordered, so when the phone did ring to wake me I rather tiredly answered and thanked the caller for the reminder. Then I put the last of my clothes in my baggage and packed up my items on charge (making doubly sure that I packed all of my chargers). I didn't bother with a full shower given that I could have one in the warmth of the ADL QP (it was cold as a witch's teat that morning, even in my room with the heater - well, the bathroom doesn't have a heater!). After a double check of my room, I went to reception to check-out, seeing the taxi I ordered had already arrived.

Check-out was quick and I gazed at my credit card receipt as I strode back out into the cold to my waiting taxi only to find that they had not added on the Amex surcharge. Oh well - score! The ride to the airport was just as quick as the Jetbus (only that I did not need to make my way to Currie St); I had a good chat with the driver, which woke me up a bit.

Once inside ADL airport, I was surprised to see the bag drop lines. 'Long' seemed an insufficient word; even the premium line was rather unsightly (at least for a "small" airport like ADL). I suppose it must be due to the mining traffic heading out to places like OLP, which was later compounded by the announcements advising those not checked in to break the queue. I finally got to a check-in desk (I was already checked in online, but I like getting the cardboard BPs, plus I had to drop my bags).

Now things get interesting. My final destination today was CBR, but the agent (and later his supervisor) could not check my bags all the way to CBR, as the tagging system would not allow them to route through a stop which had already been traversed (in the case of my travel that day, MEL). The only option was to check my bag to ASP, claim my bag at ASP then recheck at ASP all the way to CBR (final destination of the day). I didn't really want to leave my baggage at ADL due to the cost of storage, but as the day unfolded, dear reader, you'll see that discretion is the better part of valour....

Absentmindedly (or not) I agreed to have my bag tagged to ASP. I received my five BPs for the day and headed to the ADL QP with some 40 minutes until departure. First stop was obviously the showers for a shower, brushing of teeth and a shave. Some might argue that the said process (especially for a male) should take all but 10 minutes (or even shorter), however in my tiredness and thoroughness I ended up spending 20 minutes in the bathroom, which necessarily meant boarding was called just as I had left the bathroom. I wanted to grab some breakfast but the lines for food were looking harrowing, so with my flight now at final call stages, I left the QP and hurried to gate 25, which was conveniently located at the far end of the terminal.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF670 Adelaide (ADL T1) - Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1)
Depart: 0605h Sched; 0604h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VYA "Narooma" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 400 mi (642 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

CSM Penny greeted me as I shuffled to my seat; "shuffled" being the correct word as the plane was looking very much full as pax slowly filed down the aisle. J was fully loaded and I had to put my backpack in the row 5 overhead locker. We were locked and ready to go on time just as the sun was starting to make the slightest peek over the horizon.

Continental breakfast was served soon after a non-eventful take off and swing around. Although the flight was merely an hour (a bit less), the crew managed to serve breakfast and clear the trays with ample time for the pax to eat and for the crew to tidy up. We touched down in MEL and docked at gate 7.

I headed to the J Lounge to check my email, call the credit card companies about my upcoming travel, pay off a credit card, move some money...well, you get the idea. I also then only had a big think about how I was going to successfully turn around with baggage in ASP, since there was only a 40 minute connection time there, but baggage acceptance cuts off at 30 minutes :shock:. QF796 was called for boarding and I enquired at the J Lounge counter whether anything could be done about my precarious connection. Neither member at the counter was sympathetic in the slightest regard to my situation (which is expected). One of them suggested that I go to the gate with my "checked" bag and negotiate a gate check if I don't make the bag drop cut off. With that in mind, I headed out of the QP and down to the lower numbered gates concourse, where FIDs all around were announcing that QF796 was closed. At that point I sprinted to gate 9 in hopes that some pax would hold up the FAs at the gate.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF796 Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1) - Alice Springs (ASP)
Depart: 0840h Sched; 0840h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VZE "Bunbury" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 1,156 mi (1,862 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

"You again?!"

That was the first remark I heard from the gate FAs as I approached the gate. I could hardly believe it myself, it was the same crew who I had just had for the ADL-MEL sector. CSM Penny gave me the same remark as I boarded the aircraft, which, at least compared to the ADL-MEL sector, was looking relatively empty; I saw only three people in J and I had a spare seat beside me (although 4A was taken).

We took off on schedule without any hitches. As the seat belt sign went off, we were informed that brunch would be served during the flight. The official meal that I read from MMB and the QF timetables was breakfast, but nevertheless we were later served "brunch", which turned out to be a sandwich (i.e. lunch).

Sandwich served for "brunch"

Rubbish was cleared as the crew went around offering second sandwiches for anyone that wanted one. After finishing going for a bathroom break, I had a nice chat with Penny and another FA in the forward galley. That's when I told them about my status run (I said "mileage run", since a status run sounds more obscure than mileage run). I told them all about how I developed the long run of flights, with their eyes marvelling as I continued talking. They had a look at my flight list that I produced out of my pocket, one FA commenting that it was more intense than her work schedule. The first officer later came out to use the bathroom and Penny invited him to look at my flight list. Needless to say, he was close to flabbergasted as well.

I left the galley to give the crew a bit of time for themselves, so I rested until it was time to prepare for landing. I went up the front for another bathroom break and had a chat to Penny about my tight turnaround. She reckoned that if I explained my story to the ground crew, they might be able to be a bit more forgiving. Add to this that the baggage should not take long to come out on the belt and I should just be OK. Soon enough, the aircraft came to land at ASP amongst the colourful landscape of earthy red and scattered grasses.

:idea:VIDEO: Landing in ASP (Alice Springs) (Youtube - 1 min 42 sec)

ASP is expectedly a fairly small airport which only has stand-off bays. When we arrived, there was only one other aircraft - a QF 717 - docked at the bays. The aircraft parked at bay 5, then with a quick "see you again soon" to Penny and the crew, I hurried down the stairs, through the barrier gate and into the terminal. Baggage claim was on one side of the terminal; check-in and customer service on the other side. Seeing as bags hadn't made their way out yet, I headed to the check-in desks to explain my case.

Just as in MEL, the lady at the counter was (not unexpectedly) sticking to the rules, citing that if she checked me in any less than T-30, the bag cart would have already been sent to the aircraft, or in any case would delay the on-time departure of the flight. Heart sunk, I asked her that if (somehow) in the next two minutes, I could get my bags, could I check in, of which she thankfully replied in the affirmative. I raced over to the baggage claim to wait for my bag.

At moments in your life when even seconds matter to timing, minutes seem like a very, very long time. About two minutes after I arrived at the belt, safety sirens wailed and the belt lurched to life. My bag was within the first six that appeared; I grabbed my bag, retracted the handle and sprinted across the Aboriginal-design carpet back to the check-in desks. Did I make it in time???

Inside ASP terminal front section, showing the intricate Aboriginal art designed carpet

ASP terminal check-in and bag drop

When I got to the bag drop line, the lady who had earlier talked to me was checking in a pax who needed some assistance (he had a walking cane). I stood anxiously in the line tapping my feet, when the male behind the customer service counter called me forward. I explained to him that I was checking in to CBR and much to my relief, he printed the bag tag to CBR, slapped it onto my just-claimed baggage and said, "have a pleasant flight".

I did it - I made the connection! Woo hoo!

I went through security and was selected for explosives testing. Not that I cared - I was glad to make this flight with my bag! I even managed to have a nice chat with the officer who tested me.

ASP airside, showing a FID

 

[anat0l]

Wed 27 May: ADL-MEL-ASP-MEL-ADL-CBR (part 2 of 3)

ASP airside outside area (does that make sense?)

A few more pics were taken of ASP airside, then I went to the QP located next to gate 9. The ASP QP is a "proper" QP - not a regional one - but as to be expected it is quite small. There are sit down tables and chairs as well as high tables for standing around; when I arrived there were no sit down spots left. A modest selection of alcohol was available as well as some cold snacks of the usual kind (including sandwiches). ASP also has an outside area just beyond the airport cafe, which is fenced off from the tarmac. The entire terminal building is visually separated from the tarmac by trees and shrubs, although from the QP, one can just make out the tails of the parked aircraft.

I grabbed a quick snack and a glass of Bickford's cordial on ice; it had to be quick because just as I was gobbling up my snack, the boarding call at gate 7 for my MEL flight was made. I reached into my pocket to grab my BP, when I realised that I had not been given my bag tag number at the check-in counter. I brought this to the attention of the QP desk agent, who managed to look up and give me the bag tag number for my luggage.

ASP QP entrance

ASP QP food......

......and alcohol selection

Another view of ASP terminal outside, this time from inside the QP. You can see the covered pathway which channels passengers between the terminal and the tarmac.

As I exited the QP, I saw a long line at the door and thought why the boarding call had been made some time ago yet there was such a long line. I waited next to the line so that I would join it when the line had sufficiently shortened to a point, then it only dawned on me when I asked someone in the line whether the pax in that line were going to MEL. How shocked was I when someone told me that I was waiting for the line that was boarding a flight to DRW, whilst the line for the flight going to MEL had all but disappeared! Luckily, boarding was still at final call stages so the FA at the gate saw me jog towards her and took some playful apprehension at the fact that I had almost missed my flight due to waiting in the wrong line.

 

[anat0l]

Wed 27 May: ADL-MEL-ASP-MEL-ADL-CBR (part 3 of 3)

Flight: Qantas Airways QF797 Alice Springs (ASP) - Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1)
Depart: 1145h Sched; 1150h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VZE "Bunbury" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 1,156 mi (1,862 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

Headed out to bay 5, through the barrier gate and up the stairs to once again greet CSM Penny, who seemed to show a sigh of relief that I had made this connection. I sat down in 4C again and this time no one occupied 4B or 4A. The early start this morning was starting to take its toll on me as we took off.

Lunch was served during the flight, which consisted of another sandwich (luckily of different filling). Another light load on the flight ensued that the crew were able to once again offer seconds to pax.

Sandwich served for lunch

After lunch, I wanted to chat some more to the FAs, but I was so tired that I slept all the way until we landed in MEL. We docked into gate 4 at MEL and I said goodbye to Penny and thanks for the great service for three flights that day.

My longest connection for the day was between my ASP-MEL and MEL-ADL flights, which was 1 hr 35 min. I did a bit of walking around MEL terminal before heading up to the familiarity of the J Lounge. I had a few refreshments as I checked my emails and got Windows on my eeePC more or less working again. When your computer is running fairly slowly (or at least slower than what you're used to), it's not difficult to watch time whizz by you. I moved out of the lounge at T-10 and was once again shocked and in sprinting mode when I reached the central concourse and the FID showed my ADL-bound flight at gate 1 was closing.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF693 Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1) - Adelaide (ADL T1)
Depart: 1625h Sched; 1622h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VXG "Port Douglas" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 400 mi (642 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4A

As I approached gate 1 which had no line, I jokingly remarked the the FA at the gate that they always seem to close the gate earlier at MEL. The FA replied tongue-in-cheek that they like to do it because it forces people like me to board faster.

Once on board I had to scoot past the pax in 4C in order to get to my seat. There was no space in the overhead lockers, but there was no one in 4B, so I managed to slip my bag in the large area underneath the Millennium seats in row 3.

Loadings were fairly full but there were a peppering of middle and aisle seats not occupied when the plane took off. Refreshments were served on the flight, which consisted of rice crackers and a spicy eggplant dip. It was a most unusual concoction which is definitely an acquired taste, since the eggplant dip contained a decent amount of pepper and spice; in addition, the natural bitter edge of an eggplant was present, which I'd imagine might put some off.

Refreshment of spicy eggplant dip with rice crackers

The afternoon sun beamed prominently into the aircraft on our descent into ADL, which was a small annoyance to some pax who were unable to draw their window shades. Lucky for them there was not too much more to endure as we touched down in ADL and parked at gate 23.

The Coorong - geographical water feature - seen on approach to ADL

After disembarking, I headed to the ADL QP. The QP was reportedly so full that only one guest per pax was allowed in, even for WPs. I found this out when a WP entered with two guests and was duly told at the counter that due to space restrictions he could only let in one. Two the the pax said goodbye to their fellow pax. I offered to the remaining pax to guest her into the lounge, since I had no guest, but they didn't seem to mind, so she left and went without.

When I went into the lounge, hot food was being offered already, however it is well known by all QP stalwarts and especially in ADL that hot food never lasts longer than a few minutes after being put out. Needless to say, I loitered around the food area like some of the other snipers and waited until a new batch of hot snacks were put out to the buffet. Like feeding animals at the zoo, a crowd of people flocked to the buffet and grabbed platefuls of hot snacks, which befittingly disappeared once again in a flash. I took my food and a cup of green tea to a computer where I unsuccessfully tried to OLCI for the next day's flights. I also rechecked the history of flights in the last week going to and from ZQN, since I was well aware that I would need to be prepared to fly in and out of the airport in just two days.

The flight to CBR was called on time at gate 25, however the BP readers at the gate were malfunctioning, so boarding reverted to tearing off counterfoils on cardboard BPs and tearing off bottom sections on paper OLCI BPs.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF708 Adelaide (ADL T1) - Canberra (CBR)
Depart: 1825h Sched; 1826h Actual
Aircraft: VH-TJU "Currawong" Boeing 737-400
Distance: 605 mi (971 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 6A

I would have liked to fly to CBR normally via SYD as it is about the same price as a direct but gives extra SCs, however there wasn't enough time and flights left in the day in order to achieve an extra indirect routing. So I had no choice but to take this direct flight to CBR then an indirect back to ADL.

TJU was configured with the maximum number of J rows - five rows - for this flight, which meant that the first row of economy was row 6 - a regular economy row with ordinary leg room. Needless to say, as with many flights to and from CBR (for reasons that will continue to escape me), the flight was completely filled up, although some of the pax (including my seat mate in 6B) were deadheading crew.

We took off for the 1 hr 40 min flight and dinner was served soon after the seat belt sign was extinguished. I had a bit of a chat with the deadheading FA in 6B, who had finished quite a hectic day at work (early start, flight cancelled and repositioning in CBR was required). Dinner on the flight was a lamb curry with rice, peas and lentils. Noticeably absent from the sides was the bread roll and small chocolate square, instead having their places taken by cheese and crackers, as well as a mini cake-bar of apricot and honey. The lamb curry was actually quite tasty with a hint of spice in it, so it wasn't completely lame in taste.

Dinner of lamb curry with rice

The FA in 6B tore through his meal and finished the entire tray in no time, then sat back and relaxed through the in-flight entertainment of Thank God You're Here. The cabin occasionally broke out into patches of laughter as the program rolled on. I couldn't help plugging in and listening to the program as well; besides, there was nothing to be seen outside except black. As the main screened entertainment finished, the cabin was prepared for landing and the first few specks of light began to appear amongst an otherwise sea of black.

Touch down into CBR was uneventful as we taxiied to the remote stand normally reserved for turboprop aircraft. Once we came to a standstill, the airstairs were moved into position and we entered into the terminal at arrival gate G. Bags took about 10 minutes after the start of disembarkation to begin appearing on the belt. Luckily mine was both there and was nice and early in appearance thanks to priority bag tags. I then strided over to the Hertz counter to get my rental car.

Car Rental Company: Hertz Canberra Airport
Vehicle Type: Standard Car, Automatic
Vehicle Make and Model: Toyota Aurion

I had initially booked a compact automatic car; the automatic was imperative since my license restricted me to auto cars, but I like compact cars since they are easier to drive and handle around the place. It was then a surprise at the counter when I was cheerfully advised that I had been upgraded to a standard size car. I told the Hertz lady that I would prefer to stick with the compact car, however she told me that they had run out of compact cars, so my only option was the standard size car. I collected the keys for my car and headed out into the CBR chill to the rental car parking lot, which was located close to a good 100 m away from the terminal.

When I arrived at the parking lot, I found my car and did a quick check of the condition and condition report. The cars were parked very close to each other; luckily I was not any more roly poly otherwise I wouldn't have been able to even slither into the drivers seat without letting the door hit the adjacent vehicle. I took a few minutes to get comfortable and get used to the controls, including the unusual placement of the park brake which was located under the left foot (in a manual car, this is where the clutch pedal would be). Once I was comfortable with the controls, I started the car and with careful learning on-the-fly of the handling (as well as driving a larger car again), I exited the parking lot and eventually the airport (which, considering that there was a decent amount of construction around the complex coupled with very low lighting and poor signage, was no trivial task).

An All-Nighter in Chilly Canberra

I followed all the signs to the city centre fairly well, but when I was getting close to the city I missed my exit and ended up driving a bit further out to the suburbs. I eventually found my way back and into the city, which I thought wasn't an easy feat given that there was little lighting, little helpful signage and I had forgotten to check for a map book or obtain a map from the Hertz desk. I then spent a bit of time surveying what was open late (or otherwise) on a Wednesday night in CBR. Not surprisingly, there wasn't much open at all. However, I did manage to find a McDonalds in Belconnen which was open 24 hours, so I found a place to park around the corner (it was a loading zone which didn't come into effect until about 6am or 7am).

Upon entering the McDonalds, I found that it was teeming with people. So much for a not-so-surprising Wednesday night in CBR. I ordered a coffee from the McCafe just as it was about to close. The McDonalds had free wireless inside, however the signal was very weak, and the battery on my eeePC was down to around 40% - not a good mix at all! I found I had to get a table closest to the service counter to get even a smidgen of decent signal. There was only one power point in the whole restaurant area; that socket was already taken by someone else.

I sat in my corner and tried to do some browsing and reading, trying to take my mind off the fact that I had to endure some 6-7 hours before I could drive back to the airport and check-in. I was tempted at times to just drive to a hotel or motel and pay walk-up rates for a room and bed, but I managed to control myself. I just didn't feel like paying a big sum of money for a room where I would not be spending even close to a decent amount of time in. I thought about sleeping in my car, but I was a bit afraid of either being disrupted by passers by, or by the police.

My boredom was broken a bit when a few men walked in and ordered some food before pulling out a chessboard and a bag of pieces. Being a former chess player at high school, curiosity got the better of me and I headed over to have a look. The men continued as normal, discussing their previous games and commenting on tactics. I gave my two cents at one point, and a more senior man (probably the coach or master) agreed with my point as I sat down to join the discussion. Turns out that the men had just come from a meeting of their local chess club and were just rounding out the night. We discussed tactics and openings for about 1.5 hours, the senior/coach marvelling at laying questions on me and listening to my justifications with keen interest, even though he was usually suggesting more useful moves than I was and the fact that I hadn't played chess in earnest for more than 8 years. Eventually, the men packed up and left to go home, leaving me once again to deal with boredom.

I decided to get some exercise to give myself something else to do, so I packed up my belongings, turned on my iPod and started walking. I'm not sure where exactly I walked, although along the way in the fairly dark streets, I managed to pass a performing arts complex, a library, a long shopping mall, a very, very large shopping complex that spanned blocks and a casino. The streets were all naturally deserted, save for a few people going places at this unusual time of the night. I think I walked for just over an hour or so before I returned to the McDonalds to find the same person who was using the wireless still there!

I got myself another cup of coffee and set about straightening out some of my paperwork (i.e. travel documentation and the like). I contemplated my next day of travel and occasionally zoned out in small fits of microsleep. It was only after a fair number of microsleeps that I realised that the person who had the position next to the only power point in the restaurant was gone! His place was a bit messy due to all the food and drink he had during his sitting there, but nothing that a few cloths and wipe overs couldn't fix. I grabbed the position, then was slightly annoyed that my supposedly long cord just barely allowed me to plug in and charge my eeePC, albeit sitting in a slightly awkward position. I managed to preoccupy myself for most part of the rest of the morning by catching up on some of my emails and reading more FT and AFF, although I could clearly start to feel tiredness affect my thoughts and actions.

 

[anat0l]

Thu 28 May: CBR-SYD-ADL-MEL-AKL (part 1 of 5)

Thursday, 28 May 2009

I was somewhat pleased that the hubbub during the late night had all but faded at around 3 am or so. 3 am - less than two hours to go! Some more coffee and water was ordered and after checking some emails (reading needs brainpower which is severely lacking when one is pulling an all-nighter) just over another hour had passed. I decided it was time to go; I said goodbye to the counter staff and said I'd be finally out of their hair, although (I guess out of more sheer customer service sake) they remarked that they didn't mind.

Getting back into the car, I headed roughly towards one end of the city that I knew had a sign mentioning airport on it, but I missed the exit so I ended up in the Parliament area instead. I drove around there for a bit, kinda like getting a drive by tour but in the dark (really useful - not). I ended up getting a bit lost since I was driving around by feel; it wasn't until I set my mind straight (as well as shaking it to keep from fatiguing) that I managed to navigate back to the city and this time I didn't miss the correct exit to the main road towards the airport. Driving to the airport in the dark of the early morning isn't necessarily an easy feat, given that the road is poorly lit and the first signs of traffic (in the form of early risers, truckies and the like) are out and about, compounding the inherent difficulty. Then there was entering in the correct lanes once arriving at CBR.... but I made it - thank goodness! All-nighter over!

I parked the hire car back into the lot, glad to find that there were a decent number of empty bays so I ended up not having to attempt getting out of the car in a sardine can situation (the parking spots were really, really narrow! It's worse than the parking lots in Chinatown BNE). Bags were taken out of the boot and a quick spot check for all my belongings before locking up and shuffling in the bone-chilling cold towards the terminal.

Although check-in opens two hours before departure, the Hertz desk doesn't open until at least 6.30 am - a mere 15 minutes before departure, i.e. no thanks. There was no signed "after hours" key drop, but another couple who had arrived as early as I did simply dropped their key into the slot on the desk, so I ended up doing the same, dropping with the key my wallet with fuel and mileage information filled in. Even with my fluffing around the previous night, the fuel needle hadn't budged from Full, so I didn't need to fill up. After dropping the key, I had to do a little bit of repacking between my checked and cabin baggage to satisfy LAG rules, which I managed to do on a spare bench. As I did this, the terminal slowly but surely began to rise with activity as the pax for the early flights of the day started to file in. (There was a QF flight to SYD earlier than the one I had booked, but at the time I purchased the fare it wasn't included in one of the routing options to ADL). I fronted up at the premium line and was soon attended to - not bad given the pax "traffic" in the morning.

It would probably not surprise the reader - nay, any FTer for that matter - that the check-in agent was most puzzled by my routing for the day. I kindly requested if my luggage could be routed all the way to AKL, and although he was still puzzled he agreed that it should be OK. BPs for all my flights for the day were produced (including getting 4C on MEL-AKL) and magenta bag tags were attached along with a very convoluted routing tag. My routing was so extensive that the information could not be contained on one bag tag sticker, so I received two stickers of information for one piece of baggage. A green departure card was included in the pile of collateral I received, along with an express departure pass, which I won't think I really needed but just might be useful anyway. I cleared security and was soon ramping up (pun intended) to the CBR J Lounge.

One of the antidotes for sleepiness is a refreshing shower and I somewhat unwisely eschewed breakfast to use a shower room instead. I had a very long shower as the torrent of warm water attempted to rejuvinate my cold-blasted cells and induce some vitality back into my well-being. I spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom getting ready for the next long day ahead - so much so that as I left the bathroom it was time to board. So no time for breakfast, just straight out of the lounge to gate 14...sigh, a jet flight being serviced at a standoff bay...

Flight: Qantas Airways QF560 Canberra (CBR) - Sydney (SYD T3)
Depart: 0645h Sched; 0645h Actual
Aircraft: VH-TJU "Currawong" Boeing 737-400
Distance: 148 mi (238 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 6D

I plodded up on board and proceeded to my seat; as usual, the front section of the plane was not duly filled until the last minute, of which it literally was as we took off right on time. Once in the air, food was served in the form of a cookie. I thought that was rather inappropriate given that it is a morning flight. Perhaps not a full breakfast (even though that is remotely possible), but even an energiser juice or a muesli bar might be more in order? Being so tired, I really just wanted some shut eye, so I held back my tired-induced ranting and politely declined the food service, then went to sleep. I didn't wake up again until we were mere seconds away from touchdown, whereupon we were greeted by the morning sun of SYD and glided into the far side gate 1 of T3.

My next flight to ADL was only 45 min from departure; I thought that exercise might not be a bad idea so I did a few rounds of T3 before making a brief green tea stop at the J Lounge and then proceeding to board my next flight that was being called in at gate 9.

Flight: Qantas Airways QF739 Sydney (SYD T3) - Adelaide (ADL T1)
Depart: 0820h Sched; 0825h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VXG "Port Douglas" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 725 mi (1,166 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4F

I was still very tired when I boarded my ADL-bound flight and although I had only chosen 4F purely because it was the only favourable row 4 seat remaining at the time, it ended up being a blessing in disguise as it meant I could get more sleep on the just under 2 hour flight. 4E ended up being free, so even better.

Breakfast was served and although I took the tray I only managed to eat the fruit and drink the milk before I became far too tired to bother with the rest. I put the half-eaten tray on the spare 4E's table and dozed off. I woke up just in time to hear the seat belt sign being illuminated for landing. We glided smoothly into ADL and docked into gate 24 on time.

Once again I had another tight connection at ADL of merely 40 minutes, which was probably my biggest fear since my CBR-SYD-ADL, ADL-MEL and MEL-AKL flights were all on separate PNRs. (In fact, if you saw in the Prologue, my CBR-SYD-ADL was part of a PNR which was in the middle of the flights of the PNR that concluded with my ADL-MEL flight!) If it wasn't for the operational logistics of being able to connect and through check my bags on all of these different (albeit linked) bookings, then I can't also imagine what this means for my baggage being transferred successfully all throughout!

I would have had some breakfast in the ADL QP except that the lines and crowd were too much to tolerate in my state of mind; in any case, I had errands to run before my MEL-AKL flight, one of which was calling my credit card companies to tell them that I was going overseas (and we all know why we should do that). I also logged onto the internet (once I could find a computer where the LAN cable had not been unplugged :evil to check the weather history on ZQN and check-out the propensity of being caught in the drink the next day. Weather and FlightStats check for the last week showed that all QF flights in and out of ZQN had minimal if any delays except for the previous Friday, where one service was diverted to Invercagill. So not such a big deal, except that my AKL-ZQN flight is on the next day, which is...yep, you guessed it...a Friday! I was also somewhat annoyed that I was not able to OLCI for any of my QFNZ flights, which had been open for a bit and usually means that - even for a WP - the good seats could easily be snapped up, of which I would be further fuming if any of the operating aircraft that day were equipped with J seats...

I left the lounge to make a stop at the shop Chocolat in the airport, which has IMHO some of the best chocolates in Australia that I've had so far, including the lovely pair of signature truffles entitled Guilt and Innocence. I wanted to buy a gift for each of the three crews I would be flying with for my "farewell" QFNZ flights the next day; it was an expensive exercise but I didn't mind too much. I had the shop attendant box up my gifts and wrap each one in ribbon with artistic flair...but it only became apparent that time was now not on my side! (So, what else is new?) Boarding started as only one box of three was finished. I frantically watched the clock tick down as slowly but surely the shop attendant did an excellent job with her handiwork and finished the three boxes. I hastily paid for my purchases and raced out to the gates as my flight was now in final call stages, and once again it was at a gate which was quite far from the central concourse!

I was surprised to find that the aircraft operating my flight to MEL was the same as the one I had just deplaned from ex-SYD, though the crew were different. I plucked up a bit more energy to radiantly say hello to the FA at the gate as she scanned my BP, only to have it spit out again with loud, red beeps. I was directed to the gate counter where a gentlemen tapped away before offering me another BP, with the remark, "that should be a lot more comfortable".

Flight: Qantas Airways QF680 Adelaide (ADL T1) - Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T1)
Depart: 1040h Sched; 1048h Actual
Aircraft: VH-VXG "Port Douglas" Boeing 737-800
Distance: 400 mi (642 km)
Class: Business (operational upgrade from Red e-Deal)
Seat: 1C

It would have been nice to ride the SYD-ADL flight in J rather than this short hop, but an op-up is an op-up. As I looked around, many of the riders in J turned out to be crew that weren't on duty (since they were not in uniforms); I could tell they were crew by the way they were greeted by their on-duty colleagues. A man in a suit had assumed the 1A seat position as I stowed my bag away in the row 2 locker.

Once we took off and settled into flight, the man in 1A remarked, "Travel a lot?" I replied in the affirmative, which I confirmed he learned by virtue of my WP tag on my backpack plus the status being printed on my BP. I couldn't help but return the question, where he proffered the answer, "You could say that". Being a slightly unusual response, I followed up with an inquiry as to what he did for a living. It was then that I learned that he was a cabin crew manager working for QF. Turns out that he was on his way to MEL for a meeting (in the airport), of which the few crew sitting in the J cabin were also heading to.

Refreshments were served, the choices being either fresh fruit only, or warm refreshment of banana bread. I opted for the banana bread, which was served with a couple of poached, spiced fruit, a small bowl of fresh fruit and a choice from the warm bakery of mini quiches. The bread was good in flavour and not bone dry although I tasted more coconut than banana. I remarked this to my seat mate in 1A when he enquired as to what I thought of the dish.

Warm refreshment of banana bread with poached, spiced fruit

The cabin crew were very professional at their jobs, serving and addressing their colleagues in the same way as they serve customers. My seatmate in 1A was served last in the J cabin (I guess intentionally) and he opted for the fruit. We had a very good discussion about various things about QF operations - much the same discussions we have on AFF or FT - like upgrade policies, status effects, cabin crew hours, Marc Newson and QF designs......

We both had a cup of tea when it was offered. My seat mate couldn't help but notice my odd reaction when I supped some tea, which I had noticed for flights flying in and out of ADL. He pointed out that it must be the water in ADL, which is relatively notable for its chlorine smell. A cup of coffee, being stronger in smell, would probably be mask the chlorine except to the sharpest of tastes, but with the tea it was clearly there. Well, if having too much coffee could give you cancer, looks like having too much tea just might, too....

We didn't stop talking until we landed in MEL and docked in at gate 2; I did apologise as I probably distracted the man from reading important material that he had intended to do before arriving in MEL, but he said that was not necessary. I entered the terminal and said goodbye to him. Thinking that I had time to get some steps before transferring to T2, I strided to the end of the low numbered gates wing of T1 and back (passing the said manager and a few more of his crew in the process), then repeated the exercise for the high numbered gates wing. By this time it was approaching 1 pm or thereabouts, so I proceeded to T2.

As this was the first time I was on the landside of MEL since becoming WP, I thought I would have a bit of fun and seek out the QF F international check-in. Even though I didn't need to check-in or drop any bags, I thought it'd be nice to know what to experience if I ever have to check-in at MEL.

Qantas First check-in at MEL (kerbside)

Inside QF F check-in at MEL, showing the regular Marc Newson furniture and distinctive white marble QF walls

The QF F check-in is a small room in the corner of the international check-in area with glass doors adjacent to the drop off kerb as well as to the side leading out to the main international check-in area. Inside, the dullness of the main area outside is contrasted with the subtle lighting and Marc Newson (of course ) decor. As I walked in, I was greeted by a porter who asked whether I was checking in, to which I replied that I was just looking around. I confirmed with all who were inside that this was OK and why I was doing it; in fact, the said porter was happy to introduce me to each of the staff. Basically, porters meet all pax either kerbside or as they enter the check-in area and handle their bags for them. Bags are weighed and tagged inside the area, but they are sent to the aircraft by the porters who cart the bags off on their trolleys (i.e. there isn't a direct belt from F check-in to the sterile baggage area). A few couples walked in to check-in for various flights, and I was amazed and impressed every time how the desk agents would efficiently handle the check-in (as it turns out, BPs etc. were all preprinted and were laid out in folders on a nearby desk) as well as how the porters were lightning quick in attending to the bags, getting them weighed and tagged. I asked if I could stay a while inside whilst I filled out my outgoing departure card and checked my LAG baggie, of which they were only happy to oblige, as well as my request to snap a piccie of me in the F check-in area.

 

[anat0l]

Thu 28 May: CBR-SYD-ADL-MEL-AKL (part 2 of 5)

Me inside the QF F check-in area at MEL T2

After collecting myself, I bid farewell to the staff inside and headed towards immigration. It's a bit odd leaving the F check-in then having to navigate through the hustle and bustle of Plebiansville and the obligatory MEL landside shopping mall before finding the departures channel.

As predicted, immigration was pretty bare so no need to use the express pass. Even security screening afterwards was breezily negotiated, which was just as well because I'd hate to see how bad the small area can get at the worst of times. As with its bigger brother SYD and smaller brother BNE, the duty free shop is "strategically" placed directly after outgoing immigration, which requires one to necessarily pass through it in order to access the main gate concourse. In SYD, one can employ a side staircase to dodge the duty free shop, but in MEL there is no such escape. The QF international lounges in MEL T2 are located beyond the shops, with the QP (or QF J Lounge) being downstairs whilst the QF F Lounge was upstairs. Upon ascending the escalators to the upper level, on one side is the opulent entrance of mahogany and gold that is the EK F Lounge, whilst on the other side of simple marble and patterned glass was the QF F Lounge.

Entrace to the Qantas First Lounge Melbourne (Tullamarine) International

Qantas First Lounge Melbourne (Tullamarine) International

The Qantas F Lounge in MEL T2 is not surprisingly smaller than the same lounge in SYD T1, but that is a plus as much as it is a minus; the smaller lounge felt a bit more crowded in places but has an atmosphere of being cosy and intimate. When the SYD QF FL becomes full, it almost resembles a small shopping mall food court / public area. First stop was the spa to make an appointment, although I was disappointed to be told that due to appointments on QF9 taking priority coupled with a shorter operating time for the spa, appointment times were scarce if not unavailable. I was told that there was a possible cancellation of an appointment so I was advised to take a seat first and I would be told if it was possible to slot me in. With that in mind, the first place I naturally headed to was the restaurant.

Various photos of the inside of the MEL T2 QF F Lounge

The restaurant area only has large tables next to the windows, which showed a splendid view of the MEL tarmac. Tullamarine isn't near the city compared to how SYD (Mascot) is, so the view apart from the airport activity isn't all that varied, unless you would prefer to stare at simple greenery rather than buildings and bridges for a change. The restaurant was about 80% full and I was lucky to be directed to a small table that was one of the few left. A glass of sweet and heavenly Devaux Blanc De Noirs was poured before a menu was offered and I had a flick through the selections, which you can find here (food and drink). The daily specials didn't jump out at me, so I decided to try some options which I had often seen on the menu but had never tried before. I was quite hungry even though still a tad tired, so I didn't hesitate to order up.

Table set for a meal with a glass of Devaux

Whilst I waited for my food, the lounge manager Brad found me and told me that there was indeed a cancellation at the spa and offered a short session appointment and a consent form to fill out. Brad was quite well-versed at the features of the spa and explained the different treatments, although I still had to talk to the spa manager before we negotiated my choice of a facial which would suit the limited time of my appointment.

 

[anat0l]

Thu 28 May: CBR-SYD-ADL-MEL-AKL (part 3 of 5)

No sooner had that all been sorted out that my first course had arrived. I must admit I have a weakness for crumbed calamari / squid, and this time was no exception. The squid came with a side wedge of fresh chilli and a lime half. I have to shamefully admit not being game enough to try the chilli (instead resorting to simply brush it on top of the squid) but the lime was a nice touch.

Chilli Salt Squid

Next course was the pear and blue cheese tart, served with baby spinach. The tart was nice and crisp, with the saltiness and strong flavours of the blue cheese clashing in a symphony with the enhanced sweetness of the pear; caramelised onion and walnuts playing second fiddles to the feature ingredients. This is one dish that is sure to polarise a few taste buds, but I thought it was a nice course.

Pear and Blue Cheese Tart

Following the tart was one of the daily specials, which was the pedestrian mainstay of many a restaurant - Caesar salad. The light crustoni was buttered quite liberally with hints of garlic, which wasn't a bad change from simple croutons. The prosciutto was appropriately salty but complemented well with the rest of the ingredients. A light (cf. liberal) dressing and the soft poached egg finished the dish nicely, so not a bad edge on a stalwart dish.

Caesar Salad

The final course I indulged in was the pappardelle, which was pretty much a longer and wider ribbon-like version of fettucini. The tomato-based sauce had all the right flavours, including fresh basil, plus the ricotta added a neutral dimension to the dish.

Pappardelle

I was quite full after all the food and the timing couldn't be any better (or tighter) as I finished up and had to wonder to the spa to make my appointment. I was escorted to a room with a much higher ceiling than the rooms at the SYD T1 FL. The room normally looks out to the tarmac but of course the curtains were drawn to create the right mood. I let the spa therapist do what she does best and for the next half hour my face was gently massaged, lathered and infused with grape seed and other aroma-filled substances. A hot towel was draped over my face signalling the end of the session and I thanked the therapist as I left the spa radiating in spa-clean goodness (get it? Sparkling? ).

As I left the spa and wandered into the computer area, Brad managed to catch up with me and had a chat about the spa treatment. He then went on to remark whether I would like to get some work done, of which I answered yes (I love how some people can "read" these things). He then offered one of the private work suites for me to use; I could not thank him enough! The seclusion of a private room equipped with all the necessities - desk, computer, TV (with multiple inputs, including PC if desired), children's toys (not that I needed them, but a nice thought for others!) and stationary. Brad was about to leave as he showed me to the work suite, but I asked him to place an order for green tea, a glass of De Bortoli and one of the delicious tiramisu desserts to be sent to the suite. I then thanked him profusely for his assistance during the afternoon as I settled into work mode.

Tiramisu and Green Tea

 

[anat0l]

Thu 28 May: CBR-SYD-ADL-MEL-AKL (part 4 of 5)

My desk in the private work suite

I managed to get on top of my emails, read a few articles from my news feeds and generally get everything online in control again. I was still a wee bit tired so the said work only proceeded at about 80% efficiency, hence why it was quite a while (until it became dark outside) before I packed up and left the suite in search of some food before I had to board QF133. (Expecting a spectacular Y meal on board was not on my cards!) But first things first...

I wondered over to the F Lounge desk to enquire why I still could not OLCI for any of my QFNZ flights the next day. On a look up of my particulars, they couldn't see why I could not check-in, although for what is was worth it seemed that I was preallocated row 1 for all my flights, so that wasn't such a bad thing. The second bit that they happened to notice was...once again, avid reader, you are right...the wierd flying patterns (i.e. WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC all in one day)! When the lounge manager Mark asked why the funny routing, I was about to pipe in an answer when he proffered, "Mileage run?" Now it was my turn to be amazed.

Turns out Mark is a bit of a lurker amongst some boards like AFF and FT (I didn't ask which ones), so he wasn't much of a stranger to the idea of a mileage run. We actually got on quite well and even exchanged name cards. Anyway, after I was somewhat assured that I was going to get a good seat on my QFNZ flights, I wandered over to the restaurant to make good some dinner. This time I went for a less rich selection, including a pass up on another glass of wine and instead stuck to water and green tea.

First course was the mushroom soup, which didn't sound impressive on the menu and didn't look impressive either. However, it was quite satisfactory - certainly better than any of the mushroom soups I have had in any of the QF lounges.

Mushroom Soup

The next course was the oddly named "Petuna Smoked Ocean Trout with Fennel Remoulade and Crostini". OK, I know what trout is (although I didn't know you could serve it filleted and sliced), and the only reference to fennel I can think of was that Don Burke (for those that know the former gardening show Burke's Backyard) oft remarked his dislike for the vegetable. Don't even get me started with what in good name is remoulade, but it was served and I have to say it was quite a nice dish. For the diet conscious, the dish could have been eaten well enough without the crostini (which was prepared like very thin garlic bread). I had a side of steamed greens to boost up my vegetable intake, which I had asked to be prepared sans oil.

Smoked Trout with Fennel Remoulade and Crostini

Steamed Greens

The final course of cheese was well presented and looked appetising, but I only managed to get about half of the cheeses and barely touched the bread. I did eat all the fruit and the quince paste was a nice touch up, especially to the slightly overpowering blue cheese.

Cheese Plate of the Day

As I tucked into the cheese plate, I looked at my watch and was surprised that the boarding call for my flight was not yet made. After I finished up at the restaurant, I wandered back to the front desk to see what was going on, since I didn't want to think that I am missing my flight because there was no boarding calls being made. A quick check with Mark confirmed that the flight was merely delayed and that boarding would start soon, so I retired back to the restaurant to have another pot of green tea. I didn't have to wait long, fortunately, until the flight was called, so I said goodbye and thank you to Mark before I headed out of the lounge and towards gate 2, which is whimsically located almost on the opposite end of the concourse compared to the location of the QF F Lounge and is non-trivally hidden in the plethora of shops.

Old style departures board in the MEL T2 QF FL, finally showing my flight as boarding

 

[anat0l]

Thu 28 May: CBR-SYD-ADL-MEL-AKL (part 5 of 5)

Flight: Jetconnect (Qantas) QF133 Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL T2) - Auckland (AKL I)
Depart: 1930h Sched; 1918h Actual
Aircraft: ZK-JTR Boeing 737-400
Distance: 1,643 mi (2,640 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

As I approached the aircraft door, I looked up at the registration plate at the roof of the door and noticed that the aircraft was JTR. CSM Sebastian welcomed me on board as I noted to him that we were on JTR; I think remember remarking that the aircraft was being / had been refreshed, and now I can't remember whether that was even true or not.

In an odd turn of events, QF133 was very lightly loaded. I had a whole three seats to myself; for the front half of the Y cabin everyone had spare seats beside them and the pattern was mostly true also in the back half of Y. There were only three people in J. For this reason, boarding finished quite early and we were approved for an early departure. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting at the gate for a while as aircraft pushed back and passed us by. By the time we were finally allowed to push back, our early departure time advantage had all but evaporated.

The baby TT-hopping 734 sped down the runway and took off as we began our journey towards AKL. Once the seat belt sign was off and the usual post take-off speech was had, the IFE was switched on. The IFE onboard is overhead monitors in the central aisle. For passengers in J and the first few rows of Y, personal DVD players were offered with noise cancelling headsets and a set of DVDs.

Personal DVD players offered to J pax and the first few rows of Y pax

DVD selection wallet

Before getting settled in, Sebastian came to have a chat. I seemed to have piqued his interest as I was entering, which was probably "helped" since he noticed my yellow FlyerTalk tag and he remarked that he's seen it around in various places. We had a bit of a chat about my mileage run, FlyerTalk, QFNZ and the domestic routes changing to JQNZ, amongst other things. He was quite an interesting chap to talk to, and to top it all off, he offered me a drink from the J range. Not being prepared for that offer, I simply asked for a glass of Champagne. It was only the reguarly offered Charles Heidsieck, but it was a nice gesture all the same.

A glass of Charles Heidsieck with a couple of packs of nuts

Dinner was served soon after, the choices being...*drumroll please*...Chicken with Kung Pao Sauce or Beef Stew! :mrgreen: Two stalwart dishes that I've known well round out the seventh time that I had been offered the selection. I chose the chicken, which was served slightly differently to how it is given on the domestic flights to and from PER, with a side salad and dressing, plus it was served in a different tray (compartmentalised rather than completely flat). Apart from that, it was exactly the same, right down to the tiny square of Lindt chocolate.

Chicken with Kung Pao sauce

Tea and coffee were offered as per usual, then the trays were cleared so that some people could try and get some sleep. I watched a bit of IFE, flicking through the comedy DVD and not really being intrigued by much else. I put away the player and filled out my immigration forms (including the new convoluted passenger information form instigated in response to the global swine flu scare) before getting some sleep. I woke up just as we were about to start descent in AKL. DVD players were collected as we glided downwards into an otherwise indistinguishable landscape of blanket darkness below (save for a few distant lights of Auckland city).

Touch down was an easy non-affair as the tired looking pax (hey, it was 2 am in the morning!) shuffled off into AKL international terminal via gate 7.

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 1 of 9)

Friday, 29 May 2009

It was a fairly decent walk from the gate to incoming immigration (which had the Australian-style obligatory wander through the duty free shop). There were hardly any people at this time of the morning, so immigration would have been a breeze although the officer got a bit snitchy when he looked at my filled immigration card and it said "Estimated Length of Stay: 1 day". I simply said that I was on a mileage run and supplied the short definition for the term, he dryly replied, "You must really like flying", handed back my passport and sent me on my way.

Baggage wasn't on the belt when I arrived at the belt, but within around 10 minutes the belt went into action. My bag was thankfully near the lot at the beginning, although my magenta tag with complex routing and been removed and in its place was a single-routing RUSH tag. I guess there might have been a small hiccup with the transfer process, but I was glad it came through! The Kiwi customs decided not to play Big B**t**d so it was a simple x-raying of my bags and I was into the arrivals hall in the chilly wee hours of the morning.

AKL international is open 24 hours so it is not unusual to see a decent number of people wondering around at any time. In this case, many were present to meet and greet friends or relatives off QF133 or other late night flights. Others were strewn around sleeping as they waited for their OMG o'clock flights in the morning (AKL airport is fairly far from the city proper - getting up early in the morning to make a 0545h or the like flight is a killer!). Unfortunately, AKL domestic is not 24 hours, plus the domestic QP would not be open at this stark time of the morning, so there were no good showers available nor a nice place to relax.

I dropped my bag off at the i-Site tourist information centre (which is also open 24 hours) and paid the fee for 24 hours of storage. When I was prompted how to spell my name, I thought I'd save my sanity a bit and whipped out my drivers license for the lady at the counter to copy. I then went to the gallery level (one floor above departures) and played a bit at the arcade. Bored with that, most of the rest of the morning involved walking around gaining steps; I did go to the sky deck to see some of the aircraft outside, including a NZ 747-400 parked in a remote part of the tarmac and seemingly looking a bit worse for wear. I also walked all the way to the domestic terminal and back, which killed off another 20 minutes or so.

An amusing cartoon plastered along the outside walls of a restaurant on the gallery level of AKL international. I think most people can "relate" to the top cartoon.

My state of boredom was broken when I got an SMS from wijomas. He was catching a very early flight across the ditch and asked if I was interested in meeting up for a drink. I don't think you, the faithful reader, would have to think twice as to what my response was. So surely enough, wijomas turned up at the airport nice and early for his flight. Shops were only barely starting to open at that time of the morning (outgoing immigration less so). Apart from McDonalds, there was a small coffee shop on the departures level that had opened, so we went there for a drink - myself a coffee, whilst wijomas had a Coke. It was refreshing to talk to someone that time of the morning, especially given I was so tired. For his part, wijomas couldn't help talking about his famed BGI run he was looking forward to in late August (and believe me, from a SC run point-of-view he bagged a real winner). We could have talked for much longer, however I was interested in getting to the domestic terminal and having a look around the AKL D Koru Club before needing to depart.

Air New Zealand, being the national flag carrier, obviously takes up the majority of the space at AKL D; QFNZ (now JQNZ) has only two jetway gates and DJNZ has only one standoff gate. NZ had recently changed their check-in procedures as well, completely eliminating check-in desks (except for a premium desk/service counter) and instead leaving just check-in kiosks (with scales next to them) and a large belt next to the wall that was being minded by a NZ staff. Basically, you use the kiosks to check-in and obtain your boarding passes (duh!), but if you have baggage you also use it to get bag tags. You attach your tags onto your bags yourself, then you bring it to the belt and drop it on so it will get sent to the aircraft. I'm not sure how the Kiwis took in this new approach, though personally I think it's great, since you don't have to wait for staff. I'd imagine there'd be some klutzy people that might just stuff up attaching their bag tag, plus I'm sure there's got to be some illiterate or uppity people who can't seem to use the self-apparent check-in system, or believe that it's not their job to check-in, prepare and drop their bags. Anyway, I digress...

Check-in was pretty simple, in fact given that I was a NZ GE (thank you status match!), had already preselected my seat and had no bags to drop, there were so many ways I could have handled check-in and seat selection, but I decided to take the tried and trusty way: swiped my card into the kiosk and obtained my thermal-paper BP, which looked a little more interesting than the QF issued BPs (even those that are issued on cardboard). As I was checking in, a PA announcement that flights to CHC today may be cancelled or delayed due to inclement weather was made, which sent a bit of a shiver down my spine (no pun intended)......

After passing through security, I went up the stairs and in the twisty halls of the dark side of the terminal p no, I mean that literally - there is more lighting on the QF side compared to the NZ side), I found the AKL D NZ KC.

Entrance to the Air New Zealand Domestic Koru Club, Auckland Domestic Airport

KC entry is regulated by an attendant who stands next to an electronic reader where one places the bar coded BP, elite ePass RFID tag or mPass bar code on a reading area which lights up green if all is good (i.e. you have enough status and your next flight is on NZ leaving from this port). I didn't quite tick to this immediately but this was mainly only because it took me greater than two seconds to realise what I had to do as the attendant quickly went to aid me. I told him that this was the first time I was flying NZ from what would normally be all-out QF; upon telling him this, he took my hand and gave it a hearty shake with a jolly, "welcome to Air New Zealand! You've made a great choice." He then led me into the club and gave me the quick ten second point and see tour. Although I believe we are easily attracted to things which we have never seen before, the KC was certainly a very refreshing difference to the QPs (especially the domestic ones in AKL and WLG). In contrast to the reds and greys that define the QPs, the KC was plush with shades of green and blue (aqua) and dark tones.

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 2 of 9)

Various views of the AKL D KC

Breakfast selection at the buffet wasn't any different to the QP's range, although it was helpful and professional that signs indicating each of the foods were provided. I didn't have a lot of time to fluff around anyway - there wasn't even enough time for a shower - given that boarding was due to start fairly soon, plus since I was on a Koru Hour service, there was going to be some decent food onboard anyway. Sure enough, my flight started boarding at gate 32, which was pretty much around the corner from the lounge - yep, whilst AKL D looks big on the NZ side, it really isn't all that huge at all!

Flight: Air New Zealand NZ401 Auckland (AKL D) - Wellington (WLG)
Depart: 0600h Sched; 0555h Actual
Aircraft: ZK-NGJ Boeing 737-300
Distance: 299 mi (481 km)
Class: Economy (Space+)
Seat: 2D

Boarding is done with the same reader machines as that at the KC. Once on board, I was greeted by a sea of aqua seats. My seat was one of the "special" Space+ seats with extra leg room (similar to that of row 4 on a QF 738). A lovely lady obviously on her way to WLG for work assumed the 2F seat, with 2E remaining empty. As for the rest of the aircraft, it was a fairly full load except for the Space+ region.

NZ seating in row 2 of a 733

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 3 of 9)

Leg room in Space+ seating

Ladies and gentlemen......please sit back, relax and let us take care of you on our short flight this morning to the capital.

OK a couple of things there (apart from the hidden joke ). First, QF have a CSM, but NZ stick to the age old position of purser. Secondly, QF (even on NZ domestic services) always qualify WLG as Wellington, however it seems that on NZ they are a bit more laid back (a rapport thing no doubt) so they simply say "the capital". (I believe in AU no one calls CBR "the national capital", probably because there is a sizeable majority in AU that would be confused and think of SYD if everyone starting saying "the national capital"!).

In pitch darkness, we pushed back as the safety video came on the air. Unlike QF, NZ FAs do not demonstrate the safety procedures whilst the video is being run; the only time they twitch is to show the location of the exits. Also, for those of you in the know, at the time of writing this report the 733 safety video has been updated with the new "risque" version from Air NZ's Nothing to Hide campaign, however at the time I was flying I had to watch the old boring version. Take off at AKL in the dark is always odd since the runway is adjacent to water, which makes the whole take off experience quite eerily dark save for a few runway bulbs here and there.

Another difference between NZ and QF: it was probably only about 20 seconds after take off and we were still climbing, but the captain turned off the seat belt sign! The purser made her usual announcements about the service, and at that moment I got up to use the bathroom, strangely whilst the aircraft was not even level yet. Nothing too special about the bathroom, so we won't go there (*ba doom tisssh* :mrgreen. Upon assuming my seat again, I was just in time for the Koru Hour service to begin. Morning Koru Hour service consisted of a choice of muesli with yoghurt or a muffin, with tea or plunger coffee. I selected the muesli and plunger coffee; the muesli was quite nice with the yoghurt complementing the very fruity muesli.

Morning Koru Hour muesli and plunger coffee on NZ domestic

IFE was...well...not present. There were no inflight programs on offer - not even the news; all that screened was a continuous feed of trivia Q&A, with an occasional break in the feed to invite passengers to submit their own Q&A. No headlines, no weather summaries, nothing else. Pretty bland, but I'm guessing most people couldn't give half a stuff, especially at this stark hour of the morning.

The crew came around in time to collect rubbish and offer boiled sweets. Not sure what was with the boiled sweets and my mind simply shrugged and said "meh" when I saw the simple array, so I kindly declined a sweet. I've since learned from various reports that the boiled sweets are a signature of the service on NZ and some people even like them (or at least have become adept at knowing which colours/flavours they regard as good). Within time, the fasten seat belt sign was switched on as we descended into WLG, thankfully with the sun peeking over the horizon. I can't remember which gate we docked into, but I do remember it was a jetway gate on the same side as the WLG D KC entrance. From a terminal map of WLG, I'm guessing it was gate 16.

When I entered the terminal, I went up to the KC and scanned my ePass only to get a red rejection light. The two kind ladies who were monitoring the entrance to the already quite busy KC tried again and then prompted for my flight number. It was only then that I remembered (and was reminded) that the KC does not allow any time access, even to GEs (cf. QF WPs are allowed any time access to domestic QPs). The ladies were quite forgiving and said that the next time I was flying NZ that they'd see me again.

First things first, as I remembered, I proceeded back to check-in in order to obtain my BPs for my QFNZ flights. The check-in agent (a NZ staff, not QF) managed to give me BPs for my WLG-AKL and AKL-ZQN flights, but not my ZQN-CHC flight which I would need to check-in for later in the day. I couldn't be buggered to work out why that was the case, but on assuming I would get a decent seat anyway I set off for the WLG D QP.

The double doors leading to the WLG D QP, with a less than pleasing sign on it

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 4 of 9)

The first thing I did when I went in was to request a shower pack. Luckily the QP was fairly empty and the shower was free because there is only one shower in the lounge. A refreshing shower and a change of clothes later, I set about scouting the breakfast food on offer at the buffet. Along with the usual continental variety, there were mini-sausages and baked beans available. One notable absence was the famed cheese scones cooked by one of the beloved staff of the QP kitchen. When she came out to replace some items on the buffet, I asked her about them (as well as thanking her for the many times they have been out there). Turns out that budget cuts had resulted in no more cheese being available; she added on top of that that there will be no more flour ordered either so it seems that scones will also be becoming scarce very soon.

WLG QP food: plain scone, baked beans and sausages

Requests to go to gate at WLG were made earlier than usual owing to the fact that security screening only takes place at the gate, which adds a bit of time between the lounge and the point of boarding. The vessel parked at gate 21 that was to carry me on one of my last flights on QFNZ domestic was JNC, which was unfortunately an all Y configuration (JNC = no C (business)), but at least the bulkhead has cut out sections at the foot level which meant satisfactory leg room for those in row 1 (as well as being able to stow baggage in the cut out).

Jetconnect 737-300 ZK-JNC at gate 21 at WLG

Flight: Jetconnect (Qantas) QF2704 Wellington (WLG) - Auckland (AKL D)
Depart: 0830h Sched; 0835h Actual
Aircraft: ZK-JNC Boeing 737-300
Distance: 299 mi (481 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 1D

On boarding, CSM Karen greeted all and I assumed my seat in 1D. 1E ended up being unoccupied so not too much to complain about. We pushed back pretty much on time and set off for AKL.

We had the somewhat uninteresting item of a ham and cheese croissant for a snack.

Jetconnect domestic snack of ham and cheese croissant

Before we were due to land in AKL, I gave one of the boxes of chocolates I bought at ADL to Karen and explained that it was my way of saying farewell to QFNZ domestic and the friendly cabin service. Even though the planes were really starting to show their age, the cabin crew on domestic services have never wavered in their friendliness and efficiency - probably a good rival for QantasLink crews of which I also enjoy the service of. I also explained that I was on a long journey today as part of a mileage run and farewell to QFNZ, then was just a bit surprised when Karen mentioned that she and her crew along with JNC were servicing my ongoing flight to ZQN. (Oh well, so I saved one box of chocolates).

Once we landed at AKL, we were supposed to assume one of the jetway gates, but there was construction happening around the QF end of the terminal and working out how to dock in and disembark with the construction vehicles in the way and not seemingly willing to budge caused our arrival time to be delayed immeasurably. Lucky that my connection was on the same delayed aircraft! We ended up assuming gate 22, a standoff bay normally reserved for DJ aircraft. Airstairs were connected and the understandably frustrated passengers deplaned onto the tarmac and headed into the building.

I proceeded without delay to the AKL QP to check weather conditions in the South Island to find that there was quite a bit of cold weather about and some delays and cancellations. Still, whether it was just blind bravery or otherwise, I decided to press on to ZQN. I had a glass of water with lemon from the AKL D QP buffet, which was otherwise a very sorry selection. I'm not sure whether they were transitioning between breakfast and all-day, but when I had a look at the buffet the only things available were fruits and basic savouries. Pretty disappointing.

The delayed disembarkation of the previous passengers necessarily bowled over any chance of an on time departure for the AKL-ZQN service, despite the ground crew doing a fairly good job to turn around the plane in 20 minutes. A PA announcement was made for all ZQN bound pax to proceed to the central security screening point in order to reach gate 22 for boarding. A long line had already formed at the screening point as boarding calls were already being made for the ZQN flight. Thankfully the line moved fairly quickly and it was off to gate 22 and out onto the tarmac for boarding.

Flight: Jetconnect (Qantas) QF2791 Auckland (AKL D) - Queenstown (ZQN)
Depart: 1015h Sched; 1042h Actual
Aircraft: ZK-JNC Boeing 737-300
Distance: 636 mi (1,026 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 1C

CSM Karen once again greeted me on board for what turned out to be a completely full flight! Must be the tourism numbers (or the fact that there is only one AKL-ZQN flight on QFNZ per day). Luckily we were not much more delayed than our original arrival delay, as we took off on the "perilous" flight to ZQN.

The snack served was a vegemite and cheese scroll, which on first appearance probably looked a bit worse for wear, plus the vegemite ensured for a fairly salty snack. A cup of black tea was quite a welcome treat to wash it down; alcohol was available but given that it was not after 4 pm, alcohol was not complimentary.

Jetconnect domestic snack of vegemite and cheese scroll

After the main service had cleared, Karen came up to me to thank me for the chocolates. She then offered me a complimentary selection from the alcohol, so I selected a white wine.

White wine from Marlborough, part of the mainstay wines on Jetconnect domestic

I got a quick nap just before we began descent into ZQN. The tops of snow-capped mountains could be seen amongst the low cloud as we began the complex approach path into ZQN. Landing in ZQN is normally flagged as quite an attraction, though naturally it's not as tight as some other precarious landings around the world (including the old HKG Kai Tak). Unfortunately, not being in the window position hindered my efforts to get a video on landing, so I simply enjoyed the swinging experience of gliding into the small airport at ZQN. Like many small airports around the world, ZQN has only standoff bays. We did a 180-degree turn at the end of the runway and taxiied back to the tarmac. Stairs were in position as I said goodbye to Karen and the crew and headed into the terminal building.

Inside Queenstown terminal

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 5 of 9)

Outside Queenstown terminal - a lush green and snow capped mountain meet in flat perspective

Although this is probably true for most airports in NZ's South Island, ZQN has to be one of the most picturesque airports, the hills around the airport forming a beautiful landscape with some bathed in radiant sunshine and others gracefully capped in snow. I headed outside to be immediately spotted by a shuttle bus driver-operator. He pointed me to a shuttle which was legit, but I almost did a double-take when he revealed the fee of NZD 15. Still, it was probably going to go earlier than the next Connectabus.

A Quickie in Queenstown

ZQN airport is about the same distance away from town as WLG airport is away from its city centre. Throughout the trip I could not help phasing out in fits of microsleep, even though our driver was consistently piping in with information. I somehow miraculously woke up just as we pulled up to a spot in the city centre.

Two views from downtown Queenstown

Now with about 3 hours up my sleeve, it was time for some exploring. A few things for those who have not travelled to ZQN. First, in the city centre, there are no traffic lights. Second, there are hardly any locals - most of the faces you see around ZQN are tourists! No joke. As I walked around in the picturesque little town, I marvelled at the mosaic of randomly shaped and styled buildings as well as the multitude of people wandering around. It was as if the entire city centre was a giant mall with a few vehicles going around and about. I'd managed to forget to bring my scarf with me (it was sitting snug in my baggage back at the AKL airport i-Site), but somehow it wasn't piercingly cold so I managed to get by solely with my tough jacket from Rivers Australia.

Unfortunately, that day the Queenstown gondola was closed for maintenance (it was closed for a good month and for another week after), so that rubbed out one big attraction I would have liked to have experienced. I was told of a place called Fergburger and upon inspecting their website and the comments, it seems everyone had to try a Fergburger when you're in ZQN . Well, whatever - I could use a bite. Being the foolish daring person that I am, I selected the "Big Al", which from the description looked like a burger with the works and the lot. The photo below isn't very telling, but let's just say they weren't lying at all (but big kudos to an otherwise fresh and tasty burger!).

The Fergburger "Big Al" - truly a concoction of worthy challenge

It was when I was paying for my burger that I realised something was wrong: my drivers license was missing from my wallet. Where did I lose it? The avid reader has probably connected the pieces and realised that I must have left it at the i-Site in AKL airport. I called the AKL i-Site (thank you roaming, but no thank you to the exhorbitant charges, oh well) and they reported no licenses had been handed in. I thought not to worry about it any more and in case it was really lost I would just have to call Queensland Transport to get a new one. I'm not one that lets go of worry very easily, but somehow I managed to successfully justify to myself that there was no use feeling stunted in worry and just to continue the day.

 

[anat0l]

Fri 29 May: AKL-WLG-AKL-ZQN-CHC-AKL (part 6 of 9)

After finishing my massive burger, I went outside again and headed through a warren of malls and shops until I found the ZQN waterfront. What a sight for sore eyes: all at once, the word "picturesque" had been completely redefined.

Various shots of the absolutely gorgeous eye-candy, Queenstown harbour

Fatigue was starting to creep up on me again, so I set out to find a coffee shop to get a caffeine hit. I found a lovely small cafe near a park next to the harbour which doubled as a shop selling ice cream and chocolates. It was a bit hard to resist so I ordered a slice of white chocolate with apricots as well as the largest latte they could make. The largest size of coffee was termed a 'soup bowl'. I laughed this off at first, but found myself soon eating my own words (no puns intended).

White chocolate slice with apricots

Soup bowl of latte

The cafe had free wireless for customers, so I managed to fire up my eeePC and do a bit of surfing whilst supping on my coffee and nibbling at the chocolate. I polished off the coffee and chocolate before deciding that I should probably see a bit more of ZQN before I have to head back to the airport.

I went out to another square which was next to the harbour and once again could not help but marvel at the sheer beauty of the setting; some may say this sounds really dopey, but I was snapping photos like I was working for a company that sold picturesque postcards. There was a statue of a moa (an extinct bird) at the edge of the square next to the harbour. A kind passerby took a photo of me in front of the beautiful harbour.

Statue of the moa