Auckland to Hawke Bay and back.

[drron]

I tend to concentrate on other things such as birds.There were lots of them.

.

.
The fellow in the middle gives it away.

.
A male American quail.
but back to the roses.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

[drron]

Back to mrsdrron's pics.This time i was really resting.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Now back to the hotel.walked around the CBD for a couple of hours before freshening up for dinner.Fortunately the restaurant was just across the road.As always mrsdrron looked beautiful.

.
Dinner was at Palate restaurant.Review here-
Regional NZ Restaurants

Post 7.

 

[love_the_life]

An impressive mural in the office building.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Now did you notice the piece of Australiana in there?
The whole thing is behind glass so hard to get the whole thing.this is the best i could do.

.

Surprised there is a possum in there - they are such noxious pests in NZ now and thought it would have been strictly animal non grata. It is a lovely piece of carving.

 

[drron]

Surprised there is a possum in there - they are such noxious pests in NZ now and thought it would have been strictly animal non grata. It is a lovely piece of carving.

Top marks l_t_l

 

[drron]

We left Hamilton a bit after 0800 with the plan to spend about 3 hours at the Auckland Botanic garden and get to AKL around 1400 when checkin should open for our flight.To the Auckland gardens.

.

.

.
The veggie garden was the most interesting part but quite small.

.

.

.

.

That is looking towards the rose garden.a lot of work going on so a long detour to get here.

.
But I finally got close to a kiwi cicada.A miniature version.

.

 

[drron]

Now to mrsdrron's flowers.

.

.

.

.

.
In 2 of those pics they have made a mistake in my mind.Using mondo grass as a border.It is invasive and was already surrounding some of the roses.A landscaper used it in our gardens.Took me a damn long time to finally get rid of it though still occasionally some appears.
She even took a picture of a plane on approach to AKL.

.

.

.

.

These gardens were a disappointment.We ended up only staying an hour and that included having a coffee and scones.
So we ended up at AKL just after 1200.

 

[drron]

So the final part of this trip.We arrived early at AKL thinking that we would have to wait for over 2 hours to check in for our BNE flight.The QF desks were open for earlier flights so thought no harm in asking and no problems checking in.Quickly through security,wandered into the Duty free to pick up my gin then to a place a few of you know well.

.
Yes they do call this a First Class lounge.Was fairly empty but soon started filling as several OW flights were delayed.For the last hour we were there people could not get a seat and were told to go to the J lounge.Probably didn't miss much.
A slight delay for our BNE flight but soon seated.We had been bumped from our allocated Row2 back to Row 6.Basically because we had booked Aadvantage awards so our AA numbers were in the booking.But at least it wasn't a 737.

.
Then we come to QFs meal offerings.

.
You start off with what Neil Perry calls a salad.

.
It always goes back untouched.I started with the zucchini soup.All right.

.
Though it looked like the starter zucchini soup and the big bowl for mains was identical.Then the fun.Really only 3 choices of main if you felt like a meal.Mrsdrron asked for the chicken salad only to be told it was all gone.I asked for the chicken toasted sandwich and was told that it was all gone so we both had the steak.

.
So so.
But to compound the problem Mr 6A asked for the toasted sandwich.Despite being asked after me he was able to have it.
When the dishes were collected the FA made a mistake and asked how everything was.I said I was a bit disappointed being told my selection was unavailable but others ordering afterwards were able to have it.The fellow in 6A had a QFF gold tag on and I said I had as much status as he.He tried to bluff so I said mine is life time Platinum on AA having well over 2 million miles with them.Oh that isn't on my list.He then asked why I flew AA-well my wife is QF Plat but she could only get 1 award on this flight a couple of days later so we used her AA account where she has no status and got 2 award seats on the date we wanted.

As we deplaned the CSM spoke to both of us.Now the FA on my side was good and performed his job as it should be done.Mrsdrron christened the FA on her side as happy joe happy.She didn't think he had ever smiled in his life.He was about to retire.

No other problems and we made up most of the time into BNE.We declared our stay on the farm but they were happy to let us through.My shoes were very clean.
Onto the Gateway and it was great to see a QLD sunset.

.

.

So end of story.
On wednesday back to Tassie for 3 weeks in Latrobe.
Early May for the next TR-A short road trip in Japan for spring flowers,our first F flights with OZ and a cruise around the British Isles.