On Friday 9 June, QF139 SYD-CHC was delayed leaving Sydney. According to my TripIt, it left SYD at 20:46 vs a planned departure time of 18:55.
Fog in CHC meant a sharp detour, and ATC sent us to WLG as the weather was clear there, and AKL apparently has a curfew on Sat and Mon mornings. An Air NZ flight was also diverted to WLG. I thought another QF flight had been diverted, but maybe not. Landed in WLG around 2am local time (vs planned arrival into CHC of 2359).
We had to deplane in WLG and luckily were allowed to enter the country. We were HLO as it was a short weekend hop, and got upstairs into the terminal quite quickly. Didn't hear an announcement that was made downstairs in the luggage/arrivals area.
Checkin for QF opened at 4am, the usual 6am flight WLG-SYD was delayed to 840 or so. When the queue for the CHC diversion got really long, I found out we all had to manually check in, even without luggage. And I had to use the special CHC diversion queue, not the Business/priority line.
Not happy, but sucked it up and stood in the queue for 1hr. Eventually checked in, got a NZD20 voucher each to use in the terminal (anywhere but the sushi shop). There was one bakery open and we needed sleep, not food or drink (after FLounging and being in J).
Eventually board around 6:30, strictly by rows from the back of the aircraft to the front. NO priority boarding allowed. We were a little concerned being in row 1. Left around 7:15-7:30, a few pax didn't board including at least one who had checked in luggage??!!
Finally got to our hotel in CHC at about 8:30am and crashed. Thanks, Hilton for saying we were no shows and not crediting one night of the stay.