The check-in was quick, no queuing, no fuss, and the priority lane for Koru Club members and Star Gold well signposted. The boarding pass wasn't a full-size ATB one, but smaller, more like a theatre ticket.
Since the flight from BNE, I have acquired a second bag, a zipper duffel, to split the weight across multiple pieces of luggage. It suits me as I won't be doing too much battling with public transport from now on during this trip.
Off to security, no major problems there - you do have to take your laptop out of it's bag, but it's okay if it's in a protective wallet/sleeve with nothing other than the laptop inside - and up the escalator to find the Koru Club.
First impressions - what a nice lounge! The supporting pillars in the room are inlaid with Paua shell, which looked really pretty, and the furnishings were of a good quality.
The help-yourself buffet counter was huge, and had a great range of lunchtime foods, salads, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, including some warm choices, and the selection of wines was excellent, naturally.
Being from a big wine producing region, Air New Zealand sponsor wine awards each year, so they seem to know what they are talking about.
The lounge had a really good atmosphere as well, not too noisy, but not deathly quiet like a library either. Part of the view was blocked by a jetway, but you could see some planes, including the small regional turboprops.
Best bit of all, at about 14.30, the food selection was changed, from lunch to 'afternoon tea', with cheeses, cakes, pastries, etc.
I think it's great that they don't just keep refilling the same old junk, but change and rotate the food. There is a decent sized food preparation and kitchen area hiding behind the drinks chillers (which have doors in the back, so the staff can fill them up from 'behind the scenes'). I'm guessing that most of the food is prepared by one of the caterers on the airport, and just finished up and plated by the kitchen staff in the lounge. I noticed the domestic staff in the lounge kept an eye on the buffet and made sure it was tidy and presentable as well.
There's lots of small towns in New Zealand, and while I was sat there, there seemed to be so many flights going. As well as the 737s heading for the bigger cities of Wellington and Christchurch, there were many other flights, some to places I'd never heard of. The small regional turboprops are important to communities which may be several hours drive away from their nearest major city.
Before long, the flight was called and it was time to board Boeing 737 ZK-SJB for the 45 minute flight to Wellington.
There was no boarding scrum at the gate, even though boarding had only recently started, and no tailbacks up the jetway. Again, I get to keep the 'big' half of the boarding pass.
On board, and welcomed by the Purser, I settle in to seat 3F. We're going to be landing to the South at WLG, and so I should get a good view of the downtown as we approach to land.
The plane starts to fill up a bit, but I have an empty middle seat next to me, though someone is on the aisle. The legroom in the seat is excellent - there's a good few inches between my knees and the seatback in front of me, even with things in the pocket. The aircraft is IFE equipped, and the screens were deployed, showing an Air New Zealand logo.
We pushback on time, the safety video (which is very clear, concise and easily understood) is played, and then the IFE screens retracted into the ceiling, where they stayed for the rest of the flight. I was hoping there may have been a Skymap on this aircraft, but apparently not.
Following an A320, we depart to the West, and then turn left to head South to Wellington.
Inflight service on NZ domestic flights is very simple - tea, coffee and water, with a biscuit. Given the short flight (and what I ate in the Koru Club), it's really all that's necessary. I guess ANZ provide for their business pax through the enhanced food selection in the Koru Club - I think it's a great idea, as apparently, when they did serve meals domestically within NZ, it was a real challenge, given the short flights.
As we came over a big mountain, I could see that there was some sort of front or trough present, by the way the clouds made a neat line, and sure enough we hit some fairly 'surfy' turbulence - it really did feel like the aircraft was surfing at one point!
Before long, it was time to land in Wellington, on a pleasant afternoon (rare events in Wellington, I understand), with a great view of the city off to the right hand side.
It's a fun airport, as the runway is only 2km in length, with water on both ends of it, and high terrain on either side!
Wellington is not a huge terminal, so only a short walk to baggage reclaim, and again priority baggage worked - my bags were out within a couple of minutes.
Rental car collected, I was off to face the dreaded one-way systems of Wellington in no time at all...
Another very good experience with Air New Zealand - the only thing missing was a Skymap!
Cheers,
Mike
