Auckland wasn’t my final destination either, but at least the four hour flight to Apia/Samoa was going to be the last flight of the day, which I by now felt quite happy about.
I had 2 hours and 25 minutes before the flight to Apia was due to depart.
Transit in Auckland
After disembarking from the Nadi flight I followed the signs for flight connections and after a quick transit security check I was standing in the main transit hall.
My luggage had been through-checked all the way to Apia but I did not have a boarding pass for the last flight which had to be sorted out.
Air New Zealand is supposed to have a transit desk somewhere in the transit area, but I never managed to find it so I made my way to the Air NZ lounge instead to try my luck there.
A young woman greeted me at the reception desk and told me she could definitely help me with a boarding pass for my next flight.
As the whole check-in process took a bit of time we started talking and it took me about 30 seconds to realise once again why I think Air New Zealand is one of the absolute best airlines in the world.
The reception girl was extremely polite and courteous and addressed me by name several time in a very nice manner. At the same time she was really friendly and open-minded and after she had noticed I was going to Apia she asked me if it was my first visit to Samoa and for how long I intended to stay. It turned out she was from Samoa herself and had her family there.
Most of the Air New Zealand staff I have come across just have this amazing ability to find the perfect match between formality and some genuine friendliness.
I can’t think of many airlines that can manage that, some crews just get a bit too formal and distant making it almost hard to communicate with them, others get a bit too friendly and personal.
I had already made a seat wish on the Air NZ webpage for seat 02F which I also got. My baggage tag number was also entered in the reservation and after all formalities were completed I received my boarding pass for the flight.
Pics
The international transit hall at Auckland airport
The departure board with my flight to Apia displayed
An Emirates Airbus A380, there is a chance we might get to see more of that one later on...
Air New Zealand lounge, International terminal, Auckland
The Air New Zealand lounge was rather empty this early afternoon.
I read in the Air NZ forum that the lounge was refurbished just a month early, something you could well notice. I really liked the interior, modern and spacious with some odd-looking but rather comfortable chairs.
The whole lounge was also very clean and tidy there were three attendants frequently clearing tables and keeping the self-service areas in good orders
Food was good as always with a nice selection of bread, vegetables, soup, cold cuts, desserts and pastries. Drinks were pretty good as well with plenty of beer and soft drinks and some nice red wines of the month to taste.
I wasn’t particularly hungry but still made myself some snacks and had a few glasses of wine.
The lounge also has free wifi and the username and password were available at the reception desk. The connection was very fast and reliable and I took the opportunity to check and send off some e-mails.
Pics
The entrance to the lounge
Inside the vast lounge
The self-service buffet area with excellent food and drinks
Some of the food in the lounge
Selection of spirits
I really like the interior of the newly refurbished lounge
Cool seats, especially those to the left
More seating overlooking the transit hall
Second self-service area with coffee and tea
The lounge seen from outside
Boarding
The flight to Apia departed from gate 9, right next to the gate of the Qantas Boeing 747 bound for Los Angeles, so the gate area was pretty crowded.
Boarding started around 30 minutes before departure with priority boarding for elderly/passengers with infants followed by business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold card holders.
An awesome young female flight attendant greeted passengers at the door, very often with a cheery “good afternoon, how are you today?”.
Just the way I like it, courteous while still talkative and friendly.
I had seat 02F on the flight, window seat on the second row of business class.
Six out of eight seats were occupied in business class, but the seat next to mine remained empty during the flight.
Economy class was very full with a mix of New Zealanders and Australians going on holiday and Samoans returning home.
Once seated pre-departure drinks were offered, champers, orange juice and water. Unfortunately I have to disappoint you but now, but as I was feeling rather exhausted at this point I actually went for a glass of orange juice, although some of my fellow travellers happily accepted some bubbles and seemed to enjoy it.
While sipping some fresh orange juice I had a look outside the window to look at the action on the apron. Just as they had finished loading the last bags on our plane a small baggage truck arrived with a blue rather familiar suitcase, it was loaded as one of the last bags in the hold.
Funnily it’s the second time in a day that happened, but I was very relieved my bag was to make it all the way to Samoa, missing luggage can be such a hassle.
The flight attendant who would be serving business class then passed through the business class cabin, introduced herself, welcomed us onboard and asked us to tell her if we neede anything. Very nice!
Pushback right on time at 2.20 pm and the usual security video was shown on the monitors.
The purser also welcomed us all onboard and very nicely she offered a special welcome to the Star Alliance gold card holders and Air New Zealand frequent flyers on the plane.
Very nice gesture!
Pics
Waiting for the boarding to start at gate 9
The business class cabin onboard
A glass of orange juice before departure
Auckland-Apia, flight NZ 862 operated by Air New Zealand
Departure: 14:20
Arrival: 19:15
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Class: Business Class
Seat: 02F
We eventually took off at 2.30 pm from runway 23L. The view after take-off was quite spectacular with the cloudy sky mirroring in the water, very beautiful!
The seat belt sign was turned off almost immediately, or so it felt, I wonder if we even reached 10,000 feet.
Pics
Lining up on runway 23L
Spectacular view right after take-off with the cloudy sky mirroring in the water
The menu
After the curtain between economy class and business class had been closed the menus were handed out for the dinner service.
This is what was on offer on the flight to Apia:
Pics
The business class menu
Quote:
Menu Auckland-Apia
Starter
Cured and seared tuna with ratatouille and crayfish mayonnaise
Bakery
Sourdough bread, dark rye with caraway seed bread and garlic bread
Main Course
Horopito salted lamb cutlet
with braised lamb shank, herb and spinach custard and roast golden kumara
(Horopito - New Zealand bush pepper)
Pesto king prawns on fettuccine
with basil cream sauce, roasted pumpkin and courgette
Glazed chicken breast
with tomato and tarragon, roast red onion, mushrooms, potatoes and whole garlic cloves
Dessert
Gourmet dessert of fig and honey ice cream and golden kiwifruit pavlova ice cream
Chocolate truffle cake and black cherry compote
Cheese
Fine New Zealand cheese
Wine
Our wine list showcases some of the best wine New Zealand has to offer - from a country that celebrates its zealous passion for producing top quality wines.
(The flight attendant introduced the wines on offer while taking meal orders)
Spirits
Glenfiddich Malt Whisky
Chivas Regal Blended Whisky
Jack Daniel‘s Black Label
Gordons Gin
42 Below Vodka
Courvoisier VSOP
Captain Morgan Rum
Ron Bacardi Superior
Port and Liqueurs
Portuguese Port
Grand Marnier
Baileys Irish Cream
Beer
A selection of beer featuring Steinlager Pure, Speight‘s Gold, Heineken and low alcohol lager
Soft drinks
Mineral water, Orange juice, Apple juice, Tomato juice, Cranberry juice, Pineapple juice, Cola, Lemonade, L&P (sparkling lemon drink), Tonic water, Ginger ale, Diet cola and Diet lemonade
Hot drinks
Freshly brewed or decaffeinated coffee, tea, herbal tea and hot chocolate
|
The meal service
The dinner menu to Apia was very impressive, definitely above industry standard with a three courses meal, three choices of main course and two choices of dessert.
That’s definitely not what I‘m used to on similar flights within Europe.
Meal orders were always taken from the back of the cabin so the flight attendant started at my seat.
She asked for my meal order, informed me about the selection of wines available onboard (she had everything written down on her menu) and finally also took my drink order.
There were two reds and two whites available onboard. I can’t remember exactly which ones they had but the red wine I chose was a pinot noir and I believe it was an Australian brand. Veggie crisps were also served with the drinks.
Tablecloths were laid on the tables and the meal trays were handed out with the appetizer, a rather tasty tuna dish.
As main course I chose the superb horopito salted lamb cutlet and as dessert I chose the very yummy ice cream.
I skipped the cheese but finished off the meal with coffee and a glass of Chivas regal.
The meal service was really great. All courses were served separately on proper china and when it was time for dessert a nicely decorated trolley passed through the cabin with the cheese and the two dessert options as well as port and liqueurs.
The service was very friendly and attentive and my glasses of water and wine were frequently topped up.
The only thing I missed would be a proper wine list onboard.
Pics
Red wine and veggie crisps
Appetizer
Main course
Dessert
Seat and comfort
The business class seat on the Airbus A320 was in black leather and I found it very comfortable, especially with the headrest that made it easy to get some rest.
The seat pitch was a decent 42” and the seats were both wide and spacious.
I had deliberately chosen a seat on the second row as it means there is no bulkhead and you don’t have to place the hand luggage in the overhead bin during take-off and luggage. Also the inflight monitor is at the back of the seat (the seat in front) instead of in the armrest.
I can only compare the seat with the flights I took on Air NZ during the autumn 2006 with several flights operated by Airbus A320. I could easily notice the seats had been upgraded since then
Pics
The Air New Zealand business class seat on the Airbus A320
Seat controls
Inflight entertainment system
The inflight entertainment system was just brilliant, full AVOD with a great and very extensive selection of movies, documentaries, TV-series and music albums.
In 2006 a portable DVD player was provided in business class on A320 operated flights. Although I thought that solution worked well this was definitely far better.
Among the music albums they had one section named “latin music” where I even found an album of one of my favourite Spanish groups La oreja de Van Gogh.
Another nice feature was the possibility to connect a USB stick or an MP3 player to the inflight entertainment system, there was a USB port on the front of the armrest.
I connected my mobile phone which also works as music player and it worked reasonably well.
The flight map of the new inflight entertainment system was also really nice, one of the coolest I have ever seen.
Except for the standard flight map it also showed the image of a cabin window (either the left one or the right one) and what cities you would see in that direction. During our flight they showed the right cabin window where Avaraua in Rarotonga/Cook Islands could be seen (well possibly not seen, but it was surely located in that direction).
One of the pages also shown part of the rotating flight map was a page with some cockpit instruments showing airspeed, altitude, wind speed, heading and vertical speed. Just awesome!
Pics
Excellent inflight entertainment system
Movies, documentaries and TV sitcoms
Using the in-seat USB-port to access my mobile phone files
Stupid sitcom called Diplomatic Immunity about a fictional Pacific kingdom
Flight map
Looking right and we should be able to see Avarua (Cook Islands). Well not exactly, but still a really fun feature!
Info about the flight, coolest page I have seen on any airline so far!
Arrival at Apia Faleolo airport, with some serious health checks
Around 6.40 local time (one hour ahead of New Zealand time) we started out descent into Apia. With only one international departure and a handful domestic departures a day on average the descent was rather straight forward with no unnecessary speed limits, holding patterns or such.
Landing in the South Pacific is always an experience, especially at night when it’s pitch-dark outside and you don’t see a thing until about 10 seconds before touchdown when the first lights appear.
Samoa was no exception, although I think the first lights actually appeared an impressive 60 seconds before landing.
We touched down at 7 pm on runway 08 at Apia Faleolo airport.
The landing was rather bumpy and full reverse was applied, probably needed as it was raining outside and the runway was quite wet.
A short taxi to the small terminal building where we were specifically told to remain seated as it would take a bit of time to connect the APU (ground power supply to the aircraft) and also because of the Samoan quarantine.
I didn’t quite understand what the latter meant, but I was soon to find out why.
After the plane had parked and the engines were switched off the purser opened the door and two men in typical hospital attire came onboard, presumably from the Samoan health department. Once onboard the door was closed again and the two gentlemen went through the entire cabin.
I am not sure what they were looking for, but after having passed through the cabin twice the purser asked them “are you happy?” and they said yes. The door was opened again and we were allowed to collect our belongings and disembark the aircraft.
A health declaration form had also been distributed to all passengers during the flight which we had to complete.
At the entrance to the terminal building a team of four men were looking through these health forms. When they saw the countries I had visited in the past 10 days (Sweden, Korea and Turkey) I was immediately selected for a secondary check.
I went to a table a few meters away where two nurses were sitting. The table had all kinds of medicines and medical equipment and the nurses were wearing white hospital clothes and face masks.
I was asked to sit down and they checked my body temperature.
I was feeling just fine, but since I was rather tired after two long days of travelling I was afraid my body temperature would be higher than normal. Fortunately the thermometer said 36,9 degrees Celsius, which is about normal. I was free to leave!
Although I understand they take the swine flu threat seriously the whole set-up with an outdoor medical table outside the small terminal building just felt a bit funny.
I was really tempted to take a photo of it, but refrained from doing so due to the obvious severity of the situation.
Inside the terminal building immigration was rather quick and I proceeded to the baggage hall where baggage delivery had already started.
Four men were playing and singing Pacific songs creating a very nice and relaxing atmosphere.
My suitcase was one of the last to arrive on the belt. It did have a blue Korean Air priority tag attached to my bag where is said “Prestige” but I guess no one in Apia knew what that meant.
As I was on a pure leisure trip it didn’t actually matter, I was just happy my suitcase had successfully made the three flights, the three airlines and the two transits. A lot could have gone wrong!
All bags were x-rayed at the exit to search for food, plants and animals.
The arrivals hall was completely open air and despite the rain the weather was hot and humid and I was really longing to take a proper shower.
I withdraw some money from the ATM and started looking for the taxi stand. A man approached me and asked if I needed a taxi which I declined at first. However I could not see any taxi signs so I asked the man for a price to Apia and he said 50 Tala which is standard and absolutely acceptable. I said OK and off we went.
Nearly 24 hours had passed since I checked in at Seoul Incheon airport and by now I was really tired and could not wait to get some proper sleep.
A short review of the exotic island of Samoa is to follow.
Pics
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean
Approaching Samoa
Just landed in Apia where it‘s raining
Four gentlemen playing and singing in the arrivals hall of Faleolo airport
Conclusion
Air New Zealand once again provided an excellent business class product and a high service standard.
Excellent service at the lounge (and a nice interior and excellent food and drinks inside the lounge as well).
Priority boarding at the gate, pre-departure drink, a comfortable seat, excellent on-demand inflight entertainment, a superb and tasty three courses meal and a wide selection of drinks. What more can you ask for?
The service was again on a perfect level: attentive, courteous and reasonably formal while at the same time very relaxed and friendly with a crew happy to chat with you if you want.