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An FTer flies to a Do (or Why take the nonstop when you can fly 10 flights instead?)

An FTer flies to a Do (or Why take the nonstop when you can fly 10 flights instead?)

Old May 28, 2009, 2:26 am
  #16  
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WEIPA to CAIRNS (WEI-CNS) on Qantas Dash 8 Q400 in economy class

I had a quick wander to stretch my legs and look around before reboarding 5 minutes later. Sunset in the tropics comes quickly and no sooner were the doors shut it was dark. We took off into the night. Not much civilisation below and dark skies means no views until very close to Cairns.

The same meal coming back. The cabin crew were very attentive with multiple drink refills. It was only later in the flight I realised we had a 3rd cabin crew member who was doing some training - perhaps the reason for the exceptional service?
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Old May 28, 2009, 5:50 am
  #17  
 
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Great Read! Thanks. ^
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Old May 28, 2009, 10:48 am
  #18  
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Cairns

I was landside fairly quickly and, with no checked bags, was first to reach the taxi rank to the left. A short ride to the Holiday Inn. I was pleased to see the driver took the back roads instead of sticking to the main highway - lots of roundabouts beats lots of traffic lights. I booked a cab for the next morning. Check in was quick - I was given an upper level oceanview room despite paying a cheap sale rate.

Next morning I had a relaxing lie in before heading back to the airport for the next leg.
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Old May 28, 2009, 3:01 pm
  #19  
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CAIRNS to PORT MORESBY (CNS-POM) on Air Niugini Fokker 100 in economy class

I arrived a bit early and was surprised to find check in only opens 2 hours prior to departure. There were 2 check in agents for this flight, one clearly very new and being trained up. Fearing a lengthy discussion about my odd travel pattern I fortunately I got the other agent. I was checked in quickly but wasn't able to get the boarding pass for the return flight.

Immigration was fast. Security not so fast. The lack of other passengers passing through security at that time meant I got the "random" explosives test and pat down. I then headed for the Qantas Club only to find it gone, replaced by a contract lounge that apparently is only used by Cathay Pacific and not open. Dang. I realised I had seen a post in the Qantas forum about the international lounge closing (following the switch of international flights from mainline to Jetstar), but forgot that it had already happened. I was briefly tempted to go back landside to visit the domestic lounge but decided the immigration hassle was not worth it.

There wasn't much to do in the terminal - a couple of mediocre shops, the compulsory overpriced coffee shop with overpriced internet kiosks, and some seats. Even the view of the tarmac wasn't great although I watched the Air NZ A320 carrying boxo to OzFest pull in. Boredom set in quickly so I stumped up for an hour of internet and a coffee while I waited.

The flight was eventually called, about 30 minutes late, and an Airlines PNG flight departing almost the same time. Based on my checks the previous day on availability, and the emptiness of the terminal I knew the load would be light and so hung back to be almost the last to board. Surprisingly for such a small aircraft we had an airbridge gate - the airbridge dwarfing the aircraft. Onboard I noticed I'd been seated next to someone else on the 2 side (seat layout is 2-3) but there were lots of empty rows on the 3 side so I nabbed one. I thought I'd scored a whole row, not that it matters much on this 80 minute flight, but the last passenger to board had coincidentally a seat in the row. Never mind we have an empty middle seat so I'm happy. We departed only slightly late as boarding was completed very quickly.

We took off to the south and turned to the northeast for Papua New Guinea. A lunch was quickly served. There was a chicken caesar salad, roll, plus plentiful drink selections. A mango ice block with ice cream core was handed out for desert.

By the time lunch trays were collected we crossed the coast and flew up a valley under threatening skies to reach the airport. We pulled into a stand next to a Qantas 767. Hmmm that is odd - Qantas no longer fly to Papua New Guinea. Indeed it was an Air Niugini flight but with Qantas aircraft, presumably temporarily. A short walk across the tarmac and upstairs.
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Old May 28, 2009, 6:42 pm
  #20  
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Port Moresby

I had a few hours until my return flight. With the inclement weather I decided to just do an airside transit. However at the locked door for international transfers I was told I needed to go through immigration. I headed downstairs and happily let the other passengers past since I had plenty of time. After a brief discussion amongst themselves, the immigration officers were happy for me to transit without doing the immigration formalities. I thanked the lovely ladies and waited for someone to open up transfers for me. However, the airline ground staff said no and bullied the immigration officers into processing me.

That means another page in my passport filled, and a hefty 100 kina departure fee (about A$50) payable in cash. At least the exchange bureau just past immigration had a good exchange rate. While I'd been waiting for the other passengers on my flight to be processed I saw about half the foreigners did not have kina on hand and thus the exchange bureau was doing a bustling trade. Wander through, change money, go back to immigration desk to pay money, get visa stuck in and off to customs. They decided they didn't need to check my carry on and I was landside.

Apparently Air Niugini don't normally open check in for this flight until 2 hours prior to departure, however they made an exception for me as they had no other flights to deal with at that hour. This took a bit of toing and froing between desk and backroom, and I was handed a boarding pass ... for the worst seat on the aircraft - middle rear. My pre-selected seat had been ignored. I gently asked if I could be moved forward a bit and was given the front row of economy instead. I guess they normally just fill the aircraft from the rear forwards? While all this was happening an Australian security guy came over and asked if I was on the flight to Brisbane - if yes he'd need to check my carryon and wand me. I think that must have been related to the use of Qantas aircraft - perhaps the insurers insist on extra security?

I still had quite a bit of time to spare and it wasn't yet pouring down although still very black skies with low cloud. So I went for a wee walk. When we flew in along the valley it looked like the airport was in the middle of nowhere - indeed the view from the tarmac was also of lush hills. However not far around the corner from terminals is the edge of the city. I walked for a while but kept relatively close to the airport in case it bucketed down.
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Old May 29, 2009, 12:41 am
  #21  
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PORT MORESBY to CAIRNS (POM-CNS) on Air Niugini Fokker 100 in economy class

Immigration and security were both quick with no lines. There was no signage about liquids restrictions. I was told at security I could enter the departures area with my water bottle, but I had to drink it before boarding.

There were lots of seats, apparently it gets busy to standing room only when the Brisbane and Sydney flights leave close together. 1 shop which was closed when I arrived but later opened, ditto for a takeaway food outlet (I don't think you can call it a cafe if there are no seats?).

A roaming Australian immigration officer came by and asked some questions - my odd itinerary had drawn attention to me. I'm not sure why Australian immigration people were wandering the Port Moresby airport - would seem to be out of jurisdiction to me.

The departures area quickly filled up. Although there were plenty of empty seats the close packed nature meant it seemed very full. Certainly the flight back was going to be chockers, no spare seats at all. This didn't surprise me - lots of business people heading back to Australia for the weekend, and this plus an Airlines PNG flight to Cairns at the same time, were the last flights out. The earlier flights to Brisbane and Sydney would only allow half a day at work, and perhaps not so many connection options from remoter places. (I've read that some of the small airports in Papua New Guinea are the least connected airports in the world, in that it takes many separate flights to get out of the country.)

Boarding was delayed a short while. Stairs to the tarmac, fortunately not raining. The sun set rapidly as we boarded. By the time we left it was dark and I was on the left side with rural views on take off, ie nothing visible.

I dozed a bit and missed dinner, which was similar to the lunch. We arrived late and used the same airbridge - the one furthest from immigration. Just before immigration we passed by a thermal camera and half a dozen staff donned in gowns and surgical masks as if everyone was about to infect them with something terribly serious. I take that back - they looked more like soap actors standing around looking serious. I half expected some to run past screaming "doctor come quickly".

I'd forgotten that Cairns also has smartgate so while other passengers stampeded for the manned immigration desks I calmly went through. With no checked bags I reached customs before any customs agent was ready. When she arrived I handed over the customs and health declaration forms. My carryon was xrayed and I was grilled for a while about my odd itinerary. So much for getting through quickly, but at least smartgate saved another passport stamp.
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Old May 29, 2009, 12:44 am
  #22  
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The missing bag

I got a cab back to the Holiday Inn, and booked another for the next morning. By now it was getting late and the only thing I'd eaten all day was part of the lunch on the flight over. I entered my room and found the tote bag I'd left behind so as to not carry everything with me on the flights had gone. I went down to reception to try and locate it. The night manager had a look but couldn't find it and I returned to my room over half an hour later thinking it had gone for good. There wasn't anything valuable (which is why I didn't bother with a safe) but it annoyed me that in hundreds of hotel stays I'd finally had something taken from my room.
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Old May 29, 2009, 12:49 am
  #23  
 
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Gee bad luck with the bag Kiwi.

I have finally come to conclusion that you really love flying

Nice report.
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Old May 29, 2009, 1:16 am
  #24  
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What do you mean finally? I thought my crazy itineraries have made that abundantly clear.

I should get some more of the TR posted tomorrow (I hope).
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Old May 29, 2009, 7:04 pm
  #25  
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CAIRNS to HORN ISLAND (CNS-HID) on Qantas Dash 8-300 in economy class

Up ridiculously early again and headed back to the airport a bit earlier than I strictly needed to, in order to have a chance to check & clear messages that had built up over the previous few days. There was a long queue at security but it moved fast. When I arrived the lounge was moderately full but it soon emptied and I almost had the place to myself for a while.

Boarding was called and again I was almost the last to board. The flight was very full with just 2 or 3 empty seats including one next to me.

A breakfast was served in a little pack - brioche, low fat yoghurt, dried apricots, juice, plus tea coffee or water. Other drinks available for purchase.

Horn Island is even closer to Papua New Guinea than Weipa and is one of the Torres Strait Islands. So once again I was headed north and seeing some now familiar sights along the Cape York Peninsula. Near the end the peninsula peters out in a maze of waterways and mangroves, and there are some glimpses of the hills and mountains of PNG through the haze. A short stretch of water before the first of the many Torres Strait Islands. We flew over Thursday Island which is quite populated and doubled back to Horn Island which is not. An announcement was made about the ferries to Thursday Island and the outside temperature was 25C. According to that day's newspaper this is about the coldest it has ever been in May in Torres Strait!

Lots of small aircraft scattered around the airport.
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Old May 29, 2009, 7:12 pm
  #26  
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HORN ISLAND to CAIRNS (HID-CNS) on Qantas Dash 8-300 in economy class

Again just enough time in transit to stretch the legs before boarding is called. This flight was not quite as full with half a dozen empty seats, but not the one next to me.

Lunch was a brioche (yes the same one), cupcake, water, tea or coffee.

Another clear day for flying so great views. Our approach into Cairns was odd, I think due to a couple of landing wide-bodies. We flew out to the point to the southeast of the town, turned as if to land from the south but kept going around to head towards the northern beaches (eg Palm Cove). After a few minutes flying in that direction we turned south again, flew along the coast and turned back almost directly over the Cairns Hilton to land to the north.

Due to quarantine regulations for Torres Strait our carry-ons were checked by sniffer dogs on the way landside.
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Old May 29, 2009, 7:14 pm
  #27  
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The returned (kinda) bag

Another cab back to into town, and another booking for tomorrow. It feels like I'm singlehandedly saving the local taxi industry from recession. When I got back to my room my tote bag was returned, but only some of the contents. Oh well, better than it being completely gone I suppose.
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Old May 29, 2009, 8:39 pm
  #28  
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CAIRNS to BRISBANE (CNS-BNE) on Qantas 737-800 in economy class

Another day another early start. This flight departs Cairns so early that I intended staying up all night. However about 3am I succumbed to the tiredness and was woken 30 minutes later by the alarm.

Check in was quick despite being very busy at this hour, and I got both boarding passes. I was selected for explosives check at security, but no pat down this time (a change to procedure?). I had a few minutes in the lounge before boarding was called. I was last to board because I'd been trying to finish typing an email.

The load wasn't too high so I had an empty middle seat. Breakfast was a sugary cereal, a huge carton of full cream milk, some apple slices, a bun, juice, tea and coffee.

IFE was Top Gear to start with and then I fell alseep not waking up until we landed
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Old May 29, 2009, 8:49 pm
  #29  
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Transit in Brisbane

We arrived on time so I just missed the airtrain and had to wait almost 30 minutes for the next one. They really should have a greater frequency than every 30 minutes for the transfers. Too bad if you are on a tight dom->int or vv connection at BNE (eg if inbound flight is late).

I was in a rush to get to the lounge so I didn't bother going via the check in desk to pick up an express immigration card - I'll use one from my stash instead. But arriving at immigration it seems I had hit a sweet spot in the middle of the morning rush and had no queue at all. Normally it takes 30-60 minutes to get through. In the lounge I found the computers were down and had been for days - ie no chance they would be fixed before my flight. For the second time in 3 days I regretted rushing across to the international terminal.
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Old May 31, 2009, 1:28 am
  #30  
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BRISBANE to AUCKLAND (BNE-AKL) on Qantas 737-400 in economy class

Today's trans-tasman chariot was ZK-JTP, thus 3 rows of business class and the cabin divider was in place. This means a DVD player for the first rows of economy class and a small selection of movies to watch instead of the main screen listing (main screens are not visible from the seat).

Lunch was a choice of butter chicken and rice or penne pasta and pesto, plus the usual small hard roll, few leafs thrown together as a salad, and finish with street ice cream. Water, juice, tea, coffee, beer and wine available. The crew only came through once with drinks - a poor showing.

Our flight time was longer than normal due to not getting the usual strong tailwinds.

Despite the captain's announcement at top of descent of fine warm weather we arrived to cold drizzle. We pulled up at the gate at the end, which I don't mind for the exercise and a chance to pass others on the way to immigration. However, there was a delay in disembarking - there was no airbridge driver for 10 minutes and then he had trouble lining the bridge up with the aircraft.

At immigration the queues were modest and fast moving. I noticed on the far right lane a smartgate kiosk, although it apparently wasn't yet in use (blocked by a rope barrier). NZ has a very long health form that does not ask for health information or check if you have visited somewhere at high risk, but instead asks for much the same info as on the arrival card but repeated in a couple more boxes.
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