brenrox

During my most recent flight I decided I will start 'blogging' or starting a log on here for all (or most of my flights). I probably should have started 6 months ago as 1. It was when I was doing a lot more flying and 2. I am suppose to be starting an MSc soon, but it is always good to have an excuse to procrastinate. All of my flying is purely for leisure, so don't have the luxury of getting work to cover it! But I love it and it is a great passion of mine and I never get sick of travelling around our beautiful country.

For those that don't know, the Land of the Long White Cloud is the english translation of Aotearoa which is what indigenous Maori refer to New Zealand as. We are home to a great airline that really does punch above its weight, given it is representing a country of little over 4 million people.

Auckland - Wellington NZ423 B733




This flight I managed to snare for $1 each way via grabaseat - for those not familiar, this is an AirNZ site which changes daily and once a month or so they will list a couple of hundred seats to and from various destinations around New Zealand at a cost of $1. So I was lucky enough to get a same day return to get a couple of extra status credits.

I woke up a bit later than I normally would as I figured traffic wouldn't be as bad as normal given the corporates who think they own the road & making everyone else slow down for them would be still on holiday and the Remuera Mum's in their SUV's wouldn't be on the road causing strife taking their children to school (no offence intended toward corporates or Mum's from Remuera).

Traffic was indeed pretty good (by AKL's standards) and it only took 40 minutes from home to Air NZ parking. This is a division of Air NZ where you park off site to avoid the airports >$30 a day charge and they shuttle you to/from the airport. I handed over my keys, checked in for my flights at their kiosk and then to my surprise was welcomed aboard the van - another example of how friendly us Kiwi people are - I mean I was hoping in a Japanese import van for a 5 minute journey, but was welcomed as if I was travelling in first class; it's small things like this that Air NZ do that people remember and keep using their services for.

I got to the airport, and made my way to the Koru Club. The line at security was non-existant and in no time at all I was sitting down with a cappacino from the barista and a nice bowl of bircher muesli. The hot options today were scrambled eggs & 'bubble & squek' which essentially is mashed potato mixed with silverbeet & cheese; but, I can't comment on these as I never had any.

As I was sitting reading the paper, I noticed a Q300 coming in to land - However, those that are familiar with the lounge would know that aircraft landing from the Manukau end have usually touched down before they go past the lounge - however this Q300 was still making its way down toward the tarmac as it flew past. I had a look round and could see that 1/3 of the runway was closed as it appeared they were resurfacing it. In the next five minutes a 747 & two A340's did the same, it was a pretty amazing sight (woulda been a great view for those working on the runway seeing that come over your head).

The boarding announcement was made and asked that people in row A & F board first with their travelling companions. I waited till the remaining passengers were invited to board before I started to get ready to leave. Boarding was quick and over heard one attendant say to the other 'That's everyone on board, but we can't close the door for another 5 minutes anyway' - heaven forbid a flight actually departing early! I passed the time by reading the latest version of the Kia Ora magazine (NZ's inflight magazine). Eventually the front door was closed and a manual safety demonstration was done (the TV's were down I believe). Despite how corny their safety videos are, they are a darn sight better than listening to the manual one. We started our take-off parallel to where the Jetstar domestic gates are and had nice views of the new 777-300 which was shortly bound for BNE.

AKL was quite cloudy so the views weren't that great, but soon as the seat-belt sign was switched off I turned on my Ipod to kill some time. Since it was just inside the breakfast Koru Hour (first flight ~6am till 9am) we were offered the coice of either meusli & yoghurt, a morning glory muffin (a bran muffin with raisins & pinapple) or Vogels cluster crisps, followed by tea, coffee & mineral water. I went for the muffin (can't comment on it as I'm saving it for afternoon tea!) and declined the drink service as I was holding out till I got to WLG and could have one of their mochas.

We hit a bit of turbulance and the seat-belt sign was switched back on. We made a slight left turn and it eased and eventually we came out of the cloud to beautiful clear skies, just east of New Plymouth. We had amazing views of Mt Taranaki and soon enough we were back flying over water as we began our descent toward Wellington. For the second flight in a row, no lolly/sweet service was done (not that I ever eat any, but the kids must be gutted!)

There was a slight southerly blowing in Wellington, so I got what i wanted and that was a northerly approach. This has to be one of my favourite approaches in NZ (nothing beats ZQN though) as you join the coastline around Titaha Bay and fly in over the hills with excellent views of the city and inner harbour and today certainly didn't disappoint as it was quite a sunny and calm day, by WLG standards anyway. An uneventful landing and taxi and a quick disembark from the plane and short walk towards the main terminal & I was in the WLG lounge.

Edit: Off to a great start - Apologize for the typos in the thread title - should be Aotearoa. I can't even use the excuse of accidentaly pushing the wrong button as they are on opposite ends of the keyboard. Would be awsum if the moderators could some how change Aotearoa and journies to journeys =)

brenrox

Having been welcomed into the lounge,I made my way to the southern corner of the lounge where I set up camp. As I said earlier, it was a nice day with good views out toward Cook Strait and a nice surf crashing into the rocks on the far side, near the runway.

I put in my order for that mochachino with the barista and went to have a look what there was to eat. It was no different to the other times I had been at WLG at this hour. Hot selection was fritata and grilled tomatoes. The standard cereals, yoghurt, scones etc were also there but I just opted for the fritata. The coffee certainly didn't dissapoint - Believe it or not WLG domestic lounge make some of the best coffee I have had in NZ, but maybe I just need to broaden my horizons! I filled the time watching the Heineken Open (NZ Mens Tennis Open) and actually did some work and readings and time flew by quickly.

A boarding call for flight NZ8912 to Kerikeri caught my attention as I wasn't aware this was a route on the domestic network. I checked Kiwi Flyer's log as he has travelled every domestic route in NZ and it wasn't there either. So i'm not sure if it is a one off or not, someone else might know on here?

Morning tea was brought out sometime between 10-11am, which consisted of four different salads, cheese & crackers, muffins, biscuits and ciabatta buns. I couldn't bring myself to have a beer at 11am so just went for a water. I knew boarding was soon so looked up at the monitor and to my shock it had final call for my flight. I hadn't heard any boarding calls, but packed up and made my way down the stairs and of course, the first boarding announcement is made. The security line was empty so was through quickly.

I took my seat in 2F and had an empty seat beside me. Amazingly, row 1 was empty and the gentleman in seat 2D shifted to the empty row. The TV's were working fine on this aircraft and thus we had the video safety demonstration. We taxied to the northern end of the runway and took off over Cook Strait. We turned 180 degrees to the right and were flying parallel to the runway with fantastic views of the city again and by the time we had flown over Westpac Stadium we were above the cloud.

Being a non-koru hour service we were offered a snack; today's options were Vogel's cluster crisps or kasava chips and that was followed by tea or coffee & mineral water. I took the Vogel's crisps and water and sat back listening to my Ipod and trying my best to answer some questions on 'The Great New Zealand Quiz' which is displayed on the TV monitors (in between the ads that is). No views of Mt Taranaki on my side this time, but the sky was clear above Whanganui and I could just make out the peak of Ruapehu & Lake Taupo in the distance.

We began our descent around Raglan and our flight path took us over Pukekohe, out towards Clevedon and a left turn to line up with the runway. The Hauraki Gulf looked amazing today, the colour of the water was quite similar to that seen in the Alpine lakes in the South Island.

The runway was still having maintenance done so the approach was a lot higher than normal and they guy in front actually yelled out "holy *$#@, we are coming in high" - we didnt touch down until we passed the observation deck in the international terminal, so I could understand his response (typically, the plane has taxied off the runway well before the intl. terminal). We were just going a bit too fast still to make the second to last taxiway, so were forced to go another 400-500m to turn of at the end of the runway and make the long taxi back to the gate (long being relative to AKL - nothing compared to SYD).

I disembarked and made the dash for the shuttle which was there waiting for me. We waited 3-4 minutes and 10 minutes after hoping of the plane, I was re-united with my car back at the off-site parking.

Kiwi Flyer

It's not a regular flight. If you were flying the day I'm thinking of then (a) I was also in the lounge (shame we didn't meet), and (b) the flight was due to a combination of problems with an a/c and weather in AKL so an irregular ferrying flight to get back on schedule.

For the benefit of others, brenrox reference to my "log" is probably mini tour of NZ, where I've reported on all scheduled routes in NZ (but certainly far from all my domestic flights).

`X'

Sounds like he was actually flying today. As the first 777-300 arrival into Brisbane was today.

brenrox

Auckland (AKL) to Napier (NPE) – NZ8411




Airline: Air New Zealand
Flight: NZ8411
Aircraft: Bombardier Q300
Registration: ZK-NES
Scheduled Departure time: 925
Scheduled Arrival time: 1025
Flight Time: 1h
Class: Economy
Seat: 1D (Seat Map)


Finally, I was about to embark on my final same day return (SDR) flight before hitting *Gold. The novelty had certainly worn off and getting up at 6.30am to fight the traffic for an hour just to get to the airport was beginning to get a lot less appealing. Nevertheless, I was on the road by 7am and with a slightly slower journey that normal; I was at Air NZ parking just as the 8 o’clock news was about to start. I handed over my keys and checked in for my flights; I had a look at the seat map as I was thinking of changing seats to 10A/D from my pre-selected 1D (10A/D has 34” and had an empty row on both sides so would allow me to get some photos) however, 1C was still free so I stuck with my selection and changed to 10D for the flight home. The machine must have been running low on ink as the boarding passes were rather faded and inevitably would cause me some problems later on.

The welcome aboard wasn’t as overwhelming as last time (despite having the same driver), all the same they were polite and as friendly as usual. I was the only one on board and had a good chat to the driver – He was telling me that things still are a bit quite due to school holidays, but expects it to be back to normal next week. In no time at all I was at the airport and made my way to security which was uneventful and up the escalator to the lounge. Not surprisingly, my boarding pass wouldn’t scan, so another was printed so I could swipe in and I made myself at home down the far end of the lounge.

The food on offer was the same as previous with the hot options being ‘bubble & squeak’ and scrambled eggs. I once again went for the bircher muesli with yoghurt on top and a cappuccino from the barista (the meusli tastes better than it looks!). The lounge wasn’t its busy bustling self, so I had that end of the lounge pretty much to myself. I filled the time by reading the Herald and catching up on some work.

A boarding call for the flight was made five minutes earlier than stated on the boarding pass, nevertheless I proceeded through the regional exit of the lounge and down the steps to the gate. I followed a trio of women out to the plane, one was carrying a wedding dress and the other two singing “Going to the chapel and we’re gunna get married…”. On boarding the plane I noticed 1C had indeed been snaffled by someone at check-in; I took my seat and after putting on my seat-belt and tightening it, my seat partner and I were asked politely by the flight attendant to un-buckle it as we were refuelling the plane. Not sure how long that rule has been in place as I have had my seat-belt done up on regional aircraft whilst refuelling before and never been asked, but wasn’t an issue for me anyway. Refuelling had finished and still we waited on the tarmac and realised the wait was for a family who were late and sprinting across the tarmac. Eventually the door was closed and the captain did his introduction and apologized for the hotter than normal climate in the cabin – I took no notice and figured once the plane started up it would cool down.

We taxied to the eastern end of the runway and had a small wait as ZK-NEA (Q300) landed and taxied off the runway. Soon enough we were in the air and making a sharp turn to the left over Manukau Harbour. We climbed over Pukekohe and slightly north of Hamilton and levelled off at about 18000 feet. It was a great day for flying, with relatively clear blue skies, with only a small amount of scattered cloud.

Once the seat belt sign was switched off, I turned on my Ipod and sat back, admiring the view and listening to music. The FA came through and offered some water which I took, but turned down the tea/coffee option. The climate inside the plane was nothing like I had ever experienced; It was very humid and hot and when the captain apologized earlier, he said it was even worse down the back of the cabin. It’s not often I wished I was on a Beech 1900D, but I could have done with one of their ridiculously powerful air vents. I had spectacular views of Lake Taupo and Mt Ruapehu in the distance and soon after passing the town of Taupo, we began our decent.

There was a slight crosswind so rather than the straight in approach, we flew over the ocean before making a right hand turn back towards the runway. We flew parallel with the shoreline for most of the approach and just before touchdown, the plane made a slight left turn, to line up with the runway and a smooth touchdown was made. On taxiing in to the gate I noticed a Gulfstream jet parked up with the registration 'N7LA' – upon further investigation it appears it is cyclist Lance Armstrong’s. It was a relief to finally get the main cabin door open and some fresh flowing back into the cabin.

* Now before you all start posting asking what equipment I used for these 'great' photos....just kidding, I apoligize, they are poor. I only have an old digital camera and don't know a lot about photography or computers, hence why I havn't yet mastered embeding photos in the report.

brenrox

Auckland (AKL) to Napier (NPE) – NZ8411

Airline: Air New Zealand
Flight: NZ8412
Aircraft: Bombardier Q300
Registration: ZK-NED
Scheduled Departure time: 1255
Scheduled Arrival time: 1350
Flight Time: 55mins
Class: Economy
Seat: 10D (Seat Map)

I made my way into the air conditioned terminal and proceeded to the lounge. The lounge at Napier is up a flight of stairs and offering good views toward Napier and over the tarmac. The boarding pass failed again, and to avoid going to the kiosk to get another, I just used my e-pass and entered the code on the pad by the door – it took two attempts but I got there in the end. On entry to the lounge, it was deserted (both of people & food!). Early this year, Air NZ plans to introduce ATR72 to NPE, making a bit of a change from the regular Q300 aircraft. Having grown up in the lower South Island it was the most commonly seen aircraft, however, since moving to AKL, I hardly ever see them unless I am travelling home or the occasional flight to PMR.

Every time I have been to this lounge I have been disappointed by it. Today was no different. The food on offer was two leftover and stale bagels from the night before and small boxes of cereal. I couldn’t find any fruit so passed up the opportunity and grabbed a can of coke zero. I filled in the time by doing some more work and writing the trip report for the previous flight. About 30 minutes later an older man entered and went straight to the fridge for a beer (great work! It wasn’t yet 11am). At least he was quiet though, the next guy that came in and was straight on to his phone, and with a very loud voice – Ok so, its great you have lots of money and you want to transfer $50,000 from your cheque account to your savings and your life’s going so great that your heading to AKL and going for a helicopter ride over to Waiheke to the vineyards, but I don’t really care, and I’m pretty sure the people downstairs in the main terminal that can here you, don’t care either! Anyways, time passed and he left (thank god) and just before 12, an AirNZ ground crew member appeared with a plate of sandwiches. By this time I was starving, so I helped myself to a couple. They were very filling, but being my picky self, I would say that are probably not as nice as the WLG domestic ones!

A boarding call was made and by this time there were three Q300 aircraft parked up - one of which had been parked overnight and was there when I arrived. I made my way down the stairs, in to the very warm Napier air and boarded the lovely, ‘air-conditioned’ plane. I was stoked I had changed from seat 1D as the guy in 1C was a pretty big guy and it would have made for a very uncomfortable flight. I found my seat down the back in 10D and the other 3 seats in the row were empty.

The attendant began her safety demonstration and I flicked between watching her and the WLG flight taxiing to the runway for departure. Due to the design of the Q300, the view from 10D is partially blocked due to the rear of the engine, so when on the ground, a lot of your view is affected. No straggling passengers this time so we were quickly out to the runway and on our way back to AKL. Once up in the air, we made a sharp right hand turn just before Mission Estate Winery and were flying parallel with the runway as we climbed. There was amazing views looking back toward the airport & Napier and out to sea, with a lone container ship on the water.

As the FA began the tea/coffee service we hit a bit of turbulence. This shortly passed and soon enough I was enjoying a cup of tea and a biscuit as I watched the boats on Lake Taupo. As we neared the western side of Lake Taupo, we made a right hand turn to position ourselves north-ward towards East Auckland. The weather north of Taupo was great and could see as far as Tauranga and could just make out Mt Maunganui. We passed Hamilton and Pukekohe again. Just as we reached the southern motorway, we had a sharp left-hand turn to line up for our approach into AKL. This gave me great views out to the Hauraki Gulf & Rangitoto. Landing was smooth and the taxi to gate 45 was quick. I de-boarded the plane and power-walked to the parking shuttle, where I had a 3-4 minute wait.

carolinaaaflyer

Very cool.

mad_atta

Nice report, and your photos aren't bad either - such classic NZ countryside scenes. Funny that you're so disappointed with the NPE lounge - looking at the pics I was just thinking how amazingly nice it looks, for a regional centre with only turboprop service. OK the bagels are disappointing, but check out the grog fridge!

brenrox

Ha yea, I guess I need to get my priorities in order. It's certainly is a better lounge than ZQN (I havn't been to ZQN since it's been refurbished though) and it has a number of domesyic & intl jet services.

The scenery is pretty amazing - one minute your flying over pretty rough terrain & forestry, then next your looking out at flat plains, wseperated by winding rivers etc - we are pretty fortunate

Jafa39

Ah, NPE eh? First landing I had there we must have left wheel tracks on the beach we had to come in so low due to cloud, second landing was Ok and the third we didn't actually land because the weather was so poo and we came back to AKL....I drive to NPE these days, its easier on the nerves :-)

sobore

Flying for $1! ^ Nice!

Blackcloud

Thanks brenrox for your trip report.^
I tried to start a log when I started my job, but found out that I could not make most of my flights interesting. 3 years later and covering much of the NZ network I am disappointed that I did not try harder.

brenrox

Your welcome. Yea some of them can be quite monotinous, but generally there will always be something different on every flight to mix it up.

Also, it's not till you actually write a TR, till you realise how much effort and time goes in to some of the great ones on FT.

brenrox

Auckland (AKL) to Sydney (SYD) – NZ105



Airline: Air New Zealand
Flight: NZ105
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Registration: ZK-OKD
Scheduled Departure time: 1600
Scheduled Arrival time: 1730
Flight Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Class: Business Premier
Seat: 4A (Seat Map)

It had been too long since I had a holiday to Australia so for sometime I was constantly scouring Air NZ for some good deals. Not having any family/friends in Sydney, where I hoped to go, it meant I would have to fork out for the inflated accommodation prices. One day though, I came across a Travelodge deal on AirNZ’s website – 3 nights for the price of two. After seeing this and doing the mandatory TripAdvisor check, I dusted the cob-webs off the credit card and booked. At this time there were also sale flights for ~NZD70 (plus tax) for seat only. I had a heap of Airpoints (APD), but I wanted the status points, so I booked the other half on a seat + bag with APD and myself on seat only with cash. At the time I was stoked because I mistakenly thought Waitangi Day (NZ’s National Holiday) was on the Monday, so I booked for Friday after work, returning on Monday and no leave would need to be taken. Unfortunately, Waitangi Day was to fall on the Sunday, meaning no public holiday on the Monday. I pre-selected seats 19J & 19K and put in my *silver upgrade request. For a while I was contemplating not upgrading the girlfriend, but I couldn’t comprehend the consequences (I’m glad I did though, it was great sharing the experience with her!). It took about a week and numerous calls to/from AirNZ, but finally her Airpoints upgrade (APD250) was lodged. Expertflyer was showing only Z4 and the other upgrade buckets had 0 next to them.


Another day and another trip back to Air NZ parking. It was pretty quiet when we arrived and there was already a van waiting to whisk us away to the airport. On the way to the airport I noticed, what I’m guessing was sea smog – A brownie coloured cloud that engulfed the surroundings and visibility was pretty limited. We were wished a good holiday from the young Samoan gentleman as we proceeded to the Air NZ premium check in. It was dead quiet here also and we were the only ones here checking in. I had no problems with my old style passport on the kiosk machine this time and a lovely Japanese Air NZ worker came over to ensure we had no hiccups with the process. We were given boarding passes with our assigned seats (19J & 19K) and she told me what I already knew, that these were emergency exit seats, with extra leg room. I mentioned that we both had upgrade requests and she followed this up with a phone call. I heard her mutter something about request for C class and with a few buttons pressed on her computer, she told us both what we wanted to hear and it was confirmed straight away – I couldn’t hide the smile as I thanked her profusely. We placed our solitary suitcase on the conveyer belt, it was scanned and we made our way up the lift to customs. It was very dead and I mentioned to the customs worker that today must be extremely slow – he mumbled something back in agreeance. The wait to clear security was minimal and soon enough we were browsing the grog aisles in DFS duty free in the re-furbished terminal.

I hadn’t had lunch, so dragged the missus away from the perfume aisles to mark our way to the Koru Club. The lounge was very quiet when we entered and lunch service was still being offered. Lunch was penne pasta with bits of salami mixed through, four different salads, rolls and sweet green pea soup. I filled the time by surfing the net and enjoying the odd Heinekin; I was conscious not to over indulge on the food and alcohol though as I knew I would have more than my fair share on the plane.

The attendants announced that afternoon tea was being brought out which included the same soup, banana chocolate chip muffins, scones, lamingtons, beef wraps as well as the standard cheese and cracker selection. The attendant also pointed out that several flights were delayed, including ours which was delayed by 2 hours. I checked myairnz.co.nz to check our seat selection for the flight home. At the time I also looked at the flight we were due to board and the seat map had us in 4 A & 4B on the 772. I thought it was slightly odd that they would have the 772 seat map, but didn’t think much off it, but decided to check the arrivals into AKL anyways. It appeared that the next 763 flight due into AKL wasn’t until about 1730 – about 25 minutes before we were due to depart, so it couldn’t be that one. NZ124 was due to arrive into AKL about 1645 and I was hoping like hell, this aircraft was to be subbed in to replace ours. The earlier NZ175 flight to PER was delayed and I’m pretty sure they got our aircraft, and we indeed did have the 772. To my surprise, we were still in the lounge for the dinner selection also. It didn’t really appeal to me but from memory it was a beef casserole, with rice.

We left the lounge about 15 minutes before boarding was due. Silly mistake in hindsight as boarding didn’t commence until 15 minutes before the re-scheduled departure time. Ten minutes before boarding, the attendant announced a structured boarding with families with young children and passengers that needed extra assistance to board first, and then followed by a boarding call for premium passengers. When push come to shove, and it was time for boarding, it was all these passengers plus the last rows of economy, so it was a bit of a mosh pit whilst boarding. We were greeted by the attendant with a “Welcome to Business Premier”. We were like little kids in a toy shop for the first few minutes; I mean we are early twenties, both part-time students and here we are in Business Premier. On the ottoman was an NZ Herald newspaper, a blanket and menu. On the seat was a small cushin and in the arm rest were the noise cancelling headphones. Not long after getting comfy in our seats, we were asked what we would like to drink. We both opted for the Deutz bubbles. Two glasses later and it was time for the glasses to be collected as we prepared for take off. We had the new Rico safety video today, and despite not being the biggest fan off Rico, I actually didn’t mind the video at all (heaven-forbid I think I may have managed a laugh too)

Despite expertflyer.com’s seat map showing ~17 occupied seats on the seat map, there were only 12 of us flying today. Of the 12, were three Asian business men (well I’m guessing they were business men) who also had a female guide who seemed to organise everything for them – she seemed to have it pretty cushy, travelling in business class around the world, looking after them!. We Taxied down to the eastern end of the runway and took off towards Manukau Harbour.

Five minutes after take off the seat belt signs were switched off and hot towels were handed out. A few moments later our drink orders were taken and kasave chips were handed out. Following this, the entrees were handed out; this consisted of prawns flavoured with basil and resting on a potato salad; with the girlfriend not being a seafood fan, I didn’t hesitate to have hers also 9I traded her the kasava chips for the prawns, not a bad deal). They were probably some of the best prawns I have ever had and the same with the garlic bread that followed. To accompany this, I had an award winning Sauvignon Blanc.

For dinner I went for the teriyaki salmon with noodles and the other half went for some very tender beef with mash potato. Several top-ups later of Sav and listening to some of NZ’s finest music, I was quite enjoying myself. It was time for desert; with the other half being allergic to nuts, the biscotti and Kapiti ice-cream was out of the question, so we both had a chocolate gateau which closely resembled a Tiramisu, with a strawberry and cream to accompany it. By now I was extremely full, but the attendant persuaded me to have some cheese and crackers. I had one mouthful of the blue vein cheese, and that was enough for me – however the other (don’t know the type) was most enjoyable. Tea and coffee followed, I abstained, instead went for a top-up of the wine; the other half had a coffee and was convinced to add a drop of Baileys to it for a bit of flavour.

The last hour of the flight was pretty quiet and I passed the time by listening to more music and watching the airshow on the opposite seat; One of the attendants was pleasantly chatting to another passenger and to be honest, I was struggling to finish the wine by this time! One last drinks run before landing and I opted for a beer, whilst listening to some more music.

The approach today was straight in from the south, with some great views of Southern Sydney. We had a 2-3 minute taxi to the gate, but once we were there, it took at least five minutes for the ramp operator to decide which door he was going to use. The attendants discretely stopped the PE & E passengers to allow the Business Premier passengers to disembark first. Customs was empty and I pocketed both express cards as we were served straight away at a standard counter. Our bags arrived quickly enough, despite 10-20 non-priority bags before ours; after lining our bags up with ~10 other passengers, we passed the sniffer dog test and were land side within 15 minutes of disembarking and were off into the Sydney heat.

brenrox

NZ105 - Business Premier Menu

Entree

King Prawns in basil oil on potato, horseradish and chive salad. by Geoff Scott

Main Course

Miso and soy braised beef short rib
with mustard potato mash, wok fried brussel sprouts and pak choy. by Peter gordon

Cranberry and cherry stuffed chicken thigh
with orange glaze, cherry compote, parsley roasted pumpkin and courgettes. by Geoff Scott

Teriyaki seasoned King salmon
on soy and ginger scented noodle salad with toasted sesame seeds and spring onion

Dessert

Chocolate opera gateau
with cream and strawberry

OR

Gourmet dessert
of spiced apple crumble ice cream and black currant and blackberry ive cream with chocolate almond wafer

Cheese Plate

Fine New Zealand Cheese and preserved fruit