AUCKLAND to SINGAPORE (AKL-SIN) on Singapore Airlines 777-300ER in first
I left the lounge a little late in order to finish off a couple of things and also cogniscent of the first & business class passengers boarding through door 1L and thus traipsing past my seat. On the way to pier B the automatic messages on the departure screens were showing "gate closing" but I knew/hoped this was incorrect. Sure enough on reaching the gate boarding was three-quarters completed, but certainly not finished.
I settled into my seat and began relaxing. Before departure there were drinks (choice of Dom Perignon 2000 or Krug NV or non-alcoholic), a hot towel, drink refill, amenity kit and menu handed out, drink refill, newspapers and magazines, drink refill, drinks order for after take-off, meal order and drink refill.
We pushed back on time but had a short wait before taxiing out as the Emirates A380 taxiied into the gate we had just departed from and blocked the exit. Brief views of the west coast before heading out to sea.
After take-off there were more drinks and hot nuts. Lunch was served shortly afterwards, and as usual in premium cabins I enjoyed a slow meal - I was barely onto my main when others had finished. I was disappointed that satay has been removed from the menu ex-NZ. In my mind satay is always associated with Singapore Airlines but you really have to get the right flights in order to get it these days as many evening, and some daytime, departures do not have satay on the menu. A water bottle was handed out before I finished the meal.
I'd been watching a movie over lunch and started a second movie. I awoke to notice the 2nd movie was nearly over and I could only remember seeing the first few minutes. I must have been very tired. As the flight was not very full in first a flight attendant had made up the adjacent seat into a bed for me and I hopped in to continue my sleep. I got a couple more hours good sleep and a bit more dozing half-awake and half-asleep.
Since I was feeling sleepy and only properly awake about an hour before arrival I turned down the offer to have some food prepared for me to eat and chilled out supping some bubbles and enjoying the "me time".
We descended by weaving around various thunderstorms. There was lightning out both sides of the aircraft, and apparently over Changi airport so we delayed our arrival by flying around for a bit. At one stage I was startled to see an aircraft race across our flight path not much (I'm guessing no more than a couple of thousand feet given our low altitude at the time) below us. The sun was setting and the thunderclouds had interesting mix of sunlit and dark shadows.
We ended up landing nearly half an hour late and taxiied into gate B10, the furthest from the lounge. This seems to be the preferred gate for New Zealand flights and over the past six months I've had this gate so many times that I could walk to the lounge in my sleep.