AKL - I can honestly say I expected more. It was dark, dingy, full of drunk people (Jan 1), little to no food on offer, worn and dirty seating, surly & ignorant staff ("You can't come in because US is leaving *A"), and the showers were simply disgusting.

CHC - Complete opposite to AKL. Not big, but I liked what they'd done with the space they had to work with. Neat, clean, up to date, interesting decor choices and everything worked. The food/drink selection were a little peculiar, but at least they had stuff on offer.

Overall, I was surprised at how different the lounges were. The AKL lounge felt like a small market run down Admirals Club where even the staff have given up, but with free booze added and more drunks. The CHC lounge was all kinds of quite nice. If you judge a country by the ratio of food to drink on offer then clearly kiwis are all alcoholics.