Monday, 28.5.2018: a quick stop in Auckland

First of all – sorry for the long break. I spontaneously booked a trip to Myanmar and Bali (13 flights in 10 days) so I didn't have time to update this one (but that's a good excuse in this forum I guess)

Just as a reminder, this is where we were in this trip report:



I had to get up early again in Brisbane as I was flying towards Auckland that day for the last stopover on my way to Japan. The view from the hotel was pretty good in the morning:



My red Opel...Buick...Vauxhall...Holden brought me to Brisbane Airport where I gave it back after just (fun!) days (thank you Budget). I checked in for my flight to Auckland with Air New Zealand's Business Class and went straight to the lounge upstairs:





Air NZ launched an initiative to refurbish some of their flagship lounges, and this already showed in Brisbane – including some awesome retro aviation posters:





The lounge was pretty full, but the catering was fine. My personal highlights were the local craft beers and ciders:





I've uploaded a few more photos of the Air New Zealand Lounge in Brisbane here: https://the-mileonaire.com/de/air-ne...unge-brisbane/

After a couple of emails I boarded the 777 in the beautiful Air NZ livery:



On board I was welcomed by Air New Zealand's non-reverse herringbone configuration – and I don't think we'll ever become friends: you're basically forced to stare at your co-passengers feet all the time, the seat feels super narrow (even claustrophobic) and your neighbors are super close to you. I started to think that Air NZ's cabin designers must've had a foot fetish of some sort.







Service after takeoff started with a glass of champagne (no champagne glasses left...) and some ice-cold(!) nuts. After the negative impression with the seat not the best start overall:



Food was good though: I started out with a pork filet, shiitake mushrooms and hoisin mayonnaise...



…followed by a tasty chicken breast with cauliflower creme and macadamia nuts, as well as a caramel cheesecake as dessert:





Crappy seat, nice staff, good food – but my personal highlight was the IFE which not only had a ton of movies/series/albums, but also was the most responsive I've ever used on a plane. Here's a short demo I recorded:


After a few hours we reached Auckland and flew over downtown:





Kia Ora, New Zealand!





I only had one night in Auckland before heading to Japan, and I initially wanted to go downtown again. Immigration took forever though, and getting to my airport hotel (Ibis Budget AKL) took longer than I thought as well – and I just felt too KO to go to the city. Instead I just went to a supermarket nearby, got a few 'local' (errrrr) brews...





...and a burger from Carls Jr. for dinner. My flight to Japan would leave super early in the morning, so I called it a day and went to bed.