I reached Wellington airport thanks to the skybus service between dwontown Wellington and the terminal and checked my luggage in swiftly using the premium NZ counter.
Wellington airports features very nice tarmac views from the public area, and just like domestic airport in New Zealand, most of the space is public, such as some gates for regional flights. Just like in AKL, main New Zealand destinations, such as Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch and Queenstown, and operated by Jet aircrafts require to go through security. After security is also where the Air New Zealand lounge is located.
Indoor...
... and tarmac views, all from the public area.
Departures of the day... 20 min delay announced for my flight.
Clearing security was an easy formality, with no waiting time, however, my carry-on bag had to go through secondary screening due to the amount of electronic devices inside it, and particularily because of the drone. As the friendly security agent noticed from my accent that I was not from the neighbourhood, we started to chat a bit about travels etc... That chat lasted a good 15 min, to give you an understanding of how not busy the security was that day !
There is not much to do after security and I immediately went to the NZ lounge upstairs.
After security
Spot the American
NZ lounge WLG
The Wellington NZ lounge is about the same size as the Auckland one, but I've found the catering the outside views to be better than in AKL. I was still very pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of the food and beverages offered on this domestic lounge. Great job NZ !
NZ lounge - WLG airport
I managed to find a spot with a window view to get an early dinner...
Starters with a view...
Main...
It was quite windy outside...
Dessert
In case you haven't noticed, Wellington airport is located on a stretch of a peninsula surronded by the bay, and therefore quite exposed to winds. It started to be very windy by the time I arrived at the airport and I could observe while being at the lounge multiple announcements of delays due to weather conditions, especially towards the south Island. My flight to CHC was indeed one of those.
After having enjoyed by dinner, I moved to a more comfortable location with another view.
One regional aircraft appeared to have called the fire brigade as a precaution before landing.
My aircraft (ZK-OXL) with next stop CHC just landing...
...taxiing...
... and at the gate
By 18:35, the initial time of departure of my 20-min delayed flight, I went downstairs, where the boarding get was yet to be staffed, indicating that the delay could be longer than expected.
ZK-OXL at the gate.
Boarding began around 18:55
Air New Zealand NZ379 – January 23rd 2019
WLG - Wellington Intl 18:35
CHC - Christchurch Intl - 19:30 (scheduled but we departed 1 hour late and arrived 1h20 min late)
Airbus A320 with sharklets – ZK-OXL – Seat 01A, Economy, window, first row
I opted for seat 01A for this domestic and relatively short flight, and did not have to pay for it thanks to my TK *Gold status. As mentioned on my previous flight report between AKL and WLG, there is no wall in front of row 1 and you are directly facing the front cabin crew seats when seated in this first row. Because there is no overhead video screen visible on row 1, the flight attendant needs to come and explain the safety instructions to the passengers seated on seats 1A-B and C. I tried to be polite and follow what the crew member was telling us but my 2 seat mates did not really seem to care much.
Seat 1A, with a prime view on all passenger shoes during boarding.
Directly facing the 2 front cabin crew seats
Leg room with door open...
... and with the door 1L closed
We eventually left the gate around 19:25 and took-off about 10 minutes later. The take-off was quite bumpy such as most of the flight and the crew decided not to perform any beverage service during the entire flight based on instructions from the flight deck and remained seated for the entire flight. Although the ride was bumpy, the views departing Wellington were great !
Taking off from WLG
Wellington bay
WLG airport from above
Crossing the Cook's strait
About 30 min after take off we started to see where we were heading into. And the views were quite different than at the beginning of the flight...
Started to understand where we were getting into at this moment...
The descent got bumpier than the rest of the already bumpy flight and we soon started to see some rain and a few storms...
Approaching CHC
About 1000 ft above ground (at least I was guesstimating), the cockpit crew decided to perform a go around and full thrust was applied to both engines for another try 15 min later. The crew was quite communicative about their actions.
Go around procedure began
And we got a second approach free of charge
We touched down safely at 20:40, which was 1h10 min late and could see that the weather was pretty bad (rain + wind) in Christchurch.
It took about 10 minutes for the ground team to be able to position the jetbridge properly as the wind was giving them trouble looks like, and the luggage arived only 35 min later as the strong winds were preventing the handling staff to safely operate the equipment and open the cargo door of the aircraft, according to a NZ employee on the ground.
CHC arrivals hall
While waiting for my bags to arrive...
Luckily for me, the rain stopped after receiving my bag and while the temperature dropped of a good 10 degrees after the storm left, I reached my downtown hotel using the citybus safely, in a completely deserted Christchurch...
Arrived downtown around 10pm.