KiwiFlyer, thanks for the updates. Love the wine/beer count-down!
BTW - small as Christchurch is, that lounge will ALWAYS hold a warm spot in my heart. When I was there in Jan '04 I stopped in to check email after flying down from Auckland. After snarfing down the food (pasta, salad, etc - much nicer vittles than UA RCC!) & the white wine whilst checking email on the free i-net, off I went to hotel blithely unaware I had left my paper F ticket (etc) back to America in packet sitting next to terminal.
The next day upon checking out at hotel I discover missing packet & in a panic call ANZ - please tell me it's electronic (nope). Me (thinking to self - OMG, how am I going to pay for a return F flight). Them - oh, your ticket etc was found at lounge & it's waiting there. When you fly out today to Queenstown you can pick it up. Saved!
But what particularly impressed me was that my domestic NZ flights & my int'l flights were on separate PNRs, so either the lounge guys or the cust svc staff figured out the 2 & knew I was coming back. That wouldn't happen in America! (or not often). When I checked in for my flight to Queenstown, the check-in agent also told me that my stuff had been found & 'don't forget to pick it up' at the lounge. And when I got to the lounge the same staff was working & when I walked in, before I had a chance to say anything, they said - oh here's your stuff!
So - free i-net, lots of booze (as mentioned by KiwiFlyer), good food (real food not snackies) - ANZ Clubs get 2 thumbs up from me!
On sep note - Queenstown lounge no big deal - a big room w/ oj, water, coffee, tea. But it's a small airport so that's not unexpected. Reminded me of Aspen airport.
The thing that amazed me on all my travels w/in NZ was how little time a) check-in; b) security, took.
Cheers.
PS - Alas, all my various internal NZ flights were 737s but totally full so no empty seats next to me. But - I did have a picture of Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in Lord of the Rings) on the cup of tea they gave me
