IN THE BEGINNING

Yes it's time again. Every Easter the last several years I have travelled, and going further back, I have travelled most Easters. Past trips include northern Europe, Scandanavia, and Iceland. Last year was a RTW including parts of eastern Europe.

With the dates fitting well for work, Easter and public holidays, I decided on another RTW. This is the story of that trip, plus some travel in the days immediately beforehand.

================

AN ISLAND IN THE SUN

After a particularly busy period at work I finally had some free time, and so with a sale underway I decided to do a quick trip to one of the south pacific islands I had yet to visit - Tonga. Tonga is just a few hours flying from Auckland and with regular flights is easily reached. My original plan was to spend a couple of days there and get off the main island to one of the more beautiful islands. However, the airline schedule and my work conspired against me. I almost cancelled but decided to stick with a turnaround and save a proper visit for another time. At the very least I could collect some useful info for a later visit.

I left early for the airport, mindful of the announced major delays due to the roadworks on Mangere Bridge between city and airport. However, despite reports on a previous weekend of multi-hour snarl ups, the traffic was reasonably light and so arrived at the airport in plenty of time.

I headed straight to the separate premium check in area that Air New Zealand has for its premium and elite pax, where I had a 15 minute wait to be checked in. Only a couple of check in staff for a modest volume of pax at this hour, but the ones at the counters both seemed to have issues needing sorting out. Later some more check in staff arrived, but my luck there was no better than with supermarket roulette - the other lines moved faster. Never mind, while 15 minutes is the longest I have ever waited in the AKL premium check in area it still is nothing compared with other airport queues. The check in staff, as with all front line Air New Zealand staff, have the new Zambezi uniforms. There has been mixed reviews and comments in the media, and my first impressions were hardly overwhelming.

After receiving the boarding pass I paid the departure tax (yes New Zealand really is in the stone age in requiring departure tax to be paid at the airport, but at least premium pax can pay at check-in - see AKL airport thread for more info).

Then quickly through immigration and up the escalator bypassing the main immigration queues to security. It doesn't take long and I'm arriving at the very nice Air New Zealand lounge. Since the last time I was here the reception area has been changed with the big desk removed and replaced by a couple of maitre'd stations. While it may look snazzier, I dont think it is very practical as staff and pax alike have no space to put things down. I made a mental note for when I leave the lounge, that the peppermints have been moved from the front desk to the inside desk.

I still was disappointed to reconfirm that the international lounge, with 8 different beers and 5 different wines, had much less beer varieties than the main domestic Koru Clubs (see mini tour of NZ or the summer series - AKL WLG CHC and DUD), and still no Macs Gold. Regulars of the NZ and QF forum (what is it with antipodeans and obsession with beer?) will know it's a bugbear of mine - despite the odd report from other FTers finding Macs Gold in the international lounges it has been a long time between (these) drinks for me.

Enough of this wittering. For those interested in the lounge there is plenty of information on other threads in FT. It really is a nice lounge and today isnt too full.