Regarding reliability... guess i was just out of luck when using NZ 1 yesterday. Spent nearly 3 hours waiting on the tarmac in LHR due to a problem with the aircraft´s trim indicator that requires re-weighting and some re-positioning of the load.

After arrival in LAX got a letter from the NZ Duty Manager with apologies and the information that "for safety reasons" the entire inbound load of baggage and cargo must be re-weighted again. As this happens in a nearby cargo terminal there will be a further delay of approximately one hour before bags will be delivered to the customs hall. Finally this results in a total delay of 5 hours until i left the terminal building.

Nevertheless i enjoyed beeing onboard a NZ bird after a couple of years. Food quantity could have been a little bit more but next time i will ask one of the Flight Attendants if i can have the the main course of Mr. Ozzy Osbourne who sat in 4A and was pleased with chocolate pudding and 2 gallons of Hot Chocolate during the flight... :-)