FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - The Mysterious Case of the Missing 5 - Or how I went to MEL in some style
Old May 21, 2007, 10:25 pm
  #15  
zorn
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: YOW
Programs: AC E75K *G
Posts: 7,099
Part 3 - 12h in Sydney
SYD-AKL not in style
18h in Auckland
AKL-MEL "side trip"


After having been scolded for not having finished the pre-flight champers on my SFO-SYD, I have resolved the following:

When Champagne is Freely Available it Shall Be Consumed

For the purposes of Champagne, sparkling wines produced outside the Champagne region of France will be considered Champagne too. Sit on that and rotate, you EU bureaucrats!

Australia has a bit of a bad reputation for customs and immigration, but I was through in 5min. Our flight was a little early; perhaps we were the first of the 747s to arrive. Besides which I was among the first off and had no bags to retreive.

I head towards the train to downtown. On the way there is a baggage storage service. I will leave my roll-a-board here for the day. The nice chap asks for my passport number, and AUD 9 later I heading to the train. I opt for a day-tripper at near AUD 30, which seems steep, so I hope I get my money's worth. I generally enjoy the train ride into a new (to me) city, although most of this trip is below ground. 30 min or so later I debark at Circular Quay station and start walking around to look at the Opera House.

I am generally opposed to taking photographs on holidays, on the premise than anything I snap will have been already photographed by actual professionals. So if you want to see pictures of Sydney Harbour, kindly Google it. But I feel a little guilty about it, so I stop at a shop and pick up a disposable camera. Fishing around my pockets I realize that I do not have my passport with me.

That is a mixture of good and bad news, really. The bad news is that I am conceivably stuck in Australia, on a Sunday, with no ability to take my flight to AKL, which would conceivably invalidate my ticket leaving me to purchase a one-way fare home (or a call to UA asking to turn the connection to a stopover for only $10000). The good news is that I will get my money's worth out of the day-tripper since I will have to go all the way back to the airport.

The nice chap at the baggage storage gives me back my passport.

I take the train back to Circular Quay and make my way over to the Opera House. There are lots of people jogging in the lovely surroundings. Across the harbour I notice a whole load of people running in a big group. How odd. I opt for the first Opera House tour of the day at 9am. There are only 5 in our group, so we get to see just about everything.

From the Opera House I decide to walk back past the train station, and head generally West and a little North, just for a walk through the downtown. The big group of runners turned out to be the Sydney Marathon. I ran a half-marathon once. Stupidest thing I ever did.

Eventually I hit Market Street and I notice that the Maritime Museum is not far away. So I head there for a visit and eat lunch at its perfectly serviceable little restaurant. From my day-tripper brochure I notice that I can take the ferry service back to Circular Quay. The boat ride back is extremely pleasant, affording wonderful views of the bridge and the Opera House. By the time I get back to Circular Quay the place is packed with tourists. Why do people visit outdoor cafes in touristy areas? It's so embarrassing.

I walk back past the Opera House and up into the Royal Botanical Gardens. The flora is jarringly odd, reminding me of San Diego (not in the actual vegetation, but in the feeling of unfamiliarity). I take the Government House Gate exit and walk down Macquarie (sp?) until I stumble upon St. James train station. From here I go back to the airport.

During all this time I am approached no fewer than three times for advice or directions. I replied that I was sorry but I didn't know. As we stopped at Green Park station, an Australian man in the seat ahead asks me, "Is this an industrial area or more residential?" I finally reply, "You know, I've been in Australia for 8 hours. I'm afraid I really don't know." That gets a chuckle. When we get to the airport we both debark. I say to him, "I think this area contains an airport." He liked that.

I get to SYD at 2:30 and head to the NZ check-in desk. No, too early. No check-in until 3:30. How irritating. I bum around until 3:25 at which time I get back to the check-in area only to encounter a mob of people hanging around the entrance to the check-in queue. Check-in is quick, so I'm off to beg the Australian government for the privilege of leaving the country, which absolutely must be done in blue or black pen. My passport actually says the Queen wants me to be able to move about without hindrance. Perhaps the republican sentiment has struck the Aussie passport control people a little more than others.

Then it's off to the highly regarded Koru Club. This is the only *A lounge I've been in that is better than the lounges offered by AC within Canada, although not that much better. This lounge has better food and drink, but the AC lounges have free wifi. I had my first shower since leaving home. The shower room was fitted with several ironic water-wasting features. I never used the toilet, but its over-sensitive flush sensor went off no fewer than three times. After my shower I went to shave, but the sink tap only operates via hand sensor, so it's off for another shower so I can shave.

Once in the lounge I head to the food and drinks and notice Champagne freely available. After my second glass I finish the open bottle, and note that fact to one of the lounge attendants. I enjoy the lounge amenities, including the computers in the business centre that I use to post my SFO-SYD report in this thread. The computer has NetNanny installed, which prevents me from getting news from home via www.globeandmail.com. Perhaps it's running some Roots ads or something. I get around that by plugging the ethernet into my laptop.

Getting nearer to flight time the hot food is put out. I help myself to some spring rolls and go to get some Champagne, but there is no open bottle. I ask a lounge attendant if she minds if I open another. She says no and gets one of the men to open it (who apologizes for not having opened it earlier). I start hoping "has anyone ever apologized for delaying your consumption of alcohol" isn't one of the alcohol-problem screening questions my doctor will ask next time.

Then it's off to the gate. I didn't get this segment in C. The plane is a 320 and I'm in a window seat (which I hate). There is a dinner service, which definitively answered why AU and NZ are so strict with food quarantine. It turns out the chickens down here are all perfectly rectangular and there is a fierce desire to maintain that genetic integrity. I discovered this when I asked for the chicken, and was served the most rectangular piece of chicken I had ever seen. Sadly it was also inedible so I didn't bother.

The drinks cart came by, and lo and behold there was Champagne freely available. What a nice touch in Y. So I had some. I watched "Because I Said So" on the drop-down screens. It wasn't a good movie, but Mandy Moore and Lauren Graham made up for it a little.

To be frank I wasn't impressed with Y service on NZ, Champagne aside. It was cramped and the food was poor. I prefer AC Y international service.

I arrive in AKL at 11:30. Auckland is called the City of Sails, but I like to call it City of Wealthy Cab Drivers, as it put me out 65 NZD to get to the Hyatt, where I had booked a room for 144 NZD. I still don't have a credit card, but this room was pre-paid so they let me in with 100 NZD cash deposit. I sleep, get up, shower, and check-out. They immediately return my deposit without even checking if I cleaned out the mini-bar and trashed the room in an all-night pay-per-view porn fest. I guess I just look like a classy guy. Some banter with the desk agent reveals my plan to walk to the Auckland Museum. Gasp! Horror! Is it humanly possible to do so?

It was a lovely walk on a warm, humid morning, through the University campus and the Auckland Domain park. The museum itself is outstanding and I thoroughly recommend it. It was built as a war memorial and features a whole floor of NZ war history, which is in many ways similar to Canada's in the way the two countries' WWI experiences have become central parts of the nation-forging mythologies.

I set a human endurance record by walking all the way back to the Hyatt to collect my other bag and prepare to sell my firstborn to pay for the taxi back to the airport. My actual destination for this trip is MEL, where I am attending a conference. This side trip to MEL will be compliments of Emirates. My Champagne consumption had obviously increased my general classiness as upon entry to the Emirates check-in queue the lady said, "Are you perhaps in Business Class sir?" What a lovely question, really. I am certainly Business Class by nature, my dear, but today, I will be travelling in solidarity with my fellow citizens in the back. So I join the line-up. I notice there is a separate and empty line-up for those who have done OLCI, as I had, so I am through in a jiffy.

I have a few hours to kill which I spend getting rid of NZ currency on a copy of Air Babylon and a few glasses of yes, Champagne, at an airport bar. Technically the Champagne wasn't freely available, but it served the purely practical service of ridding my wallet of unwanted currency.

I am seated in 38K on the 345. There is some silly, albeit attractive, young woman talking to the FA about how she is a Frequent Flyer and she always gets an aisle seat and it's in her profile etc. etc. She takes her seat in 40J. It looks like I've scored an empty seat as the last man on walks past to row 40, but it turns out he is in 40J. Silly attractive woman is beside me in 38J after all.

One thing Emirates has going for it is a wonderful, second-to-none seat-back entertainment system. Top marks to this 5-star feature. I used it extensively throughout the flight. You can use it from the time you board to just before landing when they retrieve the headsets, and even then you can turn on the nose-camera view for landing.

Otherwise, though, I found the seat uncomfortable, and no nicely printed menu even in Y can compensate for food that simply was not good. The drinks tray must have been 20 minutes after the meal service, which was too long. I noted on the menu that Champagne was available for USD 8. And what did you know but I had USD 8 in my wallet! What an eerie coincidence. This time I decided against it, since the food wasn't good, and it wasn't really freely available. Dionysus tempted me even further by intervening in the Frasier episode I was watching as the drinks trolley approached, as he had Niles say, "We must have some Champagne!" Who am I to deny the Fates, so I fork over some greenbacks for the Champagne.

Once again I would have to say I would prefer AC on a long-haul international flight in Y, for seat comfort and better food, and AVOD is making its way around the AC fleet now too.

The weather in MEL is cool and quite windy for our arrival. The ride gets bumpy and rocks back and forth quite a bit. A woman behind me starts to whine. A mile or so away from the airport the sad hairdryers they put on these 345s power up and we head back up into the clouds. The woman next to me is very uncomfortable about all this. She asks me what is going on.

What is it with people that they think I am some sort of information desk? I make up something: "Oh, I'm sure the air traffic controller just asked the pilot not to land due just yet to some shifting winds or something". She wanted to know why the pilot wasn't telling us anything. "Oh, I'm sure the pilots are just very busy right now."

A few minutes later the captain comes on, apologizes for the delay in updating us as they have been very busy, and announces that there was a last minute runway change due to shifting winds. I am the MAN!. "Ooh, do you fly planes too?" "How can you be so calm through all this?" The clunking sound of the landing gear causes her to grip my arm. "That's the landing gear," I say with extreme manliness. I ride my horse up the rocks, Marlboro hanging from my lips.

We land uneventfully. The poor dear is on to Dubai and London. Best of luck to her. Now I'm in MEL on business until early Friday morning when it's back to AKL on EK, and then AKL-SYD-LAX in C.

Last edited by zorn; May 28, 2007 at 9:34 am
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