OSAKA Kansai to CHRISTCHURCH (KIX-CHC) on Air New Zealand 777-200ER in business class

Boarding was first a couple of elderly passengers and their families travelling with them, then business class and *G, then the rest. This was a much fuller flight with no spare seats. But I got my preferred pre-selected seat. Since they hadn't reissued the boarding pass there was some confusion of whether they had the right stub - the gate agent came to me onboard to see if I had another boarding pass. Nope - just the one.

A water bottle was already in the seat and a menu and amenity kit were soon handed out. I got one of the old amenity kits that pre-dated the clear plastic kits, complete with Evolu goops (instead of Pacifica)! I wonder if they had a big stash of kits at this outstation and still working on getting rid of them? The FSM came by to introduce himself and get a meal order - to make sure I wouldn't miss out on my preference even though seated at the rear of the aircraft. A nice touch. Of course I also got pre-departure drink which was topped up several times, but not before I got the glass replaced as they handed me a chipped one.

I was tired by now and glad the dinner service started soon and was quick and efficient. Then I grabbed some sleep only to be woken up for breakfast - ahh I'd forgotten to let the FAs know I wished to sleep through. Oh well, at least it is only 2 hours before arrival.

The turbulence from Cyclone Funa was rather bad. No sooner had I been given a breakfast tray and an announcement was made that it didn't look likely we'd get breakfast service with turbulence for much of the rest of the way Certainly my drink ended up mostly on the tray, the worst bumps I've had inflight for a long time, but not so bad as to cause injury. Some 20 minutes later and several thousands of metres lower the turbulence subsides to a moderate chop and service resumes. If this had been a United flight I'm sure we would have gone hungry.

Naturally this meant a real rush to get through the rest of breakfast in time before landing.

We had nice views of Mount Taranaki (which the pilot pointed out especially for its similarity in shape to Mount Fuji), the Cook Strait region and along the length of the Southern Alps. Descending over them to Christchurch with more bumps we landed on time.

Before we even reached the gate, despite announcements to remain seated, most of the Japanese passengers were up and pulling their carry-ons down. They were chided and reminded that through passengers (for the aircraft continues to Auckland) should stay seated to let out first any passengers leaving in Christchurch. This they did - very easy to get out quickly once we actually stopped at the gate.

The crew were a bit puzzled as to why I was leaving here to take a domestic flight (one class so much less comfortable), until I explained I would be arriving at Auckland having already cleared immigration by the time the continuation flight arrives - thus saving 30 odd minutes (maybe more). And immigration queues at Christchurch are never bad (in my experience) whereas we'd be arriving at a busy time in Auckland. Nods of understanding followed.