Fraser

Great report Gaza! ^

I'd be tempted to do something as crazy as you...just the once mind you!

efincomputer

Glad you were reunited with your bag - keep up the great reporting (makes me soooo wish I was doing a RTW too).

Gaza

Wednesday 22nd June (Continued)

I boarded QF098 to BNE on time. We were slightly delayed waiting on one pax. My first reaction to the new QF Skybed was it looked a bit weired. The cocoon shell makes it look like something out of a sci-fi movie. Business was not full and the check-in agent had allocated me 3J and blocked off 3K.

The interior smelled very new. QF have recently converted most of their 330 fleet to two class International config. The genral cabin ambience was good. The chatty crew handed out menus and breakfast order cards shortly before take-off. The menu choice was quite frankly rubbish. The "Light Supper" menu consisted of:

Wednesday 22nd June (Continued)

• Salad of Marinated Beef
• Green leaf salad

And that was it.

I was quite hungry by this time and didn't fancy any of the options so asked the one of the crew what was being served in Economy. She brought me a menu and said I was free to choose anything from it. It was much better than the business menu. There was hot choices so I selected the roast chicken with braised veg and rice. It was quite good.

QF have installed AVOD on their reconfigured aircraft but it is not as easy to operate as teh CX system. It is slow to react and fucnctions like fast forward or rewind are hit or miss. It is also very easy to exit out of what you are watching and then have to navigate back to the beginning. Very frustrating.

After a bit of mucking around I watched the excellent "Hotel Rwanda." It is a very powerful and moving film. The fact is is based on a true story and we all know the extent of the genocide made it all the more powerful. How the UN and world governements sat back and allowed that to happen is beyond belief!

The seat is very complex and motors surprisingly noisy. Although you press the "recline seat back" key the seat decides it has to adjust the legrest first. It takes a bit of practise and button pushing to get the desired seating angle. After the movie finished I converted the seat to the bed position. The position is similar to CX and uses the flat-tilt concept. The length of the bed is good although the angle seems quite steep and seems much steeper than CX. I felt myself sliding down as few times. Thanks to a couple of glasses of Champage and an Nytol I slept for about 4 hours before I was woken up for breakfast.

We arrived in BNE about 15 minutes late and after clearing transit security I went up to the QF Club.

I am sitting here now having my first Crown Lager for a couple of years. I've just spoken to the rest of the boys who are having a ball down in Queenstown. They had just finished the jetboat and were heading off for the tabogan run!

The adventure is almost at an end. Two flights to go - BNE-AKL today and AKL-CHC tomorrow. It's been fun most of the time. If the SJU-MIA-LAX legs had gone without a hitch I would probably say it was quite easy.

I am looking forward to a nice, comfortable bed at the Hyatt this evening as for the next two and a bit weeks I'll be in a campervan with three fat, belching, snoring and farting rugby players!

Thanks for all the comments. I've enjoyed doing these reports. It certainly passes the time between flights.

Kiwi Flyer

Thanks for the update. Glad your bags caught up with you.

Beany

Excellent stuff so far ^

Ahh yes, the toboggan run in Queenstown. Many a happy memory of nearly killing myself by going too fast on that track - nice views though

PhilH

You mean this one?

http://www.philstraveldiary.co.uk/Ne...es/day13_6.jpg

And these views?

http://www.philstraveldiary.co.uk/Ne...es/day13_3.jpg
http://www.philstraveldiary.co.uk/Ne...es/day13_5.jpg

^ ^

oyster

Is there a thread that shows Gaza planning this trip? Routings, prices and how it was booked?

I guess I'm not the only one here, sorely tempted by this crazy way to get to NZ!

yyzlhr

If I could only convince Miss yyzlhr that it was "the best price", and that "they" made a routing error-- not me of course!!

Beany

Thats the one. As it was a nice day I thought I'd walk up to the top to sample the delights of the toboggan - wrong move. Should have just got the cable car! The view was kind of worth the walk though - breathtaking!!

PUCCI GALORE

Gaza,

Darling. you are doing ever so well. I knew nothing about this and your reports are so exciting. Usually the reports are so interesting I find my concentration span stratched to snap point. Yours reads like a dream. You make it all sound so interesting.

I am particularly delighted to hear that Lenny was treated with the respect and courtesy that such a seasoned flying dog could command.

You have obviously started a following - I am having nothing except Logs for Teddies, Doggies, Monkeys, and Bunnies (but more of that later), and a pig called Jessica.

Howver, I am terribly worried about the lack of enthousiasm for Ice Cream Sundaes :-:

phillipas

Gaza, thanks so much for doing this trip report. As Pucci said they are often fairly tedious and boring but this one is fantastic. Overall you've really summed up what FT is about. Any rational person would rate what you've done as stupid - but to us it's a great idea and one many of us would no doubt like to replicate.

And I'm so happy you got your bag back. I felt all a bit guilty after my earlier comment. I will make no comment about it getting lost across the Tasman.

Have fun in NZ. The lads will have had a great time in ZQN - there's no other place on earth where the industry is dominated by activites that seem destined to kill you! If you do go there make sure you do the bungy jump - and not just the bridge one - get yourselve out to Nevis bluff and jump from the cable car - about 430 feet!

Enjoy the rugby, and for a local brew may I reccommend Speight's.

Edited for spelling

PhilH

Wow! That's a steep climb. I knackered myself out just walking up to the cable car station, let alone all the way to the top.

The view is utterly something else - one of the most amazingly beautiful I have ever seen. I think only the view from Whistler's Mountain in Jasper, Canada maybe rates more highly, and it is a VERY close call!!!

phillipas

I'll agree on the anazingly beautiful bit. I had a freind who had a house about 4km from and high above Queenstown. You would step out onto the deck and have a fantastic view across Lake Wakatipu toward the mountains. An excellent spot for a breakfast barbie - though probably not in July!

Watchful

Great job Gaza. Only found this thread today as it was highlighted on the home page of Flyertalk so checked it out! Makes my U.S. domestic mileage runs seem quite tame!

Lions Club belongs to a genre of organizations usually called "service clubs" - Kiwanis and Rotary are other notable examples - usually a service-oriented group of community leaders that have weekly luncheon meetings (across vocational lines), do beneficial service projects, and have international ties as well.

Their 2005 International Convention is June 27-July 1 in Hong Kong!

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content...nvention.shtml

Gaza

oyster

Most of the threads relating to the planning are on the oneworld forum. Here are some to look at:-

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...&highlight=WAW
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...&highlight=WAW
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...&highlight=WAW

There are quite a few other threads so do a search on "WAW" and "Gaza" and you will find a few more.

In a nutshell this is what I did.

The fare basis in DONE4 - This means it is a oneworld explorer RTW ticket in Business Class covering four continents - Europe & Middle East, North America, Asia and Southwest Pacific.

The key is getting as many sectors over 2000 miles in North America as possible booked in First Class. The rules state that in NA where biz is not offered you are booked in First. This is not as simple as it sounds. There is a "one transcon" rule that prevents you flyimg back and forth between the east and west coast. hauteboy has produced a list of flights over 2,000 miles that are not covered by the transcon rule. ORD-ANC and DFW-ANC are both over 2000 miles (2,700 to be precise) and a good source of earning. ORD-SJU is over 2K but due to AA's policy these are Business and not First but still earn a shed load of tier points.

There are quite a few opportunities in Asia for >2000 sectors. The easiest for back to backs are HKG-CTS, HKG-DPS and HKG-JKT. there are others to the Indian subcontinent but these are much messier. I originally had HKG-DPS-HKG sectors in my booking but dropped these as it would have meant I would not have arrived in CHC untill late Friday.

My ticket cost about GBP2900 all in. The WAW bubble has now burst as prioces have gone up quite a bit but CAI and IST are still good value. Again the OW forum is the place for the latest info.

Any questions drop me a PM.