speedbird182

First off, I'm not a frequent flyer, but a once a year type flyer. Anyway, this trip starts at Christmas 2008 when my relatives in New Zealand decided that a 50th birthday warranted a big party. Armed with that information, I set about booking time off work and looking for flights. With 3 weeks of holiday booked for the last week of September and the 1st two weeks of October, it was time to look at flights.

As I was looking for just me, I was looking at the cheapest deal I could find. Given that I wanted to bank whatever miles I could, a OW airline was preferred but not essential. Everything was great, until my gran decided that since I was going over for the birthday, she would join me as well, but would go out 3 weeks before hand and come back at the same time. Well that threw a spanner in the works as she needed a fully flat bed and as few segments as possible. So back to t'interweb I headed.

After much more searching, I got tickets for me on CX for just over Ł700 rtn in economy and gran got tickets for Ł3000 in business. Not a bad deal I thought, until a week later BA ran their 2 for 1 on Club World tickets. I could have cried when I saw that as I could have booked me in business for about Ł500 extra with that. Oh well, at least I had tickets.

Fast forward 9 months to the start of September, and with a couple of weeks to go before the flight, time I thought to add in my API to the booking. Now, where did I put the passport? I tipped the house upside down and failed to find my passport. Oh cr*p I thought. Don't want to be having to send off for a new one now. Searched again, same result. By now I really was panicking. Looked up the passport service on the web and then discovered that even if I sent off for a new passport it wouldn't turn up in time for my flight. So a trip to the passport office in London was required to get the 1 week service as I was told that the same day service wasn't available for a lost or stolen replacement. So 10 days before I fly out of the UK I was on the way to Victoria with a completed passport form and Ł120 for the privilege of a new passport. After leaving to get to Paddington in time, I then almost missed the appointment time due to leaving Victoria station via the wrong exit. Once at the passport office, I was offered the same day service for an extra Ł15 and it would be ready in 4 hours. I thought that would be great, until i realised that 4 hours would mean I would miss the train home. Oh well, guaranteed within 7 day was more than enough.

After then cursing Royal Mail for going on strike locally, I was beginning to think that my passport would never turn up. So when it turned 5 days before I was due to leave, the relief was enormous. With passport in hand, packing could begin in ernest.

Coming up, Flights and trips round New Zealand.

speedbird182

Some photo's from the trip will be included here, but the rest can be found here

Monday morning dawned bright and early at 0630. Given that my flight was at 2235 it could be said that this was a ridiculously early time. Well, I thought it was but it was necessary in order to get to London. I left home at just after 0730 to get to the office where my mother works before heading over to Bretonside bus station in Plymouth to catch the 0955 National Express service to London.

I was lucky in that when I got to Bretonside, there were two coaches to operate this service to London, one of which would be direct to Victoria. Thankfully I wouldn't have to stop at Heathrow and then turn around to come back out. As we pulled out, I could have been mistaken for thinking that I had been transported to a third world country's road the way that were were thrown around by the bus driver's clutch control.

Once were were going, the ride settled down and I was treated to a lovely view of 2 RAF hercules performing touch and go's at RAF Lyneham. There was also a nice view of Windsor Castle from the motorway that I haven't noticed before.


As we went past Heathrow, I was able to see the landing end of 27R and was treated to the sight of a Virgin Atlantic A340 landing and the puff of smoke from the tyres as it landed. Once we bounced into Victoria, I was able to collect my bag and then with 6 hours to spare thought I would spend a bit of time in London before heading over to the airport. However, with a rucksack and carry on case, it's not that easy to get around London on the Tube as it starts heading into rush hour, so I headed over to Heathrow at about 1700.

Arriving into terminal 3 from the tube, does involve a bit of a trek, but when I emerged in front of the building I was in for a surprise. The outside has had a makeover since my last visit.




It's a shame that the inside of the terminal hasn't had a proper makeover yet, but it looks like it may be in the pipeline.

Flight: CX254 LHR-HKG
Aircraft: A340-400 (34B)
Seat: 44K
Scheduled Departure: 2235
Pushback: 2220
Takeoff: 2242

Check in was quick and painless as I had done OLCI and was just dropping off my bag and picking up my boarding passes. As I was there in time to catch the check in for the earlier flight, My bag was taken tagged all the way through to AKL and my boarding passes were issued without a problem.

With boarding passes in hand, I decided to take a wander around the other terminals at LHR and see what changes had taken place since I was last here.

Entrance to the BA First check in area at Terminal 5.

After killing nearly 2 hours it was time to join the masses through the BAA security lottery and into the airside area. The BP check was quick and security was relatively short. There was the security guy who was barking out shoes off at seemingly random people but in fact was just at anyone who was wearing boots and other high sided shoes. Once through, I took a walk around the terminal to find the gate my flight would be going from and try to get a picture while it was still semi light. I didn't manage to spot my aircraft, bud did see an SQ777 and A380, along with the last BA flight of the day from T3 amongst others. At around 2115 I found the Cathay Pacific OneWorld livery plane sitting at gate 16 and the First Officer was playing with his mac waiting for the remaining flight crew to join him. I had a quick chat to him, and did ask about a cockpit visit which I was told to ask about during the flight and they would try to accommodate the request if they could at HKG.

Boarding started at about 2145 with the opening of the holding pen prior to boarding. Boarding was then by row^ although some people just didn't seem to grab this concept. Since I was towards the front of the economy cabin, I was in no rush to get onboard and was able to watch the boarding scrum. Once onboard I settled into my window seat and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of legroom available with the new seats. We pushed back early and then taxied around the airport alongside the 27L before turning back to depart from 27R. The takeoff roll was longer than any that I've had before on a Boeing aircraft and seemed to use most of the runway.

After departing to the west, we turned eastwards and continued our climb out. The meal was served at around midnight UK time and seemed to take ages to be served.



After dinner was served and cleared away, I "reclined" the seat and settled in for what was a 12 hour flight and tried to get some sleep. After a couple of hours sleep, I needed to get up and stretch and move around. With the aisle seat passenger sound asleep, I had to resort to some acrobatics to get out much to the amusement of the cabin crew who saw my feet and legs appear in the aisle first from head height!

After sending an hour or so talking to the crew in the rear galley and having looked out of the tiny window in the door at the sunrise, we hit a bit of turbulence and on came the seatbelt sign. Cue the announcement in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Followed by the crew walking up the aisles doing the seatbelt check. Of course they had to wake my seat mate who didn't understand why they were making him fasten his belt. Once they had retreated back to the galleys, off came this guys seatbelt, until the ISM walked through and made him put the seatbelt on again.

Breakfast was served around an hour and a half from Hong Kong at about 1500 local time. The omelette was edible but bouncy.

Shortly after breakfast the first officer came on the PA and said we were beginning out descent into Hong Kong and would be landing in about 30 min. At this point the seatbelt sign was back on and we plummeted like a rock! Speed brakes out for the whole descent and gear down early to bring the speed down. 30 min to landing became just under 20 and the crew were running round getting everything secured.


We landed on runway 07L and then had a short taxi round to the terminal and gate 63. Once the seatbelt sign was off and people started moving around, one of the crew came up to me and asked if I still wanted to visit the flight deck. Who was I to turn down the chance to see inside the cockpit of my first Airbus flight. Shortly after I was collected and taken up to the front office to meet the flight deck crew and see the cockpit. Ok so I was like a child in a candy store, but I was excited! After spending about 10 minutes on the flight deck talking about the aircraft and the differences with Boeings, it was mentioned that ATC had cut nearly 50 track miles off the flight plan so they had dropped anchor so to speak to get down. I did think that being sat above the main landing gear that I felt every bump and jolt we taxied over and the pilot did say that this was common with the Airbus. They feel the bumps more but are quieter in the cruise.

After thanking them for a pleasant experience, it was off to the transfer point and the hellish experience that I had at HKG.

speedbird182

Arrival into Hong Kong was fairly short and we pulled up onto gate 63 slightly ahead of schedule. After my cockpit visit, it was time to head through the transfer point to await my flight to Auckland. At this point, the journey came off the rails a bit.
After turning up at transfer point W1, the queue was out of the door past the BP check and down the corridor towards the gates. After shuffling slowly through to the BP checkpoint, it became obvious why the queue was moving so slowly. HKIA must have taken lessons from BAA in security checkpoints, because they only had 1 scanner open. As we inched our way slowly forwards through the queue, after about 20 minutes, they opened a second scanner and the queue seemed to move forwards with more speed. After clearing security, I headed up into the departure lounge and knowing that my onwards flight was from gate 3, set about walking the entire length of the terminal to get to the gate.
The nice feature of HKG is that the wall to ceiling windows allows you to see the movements on the tarmac and all the ramp activity. Better than T3 at LHR which expects you to stay in the shopping centre until your flight is called and then herd you into the holding pen prior to boarding. Walking down the terminal I was able to get some shots of the 2 BA 747's parked up on remote stands, including the one in OneWorld livery, as well as the Virgin A340.




[IMG] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/...748e86f9ca.jpg [/IMG]

Walking down through the terminal, I switched my phone on for the first time in nearly 13 hours. It was then that I got some of the worst news imaginable. I received a text message from one of my friends, telling me about the untimely death of one of my other friends. Nothing like a blow to the senses at the start of the holiday. After numerous phone calls and messenger conversations with the UK to find out what had happened and what was going on, the time seemed to fly by and I was still in a bit of a daze when boarding for the flight was announced.

Flight: CX 107 HKG-AKL
Aircraft: A340-300 (34D)
Seat: 65G
Scheduled departure: 2105
Pushback: 2115
Takeoff: 2130

Once onboard the flight, I settled into my seat at the back of the plane at the row where it changes from 2-4-2 to 2-3-2 seating. This being a good seat on the 34D aircraft as I could stretch my feet out under the seat in front without the IFE box getting in the way and also have access to the aisle.



What did make me, and my seatmate laugh was the fact that the aircraft was obviously showing its age, and the armrest between us had to be attached to the seat using gaffa tape.

[IMG] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/...56ec566d2c.jpg [/IMG]

Pushback was delayed as 2 passengers coming from connecting flights didn’t make it in time for our flight and so we had to wait for their baggage to be offloaded. Whilst we were waiting for pushback, I was talking to my seatmate who had been on the SQ A380 which had had to turn back to Paris the day before after “one of the engines blew up”. He was one of the lucky ones getting a direct reroute home. Some other passengers were apparently being routed CDG-HKG-MEL-SYD-AKL. During the taxi, there were requests from some passengers to move seats so that they could sit with other family members. They were told that they could do this once the seatbelt sign was switched off. After the takeoff roll, when the crew were released but the seatbelt sign was still on, the musical chairs in the cabin began. It appeared that half the cabin were taking part in the musical chairs game and to only stopped when the cabin crew came rushing through the cabin shouting at people to sit down and put their seatbelts on, although this was ignored.

After the meal service, which was the only meal I didn’t snap a photo of, the blinds were closed again and the lights were dimmed for people to sleep. Not being a great sleeper while travelling, I thought that I would check out the broadcast IFE. Unfortunately, the screen was not in a decent position for me to watch anything and the picture quality was really fuzzy. Instead I headed down to the rear galley and spent a couple of hours chatting to the crew before they headed off for their crew rest leaving one poor girl to look after the entire cabin. This flight attendant was outstanding, she was struggling with the duty free sales as it was only the second time that she had done it as well as looking after the cabin. While she was doing this she was also talking to me and was really friendly. When the crew changed over and she went for her rest, I asked for a comment form and the purser thought that I had an problem with the service. When I explained that I wanted to pass on a compliment, her face changed and she became really friendly and proceeded to provide the form for me to fill in. The form was obviously read by the purser and ISM as after the breakfast service I was visited by the ISM and the crew member in person thanking me for the comments. A nice touch I thought.

After daybreak over Australia I thought that we were nearly in New Zealand until I looked at the time remaining on the moving map to find that we were still over 5 hours away. I never realised exactly how big Australia was until we flew over the top corner. Breakfast was served as we flew over the Tasman sea and this time the omelette was much better.



Arrival into Auckland was on time with us pulling onto gate 10 necessitating a power walk through to immigration and baggage reclaim. However, I was quickly through immigration and 5 minutes later was picking up my checked baggage. Going through the bio-security checkpoint, I had a slight grilling from the agent as I had a supply of food in my bags, had been camping and visited an abattoir. This, didn't seem to cause them any problems given my answers to their questions and it was then just a short wait to get through the x-ray and out into the sunlight of Auckland where I was met by waiting family.

Coming up, a few trips around New Zealand and the return to London.

speedbird182

After several days recovering from jet lag and also some serious partying for my relatives 50th it was time for the fun part of my trip to New Zealand.


Skytower in Pink for Breast Cancer awareness week

I travelled up to Auckland on the Sunday to stay with family before heading out on my Kiwi Experience Awesome + Top Bit Pass. Monday morning started out nice and damp as we headed down to the ACB hostel to catch the bus at 0710. When the bus turned up we were greeted by our driver/guide "Fly" who had a wicked sense of humour and was able to get us all loaded and checked off in about 10 min. It was then on to the last pickup where we picked up the last of our 14 passengers. Heading through downtown Auckland was slow as we picked our way out to the harbour bridge.


Downtown Auckland as we went over the Harbour Bridge

Once we hit the motorway we were off to Northland and our coffee and breakfast stop at Warkworth where the details of activities which were available for booking in Paihia were passed around. After Warkworth the bus headed up to Whangarei (The City of Ho's and Bro's) where we stopped for a quick break at the isite. After about 10 minuites in Whangarei we headed off to Paihia where the weather had improved to sunny with patchy cloud.











After a quick tour round Paihia and up to Waitangi we headed for the Pipi Patch Hostel where we had all booked to stay.

Checkin was a bit of a scrum with all of us trying to check in. I was lucky to be the first and the guys I had been sat next to on the bus were just behind me so we were able to get the same room. After getting settled in and scopping out the hostel, we headed out to find a supermarket to buy some food and drink. Having walked to the centre of town we found the supermarket and proceded to procure stuff for the trip to Cape rienga the next day and also stuff for breakfast and drinking.

Sufficiently weighed down with food, we headed back to the hostel before meeting the rest of the bus crowd and deciding that, because there wasn't much else to do, we would walk up to the viewpoint overlooking the town.

After getting lost trying to find the start of the trail, you'd have thought we would have seen the big 6ft high sign marking the start of the trail!, we headed into the "sub tropical" landscape. We had a pleasnt stroll up to the Opua Forrest Lookout where we were treated to some awesome views of the Bay of Islands.





After a gental stroll back down into town, we headed back to the hostel in time for the bbq and a night of fun and games, (including a Wii!) at the bar.

Tuesday was another early start, made harder by the drinking that had been done the night before. After having been picked up by "Spike" who was to be our guide, we made our way to the other hostels for pickups before heading on to the first stop of our trip, the Kauri forests at Kerikeri. We then headed up to go sand boarding at the Te .... stream as we couldn't get onto 90 mile beach due to the tide times. We went snadboarding off the dunes that were circa 150m high and took the best part of a 10 min trek to get to the top of.



From the sandboarding, we then headed up to Tapotupotu bay where we had a dip in the paciffic ocean before lunch. Whilst we were there we watch a family who had been long line fishing and had caught snapper which they were going to cook that night.

Leaving Tapotupotu bay behind us, we headed up to Cape Reinga to see where the Pacific and Tasman meet.





After spending time at Reinga, we reboarded the bus and headed pack to the Te .... Stream and 90 mile beach. My favourite sign in the world had to be at the bottom of the stream. "Danger, Increase speed"^

After driving down 90 mile beach, which is only 64 miles in length, we made a stop at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they built the shop around the karui staircase shown below.



Then it was back to Paihia for the highlight of the evening, pub quiz, drinking and karaokee! Wednesday was an interseting day with another hangover (I haven't had days like thise since my student days!) before heading off to hire a kayak and spending the day paddeling around the area. This was so much fun and such a good way to work off the hangover. With nothing else to do in the evening it was back to the bar for some more drinking with all the new friends that I'd made during my stay.

Thursday morning was spent suvenier shopping and just relaxing before the bus ride back to Auckland in the afternoon. This time "Fly" stuck a movie on and we just sort of dozed on the way back to Auckland. We did get a warning about the pink sheep at Warkworth as I hadn't had my camera handy on the way up.



Once back in Auckland I stayed with family again and we went out to collect some pizza for dinner. Never in all my years have I been more like a kid in a candy store than I was in Hell's pizza. Everything was so cleverly done that I couldn't help but ask if I could take an empty box with me to bring back to the UK.

Friday I made the trip down to Hamilton on the Naked bus which is very much like the UK National Express. Leaving from near the Britomart, we crawled through the end of school holiday traffic onto the motorway. Eventually we were off the motorway and headed south on the highway. Given that I was only going as far as Hamilton, and that was where we were supposed to have a driver change, I was a bit annoyed that we were running 20 min late so the other guy drove further up to meet us, making us 45 min late into Hamilton.

The following week, I hired a car and drove down to Rotorua for a couple of days. The drive was fun, including the stop at Matamata aka Hobbiton.




I also got to see the Woolworths is still alive and kicking!




Overall I was a bit dissapointed in the whole Rotorua experience. It very much is a tourist place and doesn't really have the same feel as the rest of New Zealand that I experienced.

speedbird182

Reserved for AKL-HKG

speedbird182

Reserved for HKG-LHR

EK_Flyer

Welcome to New Zealand

Gosh you had a weird couple of hiccups to the start of your trip !

Great that you got into the cockpit & had a great crews

Nice TR ! ^

Hope you're enjoying the brilliant weather we've been having this week ! :-:

Looking forward to the rest

Cheers ^

camsean

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Nice to read a trip report from Y that isn't full of moaning about how 'unbearable' it was. ^

speedbird182

A shameless bump as I've now updated the next section!

diddledumsticks

This was a really entertaining trip report. I'm glad you filled out the comment form. I always make sure I pass on a compliment when I encounter good flight attendants

jerriblank55

Oh man this reminds me so much of my trip to NZ this past feb/march. I agree that Rotorua is pretty touristy (and smells like sulphur). I much preferred Taupo. Looking fwd to the rest!!

snod08

great TR!
Looking forward to the rest!

I definitely want to try CX service some day soon.

Jiangsu

Great!! Thanks for sharing !! I'm looking forward to visiting NZ in the future !^