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AUCKLAND to CHRISTCHURCH (AKL-CHC) on QF 737-300 with business seats
Boarding was chaos for there had been a last minute switch to ZK-JNN, which is one of the 737's with a handful of old business seats (assigned to elites ^). Unfortunately this meant shifting a lot of passengers around who had non-existent seats, and trying to keep passengers travelling together sitting together. Lots of checking by radio and reassigning seats on the fly. Boarding was thus painfully slow and we ended up pushing back some 30 minutes late - not a good start to the day. On the plus side, thanks to my status and domestic being sold as all economy with no seat pre-allocation, I should have a comfy seat for every flight today. In fact I have the very same seat for every flight - 8 flights in the same seat in the same aircraft on a single day! Of course I have a silent chuckle when the safety video gets to the bit about almost certainly sitting in a different seat each flight. We take off over the city, turn and head south. There is extensive cloud cover over the North Island obscuring all views except the tip of the volcanoes of Ruapehu (to the left) and Taranaki (to the right) rising above the cloud blanket and barely distinguishable thanks to a thick mantle of spring snow. Whereas over Cook Strait and the South Island the skies are very clear, apart that is from the usual cloud snuggled up against the windward western side of the Southern Alps. Today the snack is a pastry danish, accompanied by the usual tea, coffee or water - and $2 juice or soft drinks. The top of the South Island is cloud free - giving views from Golden Bay, defined by the gentle sweep of Farewell Spit, across the Tasman and Richmond Ranges, past the fingers of the Marlborough Sounds and beyond the bottom of the North Island. Ahead the Southern Alps stretch all the way to the horizon, still coated with winter snows although the effect of spring is apparent in the base basins and deep valleys. We land straight in across the northern plains. I rush up the chilly airbridge and turn the corner on autopilot into the lounge. |
CHRISTCHURCH to QUEENSTOWN (CHC-ZQN) on QF 737-300 with business seats
I checked that the weather in Queenstown is still good. In case you're wondering, my paranoia is due to a run of very bad luck lately. Over the last couple of months it seems I have been travelling to Queenstown on more than half the days that flights got cancelled or diverted - my personal success rate is much worse than the data from www.flightstats.com indicates :( So, I've become wary and mistrustful of the QF announcements, at least as far as flights to Queenstown are concerned. Anyway, today the weather is brilliant. So I am mesmerised by the view of the southern lakes and mountains, braided river valleys and deep tortuous gorges. We fly at a lower altitude than normal to try to make up some time. Due to the shorter flight, and tricky descent, no hot drinks are served on this route - just a hot cake and water. It is very crisp on arrival - still below freezing. Brrr. I walk quickly down the stairs and across the tarmac into the terminal, making sure I don't slip on any ice. |
QUEENSTOWN to CHRISTCHURCH (ZQN-CHC) on QF 737-300 with business seats
The turnaround is much quicker than normal in an effort to make up most of the earlier delay. So much quicker than normal that I really have to race through security to board, and just manage to avoid being paged. Door 1L was shut just a few minutes after our scheduled departure, but alas the fast getaway was not to be. For there was a long delay until push back, despite the NZ a/c alongside not departing for another half hour or more. Then a further long (well it seemed long at the time) delay on the short taxiway waiting for a smaller aircraft (possibly a private jet) which stopped for a long time after turning at the end of the runway before finalling rolling. Eventually it is our turn to taxi down the runway, turn and speed away. While the scenery is best on descent, IMHO, I love take-offs from Queenstown. There is an initial very steep climb and a jink left to avoid the hill in front, then reduce power before turning more than 180 degrees past the end of the peninsula with great views out the right across Queenstown Hill and over the very close mountains on each side of both main arms of Lake Wakatipu either side of Walter Peak. Then some more turns to fly over the airport and around the end of the Remarkable Ranges, including nice views of the Kawerau Gorge. Finally we turn to set course for Christchurch parallel to the main ranges to our left and perpendicular to the many shear ranges to our right. The snack on the way back is a lemon muffin. Again served only with water. All too soon we are back at Christchurch, landing from the south - the runway direction has changed in the couple of hours since departure, although winds are still very light. |
CHRISTCHURCH to ROTORUA (CHC-ROT) on QF 737-300 with business seats
Another short transit as we still are trying to make up for the earlier delay. The snack is a choice of lemon muffin or cheese and crackers, with water tea or coffee for free, or $2 juice and soft drink. We track north alongside the coast and Kaikoura Ranges before crossing the North Island coastline in Wairarapa. Here the view is obscured by an extensive cloud sheet from mid Wairarapa until we burst through a surprisingly thin cloud layer at low altitude on final descent into Rotorua, just in time to get view of the steam plumes at Whakarewarewa. There is a last minute squirt of power just before touch down as we nearly land short of the runway in a ditch! Even with the squirt, we touched down within the turning circle at the end - ie within 1 aircraft length of the end. |
ROTORUA to CHRISTCHURCH (ROT-CHC) on QF 737-300 with business seats
Here I pick up the missing boarding pass at about 15 minutes prior to departure - see it can be done despite the sometimes protestations of check-in "you're too late and there is no way I can override the system". Pay the NZ$5 departure tax at the counter next to the cafe, and the sticker gets checked before reaching screening. The WTMD and wand are set to ultra-sensitive. Every last thing slightly metallic sets it off, including all the stuff that I've had no problems with for hundreds of times all around the world. Short walk across the tarmac to board by stairs - as with Queenstown there are no airbridges. The load is extremely light and we are told to remain in our allocated seats for take off. In the turnaround we've made up the time lost earlier. Snack is again a choice of lemon muffin or cheese and cracker. But service is suspended for a while due to a large area of turbulence that we somehow managed to miss on the flight in. Weather hasn't changed much since the flight up to Rotorua - so the view is the same on the way back. On arrival at Christchurch I again, you guessed it, head to the same lounge - for the third time today. |
CHRISTCHURCH to QUEENSTOWN (CHC-ZQN) on QF 737-300 with business seats
For the second time today I fly this route, so I'll keep this short. The lower angle of late afternoon sun gave some interesting colours to the rivers and lakes - here silvery, there gold, someplace else aqua. The near eastern side of the Alps were in deep shadow, and the cloud had thinned from the main divide - thus a sillhouette of sorts was on display for a long distance. Some peaks were really obvious even to me - such as Mounts Aoraki/Cook, Tasman and the distinct triangle of Aspiring. An evening chill was settling in to Queenstown when we arrived so I hurried across the tarmac into the terminal. |
QUEENSTOWN to CHRISTCHURCH (ZQN-CHC) on QF 737-300 with business seats
Not much to add. NZ & QF had a race to depart first with flights timed close together and an approaching front already dumping rain on the other side of Lake Wakatipu. Despite NZ starting boarding first, QF won the race and took off early ahead of the menacing looking rain cloud. We consequently arrived back in Christchurch early ^ - all the better to have a drink or two (several beers wines and spirits on offer) in the lounge along with some yummy soup and cold cuts. |
CHRISTCHURCH to AUCKLAND (CHC-AKL) on QF 737-300 with business seats
With the sun having set while we were on the ground in Christchurch the flight is in darkness. A fairly significant period of turbulence over the North Island started just after I got a full cup of coffee - cue fast slurping of the hot drink while frantically trying not to spill any on myself or seatmate. We arrived slightly early to end a day of flying. The next day I took a further 6 flights, including some of the same ones as flown today, attracting many deja vue comments from crew, lounge staff, security folk and ground staff. It felt good to have a couple of stress free flying days after months where it seemed every other Qantas domestic flight was either delayed, cancelled or diverted. |
FLYING TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND
All the current domestic routes are listed below, with links to reports on a selection of a proportion of those flights. I've flown all of these, including all NZ and all QF routes. DJ (Pacific Blue aka Virgin Blue) starts in November on 3 routes - AKL-CHC, AKL-WLG and WLG-CHC. From/To Auckland
From/To Hamilton
From/To Wellington
From/To Nelson
From/To Christchurch
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AUCKLAND to WELLINGTON (AKL-WLG) on DJ (Pacific Blue) 737-800
I debated with myself whether or not to post this here given the flight experience (pre start of scheduled service) would be atypical. I decided to post the more pertinent bits. Pacific Blue is part of Virgin Blue (they only have rights for the Virgin name in Australia) and has just started a small domestic network in NZ a few years after operating internationally across the Tasman and to selected South Pacific Islands. I was advised to turn up at check in some 45 minutes before departure (compared with QF and NZ which both use 30 minute cut off). I'm not sure if this is normal or just because they wanted passengers to enjoy any special arrangements made for this flight. The check in desks occupy about 1/3 of the space QF domestic check in used to have, and feels rather cramped. There are half a dozen kiosks, as well as a elite line (for status passengers - there is no business class) and 2 snakey regular lines - one for bag drop for those who have checked in using the kiosks (or OLCI?) and one for check in. Although there is no queue it takes some time to check in - apparently the computers are playing up. The boarding pass is like a supermarket check out docket - cheap and no good at all for those who collect boarding passes for I'm sure it will quickly fade. I was checked in for my same day return flight automatically. Even though check in is beside Qantas, you clear the Air NZ jet security - a small distance to the left. Then, instead of going upstairs to the left for Air NZ, stay downstairs and proceed to the right for the fairly small gate lounge area. There is a single toilet in this area. There is also a coke machine, and today a portable coffee maker which I'm sure will not be here for scheduled flights. There is ample room for 1 738 load of passengers by the gate, but will be crowded in the event 2 flights depart close together (shouldn't happen at this stage unless due to delays - DJ only has 2 aircraft on the domestic network). Boarding was called rather late. The boarding pass barcode is scanned and we have a short walk across the tarmac to the air stairs. When 2 or more DJ aircraft are here at once I would guess a bus will be needed - there are no spare stands next to the terminal. 2 stairs were used for boarding, but it still took a while to finalise paperwork due to the computer issues. The FA crew were in fine fettle being rather jokesy. This will wear thin rather quickly I suspect. |
The 1-ABC seats have emergency exit in front (no bulkhead on that side of the a/c) and thus more legroom. First row (and emergency exit rows) has tray table in the armrests thus less width than other rows.
I noticed they were playing lots of classic kiwi music over the PA - part of their bid to become a new kiwi icon :rolleyes: I'll skip the flight since for sure the experience is different to normal - you wouldn't normally get free food and drink for instance. Having left late we arrived late also. At Wellington again we had a stand - in front of the central part of the terminal between the QF and NZ piers. 2 airstairs were used and to get into the terminal requires climbing a flight of stairs (inside). The DJ flight that arrived afterwards pulled into the first airbridge on the QF pier. There are only a couple of airbridges in the domestic portion of that pier, so given way the schedules work (will sometimes be 2 DJ a/c at WLG at once, at similar times to a QF a/c) I expect it will be a lottery as to whether airbridge or stairs are used for any given flight. This is a shame as the weather in WLG can sometimes be rather inclement to say the least. |
WELLINGTON to AUCKLAND (WLG-AKL) on DJ 737-800
An airbridge was used for this flight. A delay on departure due to slow boarding process and 3 missing passengers (who were eventually offloaded). On arrival back at Auckland the same stand was used - which means you come landside by the baggage claim. I had no checked bags so can't comment on how quick or otherwise they came out. |
FLYING TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND
All the current domestic routes are listed below, with links to reports on a selection of a proportion of those flights. I've flown all of these, including all NZ and all QF routes. DJ (Pacific Blue aka Virgin Blue) has just started services on 3 routes - AKL-CHC, AKL-WLG and WLG-CHC. From/To Auckland
From/To Hamilton
From/To Wellington
From/To Nelson
From/To Christchurch
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You managed to get on to the DJ inaugural then after all? ^ I thought I caught a glimpse of you on the One News clip they were showing on Monday - the briefest of closeup shots it was, so I wasn't sure.
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