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Just a quick comment on Pacific Blue seating. The exit rows and lefthand bulkhead have a lot more legroom than the other rows. The forward lefthand side seats seem to have about 1" more space than the righthand side, due to the bulkhead on the right. Legroom varies by seat. The seat I had forward and around the middle of the a/c had a couple " more than the seat I had near the back. I had the same seat on 2 different a/c and there was no difference in legroom.
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Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
(Post 9913891)
I headed to the airport a bit earlier than I'd like to as the airbus has changed both its timetable and routing. The routing is not as good (less stops, and most of these are on Queen Street) but the schedule is better - greater frequency in the middle of the day, with slightly earlier start and slightly later finish. So pluses and minuses for me, good for some, not so good for others. |
The taxi companies like the airbus not starting early enough for the first international flights (mostly Australia) and not running late enough for the last domestic flights or international flights (Singapore, Australia and others).
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AUCKLAND to CHRISTCHURCH (AKL-CHC) on Pacific Blue 737-800
I'd booked a day-trip to help complete my record of flying all the domestic routes in NZ flown by the 3 main airlines (missing 1 at time of writing) whilst taking advantage of special introductory fares for the new Pacific Blue destination of Dunedin. About 23 hours before departure of the 4th flight I OLCI'ed. Seat availability seems to be based on status rather than fare. I did my usual trick to try to maximise my odds of an empty middle seat. I headed to the airport early to meet up with serfty. I grabbed a couple of coffees in the Qantas Club. The weather in the South Island was poor and from tracking various websites (see my recent blog post) I knew I was in for a long wait. Eventually the a/c for my flight arrived and so I headed out through security to the gate which was packed (2 flights due to go in a small gate area). The delay was due to need for deicing at Christchurch earlier in the day when it was snowing - the airport didn't close but caused significant delays across all 3 airlines. It was raining steadily so I hung back to board almost last - for we have a short walk across the tarmac and board via stairs. Due to the weather boarding was only through front stairs (the normal rear stairs not used), further adding to the delays. The flight was almost totally full but my trick worked and I had an empty middle seat. After a short taxi we were off. Food and drink was the usual buy on board Virgin Blue / Pacific Blue offerings. IFE was in the form of audio ($2.50 for a cheap earbud that you can keep), plus the magazine I guess. No view of the North Island today as there was extensive cloud cover. However, further south there were clear skies over Nelson and the West Coast, making for a great panaroma from Farewell Spit to the far southern horizon along the alps. The other side was blanketed in cloud and we saw nothing until passing Rangiora on final approach. The snow had cleared with just the odd passing shower but it was cold and wet enough that only the airbridge was used to disembark - normally rear stairs here too. |
CHRISTCHURCH to DUNEDIN (CHC-DUD) on Pacific Blue 737-800
Through passengers have to disembark and wait at the gate. There was a heaving mass of people there as like AKL the gate area is really too small for this size of aircraft. Even though the transit was short I decided to spend the time in the Qantas Club right next door. This was an oasis - I was the only non-staff member there. The recent renovations had improved the lounge (slightly) - making it seem more airy and spacious. As I wasn't flying Qantas I had to keep an ear out for boarding announcements. The weather in Dunedin was also not good so I checked a few websites but it seems the flight will be going ahead. Once again I managed an empty middle seat on the almost totally full flight. This is a shorter flight but there was still a run through with the buy on board cart - but no hot drinks available. Again not much of a view. We soon burst through a shallow cloud layer but they clouds were banked up against the Southern Alps so that only the tips of a few of the highest peaks were visible. Then on descent into Dunedin we broke through the cloud with views of the snow covered hills surrounding the valley in which the airport is located. It looked cold and sure felt cold when we disembarked by front and back air stairs. I don't know why the airbridge wasn't used - I guess Pacific Blue doesn't pay the airport enough to use them (as with AKL). A short race across the tarmac and then huddle up waiting to enter the terminal building as a bottleneck had built up on the stairs up to the main level. |
DUNEDIN to CHRISTCHURCH (DUD-CHC) on Pacific Blue 737-800
As we were not considered sterile any more I had to then go through screening for the return flight. There was a small mini waiting room in between the screening station and a locked door (to prevent us mixing with the arriving passengers). There were only a dozen people inside the waiting room so I thought the flight would be almost empty. Thus I was unhappy to find I was in a full row once back onboard and out of the cold. However, there was a steady trickle of passengers and eventually the flight ended up mostly full. The turnaround ended up longer than the normal scheduled 45 minutes - I guess that with the delay of over 90 minutes the passengers were scattered throughout the small terminal and slow to be processed through screening if a boarding call was not made until after I'd gone through (I didn't hear one during my short transit). The flight was uneventful and we arrived back to a brief gap in the weather in Christchurch and a comparatively balmy 3C temperature. |
CHRISTCHURCH to AUCKLAND (CHC-AKL) on Pacific Blue 737-800
Again the gate area was packed so I headed into the Qantas Club. This time the lounge was also packed (a couple of delayed Qantas flights) and so I couldn't hear boarding calls. Instead I kept an eye out for the milling Pacific Blue passengers outside the lounge entrance as my cue to leave. Another mostly full flight but I managed again to have an empty middle seat. 3/4 is not bad given there is no seat blocking and the flights were all fairly full. Nothing to note of the flight itself. As we passed over the creek at the end of the runway I thought we were coming in rather fast and perhaps a bit low. Sure enough we had a rough kangaroo hop landing and used almost all the long runway to slow down enough to exit. The weather had cleared in Auckland since I left, but no rear stairs due to a nearby Qantas aircraft (they had 3 at the domestic terminal for just the 2 airbridges in this part of the building). In the 4 flights I had 3 different seats. There were differences (of about an inch) in seat pitch but I haven't yet worked out a pattern. The shortest pitch was a bit tight for me. Service is almost non-existant. If you want anything be sure to bring some cash or a credit card (the machine didn't appear to be working very well so cash recommended). The on-time performance was poor - all flights between 90 and 110 minutes late. But, to be fair Qantas was also having a bad day, and some Air NZ flights were also rather late. All due to the worse weather early in the day in Christchurch and Dunedin. |
FLYING TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND
All the current domestic routes are listed below, with links to reports on a selection of those flights. I've flown almost all of the domestic routes operated by NZ (Air New Zealand), QF (jetconnect aka Qantas) and DJ (Pacific Blue aka Virgin Blue) - missing just one NZ route. QF has a limited route network of AKL-WLG/CHC/ZQN, CHC-ROT/ZQN. DJ has an even more limited route network of AKL-WLG/CHC, WLG-CHC and CHC-DUD. From/To Auckland
From/To Hamilton
From/To Wellington
From/To Nelson
From/To Christchurch
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AUCKLAND to WHAKATANE (AKL-WHK) on Air New Zealand Beech 1900D
This was a positioning flight so as to be able to fly the last remaining domestic Air NZ route that I have not yet flown (I still have 5 international Air NZ routes that I also have not yet flown). This remaining route has a tricky schedule, and so I made sure of making the connection by taking an earlier flight down from Auckland. However, the weather was again, for about the fourth week in a row, threatening to derail my travel plans. Thunderstorms, wind, rain, hail. If one of the flights got cancelled I might have a problem and stranded in a relatively remote corner of New Zealand. For I had bought some more international flights for the next day, which due to the loss of the great old multi-city tool and replaced with less functional graphic-based multi-city tools on the Air NZ website was on separate tickets. Once in Whakatane, the only possible way to make that next ticket was on the flight I had booked out of there, assuming it flies that night. So, when I arrived at the airport, I rushed to the lounge within a minute having OLCI'ed and printed my boarding pass, and having only a small enough carry-on to fit in the small space under the seats on the Beech. Once inside I hopped on the computer to assess the risks. But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The lounge renovations had been completed in the past few weeks, during which period all my domestic flights were either on other airlines or using the international terminal. I liked the changes, although the business centre is now very noisy being open to the entrance and the agent work desk. May be good for those who eavesdrop! :eek: There were plenty of copies of the NZ Herald but no NBR or other newspapers, however asking at the desk resulted in a cupboard being unlocked and more papers brought out. The main change in the lounge is the extension back over check in, which is big enough to have it's own coffee machine and fridge but not a second food counter. The coffee cart seemed to have gone - I hope this doesn't mean the end of barista service. Near this extension area, the door for regional flights is now operational. This saves a few metres walk but you still have to walk past check in throngs as it comes out landside between check in and baggage claim. A better design, assuming there was suitable space for a corridor would be to have the landside exit on the other side of check in as it is this area that can be hard to walk through at busy times of day. Lots of flights had been delayed (but mine stayed on time) and the info I found online suggested the weather would be at its worst while I was in Whakatane. When the boarding call came I had to decide whether to risk it and go, or pull out and have a mess to sort out with my couple of tickets. I decided to roll the die. The gate used was the closest of the prop gates so only half a mile (it seems like) from the lounge. As I walked the few paces across the tarmac I saw the rain and hail were not far away with a menacing black wall of cloud over the harbour seemingly not far from the runway although I realised in reality it was probably 5 miles away. I'd chosen row 3 since the first rows have no window. The flight was reasonably full but we had completed boarding early. A final check outside by the pilot and we raced out to beat the weather. We took off sharply and turned away fairly quickly. All normal for the Beech to get out of the way of any bigger and faster aircraft. The view through the cockpit and out the side windows was interesting - dark seething cloud in most directions. We had a few turns to avoid the worst of it and then a few minor bumps inside the cloud for a few minutes until we'd climbed out the top. I later heard this front dropped inch-diameter hail so I was glad we avoided the worst of it. The middle of the flight was uninteresting. Cloud, cloud and more cloud while we flew just above it. It wasn't until a few miles from Whakatane that we descended low enough to see the land and gentle sweep of the Bay of Plenty coastline. A few turns out over the sea and we soon landed back towards the west. |
WHAKATANE to WELLINGTON (WHK-WLG) on Air New Zealand Beech 1900D operated by Vincent Aviation
I had intended to go into town during the few hours I have until my next flight. However I could see the same front bearing down and figured it would be better to be dry and comfortable at the airport (where at least I could change my travel if necessary) than cold and wet in town. So after a quick walk nearby that was cut short with the first of many squalls I hunkered down with some papers by the window and watched the thunderstorms roll by. After a few minutes the airline staff shut up and went into town leaving me to the terminal by myself. This would never happen in USA! After a couple of hours of lightning accompanied ferocious bursts of wind and rain that shook the terminal, with no signs of let up, I was beginning to wonder if my attempt was doomed. Surely the flight would be cancelled? The terminal is basic with coin-operated snack and drink, a few chairs and a bathroom but not much else. Even the cell signal was weak. I had no information to go by until the staff returned about 30 minutes before 2 flights were due to land. They were still running, but with a short delay. Miraculously, the storms cleared. While the skies remained black with no sign of stars or moon this night, it was spookily calm and dry. Yay, I'll be flying this route tonight after all. As I had OLCI'ed and printed my boarding pass I had no need to check in here. One issue with this approach soon became apparent as the agent went around the terminal checking if all the booked passengers had turned up. For with a light load (about 7 passengers) weight and balance issues came into play. The two arriving flights arrived one after the other - the second landing barely moments after the first had taxiied up to the terminal (as with most small airports there is no taxiway). This meant a further small delay as the ground staff (of one) worked hard to unload bags from 2 full flights, and then load up the bags for our flight. We left half an hour late. I noticed that since my last flight on Vincent Aviation they had now gotten a 1900D, my previous flights were on much older 1900C's. The recorded safety announcement also had very different wording to that used by Eagle Air (ie Air NZ). There was a view of some lights of a couple of small towns before we climbed over the less populated central high country. About half an hour out of Wellington we caught up with the next front and got treated to a wild ride. The bumps were not too bad but the light show outside was something else. Heading over the upper reaches of Hutt Valley we encountered severe hail. It was odd seeing large globs of ice rising up the windscreen by our forward momentum being illuminated eerily by lightning ahead of us. After several minutes of noisy battering we emerged out the other side and saw a panorama of Wellington urban lights all around in what looked like quite a nice evening. We flew a loop over the Orongorongo Ranges and over the western extremity of Cook Strait to land from the south. Then a long walk down the finger pier to catch a cab for Courtenay Place. |
FLYING TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND
All the current domestic routes are listed below, with links to reports on a selection of those flights. I've now flown all of the domestic routes operated by NZ (Air New Zealand), QF (jetconnect aka Qantas) and DJ (Pacific Blue aka Virgin Blue). QF has a limited route network of AKL-WLG/CHC/ZQN, CHC-ROT/ZQN. DJ has an even more limited route network of AKL-WLG/CHC, WLG-CHC and CHC-DUD. From/To Auckland
From/To Hamilton
From/To Wellington
From/To Nelson
From/To Christchurch
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All the current domestic routes are listed below, with links to reports on a selection of those flights. I've now flown all of the domestic routes operated by NZ (Air New Zealand), QF (jetconnect aka Qantas) and DJ (Pacific Blue aka Virgin Blue). Unlikely anyone else in NZ has done that (or is likely to do) Have you done all routes in both directions ? |
No. There are a handful of routes that I've only flown in one direction, mainly due to schedules.
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
(Post 10209434)
Congratulations & well done :) :cool: ^
Unlikely anyone else in NZ has done that (or is likely to do) Have you done all routes in both directions ?
Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
(Post 10209446)
No. There are a handful of routes that I've only flown in one direction, mainly due to schedules.
1) Every flight number:eek: 2) The various small airline routes:p |
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