nzom_pilot

Chainy - ex ZK-PBL of Pacific Blue (NZ) now with Pacific Blue (Aust) still in Pacific Blue paint ... will be part of the fleet operating the new PB routes to Bail, Nadi etc, as well as BNE-WLG.

Im Eastering at an airshow Classic Fighters Omaka 2009. I cant think of a better way to spend my last weekend in NZ than at an airshow. Some great aircraft here, some weird and a whole lot of normal ones. Highlight so far today was seeing the newest Spitfire in NZ arrive and displaying. And just for you Trix there were 2 Graumman Cheetah's, and yes I got photos for you

Its Zuild mate, you learn that and i'll learn Strine, and we both might cope

no comment mate :tongue:only some of these sound even remotely close to how we pronounce it - some even I dont understand

Darren - she is based at Ardmore - get out there sometime and watch all the Warbirds flying - DAK is just one of the many based there. Another great one to see flying from there is ZK-PBY the Catalina ;)

Nice report mate, apart from the already discussed bits ... Kapiti ice cream is great :biggrin: The runway would've been 05R ... looking forward to some spotting with you there soon

Hey Adz, welcome to TAA, the best and friendliest forum in Australia. As you're finding out this place is great :biggrin: I know you'll enjoy your time here.

wrong airport Daz she is headed for Christchurch - see post 4 in this thread

I'm here - I watched it pass over SE QLD on balus.info - and you lot had already posted here - so I didn't bother. Thanks for keeping things updated

Can confirm it is NBU returning on military charter. She will remain in CHC until Sunday, and will be part of the ANZES family open day on Saturday. NZOM will still have his finger on the pulse of the NZ scene even if he is in BNE

NZ1922 BWN-CHC arrives 2315 NZDT (2115 AEDT). Possibly NBU on return but cant confirm - can some one over there keep an eye out on Plane Potter as it passes over on its way down, and find a rego. Thanks

NBU was operating from Auckland to eventually Singapore as NZ6022 - believe to be a troop charter .... as for why it was showing as FX6022 ... I have no idea And yes the Atlas NZ freight flights finished a couple of weeks ago ... although Atlas is remaining on exactly the same route and flight times now with a QF code instead.

You might not be quite here yet - but welcome to NZ, and since Im swapping with you look after the place once I've gone

LOL - anyone who has been in chat the last few days may have seen the rivalry between aviatrix27 and I on this topic - right now I'm smiling :D

Should anyone get to CHC then the Ruapuna racetrack is a great spotting location (when its open) Ruapuna offers excellent shots of all jets and most turboprops on finals for runway 02. They come in right overhead the track and the pit area. I was down there the weekend before last photographing my brother in law racing in the Canterbury Car club trials And this is some of the action overhead, which is far more exciting Air New Zealand's Japan flights arriving: Boeing 767 ZK-NCL Boeing 777 ZK-OKC And a couple of International visitors: Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 9V-SVG Emirates Boeing 777 A6-EBI

Hey mate Welcome aboard, you'll find you will really enjoy TAA - the best forum in Australia

welcome mate. Aviation photography is a great hobby to have for those who cant or dont fly, enjoy your time here, you're going to enjoy it.

Welcome mate Hope you enjoy your time here

welcome mate this is definitely the best place you will ever stumble across accidentally, enjoy it.

Glad everyone like the report. I'm pleased I was able to include *some* pics with this one. I aim to make them informative as well as enjoyable, and not just boring drudgery. .matt, Flight of the Concords are brilliant :biggrin: good American made Kiwi comedy. Dean747, I had the same wine on the flight over and didn't enjoy it, but it was nice on this trip.

looking forward to your report mate.

Introduction This was the return leg of the two week trip to Brisbane in preparation for the shift next month. The first leg can be found [ame=http://theaussieaviator.net/showthread.php?t=25232]HERE[/ame]. General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand (NZ) Flight number: NZ136 Origin: Brisbane International Airport (BNE) Destination: Auckland International Airport (AKL) Distance: 2296 kms Scheduled departure time: 11:25 local Scheduled Arrival Time: 17:35 local Scheduled flight time: 3 hours 10 minutes Actual departure time: 11:35 Actual arrival time: 17:14 Class of Travel: Economy Class Seat: 54A Aircraft: B772ER Registration: ZK-OKA Statistics: 2nd flight on type, 1st on OKA DepartureAirport Brisbane International is better now than it was when I flew out in October 08. The internal renovation work on the airside departure level is all but complete with the only remaining work confined to a small out of the way corner. I took some time to walk down both “piers” of the terminal and was impressed by the improvements and extensions to the “northern pier”, which is home to gates 74-79. In the “southern pier” the gates held some treasures for a Kiwi spotter. Two OzJet B732s, VH-OZX and the Norfolk Air branded VH-OZD. Also present was VH-OJC which had arrived from LAX and was about to relocate to SYD. Next to it was VH-OEJ Wunala Dreaming which had positioned up from SYD to operate to LAX. Parked on the “terminal” gates was 9V-SRH which was parked up with its return to SIN canceled. Next to it was VH-QPH which would later operate QF51 to SIN. Arriving shortly afterwards to park next to this was Cathay Pacific A333 B-HLR from HKG via DRW. The ‘northern pier’ held the NZ based aircraft with 4x Pacific Blue B738s incl. ZK-PBB, and ZK-PBK, a Jetconnect B734 ZK-JTQ and then my NZ B772ER. The new couches in the gate areas may not be enough seating for a full flight, but they are comfortable and a nice place to sit and read the paper, while waiting for your flight. Aircraft My aircraft for this flight was ZK-OKA c/n29404 the 1st of the 772ERs delivered to Air New Zealand. It was registered on 28-October-2005. This aircraft was showing some signs of its age, with the furnishings looking like they had been used, but still nicer than some aircraft that I’ve flown. The PTVs in the 772 are still the older non-touch screen type and this was a bit off putting after the touch screens on the A320 on my previous Tasman flight. Flight Boarding was roughly on time at around 1055-1100. Boarding was swift and I was greeted at the door by the Inflight Service Coordinator who glanced at my boarding pass and greeted me be name, before directing me to the right and down the back. The Flight Service Manager stationed just inside the door also welcomed me onboard. I headed down the aisle and had to wait of another passenger who was taking up the aisle while talking to one of the crew members. I quickly found row 54 and the window seat A. Row 54 is the second row in the rear economy section just behind door 3L. It is also the first row that is back to 3 seats, with row 53 only having 2 due to the toilets in the centre and the exit at door 3L. We were boarded reasonably quickly and CPT Stuart Hawker came on to welcome us aboard and he told us he hoped we would be off on time but were still waiting for the cargo door to be closed. The front door was closed and I had the row to myself J. We pushed back slightly early at 1118. Our taxi path was from the international ramp via B9 – A – A1 to runway 19. Passing the domestic ramps it was nice to see two special livery birds with JQ’s seaworld jet VH-VQQ and Qantas’s Yananyi Dreaming VH-VXB. We waited for a QF 763 to roll ahead and then a QF 763 VH-ZXF loomed out of the low cloud and mist less than 200ft above the runway and landed ahead. We then turned onto the runway and were off. We were well into the cloud by the end of the runway and stayed in it until 2700m (about 8800ft). There was some light chop at 10500ft but otherwise it was fine and dandy and a lovely flight above the clouds. Our cruising altitude was 12496m or just under 41000ft. At one stage I noticed the ground speed was recorded as 1040km/h or 561.5kts, obviously a nice little tail wind courtesy of cyclone Hamish. For the first time in economy I noticed the ISC was offering passengers a choice of either the Australian or the Courier Mail. I haven’t seen this before in economy, only in premium or business. One bad note was there was no KiaOra magazine in the row, so I had nothing to read, although the IFE made up for it. I ended up watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory and several episodes of Flight of the Concords. Lunch was served about 35mins out, with the choice of a chicken caesar salad, or shepherds pie. I chose the salad, which was ok although the lettuce was starting to get a bit past it. This was followed by a tub of Kapiti Ice cream, todays flavour was the absolutely divine black doris plum & crème fraiche. I washed it down with a 2008 Montana Sauvignon Blanc, and followed it up with coffee. The cabin was prepared for landing around 16:53local and we prepared for touch down. We entered the layer of cloud over Auckland at 8200ft and dropped below it around 3200ft. Landing was smooth, and a quick taxi followed thanks to the high speed exit A6 from the runway. From there we taxied via 23R – B9 – D7 and M4 around the international ramp onto gate 5. ArrivalAirport Auckland hasn’t changed since I flew in, in October there is still a long walk along the new pier until you get to go downstairs and then head for immigration. Then you continue down to the baggage reclaim hall before going through the MAF biosecurity check point and then out into the arrivals hall. This was the first time I have been able to go to the domestic transfer desk, and it was a disaster. There were only two agents manning the 4 Air New Zealand desks, and there was a group of well over 30 artists who had arrived in for the WOMAD festival, plus a decent sized queue of us regular connecting passengers. Finally one of the agents shifted everyone in the WOMAD group to the right hand side to the other agent and re-routed the rest of the queue to herself. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 8.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 8.0 Entertainment System: 7.0 Crew: 8.0 Food and Beverages: 8.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 8.0 Total Score: 7.70 General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand (NZ) Flight number: NZ467 Origin: Auckland International Airport (AKL) Destination: Wellington International Airport (WLG) Distance: 480 kms Scheduled departure time: 19:00 local Scheduled Arrival Time: 20:00 local Scheduled flight time: 1 hour Actual departure time: 19:07 Actual arrival time: 19:57 Class of Travel: Economy Class Seat: 16A – changed to 16B Aircraft: B737 Registration: ZK-NGO Statistics: 6th flight on type, 1st on NGO DepartureAirport Having checked in at the International transfer desk, it was simply a case of stopping for a burger in the domestic terminal, before passing thru security before waiting at the gate. Aircraft NGO c/n24209 is one of the domestic fleet and is configured in the 133 seat layout with “space +” from row 1-12 and standard economy from 13-23. I had been assigned seat 16A but ended up in 16B the middle seat due to a rather large Pacific Island gent in my seat. I wasn’t about to argue with him, and since it was only an hour long sector right on dark there wasn’t much to view outside and my camera had run out of battery. (seems to be a trend for me the camera dieing during trip reports! At least I got the images from the 1st leg this time) Flight The captain came on shortly after boarding to say we would be on our way shortly and that the flight would be flown by the F/O Felicity Royer. This was a surprise for me as Felicity used to be my instructor at Marlborough Aero Club before she left for her airline career. Due to this I completely forgot to record the CPT’s name. We pushed back two minutes early and taxied to runway 23L via B and A2. We lined up immediately and rolled pretty much straight away. The flight was packed and I could only see about 3 empty seats in the whole plane, meaning it was a very cramped flight. The flight was uneventful with the snack option either chips & hummus or a cheese platter and full bar service. Wellington had turned on one of its infamous winds and we rocked about quite a bit as we descended to land. After the flight as everyone was disembarking I stopped at the front door and told the CSM that the F/O used to be my instructor and asked if I could say hi. She popped into the flight deck and asked then reappeared and waved me in. Felicity was happy to see me and said she wished she had known I was on board as she would’ve jump seated me. The CPT got out of his seat and went to stretch his legs and suggested I should sit in his seat, which I did without hesitation. Unfortunately the flight deck visit would be short lived as they only had a 30min turn around before they were heading back to AKL. As Felicity walked with me up the jetway my flight to Blenheim was called for boarding, so I walked straight to the gate and out to the plane. ArrivalAirport Didn’t see much of it as we arrived on gate 16 and my next flight departed from Gate 14, so only saw the little bit between the two gates. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 5.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 6.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 5.0 Entertainment System: N/A Crew: 6.0 Food and Beverages: 7.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 7.0 Total Score: 6.55 General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand Link – Eagle Air (NZ) Flight number: NZ2459 Origin: Wellington International Airport (WLG) Destination: Blenheim - Woodbourne Airport (BHE) Distance: 80 kms Scheduled departure time: 20:25 local Scheduled Arrival Time: 20:50 local Scheduled flight time: 25 minutes Actual departure time: 20:23 Actual arrival time: 20:38 Class of Travel: Economy Class Seat: 8F Aircraft: B1900D Registration: ZK-EAK Statistics: 10th flight on type, 2nd on EAK DepartureAirport As stated previously not much seen in the short walk from one plane to another – other than the fact the walk across the ramp from the gate to the aircraft was VERY cold and was hard to stand up in the gale force breeze. Aircraft EAK was the 11th 1900D, delivered to Eagle Air in June 2006, and is well maintained. Flight Another uneventful but full flight, with only 2 spare seats. We taxied from gate 14 via Z to A then the main taxiway to 2 before lining up on 16. We had a short take off roll due to the wind and climbed quickly. There was very little noticeable effect from the wind on climb out and we raced across Cook Straight and straight in over town to land very early on 24. ArrivalAirport Blenheim seemed very small and dark at this time of night, with 2 other 1900Ds and air2there’s PA-31-350 parked at the other gates. The airwork/airpost F27 was loading ready for its departure to WLG and AKL. Inside the terminal it seemed dark with all the rental car booths closed for the night. Outside it was freezing, the temp was only 8 deg celsius, a far cry from the morning, when I left Brisbane and was shivering in 23 deg, this was COLD. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 8.0 Check-in: 5.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 6.0 Boarding: 8.0 Seat: 7.0 Entertainment System: N/A Crew: 7.0 Food and Beverages: N/A Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 9.0 Total Score: 7.25 Wrap Up A reasonable trans tasman flight, shockingly cramped domestic jet leg, only made good by the flight deck visit at the end, and a solid quick domestic prop flight. Combined these flights by NZ were solid but average, unfortunately nothing exceptional to write home about. NZ136 + NZ467 + NZ2459 7.70 + 6.55 + 7.25 = 15.43/2 = 7.16 total score

hey mate good to have another Kiwi on the board - was getting lonely for a bit there I must say for aussie's the folks on this forum are the best/friendliest out there - you'll enjoy it here - from a soon to be permanently Brisvegas based Kiwi

Apologies for the lack of photos in this report - it will be explained below Introduction After my visit to Brisbane in October, I found things were much better for me health wise in the Brisbane climate, than any part of the New Zealand climate could offer. So after some consideration I decided that shifting to Brisbane would be beneficial to me, as it not only offered improved health but an improved lifestyle. So as a Christmas present my parents and sister went halves in buying me another holiday to Brisbane. This is that holiday and I am using the fortnight to help confirm my plans to move over, and as a chance to help try and find a job and somewhere to live. General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand Link – Air Nelson (NZ) Flight number: NZ8018 Origin: Blenheim Woodbourne Airport (BHE) Destination: Auckland International Airport (AKL) Distance: 505 kms Scheduled departure time: 09:35 Scheduled Arrival Time: 10:55 Scheduled flight time: 1 hour 20 minutes Actual departure time: 09:52 Actual arrival time: 11:05 Class of Travel: Economy Class Seat: 12D Aircraft: Q300 Registration: ZK-NEC Statistics: 5th flight on type, 1st on NEC DepartureAirport Blenheim Woodbourne Airport is my “home” airport and a quintessential regional New Zealand airport. In many ways Blenheim is lucky to have an airport of the quality we do, as it is shared with RNZAF base Woodbourne. The airport is managed by the local council through a holdings company as part of Port Marlborough. The passenger terminal is a modest building with 4 main stands in front of the large glass windows, accessed from either of two gates. Gate 1 accesses stands 1 & 2 and Gate 2 accesses stands 3 and 4. There are two main check in desks, the Air New Zealand link desks that handle all the Link flights, operated by Eagle Air’s B1900Ds and Air Nelson’s Q300s. The other check in desk handles the flights of the two commuter airlines that serve Blenheim, Sounds Air and air2there.com, both of which uses C208 caravans. Check In this morning was a breeze although a little early due to the requirement that international connection’s must check in 1hr prior to the flight, instead of the standard 30mins for domestic services. I was sequence number 3 for my domestic leg and 11 for the international leg. The lovely NZ ground crew member checked me in smoothly and towards the end remembered to ask me if I’d packed my own bag. She forgot to ask me if I had any LAG’s in my carry on but of course I was well prepared. The passenger before me had been check into Papeetee (PPT), and she had completely forgotten to ask him all the security questions so as soon as she had completed my check in she went and asked him. The joys of a small terminal where the gate lounge is the same space as arrivals/drop off/check in/café/rental car booths. After the reasonably short process and the printing of both boarding passes and bag tags I still had nearly an hour to kill before my flight. With Blenheim being as small as it is, I know most of the rental car agents so was able to chat with them to fill in the time. Aircraft My aircraft for the flight was ZK-NEC which touched down from AKL as NZ8019 5minutes early at 0905. NEC was the third Q300 delivered to Air Nelson in November 2005. Despite being one of the elder statesmen of the fleet it has held up well, a testament to the way Air Nelson look after their aircraft. Boarding was scheduled for 0925 but we were delayed until 0935. All passengers were on board by 0941. Flight I had pre selected my seats on airnewzealand.co.nz prior shortly after the booking was made, and was allocated these pre selected seats for today’s flights. For this flight I was in 12D the very last row on the starboard (right) side of the aircraft. I have learnt in previous Q300 flights that it is better to choose either the first two or the last two rows if you want to take photos otherwise the engine nacelle, and wheel wells get in the way. There was a reasonable load fact of 60% this morning with 30 of the 50 seats filled, much better than the last few times I have taken this flight. I was welcomed on board by the vivacious smile of our cabin crew member Hayley. Wandered down to the back and settled in, making sure my camera was ready to take pics. I used my point and shoot digi for this as on previous flights I found my DSLR too big for this purpose. Unfortunately when trying to download the photos from the camera to my laptop the memory card threw a wobbly and refused to let any of the pics download then promptly decided it wasn’t formatted anymore, so as a result I have 0 of the 80 pics taken to share as part of this report. Our expected flight time today was 80minutes. After the cabin was secured the engines were started and we were prepared for departure. We were off blocks at 0945. We taxied to and held at holding point two while we waited for an Eagle Air 1900D from Wellington to land. We taxi backtracked behind the 1900D and lined up on runway 24. As this was happening Hayley undertook the pre flight safety announcement, and introduced the crew, CPT Murray Clarke and F/O Craig Hurst. We stopped briefly on line up before the throttles were advanced and we began our take off roll down 24. We achieved wheels up at 0952 and began the climb out. Following usual procedure we made a right turn over Renwick and continued round to join the runway 06 heading, crossing central Blenheim on our way to the Blenheim beacon. After crossing the coast we started a right turn tracking for the Tory VOR. The weather was absolutely perfect in Marlborough but the sight over the North Island wasn’t so good. WLG was clear with patchy cloud over PPQ then the rest of the island appeared to be buried under a sheet of fluffy CB’s. In actual fact most of the island was probably covered in the same broken CBs, as Taranaki and Waikato was, but it didn’t look like it from our position. After crossing Tory we made a couple of turns to line up on the direct track north crossing Ohura, and Raglan. The service was excellent on this flight. The first service, water, was served promptly after we reached our cruising altitude at FL190. Hayley then distributed the cups for the hot drink service, consisting of either tea or coffee. The Vienna Gold cookie today was a macaroon. Hayley earned extra point by doing a second biscuit run after the hot drink run. The final service was the Air New Zealand boiled lolly’s, at top of decent. Service from Hayley was top notch the whole way and her smile was an absolute highlight. She treated all passengers with respect and made the day of the two children on board by surprising them with colouring in materials and other such child friendly things. The flight crew did a wonderful job and the only hint of turbulence was some slight chop as we descended through the cloud level on approach into Auckland. We touched down on 23L at 1105 and taxied via Alpha 4, 23 Right, Bravo 4, and Charlie 5 to gate 43, where we were on blocks at 1108. Deplaning was an orderly affair, and I thanked Hayley for her wonderful service as I left NEC behind. ArrivalAirport I can’t really say to much about Auckland Domestic in an arrival airport role for this trip, as my luggage was checked thru to Brisbane so I didn’t need to collect it, and it was simply a case of wandering thru the terminal and out into the Auckland sunshine to do a bit of spotting before heading for the international terminal. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 9.0 Check-in: 8.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 9.0 Seat: 9.0 Entertainment System: N/A Crew: 9.0 Food and Beverages: 8.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 8.0 On-time performance: 8.0 Total Score: 8.33 General Flight Overview Airline: Air New Zealand (NZ) Flight number: NZ739 Origin: Auckland International Airport (AKL) Destination: Brisbane International Airport (BNE) Distance: 2296 kms Scheduled departure time: 15:35 local Scheduled Arrival Time: 16:15 local Scheduled flight time: 3 hours 20 minutes Actual departure time: 16:09 Actual arrival time: 16:20 Class of Travel: Economy Class Seat: 23A Aircraft: A320 Registration: ZK-OJC Statistics: 1st flight on type, 1st on OJC DepartureAirport Auckland International is undergoing some work landside and the Jean Batten food court was all but closed as a result. There was still one café as well as Subway open. McDonalds operate from the other end of this level so have not been effected. Other than that it is always a strong contender with its two upstairs viewing areas that provide views across the international apron, and towards Qantas & Pacific Blue domestic. After sitting in the lower of the two viewing areas for sometime watching the loading then departure of ZK-OJA as NZ719 to Sydney, it was time to head airside. Passport control and security wasn’t that traumatic despite having to wait at the metal detector while and Indian gentleman in front was wanded several times as he had forgotten to remove several items from his pockets. Airside is and interesting place, beginning in the downstairs area home to duty free and Asian targeted Souvenir shops. Then you make you way up to the new departures level, added on top of the old terminal as a security measure to segregate the arriving and departing passengers. I’m not sure I like it but I guess it’ll grow on me eventually. There does seem to be a lack of seating around the café/burger king area, and an excess in other parts of the terminal. There is quite a nice lot of seats near the Air New Zealand/Star Alliance transfer area, and it was here that I started writing this report. Landside I had noticed a guy in a North Queensland Cowboys shirt but didn’t take any notice. It wasn’t until I was airside and there were suddenly a lot of guys in cowboy shirts that I realised it was the North Queensland Cowboys. They had been playing the Warriors in Auckland on the Sunday, going down in a thriller 32-28, with a late Manu Vatuvai try sealing it for the Warriors J They were on QF125 to Brisbane operated by ZK-JTR. About 5 minutes before we were due to start boarding I made my way down to the gate lounge at Gate 2 where ZK-OJC was waiting to take us to Brisbane. As I got to the gate lounge the gate staff made an announcement that due to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft boarding would be approximately 15 minutes late, but they still hoped we would depart on time. Aircraft ZK-OJC was the 3rd A320 delivered to Air New Zealand in October 2003. Like the rest of the Trans-Tasman/Pacific Island fleet of A320s and 763s OJC has now been fitted with PTV’s. So the seats were in reasonably new condition, belying the age of the aircraft. Overall it was in reasonable condition with a few scratches on the windows but nothing too much to complain about. The PTV’s had a good selection of Music, Television and Movies. The airshow was a bit dodgy, while sitting at the gate the vertical speed indicator was fluctuating between 0 and +/- 60kms/hr. It also showed the plane as being parked in the middle of Mangere Bridge township, then taxiing through and taking off in the middle of Mangere Bridge/Mangere. Flight When we finally began boarding and I was one of the first group of regular punters allowed on with a seat towards the rear of the aircraft. Boarding was completed in reasonable time when the captain Ian Wright came on to tell us that two domestic connecting passengers had missed their connection and didn’t look like they would be able to travel with us, but even though they weren’t here their luggage was, and it would be about 10 minutes while they searched for it too offload it. Around 10 to 15 minutes later Amy the CSM came on and said the passengers had been located and were being rushed through security and should be joining us shortly. They finally arrived and then had to do the walk of shame the whole length of the A320 to their seats near the back. We finally pushed back at 1553, and began our departure. We taxied via Bravo, Bravo 2 and Alpha 2 then held for an Air Nelson Q300 to arrive before lining up on Runway 23L. We were off almost immediately and climbed out on the runway heading. The crew for today’s flight was CSM Amy, who served in economy class, Jess in business class and Fritha and Courtney also in Economy. Unfortunately the stereotype about Zeal 320 kiddie crews was true on this flight. 2 looked to be in their mid 20s and the other two really did look like they’d only finished high school yesterday. And unfortunately this was very apparent in their service standards. They did appear to be going through the motions, and didn’t appear to have any enjoyment in their work. The flight crew, were the already mentioned CPT Ian Wright and the F/O was never mentioned over the PA. The flight was packed with a load factor of over 90% in economy – I could only see 5-6 empty seats. Our cruising altitude today was FL340. The first service carried out through the economy cabin was a water service. This seemed to be very cumbersome as the F/A was carrying a stack of plastic cups and a single 1.5L bottle of Kiwi Blue (Mount Franklin) water, and every time it was emptied she had to walk back to the galley and get another. So to serve the entire cabin it took her about 8 trips! The meal service followed with two choices, either a peppered steak pie or rosemary chicken rissole. I choose the pie, which was a gourmet pie and very tasty, it was served with pasta salad, a small cup of water and a small piece of Banana cake – (this is where I would insert picture of said meal had the stupid camera not eaten it L ) Following on the heels (literally) of the meal cart was the bar cart. I accompanied my meal with what turned out to be an average Montana 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. After the meal was completed they offered a second bar cart service with the inclusion of tea and coffee. I settled into the inflight entertainment and had my fix of comedy, watching 2 episodes of The Big bang theory, one of The I.T. Crowd, 2 of The Simpsons and 1 of Two and a half men. I also selected the jazz radio to listen to while the airshow was on. The crew after completing the service spent the rest of the flight standing in the galley gossiping. We were at top of decent at 1545 local and started descending along the Northern NSW coast. We passed Coolangatta by about 90-100km off the coast according to the airshow, although I’m not sure how accurate that was considering it was out on the ground in AKL. We arrived over Moreton Island and made a left turn onto finals for runway 19. After an average landing we took the high speed Alpha 6 then taxied along Alpha to Bravo 9 before entering the international apron and pulling onto Gate 80. The one thing that surprised me was when the CSM thanked the code share partner for this flight Aircalin. I was unaware that Aircalin code shared on the AKL-BNE service. ArrivalAirport Brisbane isn’t the most exciting airport to arrive into. Out of the aerobridge, then left through the corner of a duty free shop, and you’re into the bland customs hall. From the customs desks into the baggage claim area, where an incredibly long wait occurred before my bag finally arrived. It was then into another queue for AQIS, before being directed to a second AQIS official who waved me through. Before finally getting land side to meet my friends. Overall Impression Booking & Reservation: 9.0 Check-in: 8.0 Airline Airport Facilities: 7.0 Boarding: 7.0 Seat: 6.0 Entertainment System: 8.0 Crew: 5.0 Food and Beverages: 7.0 Amenity kits and other freebies: N/A Arrival: 7.0 On-time performance: 7.0 Total Score: 7.10 Wrap Up All in all the flights were ok – there was a marked difference between the domestic leg, with a crew member who loved what she was doing and wanted to be there doing it, and the international leg where the crew were just going through the motions and didn’t seem all that interested. The Q300 lived up to expectations, and I was left under whelmed and sore from the A320 experience, despite the great inflight entertainment. NZ8018 + NZ739 8.33 + 7.10 = 15.43/2 = 7.715 total score

Well almost mate - the South Island will be a bit lighter and the North Island a bit heavier but at least the West Island (oz) will be level. Prehaps its was just the Zeal 320 kiddie crews that did it - I'm sure the JQ crews are a bit better - but then again :tongue: LOL