Cloud shadows on the water.
Turning base.
Auckland city. You can just see Sky Tower!
Turning final.
Approach.
Final approach.
Wheels kiss the concrete.
Touchdown!
International terminal whilst rolling out.
Domestic terminal & southern hangars.
Air Tahiti Nui Airbus A340-300 F-OJTN. Later on I found out that this flight was cancelled.
Tail of Emirates Airbus A340-500 A6-ERC whilst parking.
And that ended NZ938! We were in Auckland at last! I would give the flight an 8/10 – the broken down IFE units were a shame, however the cabin crew were very cheerful to all the passengers and very professional in what they were doing. They also handed out $10NZD vouchers that could be used on any Air New Zealand flight or exchanged for 10 Airpoints dollars, which was very good of them. They even tried to fix the IFE units midflight, but unfortunately to no avail.
After we disembarked the aircraft, we followed the signs to the inbound screening. There are two duty-free stores right opposite each other just before you head to immigration, but at least you don’t have to go through them. Dad needed to go to the loo before we headed landside, so I found a highly reflective window and took some bad photos. :roll:
Air Pacific Boeing 737-800 DQ-FJG in front of an Emirates Airbus A380!
A couple of Air New Zealand 747-400s. The closest one is ZK-NBU.
After Dad came back from his toilet run, we headed through inbound screening with no trouble or delay and then found ourselves landside, marking the official start of our New Zealand adventure.
NZ937
DATE: 2nd January, 2011
AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320-232
REGISTRATION: ZK-OJD
SECTOR: Auckland (AKL) – Gold Coast (OOL)
SEAT: 20F
AIR NEW ZEALAND BOOKING CATEGORY: The Works
LOAD FACTOR: >90%
ETD/ATD (Gate, Local): 0900/0900
ETA/ATA (Gate, Local): 0930/0915
Well, after a really spectacular holiday (apart from an infected mosquito bite), it was time to leave the Land of the Long White Cloud and come back across the Tasman to Australia. I can’t say I wasn’t disheartened about this. I would have to wake up extremely early in the morning to make my Auckland flight, as we would have to drive from Tairua on the eastern side of the Coromandel peninsula to Auckland; around 2 hours driving time. Add that to the recommended ‘be at the airport 2 hours before departure time,’ and I was looking at waking up at 4 in the morning! But I love that early morning flight feeling; you just feel a lot more excited I guess...honestly, I don’t have a clue as to why I have these weird feelings sometimes.
Well, we piled into our rental car, and off we went to the City (more like Airport) of Sails. Checking in at Auckland Airport was rather slow, as only two counters were open and a few people were in line. I was keen to use the self-service kiosks, but Dad’s technophobe setting kicked in and we had to wait in line. The check-in agent told us we were boarding from Gate 1, and gave us our boarding passes. Apparently the self-service system melted down a few minutes after we went to the departures hall, so it was lucky that we queued for check-in.
My boarding pass.