Nonetheless, the spirit of the Rugby World Cup was still there, with an All Blacks flag hanging off the occasional bit of scaffolding.
After driving for fifteen minutes through the city, we headed to the airport to check in for the flight back to OOL. A USAF C-130 was parked outside of the Antarctic base as we disembarked the bus and found our bags. Check-in went pretty fast and there was no line at outbound screening. We only had around fifteen minutes of free time in the terminal before we had to board, so I did a quick walk around to see if there were any places good for spotting. There was this tiny observation deck looking not at the runway, but at the front of the terminal and the control tower.
It was more of a smoker's area so I held my breath when taking some photos of the tower and headed back inside. I found the terminal to be terrible for photos as there was one set of windows, then a walkway, then a second set of windows before outside on the tarmac. It turns out my gate lounge was the only one where there seemed to be one set of windows! Lucky! So I just watched some traffic from there and awaited my boarding call.
RAAF Herc doing a touch and go
Jetstar Airways Airbus A320 VH-VGP
Mount Cook Airlines ATR 72 ZK-MCA
Air New Zealand Boeing 737-300 ZK-NGR
Air New Zealand Airbus A320 ZK-OJG
"Ladies and gentlemen, this information is for all passengers travelling on JQ190 to the Gold Coast. We are sorry to inform you that this service has been delayed fifteen minutes..."
Fifteen minutes, no biggie, to me that meant more time to see aircraft come and go. A RAAF C-130 did a touch and go as well, which was pretty cool to see.
Our reviewed boarding time came and went, and the crew gathering at the desk looked pretty bored. Our aircraft was meant to be towed over from the domestic terminal, and sure enough around half an hour after our scheduled time of departure we got the first glimpses of it.
It was VGY! New rego for me but I was hoping for VGP which landed around ten minutes after Y did. Anyway, boarding was quite hurried and we were sitting down in the aircraft before we knew it.
JQ190
DATE: 25th September, 2011
AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320-232
REGISTRATION: VH-VGY
SECTOR: Christchurch (CHC) - Gold Coast (OOL)
SEAT: 24A
ETD/ATD (Gate, Local): 1615/1645
ETA/ATA (Gate, Local): 1650/1730
This was the first time I had been in a new JQ A320 - and I found it very nice. Legroom, while tight, was acceptable and the seats were more comfortable than the ones in the older A320s. The new Airbus interior was also nice - whilst it didn't come with mood lighting, I found the overhead lights quite cool! We were parked next to VGQ which wasn't doing much, and we pushed back the moment everyone had taken their seat.
The safety demonstration didn't take long and we took a quick taxi to runway 20 for a departure to the south. See the takeoff video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU0YnyjZOSk
We got one last good glimpse of Christchurch before we turned right and tracked towards OOL. We flew over the mountains on our climb, but there were large patches of cloud on the way. When they did make way for the view, it was breathtaking! I'll let the photos do the talking!
