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Old 4th October 2011, 10:19 PM
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Default New Zealand Ski Trip: OOL-SYD-ZQN/CHC-OOL with DJ/NZ/JQ



When I first put my name up for my school ski trip, I had no idea what to expect. I was so excited to be spending nine days in a beautiful country with around 35 of my fellow classmates and four awesome teachers. Seeing snow and skiiing for the first time made the trip even more inviting. I was excited for sure, and judging from previous people's experiences this trip was one that would not be forgotten. So, at 103 days to go, we started to countdown until the day that we departed, our excitement mounting as the time went on. Originally the plan was to catch the OOL-ZQN flight on Friday but due to safety concerns in Christchurch and a day off school the Department of Education cut our downday in Christchurch and wanted us to fly on the Saturday. This meant OOL-SYD-ZQN, which is fine by me - an extra flight is great! So the final itinerary consisted of DJ500 down to SYD then NZ832 across the Tasman, followed by JQ190 from CHC on the way back. We would be skiiing in three different ski fields; Coronet Peak near Queenstown, Cardrona near Wanaka and Mt. Hutt near Methven, with various activities including jetboating and luging along the way. Yes, this was certainly going to be a trip of a lifetime.

DJ500
DATE: 17th September, 2011
AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-8FE
REGISTRATION: VH-VUL "Ballina-Rina Blue"
SECTOR: Gold Coast (OOL) – Sydney (SYD)
SEAT: 19F
ETD/ATD (Gate, Local): 0600/0600
ETA/ATA (Gate, Local): 0730/0720

4:30am: Buzzing off an Iced Coffee from yesterday's school canteen milk sale, I arrive at OOL to be greeted by bleary-eyed friends and their parents awaiting to check-in. We take some photos of each other, laugh, and finally, when we start to group up at the counter, say last-minute farewells to loved ones. Check-in takes a while (of course, with nearly forty of us), and when I was called I was hoping so much for a window seat (we were arranged by alphabetical order of last names).



19F - WINDOW SEAT! Ye-yeah! We go through security and I see VUL waiting patiently for the flight to Sydney. Too bad it wasn't a newer 738 but I was definitely still happy with it! When the call for boarding was heard, we started to queue up to head out across the tarmac and into the aircraft. The sun was just above the horizon and bathing the airfield in a beautiful golden glow as we found our seats.

Soon enough, we were pushed back for a RWY 14 departure with the engines starting up as the safety demonstration was er...demonstrated. :wink: After a quick and rather bumpy taxi to the threshold we lined up and took off into a beautiful blue sky.

See the takeoff video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRdlbfkxwIw

We banked towards the right and set course for SYD.


The full-scale Mt. Warning, an ex-volcano, existed up to this point many years ago.

I got comfy and started to watch the Simpsons on Live2Air, flicking back to the airshow display every now and then. Only minor turbulence was felt during the ascent and cruise, and before I knew it we had started to descend.

Starting to descend.

Airshow display.
Since I had a cold, I knew I would be badly affected by the cabin pressure, and, sure enough, my right ear would not pop. Trying to keep my mind off of that slight drawback, I watched the NSW countryside roll by as we were vectored in for a RWY 16L approach. A Dash 8 joined final for 16R as we were heading for 16L, so we had a pretty cool parallel approach...we left the slower Dash 8 eventually though.

After a smooth touchdown we took the Tango Four exit and taxied back to the terminal, passing the mound as we did so.

The mound!

We docked at Gate 56 and after disembarking rushed over to the Gate 37 transfer lounge to await the arrival of our bus to take us across to the international terminal. I was looking forward to this as to me it pretty much meant an unofficial airside tour of Sydney Airport! After waiting a while we got on the bus and off we went, holding for passing traffic every now and then. Due to reflections I couldn't get many good shots, but here they are all the same.

REX Saab 340B VH-ZLC

Managed to get a shot of Virgin Australia's newest 738 VH-YIB as she was being towed to the bay

Domestic ramp

Qantas line-up

OEF parked in the Qantas Jetbase

Passing the massive A380!

Passing the cargo terminal: here is an Atlas 744

Air Niugini Boeing 767-300ER P2-ANA
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Last edited by Brock Little; 4th October 2011 at 10:25 PM.
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Old 4th October 2011, 10:20 PM
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Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 9V-SKL - the tail of this massive aircraft

At this point we were squeezed in between a taxiing EK A380 and the parked SKL!

We then drove between the international and cargo terminals and headed back landside before arriving at the drop-off zone of the international terminal itself.

My first impressions of SYDs international terminal were that it was huge! The check-in hall spanned as far as the eye could see, and it was quite a long walk to the J check-in desks. As we didn't have our checked luggage with us (they were checked through to ZQN) check-in didn't take long at all. We had to walk all the way back to where we started as the line for Customs was huge! It moved quickly though for a line that large and within thirty minutes we were airside. There was no time for dawdling around the massive duty free stores around the terminal - we had to rush to gate 55 to board NZ832.

NZ832
DATE: 17th September, 2011
AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320-232
REGISTRATION: ZK-OJC
SECTOR: Sydney (SYD) - Queenstown (ZQN)
SEAT: 17A
ETD/ATD (Gate, Local): 1000/1000
ETA/ATA (Gate, Local): 1500/1445


Boarding Pass

Catching the travelators down I saw OJH taxiing out - so close to getting her!!! Our A320 was parked between a Delta 77L and a China Southern A333 - it turned out to be OJC! New rego at least - it not being OJA is good in my books! After sitting around the gate lounge for around fifteen minutes we started to board the flight to Queenstown. It felt good to be back in the comfortable NZ A320 cabin as we took our seats and fiddled around with the IFE before pushback. I was assigned 17B but the person in 17A pulled out of the trip so luckily I was able to grab his seat - unfortunately no movies were offered on the IFE in this seat but I could still access television shows, so I settled with some Big Bang Theory while taking a few snaps of the China Southern A333 out the window.

Shortly after the A333 was pushed back (as seen in the photo) and a SQ A380 promptly took its place five minutes later!! That thing was so big compared to our little A320!

Now it was our turn - the Crazy About Rugby (my favourite) safety demo was played and we started to taxi for a RWY 16L departure. When passing the mound I spotted Andrew spotting my flight!

We rolled straight onto 16L but held on the centreline for quite a while, probably due to traffic in front of us using the runway for takeoff.

It was a beautiful day in Sydney - couldn't have asked for a better looking day to grab our last glimpses of the country. Soon enough we had left Australia behind us, cruising over the Tasman on our way to ZQN. Lunch was served shortly after we levelled off - today consisted of a beef casserole or a chicken salad - I chose the beef casserole as I preferred the hot option, and it tasted very nice (as always for Air New Zealand!). The cabin crew were friendly throughout the duration of the flight, which was around two and a half hours. I spent this watching TV and playing games on the IFE before retiring for a Mario Kart tournament via Nintendo DS wireless connections with my classmates on the flight! As we got further to New Zealand the cloud cover over the ocean became more pronounced - this was quite worrying as it meant we wouldn't get a great aerial view of the mountains when we made landfall. Sure enough, when the First Officer made his pre-descent announcement, he said that it was overcast around ZQN...oh well

Cloud cover!

Nearly there!

The hard candies were handed out by two kids wearing the captain and first officer's caps, nice touch by Air New Zealand there These helped with the descent, but my right ear would still not pop! I was beginning to get a hot drilling sensation in the ridge above my eye too, but this was all due to the cold I had which blocked my sinuses. We were in clouds for most of the descent, but through some patches we could just make out the snowy peaks of mountains covering the area.

We had quite a bumpy touchdown, but it wasn't that bad, and we braked to a stop as random corny music was played with the usual welcome speech. First impressions of Queenstown were what a view! The Remarkables totally dwarfed anything on the ground, looking quite intimidating as they stretched into the cloud layer above them. One of the best arrivals into a country I've ever had!

The Remarkables upon arrival

We parked next to a Qantas 738 and went into the small terminal which was suitable enough for the volume of flights the airport currently handles. The inbound screening would have enough room for one flight at a time! Everywhere I looked there were flags from across the world hanging on any elevated object imaginable - it was definitely Rugby World Cup fever here in NZ! Screening took no longer than twenty minutes and we were on the bus, ready to be transferred to our hotel in no time. About this time I could properly pop my ear, and could focus on the mountain scenery we passed, heading to the centre of town. We had an early dinner and stocked up on groceries for the start of skiiing the next day - it goes without saying that energy was required so alot of chocolate was in order! We were extremely tired after the long day, so it didn't take long to get to sleep, unless you were excitedly thinking of skiiing at Coronet Peak the following day!

Skiing

Skiing, which took up half of our trip, was at Coronet Peak, Cardrona and Mt. Hutt. I got the hang of it by the end, and Cardrona was in my opinion the best field to ski at! I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to head into the alpine region of New Zealand, as it is alot of fun! Our day at Mt. Hutt was punctuated by intermittent closings of the chair lifts due to strong winds which tend to occur on mountain peaks, but that was fine as it was our last ski day and we weren't really into it, and the weather was great on the first four days! The trip was also filled with a few side trips including the Skyline Luge in Queenstown, jetboating and Puzzling World in Wanaka.

Here's a photo of me skiiing - I only fell over once...or twice

Soon enough, it was Saturday again and we began to pack one last final time for our bus trip to Christchurch and then our flight home. I had mixed feelings of the flight home as there was no IFE system on board JQ flights, but I had done the same thing before with Freedom Air when I was younger

So we got on the bus in Methven and passed huge expanses of Canterbury farmland on our way to the main city of the South Island. Needless to say, we saw alot of sheep!

Sheep!

Our bus driver decided to take us for a detour around the earthquake-affected zones of Christchurch - the ones that were open anyway. As we drove closer to where it all happened, we started to see supports for residential brick walls, and then we passed through a street that had gutted buildings on both sides. The spray paint on building windows saying things like "LIFT CLEAR 25/2" added to the scene as well. Cars were piled up in wreck yards as we drove along, and it hit me that even buildings which looked like they sustained hardly any damage were not occupied at all due to structural hazards. Here are some photos:
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Old 4th October 2011, 10:22 PM
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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!

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Old 4th October 2011, 10:24 PM
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Great view!

We levelled off around 5-10 minutes after leaving the western coast behind us. The meal service came around and I decided to buy a chicken wrap for around $8 AUD. I read in their magazine that they sell Krispy Kremes on trans-tasman flights now as well, but they didn't have any onboard sadly . The flight attendants were great about it though and got the chicken wrap in no time. It was quite big and looked really nice, and it WAS! I was sad to see it gone, but that eight dollars was well spent! I had a nap after (quite a feat for me as I can hardly sleep on flights) and woke up quite relaxed. By that time we were around an hour from home, so I went to the toilet (I always get creeped out by the noise when I press the flush button ) and just read the Jetstar magazine when I sat back down. We passed some pretty big cumulonimbus clouds as we got closer to the coast, and the First Officer warned us of some moderate turbulence on descent. Sure enough, halfway through our descent we were rocked side to side, up and down, etcetera. Pretty fun in my opinion but my poor friend who isn't a good flier found it extremely unnerving.

In the cloud!

We broke out of the clouds into some amazing sunset light just off the northern NSW coast.


Making a sweet landing on runway 32, we taxied back to the terminal and arrived at the stand around forty minutes late. Due to this we landed around the same time as DJ79 from AKL, so we had quite a line at customs. It went quickly though and after picking up my bag proceeded to the declaration line to declare some amazing fudge I brought back for Mum & Dad to try Given the all clear, I walked back to landside and found my parents waiting for me. Some hugs and kisses were exchanged, and then the thanks and see ya laters to my friends and teachers who made this trip worth it!!

I would definitely do this trip again if I had the chance. All flights were excellent, especially the JQ flight which surprised me. If they were like that on all flights they would have less problems with customer service. The chicken wrap was amazing, the service was fantastic and the overall aesthetics of the flight were great! DJ and NZ were as usual great to fly with. All the flight attendants did well handling nearly forty tired and excited teenagers on board. I also managed to see ZK-OAB whilst I was over there (in a special All Blacks livery for those who don't know) from Coronet Peak!
The skiing? So much fun! Definitely do it even if you haven't skied before! Queenstown is a beautiful place and definitely go up to the Skyline restaurant if you do go there, as well as trying a Big Al which is a massive burger sold at the Fergburger restaurant, it took me ten minutes to eat! Wanaka is a nice little retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city, and Methven is a great little ski village, handily located within driving distance of both Mt. Hutt and Christchurch.

I hope you enjoyed reading this trip report, and especially looking at the photos! You really have to be there to appreciate the beauty of it all!
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Old 4th October 2011, 11:17 PM
Greg McDonald Greg McDonald is offline
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Great report Brock!! Well put together and made for very good reading.
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Old 5th October 2011, 05:19 PM
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Thanks Greg! Glad you enjoyed it!
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Old 5th October 2011, 10:33 PM
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Sensational report and Queenstown is a beautiful place!

You now have 2 expensive habits

Flying
Skiing

Enjoy
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Old 6th October 2011, 11:57 AM
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Great report/pics Brock... Well done!
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Old 6th October 2011, 12:26 PM
Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson is offline
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unfortunately the short lived OOL/ZQN/OOL JQ services have now been canned.

Surprisingly, only a few weeks before start of Qld school holidays, there were plenty of Qantas frequent flyer seats on both Fri 16SEP & Mon 19SEP.

Considering Qld school holidays & rugby world cup, amazing there were any seats at all.

Maybe not many schools travelled to Queenstown this SEP school holidays or families turned off by all the RWC hype & CHC earthquake, even though CHC & ZQN airports something like 216 miles apart as crow flies. Maybe people are scared of going anywhere near CHC.
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Old 6th October 2011, 09:23 PM
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Thanks for reading Andrews and Bernie!

Yes, a year-round OOL-ZQN-OOL service would never be successful, at least at the moment - a seasonal service would be the way to go I reckon.

Alot of schools did travel to Queenstown throughout the holidays, but they were mainly from the Brisbane metropolitan area - two were from Cairns and Rockhampton respectively.

Hopefully JQ can restart this service soon, would be really handy to use it as I really want to go back!
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