Dunedin - 7 Aug 2010

I had not posted about my trip to Dunedin and need to because I was quite impressed by the airport and especially the Koru Lounge.
This was a day trip, there and back direct from Wellington, so a brief visit to the WLG Koru club and then a jet service to DUD.  There aren't that many services to DUD direct from Welly, as most go via CHC.
The booking I made meant I had a couple of hours in Dunedin and I quickly found the Koru Club upstairs overlooking the departures area.  The lounge had a reasonable range of food and plenty of beers and soft drinks.  Magazine selection was good and I settled in to read a little and watch a bit of TV.
Before long, it was time to return to WLG.  A nice way to spend a saturday morning (if you are that way inclined).
The flights were quite uneventful - they must be as I can't remember much of them only the great lounge!

Air NZ Open Day for the new 773

I received an email yesterday inviting me to tour the new 777-300 that Air NZ have recently started flying on the AKL-LAX route (plus a TT skip, currently AKL-MEL-AKL).
There was debate on whether it would visit WLG, but it was confirmed that on 9th February it will be in WLG.
I have booked the first slot to have a 30min visit onboard and hopefully if we get there early enough, perhaps see the beast landing (and making full use of the brakes on the short runway!).
A friend of mine is trying to find out what time it will be arriving through a contact he has....

Masterton (MRO) take II

I t was the end of the month and as is traditional at my office, this meant office drinks and a bite to eat. I had about an hour before I left for Wellington train station to catch the 6.18pm to Masterton.  The fare is $17 which for some reason I swear has gone up since my last attempt at this airport.  The train was on time and whilst there were three noisy children in the seats opposite me, it was a good journey.  I got to see a great deal of the countryside whizz by.  Last time I made the trip it was dark for the whole journey and so was a nice surprise to see the greenery.  I had decided that the 40minutes I had between arriving at the station (this time opting for Solway Station which is the one prior to masterton and closer to the airport) I booked a taxi in advance to cut out any potential for delays to the train making me run and possibly miss the flight and yet again get marooned in MRO!

I subsequently arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and the service down from AKL arriving about ten minutes later.  The turnaround of the aircraft was quick and unlike last visit the skies were clear, although there some dark formations over the Rimutaka range looming toward us.

The take off down the runway to the north seated in my favourite B1900D position, 3A, was fast and it felt faster than normal.  Perhaps because I hadn’t been in a beechcraft for a while....

Ascending we had a great view of Masterton town and the outlying fields.  The trip – as I write this- was quite bumpy with us flying into high level cloud up on our way to AKL.  I have reserved a room at the BK’s Pioneer Lodge for the night.  Only “3 minutes from the terminal”, relatively cheap and new.  I will work out how to get there upon arrival in AKL....

Footnote - Yep, pretty basic accomodation, but all that was needed.  The landing was a little hairy with the Cyclone Wilma still battering the north of the north island.  Seems to have calmed a little for my trip back to WLG via NPL

Moving goalposts...

So, today the Dominion Post (and earlier on the internet) I see that Air NZ have worked out an agreement with PPQ (Paraparaumu Airport) to start a Q300 operated service between Auckland and PPQ (which will be renamed Kapiti coast airport – presumably to make everyone familiar with where the airport is...?).  Darn! Just as I was nearing on completing my goal, Air NZ goes and moves the goalposts!  Oh well, I will have to add that one to the list.  Ticketing for the route has not yet commenced and the first flights are due in October.  Perhaps I could sort out the inaugural as way of ticking this one off.  The schedule looks to be very generous with plenty of flights on weekdays and about 3 return services on the weekend also.  I guess that they can see this route as viable – I am presuming that the main movement of traffic will be from Kapiti up to AKL and back, hence an early morning flight to AKL (0650?).

They are a few other frequent flyers looking at securing the inaugurals for this route, so perhaps we will have a mini-do....Watch this space.

Old Air NZ Airports - A Quick visit

Since starting out to visit every Air NZ operated airport in the country, I have as you know, made it to 24 / 26.

Whilst taking a fantastic Christmas holiday with the family in the south island, I also took in another three airports that Air New Zealand used to serve.  These were, Mount Cook (hence subsidiary Mount Cook Airlines), Oamaru and a little airport that Air NZ used to used just outside of Twizel (Pukaki Airport, TWZ)  when the weather for a mount cook airport landing was too bad – which presumably, was quite often!

Mount Cook is an awesome sight and we took a trip up there on Christmas Eve to have a look around the Sir Edmund Hillary centre, which is tacked onto the side of the historic Hermitage hotel up in Mount Cook village.  Unfortunately, despite beautiful weather in Twizel (where we were staying for a few days) we were unable to see the summit of Mount Cook as low cloud was blocking our view.

The airport is a little way down the down but equally several degrees cooler than the base of the mountain.

So I felt that despite not leaving nor arriving by plane from any of these three airports, I had made the effort to visit them.

Have I started something?!

It seems that someone has caught on to my idea of reaching all 26 airports that Air New Zealand operate to and from in NZ.....

Air NZ Tiki Tour

Although, the travel is inteded for within 6 days - not bad for a mileage run, without the mileage though!
It is for a good cause....I wonder what it will go for? Currently at $788 (6/12/2010)
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Slow on the Updates....

Apologies for not updating, I have a couple of things to add and hoping to get WAG and MRO ticked off soon...I have also a comment on the WLG-DUD-WLG run I did a while back....
Also trying to work out how to hold onto my BA silver AND NZ gold.  I have since fallen from the heady heights of Gold Elite, so no Christmas pressie for me this year!
Obtaining NZ gold is pretty easy and relatively cheap to do on *A airlines other than NZ.  The challenge for me is the NZ metal 900 points you need to attain for NZ GE.  This basically means J class flights to really get amongst the AP's - these as a one off affair do not come cheap and I can't justify them at this moment in time - despite the government adding a few more shillings i my pocket courtesy of some tax cuts....