Trip Report. BNE-AKL-BNE.

[Guest David747]

Hello everyone.

 

From Friday November 23 to Monday November 26, I went on a trip to Auckland to see a couple of my rellies and see the many attractions Auckland has to offer as well as some plane spotting. It was a very enjoyable and exciting trip; I loved every second of it.

 

BEFORE THE TRIP.

 

I booked this trip quite a few months in advance and the day had finally come. I left home at about 08:00 and arrived at Brisbane Airport a bit after 09:00. Today's flight was to be very full, it in fact took around an hour to check in. The line was huge! Thankfully I was given one of those departure cards to fill in while waiting, one thing out of the way. Unfortunately when I checked in, I asked for a window seat and there were no more avaliable as they had all been allocated! Great! Ah well, I'm sure there's a way around it! I finally said goodbye to my dad and went through immigration and security. It was pretty quick considering JAL, Korean and Emirates had already left. There wasn't too much in the way of movements at this time of the day. There was a China Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas A330 300, a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, VIVA Macau Boeing 767 operating for Air Niugini and a Qantas and Air New Zealand Boeing 747 at the International terminal. The Air New Zealand Boeing 747 was to be my ride to Auckland Finally, the time had come.

 

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23. NZ136. BNE-AKL. BOEING 747 400. ZK-NBW.

 

Today was my first flight on Air New Zealand. I was looking very foward to it. When I came to my seat, the other passengers didn't seem to want the window seat so thankfully, it was mine! The flight was delayed for about 20 mins due to a small engineering fault. The flight was finally pushed back and the Jumbo made its short taxi over to RWY01 and made a thrilling but short take off over Moreton Bay. Despite it was such a cloudy and overcast day, I was able to see as far north as Mt Coolum on the Sunshine Coast as the a/c made its sharp right hand turn as it commenced its south-east bound route to Auckland. The flight flew right over Stradbroke Island before it reached its cruising altitude. Air New Zealand have a very good IFE AVOD system on its Boeing 747s. Throughout the flight, I watched the Mr Bean's Holiday movie. It is so funny! It certainly made the time go by. I didn't laugh as much as I did when I first saw it with my mate at the movies. The meals today consisted of a nice cold pasta with a bit of salad with a choice of either a chicken salad or a meat pie. I took the meat pie. There was also a drinks selection so I had an orange juice. One of my favourite things about Air New Zealand are the little tubs of ice cream they have with the meals. One of the highlights of this flight was flying over Lord Howe Island. It looks so lovely and picturesque from above! After watching the Mr Bean movie, I thought it was now time to go for a little walk around the plane and take a few more wing pics and some cabin pics. After that, I returned to my seat. Shortly after, our flight commenced its decent. The weather whilst flying over the Tasman Sea was very nice and sunny, however, this was about to change once the 747 started decending into some very thick grey clouds. Once the plane had finally decended through the all the thick clouds, I got my first glimse of Auckland. One of the first things I noticed was now lush and green it is. Thankfully, it was not raining but it was still very overcast. The approach into Auckland is very pretty and scenic. So many islands, beaches, farms, houses and towns all within close proximity of one another. ZK-NBW made a lovely landing on RWY23L (I think) and rolled through to the end. After parking at the gate, I waited for all the passengers to disembark and I was allowed to have a look and get some photos in the upper deck where the premium economy and business class is located. After that, I thanked the crew and disembarked ZK-NBW and cleared immigration, customs and quarrantine. Thankfully it was fairly quick as there weren't any other flights that had landed around the same time. I was finally in Auckland New Zealand! I then met up with my rellies and they showed me the Sky Deck and the Outdoor viewing area, both of which are really good. I then spent the next couple days visting a number of attractions around Auckland.

 

AUCKLAND.

 

When I was in Auckland, my rellies took me to a number of attractions and places that I wanted to see including the Auckland Zoo, The Sky Tower, Mt Eden, One Tree Hill, Ardmore Airport and Mechanics Bay Heliport. I had an absolute ball at all of those places and took plenty of photos. The Zoo is fantastic. So many lovely animals from all over the world including lions, tigers, cheetahs, hippos, rhinos, zebras, elehpants, baboons and giraffes just to name a few. Very photographer friendly thanks to the design of the enclousures. The Auckland Sky Tower is just fantastic. The views from the observation deck up the top are just awesome! A must visit for anyone visiting Auckland. One Tree Hill is a beautiful park to go for a walk in and the views from the top are fantastic. I also really like the lush green paddocks. Mt Eden offers fantastic views as well. Looking down into the crater is just amazing. Ardmore Airport was a little dissapointing due to a lack of helicopters but I was lucky enough to see and photograph a lovely jet black coloured Eurocopter EC-130. I was fortunate to see and photograph 4 helicopters at Mechanics Bay Heliport including a Robinson R44, 2 Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirriels and a Westpac Rescue BK-117. Auckland is such a pretty city and offers so many magnificent views and sights. I absolutely loved Auckland. There is plenty of fun things to do and see. I'd definately love to go back and visit it one day again in the future.

 

SPOTTING AT AUCKLAND.

 

Before my flight home, I managed to get some good plane spotting done at Auckland Airport at both the outdoor viewing area and the skydeck and past immigration. Some of the most interesting movements for me included Singapore Airlines 747 400 9V-SPR, a Thomsonfly Boeing 737 300, Air New Zealand Boeing 737 300 ZK-FRE, a RNZAF Orion, an Air Tahiti Nui A340 300 and Qantas Boeing 767 300 VH-OGD in the revised livery. I saw many other movements including a TG, EK and CX A340, NZ 772, 2 EK 773s, MH 772, FJ 738, a couple QF 733s NZ 733s and 320s, ZK-PBF in the PolyBlue c/s, and of course plenty of NZ Beech 1900Ds and Dash 8s. All of a sudden, it was finally time to go home.

 

MONDAY NOVEMBER 26. NZ739. AKL-BNE. AIRBUS A320 200. ZK-OJB.

 

I chose to fly on the A320 back home to Brisbane rather than the morning 777 flight so I could spend more time in Auckland and when I look back, I'm so happy that I did. The flight pushed back and departed on time off RWY23L. (I think) It was a very uneventful flight and I spent a lot of the time just listening to music. The inflight meal consisted of a cold rice with a bit of salad and a choice of fish or chicken. I chose the chicken. There was also a drinks selection so I took the orange juice again. Thankfully, they had the ice cream again! YAY! The flight flew over Lord Howe Island and the pilot made an announcement that he was flying over it and that he could see Balls Pyramid which is in fact very rarely seen because of the cloud. It was only seen on the left hand side and I was sitting on the left hand side but couldn't see it because of the wing in the way! Ah well! The highlight of this flight for me was definately the approach into Brisbane. Unfortunately the weather was a bit yuck and overcast but sometimes, just looking at the views is a good thing. The flight flew over South Straddy Island and I could see as far south as Surfers Paradise! The a/c flew over all the surrounding costal suberbs ie Redland Bay and flew past the City of Brisbane where I was able to see Archerfield Airport, the city, the Story Bridge and Suncorp Stadium. ZK-OJB made a lovely landing on RWY01 about 20 mins early. It made the long taxi to the international terminal where the only a/c there at the time was a Jetstar A320 from CHC. I waited for all the passengers to disembark and took a few photos of the business and economy class cabins. Managed a peek of the cockpit on the way out. Said thank you to the crew and made my way through immigration, customs and quarrantine fairly quickly due to the airport being an absolute ghost town at this time of day. Met up with my dad who was waiting to pick me up. I was happy to be home but at the same time, I wished I was still in Auckland. This wonderful trip was unfortunately now over.

 

FINAL WORDS.

 

I loved every moment of it. I had so much fun. Auckland is a fantastic place to see and if you love photography and pretty views, it is a place you must see. Thankfully the weather was good when I was there, despite the first two days being overcast. It was also great to catch up with my rellies and I must thank them very kindly for their wonderful time and company. I really liked Air New Zealand. I deliberately flew on them so I could fly on one of their 747s. I'd have no hesitation flying on them again on a Trans Tasman flight from Brisbane, in fact as of now, they'd be my first choice. Qantas is still my favourite airline to fly on, hands down, without a doubt, but I refuse to fly on them from Brisbane to Auckland now that they are only using 737s. I have absolutely no regrets doing this trip whatsoever and I'd dearly love to go to Auckland again one day in the future. AUCKLAND RULES!

 

David...

 

 

[Guest OzChris]

Hi David - Awesome report!

 

I love NZ...

 

I havent been to Aukland, but I have been to Christchurch several times - LOVE IT!!