While I arrived in Auckland, my destination was Wellington which is about an hour away. Instead of flying that night, making for a ridiculously long trip, I opted to stay overnight at the Novotel Auckland and catch a flight to Wellington in the morning. The Novotel is across the street from the international terminal.
It's nice hotel but a typically expensive nice airport hotel at about $200 a night.
On a beautiful winter morning you couldn't beat the view of this NZ 787 racing down Auckland's only runway.
Back to flying.
jetBlue A320 Ecomomy service ORD-JFK
Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class JFK-FRA / JFK Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse
Singapore Airlines Suites Class FRA-SIN / FRA Air Canada Lounge
Thai Airways A350 Business Class SIN-BKK / SIN The Private Room
Thai Airways B747 First Class BKK-SYD / BKK Thai Royal First Lounge and Spa
Air New Zealand B787 Business Class SYD-AKL / SYD Air New Zealand Lounge
Air New Zealand A320 Economy Class AKL-WLG / AKL Air New Zealand Domestic Lounge
JetStar A320 Economy Class WLG-AKL
Emirates A380 Business Class AKL-BNE / AKL Emirates Lounge
Qantas B737 Business Class BNE-SYD / BNE Priority Pass Lounge
American Airlines B777 First Class SYD-LAX / SYD Qantas First Class Lounge
Virgin America A320 First Class LAX-ORD
Auckland's domestic terminal is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Check-in was done via mobile app, bag tagged, dropped and I was at the lounge in no time. I was traveling on a paid $67 economy ticket to WLG. Because I'm Star Alliance Gold I had lounge access. Otherwise you must be a paid Koru member. The lounge was large, had a barista in the back as well as reserved seats, for someone other than me.
And another impressive spread in an Air New Zealand lounge!
Air New Zealand's domestic routes are mostly flown by single class A320's. These planes have been around awhile.
You can get these domestic flights to Wellington for $50-$75 using the Air New Zealand website with your location set to New Zealand. If set to US be prepared to pay lots more.
You can pay extra to sit up front but there isn't anything special like extra room or no one in the middle seat. Just the luxury of getting on/off earlier than most.
Did I mention these aircraft were getting old?
Gotta love the original A320 drop down monitors.
Off to Wellington. Get a window seat.
A bottle of water was today's amenity and in a few minutes we were approaching WLG.
Welcome to Middle of Middle Earth.
