What would you consider to be the ten best views from the air? British Airways asked their pilots who fly 180 routes globally to nominate their top ten: Northern Lights- I’d love to see them! Central London – Approach into Heathrow (I wonder how much that is about BA pilots coming home?) Mont Blanc – Pisa Sydney Harbour – on departure from Sydney, Australia Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and bay – San Francisco Greenland – North Atlantic flights Venetian canals – Venice, Italy Cape Town, Table Mountain, South Africa Dubrovnik, Croatia Mount Fuji The survey…
New Zealand
Tag Archives for New Zealand.
Air New Zealand’s new 787-9 takes flight
Wishing desperately I was in Seattle this week when Air New Zealand’s first Boeing 787-9 took off from Paine Field airport north of Seattle for a three hour and ten minute flight. It reached an altitude of 11,800 metres (39,000 feet) and an airspeed of 360 knots during its B1 test flight during which the two pilots throughly checked all systems to ensure performance while simultaneously checking full cabin functionality of every aspect of the cabin is tested in-flight. Air New Zealand is the launch customer for the Boeing 787-9 and this aircraft (tail registration ZK-NZE) is the first of…
Southwest Airlines Attendant grabs safety attention
Southwest Airlines does it again! The airline is renowned for entertaining passengers with their staff commentary, attention and care. They now have a few examples of creative ways of keeping passenger attention during safety demonstration. This one “brings the house down” with her patter! The big question for me is will the passengers remember what she said if they need the instructions in an emergency? Related Posts Air NZ Bears it Fly Hobbits Fly Back to the 80s with Air NZ’s newest safety video Funny Safety Briefings Five Fun Safety Briefings …
Stunning landing in Queenstown
This is a simply beautiful landing into Queenstown, New Zealand. This town located on the west of the country’s South Island is built around Lake Wakatipu. It is surrounded by incredible mountains.I have been lucky enough to get to Queenstown several times. Queenstown Airport (IATA: ZQN) is eight kilometres (five miles) from the centre of town. It is the country’s fourth busiest airport, handling around a million scheduled passengers per year. The Airport is served by Air New Zealand, Mt Cook Airline, Pacific Blue, Jetstar and Qantas. It has a lovely terminal building and a stunning vista! I have flown to…
Know Your Tipping
There is a story (some say apocryphal) of my Great Aunt who embarked on a big trip in the 1950s. She being careful counted out every taxi fare and restaurant meal to the exact penny. When confronted by a burly taxi driver who said ” hey lady don’t they tip in your country, she turned on her heel and said “no”. Tipping can be incredibly traumatic for travelers because customs and amounts vary greatly. On a tour in the USA, our Grand Canyon tour guide chastised loudly a group of Scandinavian tourists for hopping off the bus without…
My Bucket List
I am moving to a new job in 2013 which will require me to travel less! Nonetheless, my bucket list for my life is: Visit 99 countries (currently 57) Visit (not transit through) all 50 US states (currently 46) Alaskan Cruise Walk across Hadrian’s Wall in England Yellowstone National Park Five major New Zealand hikes (currently 2: Milford and Queen Charlotte) Camino de Santiago Walk Hadrian’s Wall walk, UK Iguazu Falls ( have been to Victoria and Niagara Falls) Berlin Marathon (if I am going to run that far, I am going to do it…
Jetstar Christmas Present-Not
On November 25, one month before Christmas, Jetstar NZ cancelled a December 23 Melbourne to Auckland flight. Jetstar very helpfully tried to accomodate the 80 passengers that were affected. Some were offered tickets on a December 26 flight, they claimed and some were offered flights one week before their original date, when people were at work. Passengers attempting to find flights at this late stage with other airlines faced an impossible prospect. Many shelled out hundreds of dollars more to get seats. Christmas in Australia and New Zealand is the biggest holiday of the year. Most shops and businesses shut down for three to…
Trip Report: Qantas 93: Melbourne to Los Angeles
Booking 8 out of 10 I actually started my flight in Auckland, New Zealand. The fare for Auckland-Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne-Los Angeles was actually $A1000 less than the fare for Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne. Combining two New Zealand trips in was easy for me. The Qantas website easily worked out the multi city fare and came up with a better fare than Expedia.com or Webjet or Kayak could find. Sometimes looking at the airline’s website can be a bonus. Trying the same search with Virgin Australia online was not possible. Seat selection was easy. All the preferred seats were gone, These included the…
My 888th Flight
This week I fly my 888th flight. It is a standard run of the mill Melbourne to Wellington with Qantas (it will be my 255th flight with Qantas). I would have liked to have made the flight more special in some way. For example, it would have been nice to have made flight 888 first class on an ANA 787 but that is not going to happen! I need to get better organised for my 999 and 1000th flights! Open to any ideas to make those flights amazing! Related Posts 787 times in the air &…
Does Most Liveable Matter?
Vancouver slipped out of the top spot and Melbourne, Australia became the Economist’s most liveable city in their latest six mothly Liveability Ranking and Overview released August, 2012. Again. In fact, four of the world’s most liveable cities, according to the Economist, are in Australia and one is in New Zealand. Canada has three. Helsinki and Vienna are Europe’s representatives. No US cities made the cut. Living conditions in 140 cities around the world are assessed across 30 indicators in five broad categories including Stability, Healthcare, Culture, Environment, Education and Infrastructure There are a number of these liveability surveys eg the Mercer Quality of living Worldwide City Rankings which places Vienna…
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