Depart Hilton Hawaiian Village at 5.45am
Jetstar Flight to Sydney, Australia departs at 9.00am . A Good Flight on 789 Dreamliner
We are at the Airport at 6.30am and have a lengthy checkin with Jetstar in clarifying our 2 flights and that our luggage will go through to Auckland.
The aircraft is full and Business has 2 spare seats. Ken sits in 2C and Jeanette in 2D we are both in aisle seats. We are served drinks and nibbles shortly after takeoff. The staff is friendly and careful and the leader was also the leader on our flight from Melbourne on 5th July, 2023.
The flight was comfortable in the recline seats. The Breakfast was enjoyable but we were unimpressed by the luncheon menu and meal. These are terrific aircraft.
We both slept on and off and Ken watched 3 movies. Our flight was 9 hours and 13 minutes.
We came off the aircraft in Sydney by 3.30pm, and had to find the International Transit Security area, which was a lengthy walk.
We decided to get some drinks and sit in a lounge awaiting the time to move to our next flight which is scheduled to now depart at 7.55am arriving Auckland at approximately 12.30am and then we will be picked up and transferred to the City. A long day but it has gone well.
Our accomodation is from the evening of 25th although we will not arrive until the early hours of the 26th July.
As a consequence we really only now have 2 days in Auckland following the cancellation and 2 day delay with Jetstar from Honolulu to Sydney and then the delay in our Auckland flight as a consequence.
So we enjoyed our flight from Honolulu to Sydney and the 9 hours passed somewhat quickly.
We then had almost 4 hours of a wait / stopover in Sydney and the flight was delayed from 7.35pm to 7.55pm. We arrived at Gate 55 about 40 minutes ahead of scheduled boarding only to be advised that there was a short delay.
By this time we were both very tired.
The next shock occurred as we entered the Aircraft to find that it is a one class aircraft. No business class and we are all crowded into seats with similar leg space to what you can usually find and complain as to with Qantas. We are seated in 4E and 4F, with Jeanette by the window.
Just before Departure time of 7.55am we are informed that there will be a slight delay as they have a paperwork discrepancy. It takes until 8.20 pm to sort it out and we finally depart and are in the air at 8.30pm Australian time.
It is a noisy , uncomfortable flight, with the planne fully booked, many big people struggling with the tight seats and many small children unhappy and crying and playing up.
We doze and struggle to get any quality sleep, despite being tired, exhausted after the day.
The flight time is 2 hours 35 minutes. We arrive in Auckland at 1.45am NZ time , given the 2 hour time difference.
We then have a lengthy walk to Immigration and use our e-passport to scan and be through in less than 10 minutes. another long walk to the Baggage claim area, our 3 cases all come though at different times over something like 20 minutes.
Then we are quite pleased we only have to go through Customs and Bio- security, so we falsely assume we will be though in 20-30 minutes.
Jeanette declares Chocolates and coffee all in sealed packs, but we feel it is wise to do such. We are cleared in 3 minutes when we eventually get to the Customs officer. There has been a lengthy queue as two flights arrived at almost the same time.
Then to the Bio-security queues, where all luggage both stored and carry ons are rayed. This takes a further 15 minutes in the queue, works well but it all takes time. CWe understand the issues involved.
Then we exit the Customs and Bio-security area and see our driver waiting with a sign…”Ken Coutts”. We are loaded into the Mercedes SUV and taken the 20 minutes into the City to Victoria Park. It has been a very wet couple of days here in Auckland with some improvements forecast for Thursday and Friday. No doubt the temperature change and blistering cold winds are a severe shock to the System.
We are surprised as we are locked out of Swiss Bel Suites Hotel accomodation in Victorias Park, our driver telephones and they come down. given our delay we sense that’s we had been recorded as a “No Show”.
All goes well, we are checked in and go to Suite 8021 with superb views of thew tower. We decide not to unpack apart from our pyjamas and the necessary tablets/ medications and also the electrical gear to recharge phone and iPads.
All in all a long hard day, made more difficult by Jetstar, but we are here in. Auckland and well pleased with our accommodation.
