Day 1 - our 2nd gastronomic honeymoon begins. SYD-AKL-YVR

Thanks to mum-in-law for driving us 2 to the Airport, saving us from paying the ridiculous premiums of the CityRail Airport Line.

Thank you AMEX
For giving us enough points (due to their "mistake", or overly generous, promo last year) to redeem 2 X Syd-Europe J class tickets. I dedicate this trip to them ;) For a frequent flyer junkie like me, this is like a dream because I can try 4 airlines' J class seats. So beware that I'll spend a good chunk of this travel blog on "Airline review". Sorry to bore those who hate flying! hahaha...

Air NZ lounge
Staff is friendly in the very nicely designed Air NZ lounge. Wide selection of drinks and decent food.



Flight 1: SYD-AKL

• Airline: Air New Zealand
• Flight #: NZ118
• Plane: Boeing 777-200ER
• Departure Time: 19/4/09, 14:15
• Duration: 3 hrs
  
• Seats: 3K and 4K
  

Nice comfy leather seat :) only "weird" thing is the 45 deg angle. It feels quite funny during take off as the body pushes against the side of the seat at 45 deg. It's fine after take off.





Dinner service followed shortly after take off.


Duck salad


Beef with Cafe de Paris butter


Chestnut and chocolate ice cream

Auckland transit
We were quite worried about the transit in Auckland as we only had 1 hour scheduled. We arrived 10mins late, so we had to head straight to our Vancouver flight after deboarding.

Flight 2: AKL-YVR

• Airline: Air New Zealand
• Flight #: NZ84
• Plane: Boeing 747-400
• Departure Time: 19/4/09, 20:15
• Duration: 13 hrs
  
• Seats: 5A and 6A
  

This was one of my most anticipated flight because we are sitting in the "nose" cabin. As the 747s are gradually being decommissioned, it makes this flight more special.



And then we had ANOTHER dinner!

Highlight was the main course - macadamic crusted salmon with fennel and leeks in shellfish sauce. Too bad the turbulence was so severe that I couldn't take a photo. Entree and dessert were very nice too (by airline standards) :)


Trio of prawn, palm sugar cured tuna and smoked snapper (V nice!!)


Choc truffle cake with black cherry compote (I don't think I could resist a choc dessert, but regretted a little as it was just a little too full to sleep)

The "bed" was 180 deg flat, but for some reason, I tossed and turned many times (even after the dinner was digested). Probably not used to firm mattresses. Length and shoulder width were good, better than Virgin Atlantic's J seat.

Breakfast was quite ordinary, but the peach smoothie starter was very tasty.

Arrival in Vancouver
Arrived in Vancouver at 2:15pm on 19th April (gained a day due to the date line). But was waiting for the luggage for a good 45mins! One of the slowest airports I've been to.
I really appreciate the efficiency of the HK and Sydney Airports.

Dinner with grannies and cousins and uncle/auntie
A wonderful family dinner in a local restaurant in Richmond. Very nice to see my relos, especially my aging grannies. Thanks to Dai Kou Fu for shouting dinner... nice peking duck and crab!

Signing off now after a 41-hour 19th of April!