Flight check: Auckland to Norfolk Island on Air New Zealand

An Air New Zealand A320. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user eosdude

Plane: An A320.

Class: Economy with the works.

Price: Fares from $270 one-way ex-Auckland

My Seat: 26F - window seat on the right-hand side of the plane. I was half asleep when I got on the early flight and sat in 26A instead, which was on the left side.

How Full: Pretty full flight apart from the seats around me, which were all free. It was nice having the three seats in front vacant and knowing there was no chance of the seat being put back. The passenger behind me moved shortly after take-off as the crew gave everyone the option to swap seats.

Fellow Passengers: A young guy happily singing along to his music when we landed provided a bit of distraction from the turbulence. Most of the passengers were adults, with only a couple of well-behaved children, which made for a quiet and relaxing flight.

Entertainment: I realised I was in the wrong seat when I saw the $ sign on the movies. I didn't bother moving as I knew I wouldn't have enough time to watch one, with the flight being only an hour-and-a-half long.

Food and Drink: We were only offered drinks once during the flight, when the food was served. I opted for the rare beef salad, but being at the back of the plane and last to be served they had run out, so instead I had the Caribbean chicken curry which was piping hot and tasty. The Kapiti spicy apple crumble icecream was a nice surprise.

Service: The four cabin crew were friendly and efficient.

Toilets: Clean and tidy.

Luggage: 23kg check-in bag is included in the works and I was able to take my laptop and hand luggage plus duty free on too.

Airport experience: At 6am on a Sunday morning Auckland Airport was surprisingly busy. I collected what I thought was my boarding pass before getting in the large-bag drop queue only to be told it hadn't printed and I had to do it all again. With the assistance of Air NZ staff I discovered this was to do with my visa, as I have a UK passport. Luckily the bag-drop queue had disappeared by the time I was sorted.

Would I fly again: Yes. It's the only airline that flies to Norfolk so there is no other choice for the once-a-week flight. Look out for Grabaseat deals.