An Air New Zealand Q300. Photo / George
Sandra Simpson flies aboard NZ8135 from Auckland to Tauranga.
The plane: Bombardier Q300, relatively spacious on this short route with two seats either side. As this trip came after a long-haul overnight flight, I was keen to get home (and snooze on the way).
My seat: 3B.
Class: Only the
one.
Flight time: In the air 25 minutes from a 2pm departure but we ran into a glitch. First up was a 5-10 minute delay while crew and ground staff tried to work out a 140kg paperwork discrepancy for the weight in the hold. No solution was found because ground staff then unloaded everything and weighed it all again. The "about 15 minutes" prediction for that was spot on. To keep us sweet, steward Matt broke out a tray of fudge, while the Captain donned his jacket and cap and brought cookies down the aisle. But the delay meant we'd lost our slot so we made it into the air just before 2.45pm. Not a lot to see from Gate 46.
