Christchurch to Tokyo

It was an early start, rising about 4am but excitement helped. Thanks a lot to Nana and Poppa for their great taxi service to the airport. Everything ran on time, except for long lines at Auckland meant we were just on time to checkout the new Koru lounge in Auckland for about 10 minutes.

On the way to Auckland we saw this mountain - not Fuji but looking very much like it:




Then at the Auckland domestic terminal we saw a mountain of a different type:



Richie very graciously was offering photos with fans bold enough to approach him. And there were quite a few!


This was our first flight on a 787 "Dreamliner". It was very comfortable and the Air New Zealand staff were great. Turns out the "lieflat" beds are good for watching TV and movies as well:




The electrically dimming windows are a lot more than a novelty and great for a day flight because you don't feel all closed in. The impression is a bit like being under the sea than way up in the sky!


Dinner was nice, especially when you can eat it with your best mate:



Sadly starters were about the same size as main meals and Declan found it a bit hard to finish it all. Still he managed a dessert (and four cans of Sprite).

Then the lovely crew invited him to the cockpit once we'd landed:




So it was a great journey but a long day so we were all in bed at the airport hotel by 7pm local time!
Which was a good thing since the next day is DisneySea!