Share your Story about your Flight to New Zealand

... and how you made it a little more bearable

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My flight to New Zealand was part of a round-trip from New Zealand to Europe.

And it had to be done quickly, and cheaply.

So maybe it wasn't the cheapest flight to New Zealand. But it was certainly the cheapest round trip I could find from New Zealand...

And here's what I found...

First, I flew

Wellington - Auckland, on Air New Zealand
Auckland - Singapore, with Singapore Airlines
Singapore - Frankfurt, with Lufthansa
Frankfurt - Paris, again with Lufthansa

Then took the TGV from Paris to Geneva,

Geneva - Frankfurt, with Lufthansa
Frankfurt - Hong Kong, Lufthansa
Hong Kong - Auckland, with Air New Zealand
Auckland - Wellington, Air New Zealand

It was a Lufthansa ticket for two very simple reasons. I'm a member of the Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programme "Miles and More", and I didn't need to go through Heathrow, so there were less onerous baggage restrictions...

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Okay, back to the trip...

I'll describe it as though you are leaving from Europe.

The Geneva check-in went smoothly and my bag was checked through all the way to Wellington, even though they could only do my seat allocations to Hong Kong.

The 737 was comfortable and we had the best part of a day in Frankfurt before the next flight. I took the train into Frankfurt and wandered around the city, taking in the History Museum and a walk along both banks of the Main.

Back to Frankfurt to board an old 747 at Gate 59 in Terminal B. It's a long walk from the airport train station so leave yourself plenty of time...

I think that Lufthansa is using their old 747s on the East Asian routes (had the same plane out of Singapore and into Hong Kong) and they are not comfortable. The seats are very close together and the inflight entertainment is not deserving of the name. Old monitors hanging from the ceiling with no choice and impossible to see, depending on where you're sitting...

It was, I must admit, slightly schizophrenic sitting there and reading the latest edition of Cond´e; Nast Traveller to find that New Zealand had been edged out of favourite destination by Italy. The price we pay for taking the cheapest flight to New Zealand...

Anyway, Hong Kong...

Stopover in Hong Kong

100 Hong Kong Dollars (about €10) will get you a return ticket on the Airport Express, which will take you to Hong Kong station, a trip of 24 minutes, leaving every 12...

From there, I found the escalator to the Mid-levels, you have to get to the walkway from the Exchange Building and look for very small green signs. Take it as far as it will go, which is way, way up to Conduit Road, and then wander back down to and through the Botanic Gardens and across Road to the lower station for the Cable Car to the Peak, HKD33 return.

The views are spectacular!

Once down, wander back down through Place to the Central MTR Station and follow the signs to the "A" exit. There will be a moment that you'll lose any sort of signage but press on...

more coming soon

Flying from NZ

Whenever you take an Air New Zealand Domestic flight that transfers to an international flight, you need to check-in 60 minutes before, instead of the usual 20-30.. Your baggage will be checked all the way through

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