Airplane

This week I had to fly to Auckland for work.  The first time we undertook air travel in New Zealand, we could not believe how pain free it was.  Years later the amazement is barely diminished.  So I tell you again: flying in New Zealand is a pleasure.  An absolute pleasure. 

This is especially true if you fly with Air New Zealand.  Here are the Top 5 reasons you should always fly with Air New Zealand (this is an unpaid advertisement!).

1.  Hassle-free check-in. 

It's all automated.  You walk up to a kiosk, you check in.  There are people there to help if you need it, but you don't need it.  Because it's easy.

2. The Koru Lounge. 

After you've checked in, mosey on over to the Koru lounge to wait for your flight to board.  Ok, you have to be (or be with) a Koru Club member to hang in the Koru lounge, and I understand it costs $800 the first year and $400 every year thereafter if you want to join.  So it's not cheap.   I'm not actually a member myself, but my Wellington-based colleague is a member, and she brought me in as her guest.

I had always wondered what wonderous things went on behind the Koru Club doors.  Now I know.  A buffet that stretches as far as the eye can see.  A well-stocked bar.  An automated espresso machine.  Workstations where you can plug in your laptop.  Couches/lounge chairs.  Television.  And lots of people wearing pinstripe suits.

All the food and drink is free, so I ate a lot.  I had: penne pasta, a sausage roll, a ciabatta roll, a lamington (cake coated in coconut - yum), a chocolate chip cookie, cheese and crackers, some olives.  And a glass of pinot noir.

I could have eaten more, but I didn't want to seem greedy...

3. Clever safety videos. 

 All airlines will ask you to put your magazine down for a moment and pay attention to the important safety instructions.  But only Air New Zealand makes their safety videos interesting so you don't really mind watching.

Here's the one they did for the Rugby World Cup (that's All Black coach Graham Henry and captain Richie McCaw in the cockpit, for the uninitiated):


And here's the one they were running for the last couple years. It looks like they're wearing clothes, but they're not.



4.  More food and drinks!

In case you didn't get enough to eat in the Koru Lounge (or weren't able to sneak in), don't worry! They will feed and water you on the plane.

It always seemed on American airlines that every time you flew, you got fewer goodies. They'd bring the drink cart around, but you had to pay for most of the stuff on offer. And forget about getting anything more than a bag of peanuts.

On my flight from Auckland to Christchurch, coffee, tea, wine, and beer were all on offer for no charge. No charge! And there were snacks too! A choice of snacks: bagel chips with hummus, cheese and crackers, or chocolate biscuits (cookies). As I had already gorged myself in Koru, I was prepared to say no thank you when the hostess asked which snack I'd like. I did in fact say "no thank you." But then I caught a glimpse of the cheese and cracker plates. There was brie. I got the hostess' attention before she wheeled the cart away and told her I'd changed my mind.

Sitting in my aisle seat happily munching my brie and crackers (and there were grapes too!), I was pretty content. I thought nothing could make this flight nicer.

5. They watch your kids for you.

There was a very small baby on the plane a couple rows behind me. In a past life, listening to a baby cry on the plane might have made me grumpy. But on this particular day, I had just spent the night away from my own baby - my first and only night away from him in his whole 17 months of life. And I was on my way home to see him again. So hearing that baby cry only brought the mama in me to the fore. I wanted to hold that crying baby and comfort him.

But I didn't have to, because the Air New Zealand staff did it first! As the drink cart was going past, I heard the two hostesses saying something like, "are you getting him or should I?" The one who was closer said, "I will!" and then suddenly the hostess had swiped the crying baby from his mother's arms and was walking up and down the aisle with him, shushing and rocking him. I thought a couple of things. First, what a relief and a welcome break for that mother! Before I was a mother, I might have thought, "that poor woman, they took her baby!" But as a mother I now know that if someone wants to give you a break from your crying kid, even if it's a stranger, it's a gift. Take it.

I also thought, again, how wonderful Air New Zealand is.

Happiness is

 

the seaside + coffee



Some answers

A few weeks ago I did a post about things we still don't know. I talked about some questions we still have about life in New Zealand, two-plus years in.

Would you believe that in the last week, two answers to my questions have arrived in the post??  It's as if the post office is reading this blog.  Creepy.

I talked about New Zealand's confusing parliamentary system, and specifically how I had no idea what MMP stands for. Then this arrived in the mail:

This helpful pamphlet explains that there is a referendum coming up on November 26th (election day) and that voters will be asked if they want to keep MMP or change to a new system.  On the back, in an apparent admission that many people will have no idea what the orange man is talking about, it explains what MMP is.  It stands for "mixed member proportional".  The orange man explains:

This is the system we currently use to elect our Parliament.

There are 120 Members of Parliament (MPs).  There are 70 electorates, including the Maori electorates.  Each elects one MP, called an Electorate MP.  The other 50 MPs are elected from political party lists and are called List MPs.

Each voter gets two votes.  The first vote is for the political party the voter chooses.  This is called the party vote and largely decides the total number of seats each political party gets in Parliament.  The second vote is to choose the MP the voter wants to represent the electorate they live in.  This is called the electorate vote.  The candidate who gets the most votes wins.  They do not have to get more than half the votes.

Under current MMP rules, a political party that wins at least one electorate seat OR 5% of the party vote gets a share of the seats in Parliament that is about the same as its share of the party vote.  For example, if a party gets 30% of the party vote it will get roughly 36 MPs in Parliament (being 30% of 120 seats).  So if that party wins 20 electorate seats it will have 16 List MPs in addition to its 20 Electorate MPs.

Coalitions or agreements between political parties are usually needed before governments can be formed.

Finally, a succinct explanation.  This fills in so many gaps in my understanding.  Thank you, Electoral Commission.

I also asked, "How much will I be charged for this ambulance ride?"  This, too, has been answered via letter in our postbox:

I love the apologetic tone of the letter, where it says, "Unfortunately, because the Government only partly funds us to attend medical emergencies, we have to charge you ..."  I'm pretty sure this is the most sheepishly written bill we've ever received.  And we are only too happy to pay it.  Sixty seven dollars!!!  I doubt that will even cover their gas (it's more than $2 a litre here now... that's about NZ$7.50 per gallon.  So quit your whining about gas prices, fellow Americans!  Ya hear?  $7.50!!)