Are We There Yet?

One thing I didn't pay tribute to in yesterday's blog about the trip was the flight itself. Our carrier this time is Air New Zealand (or Air Middle Earth as it also humourously brands itself). The safety demonstration video took this tongue-in-cheek effort further, featuring orcs, dwarves, hobbits and wizards giving the by now standard instructions. This was rounded off by a captain dressed in hat, cloak and beard dramatically uttering 'fly, you fools' as his sign-off line.

The entertainment system was an improvement over many I've seen before - definitely appreciated when you have an eleven hour flight to kill time on. The screen on the seat in front was closer to 4.5" than the standard 3" mini-screen, and meant you had a much superior view. There was a decent choice of films and TV shows, as well as the obligatory moving map for you to see exactly how far the plane has travelled and how far you still have to go.

However, for me the stand-out feature was that instead of walking up and down the aisles every couple of hours offering drinks and the odd snack, you could instead order your own drink from the comfort of your seat via your video screen. Chrissi and I didn't realise this until well into the flight, but still took the opportunity to order a couple of drinks each using this feature - I'm sure we'll get more use out of it on the return leg now that we're aware of it!