We began our 44 hour day and our long trip home via Las Vegas by leaving Eichardt’s at 6:45am. I had asked the night before if they could have the car waiting for us at that time and they had it there even earlier. We brought our own bags down in the elevator as we would be schlepping them for the next two days anyway. The night before, the front desk had mentioned that we should ask for a light breakfast to go, but I forgot about that since I did the check-out formalities the night before anyway.

We drove to Queenstown airport and stopped to fill up just before the turn off to the airport off Highway 6. There was no traffic before 7am on a Saturday.

I found the Hertz/Thrifty lot and left my vehicle. There was an after hours drop box for the keys at the booth in the lot.

We walked over to the nearby terminal and found the Air New Zealand check-in counter. We printed our bag tags and tagged our bags ourselves. We then used the automated baggage drop off to send our bags on their way. I had booked a fare that included two checked bags each for US$103 per person. I credited my flight to Avianca LifeMiles to extend the expiration date of the miles in that account and I credited my wife’s flight to Air Canada Aeroplan.

Security was predictably quick at the early hour. Domestic and international security were separate. Our gate area had some seating available and we waited for boarding.

Our plane was boarded from the front and rear. As we were in row 18, we were kind of in the middle, but we boarded from the rear anyway.

NZ1212 A320 ZQN-AKL
Scheduled: 8:40-10:30
Actual: 8:37-10:21

Legroom was a bit better than Jetstar but not much different. We pushed back on time and headed out of Queenstown by back taxiing up the runway and taking off to the south. The safety video was played on drop down screens as we taxied out.

We actually flew south for a bit to gain altitude before turning around and flying back over Queenstown and the mountains.

We were served a complimentary drink and snack on this flight. I had coffee and an oat bar.

We had some great views as we flew north over the South Island and then crossed the Cook Strait.

We then passed over the Mount Taranaki volcano crater which was clear of clouds.

We approached Auckland and landed on time. We were right back at the same domestic terminal we had left exactly a week earlier.

It was quite a long walk down to the Air New Zealand domestic baggage claim area, but thankfully, they had free baggage carts there so I loaded our bags up when they arrived. We then walked back over to the international terminal, following the green line painted on the ground. It was again a nice day in Auckland for a walk to stretch our legs before the long flight to the US.

Up Next: Strata Lounge Auckland Review

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