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Down Under: my experiences in South-East Asia, Australia & New Zealand.

Guido's Down Under Experiences: February 2004

FlyingDutchman
2006-03-19 10:32:36

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so even if I do not get enough miles for a free flight, I do get priority when a flight is full. And since nowadays you can apply for almost every frequent flyer card for free on the internet, why not collect miles when flying with flag carriers? There are really only benefits to collecting miles, even for non-frequent flyers. Just make sure you only use one card for each alliance (Star Alliance, OneWorld, SkyTeam), otherwise you end up like me, having collected enough miles for a free flight, but not able to get it because the miles are spread on 3 different cards from Star Alliance (Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS). Clear case of a luxury problem.

The Qantas flight to Auckland was pretty good, aside from a little turbulence. And I think I had one of the best airplane lunches ever: chicken with rice (maybe that is why), salad, chocolate pudding and Bundaberg rum with Coke ;-)
I was already warned about the airport in Auckland by a backpacker magazine, and they were right, the airport just cannot handle all the traffic. After landing, it took more than 1 hour to get to the terminal by bus, clear immigration, collect luggage, and clear customs. Mainly because the queues before immigration were really long, and I just had to laugh when the immigration officer looked at my ticket, noticed that I left from Amsterdam, and asked if I brought any pot with me. That really is the first thing people think about when they hear Amsterdam.

After I checked in at the Fat Camel hostel in Auckland (some hostel names are pretty funny), it was about 6 PM and all the shops just closed, so I was not able to do any shopping. I hope I find some time in the morning, before I have to go to the airport to pick up my parents and sister. They are coming to New Zealand for 3 weeks and want to see the entire country in that time, so I reckon the next 3 weeks are going to be quite intensive, driving at least 200km a day, but also a lot of fun. As a consequence of the hectic ...

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