Auckland is 20 hours ahead of Seattle time. We basically lose a day coming but gain it back when we return home. The total scheduled flight time is about 16.5 hours. You appreciate how big Earth is when you make a trip like this!

Our experience with US based airlines often leaves something to be desired when it comes to equipment and customer service, so I was not expecting much when we were scheduled to fly Hawaiian Airlines from Seattle to Auckland with a change of planes in Honolulu. Friends told us they really liked Hawaiian and always fly them when going to Hawaii but I was still skeptical. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised when we boarded our 9 AM flight to Honolulu.

The first surprise was it was one of their newer Airbus 330 planes, with full lie flat seats in the premium cabin rather than the normal first class seats on their older planes. Although we did not expect to sleep on the 6 hour flight it was a very pleasant surprise. The “pods” are state of the art. There are no built-in entertainment centers on these planes. Rather they hand out “top end” large (13 inch IPads and good headphones. There is even a special holder attached to the arm rest where you can position the iPad while watching movies or TV programming that is preloaded on the devices. The quality of the images is vastly superior to normal airline entertainment systems. I read it will be the wave of the future. I believe it!

The next surprise was the genuinely pleasant staff servicing the cabin. What a difference! They were friendly, courteous, helpful and eager to make sure our flight was enjoyable. Note to other airlines: fly Hawaiian Airlines to see what customer service should be. We had a thoroughly enjoyable flight to Honolulu.

We arrived in Honolulu on time and had about a 1.5 hour layover. Wow, has the airport changed. I remember the small open air concourses from the 1990s. No longer, it is a big city, busy airport now.

Our flight to Auckland was on an identical Airbus 330, but since it is a 9+ hour flight the lie flat seats will be appreciated (at least by me, as Yvonne tends to get caught up watching movies). Since it was now 5 PM somewhere I had the mai tai they offer when you board prior to taking off. It has been many years since I have had one and it brings back fond memories of previous visits to Hawaii.

I watched Bladerunner 2049 but got bored with it and almost did not finish it, but I did want to see how it ended. I was not one of the many who said it was a great movie. Way too long and slow moving.

Hawaiian served another great meal, starting with those lovely plates of macadamia nuts (oh, the calories! ). It was as good a meal as I have ever had on an airplane. The “sleep amenities” included not only a quilt, but also a big fluffy pillow and even a mattress pad to soften up the sleep surface. Yvonne said it did seem to make her shoulder feel better.

We left Honolulu about 20 minutes late but made up a bit of the time in flight, arriving in Auckland only 10 minutes late (10:10 PM local time-2:20 AM body time). What amazed everyone was the boarding lounge at the gate was already loaded with people who were going to board this same plane two hours later for the 9 plus hour return flight to Honolulu. Talk about equipment reliability (and utilization).  Impressive by any standards!

New Zealand is very strict about their environment, requiring all plane baggage storage areas to be sprayed with an aerosol chemical to kill any unwanted creatures or bacteria. We had to remain in our seats while the 10 minute procedure was performed. Clearing immigration is a snap here. They use  “do it yourself” kiosks where you insert your passport, answer a few on-screen questions and have your photo taken before being allowed into the country. There was staff available to handle questionable transactions if needed. We sailed right through and headed to baggage claim where luggage was already being delivered. The last step to entry is passing through another strict area: customs,  who critically enforce their no food brought into the country policy. There are warning signs and disposal bins regularly located as you approached the customs inspection area. The fines for violation are high -$400. There were even cute little beagles eager to point out offenders. Although all we had in hand luggage were some energy bars (for when we get stranded according to Yvonne) but I dutifully noted on the form that I had some foodstuffs to declare. The agent was friendly and said they were fine and off he sent us to find our ride to the local hotel where we were spending the night before flying to Queenstown on the South Island tomorrow.

We are safely in our hotel room by midnight localtime (4 AM body time). Z quill tablets would make sure we got a good night sleep.