Flying from Auckland to Christchurch with Air New Zealand

Kia Ora magazine cover. Photo / Thomas Bywater

Thomas Bywater flies aboard NZ573, from Auckland to Christchurch.

The plane: An Airbus A320.

Class: Steerage.

Seat: 24B.

Entertainment: Ours was one of the first flights to screen Air New Zealand's new Antarctic safety video, something the airline was evidently very proud of. Watching Adrian Grenier and a waxwork of Captain Scott cavort around the expedition base, it definitely qualified as in-flight entertainment. Even the inflight mag, Kia Ora, was plastered with the ruggedly handsome Grenier in polar-expedition gear. It was a celebration of the airline's connections with the scientific team at the Antarctic base, though all mentions of ill-fated flight 901 — which, in 1979, crashed into Mt Erebus very near Scott Base, killing 257 people — had been expunged.

Fellow passengers: A vegan, a vegetarian and a steak-pie-eating omnivore get on to a plane ... sounds like an extraordinary start to a very average joke. I was sandwiched in between my girlfriend and our healthy-living friend. We had paid the $7 each extra for the privilege of booking three seats together, rather than being assigned spaces at random. — one of the sneakier stealth charges of the self-check-in era. But at least we could sit together and air our grievances about this stealth charge.

Food and drink: After only 40 minutes in the air we were offered a cup of coffee and a cookie. A nice gesture, considering how short the flight was. There was even a bag of vegan-friendly corn chips. Everyone was happy. Though I overheard a sigh that sounded suspiciously like: "No soy milk?"

Airport experience: At the girlfriend's insistence, we arrived two and a half hours in advance of our 8.30am departure. An added hour's delay meant there was little of Auckland's domestic terminal we didn't see. This included the over-scaled but under-supplied food court. The two noodle bars and sandwich shop were all out of salad. There were no cucumbers. Not even for ready money. I self-consciously tucked into a Big Mac while my herbivorous travel companions scanned the departure boards, starving.

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