We arrived in Auckland yesterday afternoon a few minutes ahead of scheduled, checked into our hotel, walked to a nearby market to shop for wine and breakfast, then had a very good pizza and salad for dinner from a place right downstairs.

So we haven’t really don’t anything yet, which means this post will comment on the flight and other travel issues.

There’s no way around it. Air New Zealand Flight 09 is long. It was 8-1/2 hours flying from Honolulu to Auckland. That’s approximately the same as the direct flights from Honolulu to Chicago. Long but not excruciatingly so. And the time zones are 23-hours apart, which means just one-hour off, but a day different. This means minimal jet lag and really no adjustment to the new time zone.

Our United Airlines “Gold” status got us seats in the “frequent flyer” section on the 777 aircraft. A few observations. The plane seemed to be quite new, very clean. The seats were not luxurious, but were surprisingly comfortable. My knees didn’t hit the seat in front, which is always a worry.

Three other things stood out—the boarding process, the crew, and the toilets on board.

Although the flight was relatively full, and had the same 10 across seating configuration used by United (3-4-3). But boarding was not the pushy, somewhat chaotic scene we are used to on United, and we’re hard pressed to identify the difference. We think it largely has to do with a stricter policy on carry-on luggage.

Air New Zealand did not try to organize passengers in advance of boarding. They simply announced boarding by rows. The first and business class cabins boarded first, then different parts of the main economy cabins. Absent was the jockeying for space to accommodate carry-on bags of all sizes that we’re used to on United. This also meant that the tension among both airline crews and passengers as jockeying begins for the limited storage space were also absent. Boarding was calm and civilized, with a very different feel from the typical United flight from Honolulu.

My impression is that there were far fewer carry-on bags than in a typical flight from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Air New Zealand restricts both the number and weight of carry-ons. Most passengers are restricted to one bag of modest dimensions weighing no more than 15 pounds. Higher level frequent flyers are allowed two bags weighing a maximum of 30 pounds total, and a 22 pound max for any single bag.

In any case, whatever the reason, boarding was far less stressful than we’re used to.

The crew. They served two meals over the course of the long flight. Water was offered relatively frequently. Other drinks were available on call. Flight attendants had some additional duties, due to the configuration of at least our section. The three seats nearest the windows on both sides could be folded down into a bed, and a number of individuals, couples, and families took advantage of this and slept through most of the flight. Crew had to assist them in arranging the seats, and then delivering blankets, etc.

Despite all this, the crew seemed less stressed than the typical United crews. Perhaps Air New Zealand has more people working on these long flights. We don’t know, but we both perceived a difference.

And then there were the bathrooms. There seemed to be more of them. Either that, or those flying to New Zealand have much larger bladders than the average American passenger. What we noticed is that we never saw lines of people waiting to use the toilets, as is the norm on United. And the individual toilets were cleaner and better stocked with paper towels, etc., than United. The contrast was quite noticeable.

On arriving in Auckland, getting through customs didn’t take long at all. It took us perhaps 35 minutes from landing to exit the plane, walk to the customs and baggage claim area, get cleared, and meet our reserved taxi. We were in a separate line for “all other” passport holders after those holding New Zealand or Australian passports were separated out, and the longest line we hit cleared in less than two minutes.

So we’re off to a good start. Already having a cup of fresh coffee in our room this morning (Thursday in Auckland, Wednesday back in Hawaii). Here’s a shot of our meatless pizza from our first meal in Auckland last night.