As I write this, we’re about two hours from our arrival in Auckland.

The long haul flight from Los Angeles to Auckland was comfortable.  The service with Air New Zealand is excellent, the meals were wonderful and the seats spacious.  There is simply no comparison to Air Canada.  I highly recommend Air NZ to anyone who may have them as an option for an upcoming trip.

We were able to relax in the lounge (pictured below) and have a refreshing shower and a meal before the cabin crew greeted us and personally escorted us to our departure gate.

Here we are getting ready for take-off.  The seats were very comfortable and allowed us to stretch out and get a good night’s sleep on the plane.

From the champagne and orange juice upon boarding, to the six course dinner and five course breakfast served, we certainly did not arrive hungry.  The wide selection of complimentary New Zealand wines on board was a fantastic way to sample some of the local wines.

We made a brief stop in Rarotonga (Cook Islands) along the way, where we had to step off the plane for about 60 minutes while they refuelled.  The sun was up when we resumed the flight, and it’s obviously a very beautiful place.  However, I didn’t want to risk any more pictures.  It was so hot and humid that my camera lens was fogging on the first photo shown below!