Defective aircraft

Friday 10am - leave hotel in Penang
1pm - flight to Singapore
3pm - arrive Singapore
8pm - flight to Sydney
Saturday 6am - arrive Sydney, for 9am flight to Christchurch (so far, so good)
9am - announcement that there's a problem with our plane's engine, and they need to find another aircraft. Should take 4 hours.
1pm - board new aircraft and taxi to runway. Pilot then announces there's a problem with the take-off flaps and we need to go back to the gate and get it checked
3pm - told that the flight is cancelled and we'll overnight in Sydney and catch the 9am flight tomorrow
Sunday 9am - taxi to runway. Pilot announces there's a problem with the flaps and we need to go back to the gate and get it checked (seriously)
11.30am - not a major problem (thank god) and we finally take-off
4pm - arrive in Christchurch

So that was fun. Thanks Qantas. They were all very nice with free food vouchers and use of their lounge etc. but what they really need is to get some planes that aren't held together with sticky tape.

Anyway, finally on NZ soil. Christchurch is a very nice city, with a substantial English feel to it. And I don't mean it's full of hoodlums spilling out of pubs and vomiting in the gutter, or 15-year-old girls smacking their crisp-wielding offspring. It's green, has a charming punt-filled river running through it, and has statues of Captains Cook & Scott and Queen Victoria. Quite right too. And the weather is distinctly English, with the suggestion of rain at any time, though the heavens haven't opened yet. But I'm not staying here long. Got a bus ride to Dunedin in the morning then going to do a 150km bike ride towards Queenstown over the next 2 days. It's along a disused railway line and is supposed to offer some beautiful scenery. So fingers crossed the rain holds off.

written by  phileasdogg on November 22, 2008 from Christchurch, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
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