Flight Details
Flight Number: ANZ/NZ99
Origin: Auckland International Airport (NZAA/AKL)
Scheduled departure time: 08:45 NZST (20:45 UTC)
Actual departure time: Approximately 09:45 NZST (21:45 UTC)
Airborne: 10:02 NZST (22:02 UTC)
Destination: Narita International Airport (RJAA/NRT)
Scheduled arrival time: 16:50 JST (07:50 UTC)
Landed: 17:23 JST (08:23 UTC)
At the gate: Approximately 17:40 JST (08:40 UTC)
Flight time in the air: 10h21m
Trip cumulative time in the air: 10h21m
Block time (gate to gate): 11h00m
Trip cumulative block time: 11h00m
Flight tracking:
Seat Number: 23A
Aircraft Details
Registration: ZK-NZF
Type: Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Serial Number: 34335
Line Number: 213
First Flight: 14 September 2014
Delivered: 27 September 2014
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| ZK-NZF being towed into gate 16. |
This was the first exciting aviation moment of the trip; my first flight on a Boeing 787. This aircraft type has been hyped up a lot, possibly too much, but it was not disappointing. It is definitely quiet - compared to older generation aircraft, the predominant source of noise is airflow around the cabin rather than the roar of engines. That's not to say it is silent, but conversation with the person in the seat next to me was possible without needing to raise our voices. By far the best feature from my point of view are the windows, which a positively huge compared to other aircraft. The best aspect of this is the view it affords of the sky; on other aircraft you usually can't see a great deal above the horizon with doing some contortions. Not so on the 787. One part of the hype which is definitely true in my view is the sense of connection with the act of flight this creates. The windows also feature electronic dimming rather than a window shade. There are 5 settings, from fully transparent through to dark enough to make it seem like a moonlit night outside. The transitions are quite rapid, except the darkest setting takes a minute or so to go completely dark. The cabin crew automatically dimmed all the windows to setting 3 after the meal service. They still allowed passengers to set their own windows after that, but apparently the feature can be locked to a central control, too, which is used on night flights. I found the feature really useful, for being able to look outside without feeling like I was disturbing everyone else ensconced in their movies. I did bring the window to full transparency a few times to get some photos. The dimming feature did have an interesting side effect - the cabin was in twilight for most of the flight, which I found really confused my body - it was like having a super long evening (although getting only an hour and half's sleep the night before probably didn't help either). The mood lighting is a nice touch, including a mock sunrise towards the end of the flight as they lit up the cabin and served the second meal. If my body clock wasn't confused before, it was then. But that said, the lighting is certainly attractive, and clearly a lot of thought has been put into it.
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| Here you can see the size of the windows, as well as the effect of the dimming. I believe the forward two are on setting 4, the middle 2 on setting 3, and the back one on setting 5. This is the pink phase of the mood lighting; it next went orange before coming to white. |
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| A comparison. Here the window is undimmed... |
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| ...and here it is dimmed, with the same lighting conditions outside. |
In terms of aircraft performance, we became airborne perfectly adequately and climbed fairly rapidly to FL360 (36,000 ft). It was only 24 minutes to top of climb, which seemed very quick, and gave us a nice view of Northland from altitude. This aircraft certainly loves being in the air. The wing is a thing of beauty.
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| Climbing above the solid overcast which blanketed Auckland |
Speaking of Northland, that was definitely a highlight: the last part of the country I saw was Cape Reinga, the place where in Māori tradition the souls of the dead wing their flight back to Hawaiiki. In a way I am winging my own, very much living, flight to spiritual realms, so it seemed a fitting way to depart the country of my birth.
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| Approaching Cape Reinga |
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| My last view of Aotearoa New Zealand for the next 8 weeks (can't see it? Look carefully in between the engine and the wing). |
The flight path took us to the east of Norfolk Island and New Caledonia, however cloud cover meant they weren't visible. Vanuatu on the other hand didn't disappoint, with a great view from over the top of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. I said a prayer for the friends there at the Rowhani Bahá'í School as I flew over.
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| Espirto Santo, looking west from over the top of Luganville and the Rowhani Bahá'í School |
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| Slightly further north, looking Espirtu Santo's distinctive northern peninsula |
I was looking forward to seeing the sprawling expanse of Tokyo on arrival, however the weather was not cooperating, and we entered the top of the cloud layer at about 5,000 feet on descent, then spent what seemed like an eternity manoeuvering in IMC before finally popping out at what I was later told was about 350ft (so a bit over 100ft above the ILS decision height, which I believe was 220ft for the approach flown) with a view of a very wet Narita Airport. We then took the scenic route taxying to the gate. I didn't get the time we arrived on the gate, but I would say it was close to 20 minutes after we touched down. The lady next to me had been rebooked on a new connecting flight because of our late arrival, but after the long taxy to the terminal I suspect she would have been running even for that flight; I do hope she made it!
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| Emerging out of the murk. |
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| Even in the limited visibility, it is clear Narita is a large airport. |
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| A huge thank you to the crew, who were kind enough to invite me into their workplace at the end of a long day. |
So, there it is, flight number one done. As I write this, I'm somewhere over Russia on flight number two. Next up, some experiences from Tokyo.
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