Day 1, April 25 - The Panama Cruise holiday.

ANZAC day, 25 April, my daughter and her husband Gary took me to the Palmerston North airport for the 12.10 flight to Auckland. Arrived in Auckland, spent the afternoon in Air New Zealand Koro club lounge before preceding to the departure lounge about 30 mins before loading started on my NZ6 flight. The plane, a Boeing 777-300 fitted with new seating, was comfortable and with surprisingly good leg room in Tourist Class. The new seating design maintains the leg room even when the seat in front is reclined. The in-seat TV system is much improved with touch screen and faster response times.

The first part of the flight was extremely bumpy. This was the first time I have seen cabin attendants, on an international flight, having to brace their feet against the legs of one set of seats, one arm on the back of the seat on the opposite side of the aisle and the other hand on the over-head lockers. However, the pilot descended a couple of thousand feet and soon everything was back to normal.

The cabin lighting I found interesting. During takeoff and landing the lights were a subdued mauve. In the morning the lights started with dim red slowly increasing in intensity and finally changing to normal colour--just like a sunrise.

Arrived in LA 12 hours later and because of the dateline, five hours before we left. Once off the plane I was expecting the usual long waits to pass through immigration. However, to my surprise I was through in less that ten minutes, picked up my case, through customs, and was out looking for transport to my hotel 30 minutes after getting off the plane. Thanks to all the immigration desks being opened and the very efficient handling of passengers into mini queues for each immigration station. They even used the US citizens stations once all the Americans had been dealt with. If this was not enough all the staff were smiling, talkative and extremely friendly. Well done LAX.
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