Up at 5am to be at the airport for 6am with plenty of time for our 8.30am flight. I like to have plenty of time especially as we are travelling for the first time with my LevoC3 power-chair and in a large box a portable shower commode.
We always park at Auckland International Airport Parking and this time when I booked only covered parking was available which was that much more expensive. Parked in Car park D which is a 2 minute walk to the terminal. (Had a map inserted but things keep changing at the airport so may not be up to date - Aug 2016)
Arrived early so had to wait until 6am when our parking time started! Access is by inserting the credit card you paid with - easy. Found a park at the end of a row under a light.
Check in was easy as we had Premium Check-in. No problems with the large box. Took our two carry-ons with us to the plane.
Our carrier of choice is Air New Zealand and we were booked on a 777-300 and upgraded to Premium Economy.
Wow - great seats! We are totally converted to this class as it was so much easier for me to lifted in and out of the seat. Heaps of room, great service and very nice food.
Plus:
The vast selection of activities on the inflight entertainment will keep even the most fidgety of flyers engaged for the whole flight. Enjoy over 1,700 hours of content - including latest movies, TV box sets, video games, and a dedicated kids section - all on a 10.6” personal touch screen in widescreen format. If you need more, there are always the USB and iPod connections to plug in to
Our flight over was fast and we were told there was a window of 15 minutes for our arrival on the new flight time. Alas that did not work as we arrived early then had to wait on the 'apron' until our gate became available - 1/2 hour. Due to the wheel chair passengers (me and others) we could not be disembarked on the tarmac which could have been an option.
Only disappointment was how long we had to wait for my power chair to arrive at the plane - think we waited another 1/2 hour.
Finally we were off and able to get through Immigration - airport helper insisted we use the fast track system, but for some reason it would not let me. Pete went through and I was taken to the front of the queue to be processed. Off to get the luggage - all relatively easy.
I declared 'nuts' on the Agriculture form as we had taken Whittakers Chocolates with us. Good move as we were sent to the red line which was completely empty and we got straight through! Actually the Officer was annoyed with me..... Tough worked for us!
We had been told there was no need to order a wheelchair accessible taxi, so we found the taxi area and the taxi rep ordered up a maxi taxi. Didn't have to wait long at all.
Ride to to Vibe Savoy Hotel, on corner of Spencer Street and Little Collins cost around $66.00. So we were glad it was a Sunday and not a week day. The recommendation came from:
http://havewheelchairwilltravel.net/category/melbourne/
We had an Easy Access Room - not strictly fully accessible but did work for us. Huge room although bathroom a little small, but no issue when using the shower commode.
Room overlooked the Atrium - bonus being no road or other noise!
Entry to bathroom
Shower stall - portable shower commode fitted.
Across Spencer Street there is an Outlet Store Centre, Foodcourt and Coles Supermarket. Got our wine and water for the ship from Coles. Pete had a neck and shoulder massage at one of the shops in the Outlet Centre.
On arrival in Melbourne it was a hot 35 degrees. We walked into Coles it was that temperature and when we walked out 20 minutes later the temperature had dropped 10 degrees and was really windy. By 6pm it was raining sideways.
We stayed in the hotel for drinks and dinner and were joined by our brother-in-laws cousins for dinner. A jolly night was had by all!
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