Letters to the Travel Editor
Keep control, parents
Kate Haywood’s article [”Koru’s crowded house”, Travel, May 22] on Auckland’s Koru Lounge is right on the mark. She accurately described the noisy and disruptive play school environment that Air New Zealand seems keen to create, and said what many business travellers have been saying for some time. Hopefully someone in Air New Zealand will take her comments on board.
Well done, Kate.
Kind regards, Rob Marshall
Parnell
Just a comment on two recent articles in your excellent paper. I agree completely with your review of the Koru Lounge at Auckland airport. It seems to be nearly always crowded with children running around. There needs to be more supervision. (by parents . . . not staff!) The queue for food seems to always have fussy children deciding what to have (or not to have), holding up the line of adults. There need to be less people allowed access.
Also, on board luggage. This should be more controlled at the gate. Many passengers have more than the allowed amount . . . backpacks, rolling suitcases that are too wide for the aisles, etc. A big tick for the Air NZ staff, they are without doubt the best in the world.
Cheers, Rick O’Neill
Te Aroha
Digging deeper
Re: “Nice place for a siege”, Travel, May 22.
For a further dose of nostalgia [in Malta], perhaps Roger Hall [could have] used one of the ancient buses, and the regular ferry, to visit the other main island of Gozo, (not “Goza”, as on your map), where he would have found many antiquities and have been in an English village-like environment? Got something to say? Send your letters to the Travel Editor Or visited the numerous well-maintained World War cemeteries, Malta having been a “hospital-stop” for Gallipoli-wounded in the First, as well as providing airfields for the Second? Yours, David Lee
Papamoa
Stay put and rest
I think Ask Away [Travel, May 22] covered Shanghai very well. The only problem, I think, is that it covered too much material.
Consider that a lot of people can’t sleep very well on planes so they will likely be jet-lagged. They have pass through Immigration twice, which may or may not be busy, and apply for a local visa, which also may or may not be busy. Are they going to lug their cabin baggage with them for several hours? I think it would be much easier to stay at the airport, rest Shanghai has a population of 24 million people — “potentially 48 million hot and sweaty elbows”, says one reader. and catch up on jet-lag. I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m saying spend a bit more time than 10 hours. A day or two would be much better.
Also, mid-August will be high summer and the temperature will be in the mid-to-high 30s.
Furthermore there are 24 million people in Shanghai, which means that you would have potentially 48 million hot and sweaty elbows getting in your road when you want to do things.
Consider too that China is not an English-speaking country. Maybe people learn English at schools but most people are not confident enough to hold a conversation. Most signs will not be in English.
My suggestion, especially at that time of the year, is to stay at the airport in air-conditioned comfort and catch up on some shut-eye.
Michael Dawson,
Papatoetoe