Cannabis has been legal in Canada since last October. “There are signs everywhere telling you to declare any weed you have,” writes Derek Cheng after recently landing at Vancouver International Airport.
Derek Cheng flies Air New Zealand from Wellington, via Auckland, to Vancouver on board Air New Zealand’s flight NZ24
The plane: A Boeing 777-200.
Class: Economy.
Price: From $1800ish.
Luggage: 20kg allowance for checked baggage. Domestic to International: Flight from Wellington is delayed by an hour, leaving me limited time to get myself from the domestic terminal to the international terminal in Auckland. Travel anxiety is never fun. Auckland airport experience: There is a free bus every 15 minutes between the domestic and international terminal, but it isn’t there when I step out of the domestic terminal. It’s a 10-minute walk, so I decide to run with my bags awkwardly thrown over my shoulders. I manage to get there and through security in time to board the flight to Vancouver.
Flight time: 13 hours, 10 minutes.
On time: I needn’t have run. The flight to Vancouver is delayed by an hour. We sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes, waiting for engineers to make sure everything is okay with the plane, which seems like a reasonable reason for a delay.
Safety video: When we are finally ready to take off, they show that awful rap safety video that makes everyone physically recoil. On the domestic flight from Wellington, we had Rachel Hunter and the beauty of a summer in Northland, so the rap video on the flight to Vancouver is abrupt and unexpected, and leaves a cringe on my face that I fear will be somehow permanent.
Take off: The lights of Auckland from the skies above are gorgeous. I feel at ease in the grandness of the universe and the cringe disappears.
Seat: It seems the designer of economy class measured the space needed for a 180cm-tall person to be able to have their knees straight without touching the seat in front, and then subtracted 10cm. I try to take out my laptop to do some award-winning travel writing for the Herald, but my arms are too long and I’m too sweaty from my mad dash between terminals to be comfortable. My last-second arrival at the terminal also makes me anxious that my bag won’t be on the flight. But all these are first-world problems, and I can’t do much about them, so I start scrolling the movies list.
Entertainment: A huge selection of movies, games, TV shows and music. I watched Life Itself, wiping away tears several times, and then Love, Simon, which again opened the tear ducts. I then tried to write amazing stories for Travel, but was too emotionally drained. Apparently travel anxiety and a relative lack of oxygen due to cabin pressure makes you more susceptible to emotional responses.
Dinner: Food is served after an hour or two and is pretty decent. Cheese and crackers. A bun with butter. A coleslaw and chicken tagine, which is actually pretty tasty. Kapiti hokey pokey icecream. There is a fair amount of turbulence, however, meaning tea and coffee are not offered.
Canadian arrival: Cannabis has been legal in Canada since last October. There are signs everywhere telling you to declare any weed you have.
Would I fly again? A direct flight to Vancouver from New Zealand is awesome, and probably not usually delayed. Next time I will pack more tissues to deal with my flight-fuelled emotions, and slice off some of my knees so I can sit more comfortably in a straight position. Travel anxiety about missing the international connection or having my bag miss the flight are not specifically related to this flight, so I wouldn’t hold it against Air New Zealand. I had nothing to worry about. The bag arrived in Vancouver at the same time I did.