However, the paranoia that has strangled the airline industry since the September 11 attacks saw what was a minor security machine malfunction turn into a farce that affected flights and travellers across Australia. All passengers in the terminal, and on flights that were still boarding at Sydney Domestic were forced to leave the air-side area of the terminal and planes landing at the airport were made to queue for hours on the tarmac until every passenger was re-screened.

In other words the failure to correctly screen 16 passengers resulted in thousands of people being stuffed about by overbearing and unnecessary security regulations which see public freedom curtailed in the name of fighting an invisible and mostly physiological enemy.

This paranoia and curtailing of public freedom has sees us live in a society where you are many times more likely to be killed in a plane accident than a terrorist attack. Yet in the United States $8.1 billion is spent on the TSA to enforce compulsory child molestation air-line security while only $77 million is spent on investigating airline accidents.

It is all a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Which reminds me of this infographic:

My hope is one day we will wake to the realisation that the biggest threat to our safety and freedom is not a few men who live in dusty caves in the middle-east but instead our own governments curtailing our freedoms in a manner akin to that of Orwell’s 1984.

More info here: http://weatherwatchcentre.co.nz/content/dust-storm-heading-our-way

Saturday:

• Got up at 2am to head to airport to check in for flight.
• Arrived at Auckland Airport at 3.30am, checked in.
• Departed Auckland at 6.10am
• Flight was extremely bumpy, for the first time ever got Motion Sickness two and a half hours into the flight… so did lots of other people on the plane including an air hostess.
• Landed 20 minutes early at 7.50am
• Got on bus into Melbourne Central, arrived at Southern Cross Station.
• Walked to hotel, stopped at Mc Donalds for breakfast, checked into hotel.
• Went for a walk to look at town, found Federation Square, watched street perfomer, met up with friend.
• Went on tramp ride around the city
• Went on river cruise down the Yarra
• Went back to hotel at 4pm, fell asleep while mum went shopping
• Got woken by mum at 7pm, went out for dinner
• Got back to hotel, watched Sky News
• Went zzz

Sunday:

• Mum set alarm for 7am, she woke to me cursing at it.
• Had breakfast at Hotel, was really busy, lots of hungry hungry hippos.. people.
• Caught tram to Vibration Training place.
• Caught train to Dandenong
• Visited friends house
• Got driven to Sunnyvale
• Checked out these awesome Asian supermarkets… Think St Lukes but all Asian, had a sugar cane drink
• Got driven back to Caulfield
• Caught train back to city, got off at Parliament Underground Station not 100% sure where we were.
• Went shopping
• Caught tram to St Kilda beach
• Had dinner at St Kilda beach
• Caught tram back to town, which went on train tracks as well as roads… so cool.
• Watched Sky News and the 20/20 Cricket
• Went zzz

Monday:

• Woke at 5am
• Caught 5.45am tram to Southern Cross Station
• Caught 6.15am bus to Airport
• Checked in went shopping!!!
• Flew back to Auckland at 9.25am
• Landed in Auckland at 2.45pm
• Mum went shopping again.
• Got through customs just before 4pm.

When I flew to Wellington last Sunday we had an engine failure. Well actually a complete APU failure. Luckly we were on Taxi and not in the air.

This is how it went down:
We were push backed from the terminal like normal. While the engines were being started they were doing the safety demonstrations. It was pretty obvious from the start that something was wrong with the engines because they were not making the normal engine starting noise. Halfway through the safety video all the power died in the aircraft. I mean the video stopped, the air con stopped, all the lights cut out, the engines stopped we came to a complete halt with no power or engines.

We sat for 20 mins parked sideways on the taxi way in front of the domestic terminal before we got pulled back to the terminal. All other aircraft had to detour around us by using the B runway. Thank god for that second runway at Auckland! Once we were pulled back they decided to jump start us off a ground power unit that they had to call over from the International Terminal on a truck!

We had no power, lights or anything for more then 40 minutes. Did I say we had no aircon. Also this was an Airbus A320 a medium range aircraft normally used on international routes. It has 170 seats and I can only assume that it was being used as a domestic aircraft because it was a long weekend and school holidays. We had about 40 kids on board which was fine for all of 5 mins and then the crying began! Once started again we made it safely and without incident to Wellington 50 minutes late. Fun!

The words money making rip off come to mind when reading about it. I am currently traveling on around 20 – 30 flights per year and I am never over my baggage weight allowance, in fact 90% of the time I am more then 50% under it. Although I do occasionally travel with two bags – always underweight.

I think Air New Zealand have figured out that not many people traveling domestically actually go over the baggage weight limit and have found another way to squeeze them for money. Only a few days ago it was announced that fairs would also increase.

To put it bluntly Air New Zealand want you to pay more for you ticket. Pay more for your bags. Provide less people behind the desk and expect more from you (ie you have to put your own bags on the baggage trolley).

What is next? A $1000 per ticket cost to fly to Wellington where you create your own ticket, act as your own security screener, fly the plane yourself, be baggage handler, air traffic controller, and ground crew. Customer Service yeah right!