Air New Zealand celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. The national airline of New Zealand operated its first scheduled flight from New Zealand to the rest of the world on 30 April 1940. It’s inaugural flight was operated by Air New Zealand’s predecessor Tasman Empire Airways Limited or TEAL and took nine hours to get to Sydney from Auckland.
As part of the celebrations, Air New Zealand has collaborated with the Auckland War Memorial Museum to display memorabilia as well as a DC-8 cabin and other aviation exhibits till 22 May 2016.
The Air New Zealand 75 Years: Our nation. The World. Connected exhibition had moved from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington since it opened 20 December 2014 till 26 July 2015.
We visited the exhibition on 2 December 2015 briefly before heading back to Singapore that night.
This exhibition brings you on a journey with Air New Zealand through the decades from flying boats to the Dreamliner today. It is truly a treat for aviation lovers and geeks out there as well as anyone who wants to know more about the airline renowned for its memorable inflight safety videos, Lord of The Rings aircraft livery and trend setting cabin innovations.
Air New Zealand was recently named Airline of the Year for the third consecutive year as well as Best Premium Economy and Best Economy titles by AirlineRatings.com. In October, Air New Zealand was also named Australasia’s Leading Airline for the seventh consecutive year at the 2015 World Travel Awards. It also took the award for Australiasia’s Leading Airport Lounge for the Air New Zealand lounge at Christchurch International Airport for the third year running.
Step into the exhibition and you walk through the journey of cabin crew uniforms from the day TEAL days til Air New Zealand today. See how the uniforms evolved over the years to the current purple uniforms. Photos and videos of real cabin crew in uniforms from the airline’s archives are also up on display.
Fashionistas will spend quite some time at the beginning of this free exhibition as long as you have a ticket to the museum.
Some of Air New Zealand bags are also on display bringing you back in time to these retro pieces. You may purchase special edition designs from the retail store set up at the entrance of the exhibition in the museum.
You will come to a room where people have written their fond memories with the airline on a postcard. You too can also pen your own memories and display them in this room.
A few aircraft models are on display while a DC-8 cabin model as well as a Solvent cabin model are also available for you to try out the seats as well as take selfies in the cabins.
Air New Zealand’s ZK-AMA Aotearoa was the first plane, or flying boat to be more precise, to fly on the inaugural flight by Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) in 1940. The Solent aircraft was a Short S-30 Empire-Class Flying Boat. It flew from New Zealand’s first international airport at Mechanics Bay in Auckland. Mechanics Bay was the centre of international aviation for New Zealand till the 1950s.
Another cabin mockup worth visiting is the DC-8. Here you get a glimpse of the cutlery used and the first class cabin.
Air New Zealand Economy SkyCouch
Air New Zealand was the first airline to launch the Economy SkyCouch seats offering you the chance to lie flat in Economy Class. When purchasing SkyCouch, you can just top up if you are already purchasing two seats. These seats come with a leg rest each and are independently adjustable to 60 or 90 degrees. The couch space measures 5’1″ long when you move up the arm rests between the seats. Each seat is 17.2″ wide with 33″ pitch and 5″ recline.
The Economy SkyCouch mock up seats are on display at the exhibition so you can try them out.
Now that you have checked out the cabins of the past and present, why not step into the Virtual Flight Lab and let the Oculus bring you on a virtual reality flight experience. Be warned if you have acrophobia, there are some scenes where the body of the aircraft becomes transparent. Just close your eyes if you feel dizzy. Move your head while you are seated and you can see what’s behind through the Oculus goggles.
You will get to an experiential area with five digital interactive stations. You can join the pilot in the flight deck of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner lands. Select a zone on the instrument panel and learn what the buttons do. A time-lapse video gives you insight of what goes behind the scenes as an aircraft gets turnaround after landing before boarding new passengers on another flight. There is also a boarding simulation game that lets you move passengers from the gate lounge to their assigned seats while trying to beat the record time. Not easy…
Kids always get the fun bits. Pilot and cabin crew uniforms in kids sizes are available for kids to try them on for a photo. Other kids activities are also available in the kids area where they can also assemble a zig zaw puzzle.
You can also design your own aircraft livery with the help of touch screens. This seems to be a popular exhibit because it was always busy with people trying their hand at painting their own customised airplane liveries.
You can purchase merchandise at the entrance of the exhibition hall. Model airplanes, bags, artwork, Shirts and other souvenirs can be purchased here. We got carried away in the exhibition hall we did not get anytime to check out the shop. The aircraft models on sale there were just too tempting. Perhaps it was fate that helped me save a few bucks.
The cockpit of decommissioned Boeing 737-300 aircraft is on display at the lawn of the museum. It has also travelled to Aoeta Square in November and continues to be mobile to bring the experience closer to more people in Auckland.
You can pose with the nose or even visit the cockpit and get photos and selfies taken in the pilot’s seat.
Pingback: Passenger Experience on Air New Zealand and Lounges in New Zealand »