In praise of Wild at Heart

I was up at 5.30am yesterday to fly to Wellington for a four-hour meeting. Meeting over, three of us arrived about 3pm at the aitport for the 6.30pm flight home. We were saved by the new lounge which had opened the day before. Wild at Heart is upstairs where the Qantas lounge used to be: it’s a bit like the Koru Lounge except there is no exorbitant annual fee – you pay as you go.

It costs $25 to get in, discounted to $19 until March, and what you get is peace and quiet, free food (not flash but all you need in the way of cheese and crackers and salamis and such) and free tea, coffee, beer and wine. There’s also Wi-Fi and an array of PCs to use, and Sky News runs continuously on a large screen.

It is a clean, well-lighted place and, frankly, a haven. It may not be that for much longer as more people realise it’s there and take their children, but yesterday it was just what we needed.