Burger King, international terminal, Auckland Airport

Heavy weather has made our domestic flight from New Plytmouth to Auckland late – but not disastrously so.

Still, we know full well that under the terms of budget flying in the new centuries we are going to be fed precisely zilch on the plane to Melbourne.

We have some time, but not enough to “um” and “ah”, or perhaps even order food to be cooked for us such as noodles or an acceptable burger.

So Burger King it is.

A double whopper meal deal for the pair of us at $NZ13 each, in fact.

It’s been a long time since we’ve eaten food such as this – and there are some pleasant surprises.

The salad ingredients, dressings and pickles are fresh and tasty.

The meat patties, though, are somewhere between Grill’d and the Golden Arches – that is, nowhere near as good as the former or as bad as the latter. Closer to McD’s, says Bennie.

The big let-down is the quality of the buns. Really, what is an otherwise acceptable fast-food meal in a fast-food situation is rendered a negative experience by these squishy, sweet nonentities.

And the chips – hot and utterly without charm or flavour.

Still, sometimes men have gotta do what seems inevitable.

We half expect to find a noodle or wok joint closer to our departure gate – and don’t know whether to feel relieved or exonerated when that is not the case.

Paradoxically, on the way over from Melbourne we enjoyed a great feed given the no-show of airline food these days – two tubs of dip (hoummous, eggplant), pita bread and kalamata olives.

After four or so hours … it’s good to be home.