Passengers screamed as the plane dropped sharply twice without warning and starting shaking violently sending wine arcing into overhead luggage compartments and fully laid food trays littering aisles.
A passenger posted on social media site Imgur that an hour into the 10-hour flight the plane suddenly dropped and started "shaking like crazy" sending everything in the air and spraying wine on to the cabin roof.
Falsabaiana said passengers were screaming.
"It was terrifying. I thought that might be the end of me."
He said he was about to tuck in to his meal when the violent turbulence struck.
"I was just about to eat mine and then it was literally ripped from my eager fingers," said Falsabaiana.
Poster Ollieislame described the panic.
"We had a little bump-de-bump at first and then all of a sudden the plane just dropped and started shaking like crazy. Then the second drop came. Everything up in the air, wine on the roof. Quite a few screams and general terror."
According to poster hairway2steven a cabin steward was injured trying to clean up.
"One of the stewards cut his finger pretty badly, but maybe that was from picking up glass afterwards."
Passengers said the cabin crew did their best to make everyone comfortable for the rest of the flight.
Falsabaiana said: "They went through and picked up everything they could but they just weren't equipped to do much more and so many people needed help cleaning themselves up I don't think it was that high a priority."
Posted Ollieislame: "After it all calmed down, one of the attendants let us know that it was a case of severe turbulence and bad weather they didn't anticipate, that the pilots were readjusting course to get around it. Nicely finishing up the information with 'There is nothing wrong with the plane, yet'."
Air New Zealand today said Flight NZ90 encountered unexpected, strong turbulence during a meal service, which caused "some catering items to fall from service carts".
Doctors travelling on the flight checked a small number of injured passengers but no further medical treatment was needed once the plane landed in Auckland, she said.
There were 294 passengers and 13 crew on the Boeing 787-9.
- by Lynley Bilby
