Dubai to Christchurch - Monday 8 August/Tuesday 9 August

It was a case of 'gobble and go' for breakfast at the hotel this morning. None of us slept well, so fingers were crossed for some sort of sleep on the long flight. We were in a taxi by 7:40 am and at the airport 15 minutes later, faster and cheaper than the other night, with more cars on the road.

However, check-in was another story. We arrived more than 2 hours before departure, and spent the next 50 (yes 50!) minutes in total at the counter, and that was with NO queue ahead of us. Jan and Steve went to the counter for Silver and higher Skywards members and we went to Economy check-in. What a farce of a system. It took ages for them to check through regarding our 3 hour stopover in Sydney. I eventually left the counter, and we waited for Jan and Steve who were at the counter for a full 40 minutes. They were having a problem with the same matter, but the operator was taking a really long time trying to figure out how long the stopover would be. Crazy. Finally that was sorted, and then I realized that Steve had been issued with two boarding passes, one for each leg of the flight, whereas we only had a pass for the first leg to Sydney. So, back to the counter I went. They needed proof that Steve had the on-going pass, so he had to come too. Then the operator had to go down to her supervisor because the second boarding pass for us simply wouldn't print. It was sorted after another 10 minutes, and by then we had to get moving to our departure gate.

The sound system at the gate was not at all good, and only Steve picked up on the fact that our names were being called. We didn't hear where we were to go, but Jan slipped through the queue and found out that all four of us had been upgraded to Business Class using our Skywards travel miles. Halleluia! Steve had asked for upgrades but been told it was all booked up. Well done, Roger, our Travel Agent?! This was a new experience for us and it certainly was several steps up from Economy Class, but I'd never pay for it, and couldn't afford to anyway! David and I were seated next to each other at the back of the upstairs part of the plane, and the Barrows were together a little further ahead. The plane finally left about 40 minutes late but made up the time.

My eyes were on stalks, but I couldn't go to sleep till after dinner. I had expected that my Economy Class GF meal would be brought up to me, but no, they managed to put together something I'm guessing was much better, and the food was served with a tablecloth and plated up nicely instead of in containers. No dessert, but a beautiful cheese board and special dried fruit. The pre-dinner snack had been nuts, which of course I was delighted with because normally I can't eat the plane snacks on offer. I even got a couple of glasses of bubbly and a GF brand of gin. Yay!

Now, time to settle down for a sleep.... .... ... No such beep luck! There was a little girl on the plane (probably aged about 3) and she had a loud, piercing voice that moaned on and on, and penetrated the whole cabin. The minute her mother or father stopped doing something with her she was crying, grizzling or making a scene. This went on for over an hour. Finally I dropped off to sleep, only to be awoken 5 minutes later by the sound of her piercing voice squealing right beside our seats at the back of the cabin where there was a large space with a bar and snacks. Her father had taken her there to get her away from their neighbouring passengers, and she'd squealed right by me, just after I nodded off. Geez! And still she continued with her noise. She had that sound of a spoiled brat, just trying to get her way. David said there were a lot of people in the bar area complaining about the noise. This was a naughty, spoilt child, not one in genuine distress.

I made another attempt to get to sleep an hour or so later, only to be jolted alert by an angry conversation in the bar area behind me. David and I both listened in to the mother of the child, letting rip at one of the hostesses. She was carrying the child on her hip and getting really angry that none of the staff had made an effort to support her with this difficult child who was hungry and disturbing the other passengers, and she needed some food urgently blah blah blah. It was not nice to hear. Then the mother stalked off back to her seat without the child. Not sure what happened next, but I saw food heading their way shortly afterwards. The same child was screaming for her father all the way down the ramp out of the plane in Sydney later. I must say, I was wondering what the law on smacking would be on an airplane over the Indian Ocean!

The flight from Sydney was back in a 'regular' plane, not the more spacious Airbus 380. The row in front of us was empty so David and Steve grabbed it, leaving Jan and I with a full row too. My GF meal was another lactose and everything else free effort and made me feel even more grumpy after the severe lack of sleep. The meals seem to get worse, the closer to NZ we get. David gave me his cheese and chocolate. I managed to doze off for 20 minutes and was completely out to it when they announced about needing to fill in landing cards, and woke me up. Never mind, nearly home!

It was great to see the blue sky as we came in to land. We could feel the cooler temperature as we disembarked - brrrrr. While waiting to have passports checked, I found myself looking at the building structure and evaluating where I would stand if there was a quake...

It was great to have Simon picking us up and delivering us home. And Ross looked pleased to see us, and cooked dinner and cleaned up the dishes too. An early night for us, with lots of blankets to keep us warm! It was great to be home, and I'll be looking forward to a lie-in, and relaxing on Saturday! It's been a wonderful holiday, but there's no place like home sweet home!