Keen to save our last dollars, we headed to the train station for the long trip on th east-west MRT line to the airport, rather than a quick but expensive taxi ride. We have learnt that most things can be done on a little bit of money, provided you have the time and patience.

Arriving at the airport, we went to process the GST return from our recent purchases – it felt good to have money finally going back into our bank account after spending six months flowing the other way. The previous night we had found that the seats we carefully reserved 7 months earlier had been changed – now we were down at the back of a long plane near the galley and toilets – YAY. Apparently I had booked the unaccompanied minor seats (not really sure if that was true). We attempted the change our seats but with an overbooked flight – not a chance.

We had both looked forward to relaxing on our Emirates flight and enjoy the good food and in-flight entertainment. As we sat down, we became acutely aware that our row of entertainment systems was the only ones NOT working ! Arhhh. Bring on 7 hours of boredom, however a few of the staff did their best, getting us champagne, magazines and chocolate from first class. One attendant lent me his iPad (flat battery) and then his computer to watch some movies – day saved !

Arriving in Brisbane at 1.30am isn’t too exciting as we were the last plane to land and even the cleaners had finished their nightly toilet cleaning rounds. We quickly found some semi-comfy sofas to sleep on for 5 hours, to be woken by a thick Australian accent making calls for ‘the Virgin Australia’ flight to Uluru.
Our flight to Auckland was on the new A380 – a massive aircraft which seemed to dwarf the jets around it. As it was only the 2nd flight using this aircraft, it left late as the ground crew struggled to marry the air-bridge to the huge super structure. This time we had a functioning entertainment system which we enjoyed with our reheated scrabbled eggs (yum yum) and a good trashy movie on our last leg home !

We felt a sense of nostalgia walking through the artificial Marae entrance, welcoming foreign visitors to Auckland; the Powhiri over the loud speaker was a nice re-introduction to New Zealand. I felt like Dave Dobbyn would jump out and start signing ‘Welcome home’ or ‘Loyal’ as I walked through duty free.
Down at the baggage area we managed to bump into a good friend of Emily’s working as a customs officer. As she was on duty, she couldn’t reciprocate the attempted hug, which left us hanging in the air, like a high five gone wrong. A few laughs later we had caught up with her news – beginning to realise how much has gone on at home while we’ve been away.

Despite carrying a bagful of slightly suspect items like wooden spoons and flax bags, and shoes which had recently stood in elephant dung, we managed to get through MAF and customs without a full bag search or even an X-ray. Our strategy of ticking every yes on the form and being upfront clearly worked.

And then it was over ! We stepped out across the ‘do not cross’ red line to see Kevin and Jenny Crawford waiting for us (we would see the Loan’s in 2 days time).

It was great to put our bags down, take stock of our travels and enjoy a nice New Zealand wine!!