WELLINGTON TO ROME

After a fortnight of goodbyes the day has finally arrived where we are off jet-setting again. We have been planning this trip since almost a year ago and while it seemed ages until our holiday at the time of booking it has quickly arrived.

We checked into Wellington airport at some ridiculously early hour where we asked for emergency row seats as those with long legs would understand the predicament it causes. Only to be told no there is none available but we can do you one better and upgrade you to upper-deck at no extra cost which I'm sure you will enjoy. It was in a section with only about 3 rows of seating so didn't feel like a big plane at all.  We happily accepted.

FIRST STOP SYDNEY
We arrived in Sydney where we had 7 hours so we caught the cheap, local bus to Coogee and spent hours lying on the beach as well as going to the Coogee Pavilion which is a lovely cafe. At customs they were a bit suspicious of these two Nz'ers arriving and entering their country but "With no bags? Where are your bags?". After explaining we were actually there in transit they let us depart.


After lunch we returned to the airport and checking into our long flight looking forward to the benefits of our complimentary upgrade.

While we were in the international terminal we stumbled upon a lounge for American Express Card Holders. We thought there was no way we would be accepted in as we have only the very basic form of card and use it more for the airpoints benefit. Also the design of our card did not match any of the visible photos on the plaque at the reception. The worst they could say was no so we thought why not. To our surprise they did accept our card and we had full access to everything that was available. All complimentary as well.

What a great start to our Holiday!

After a long and grueling 14 hour flight to Dubai which left an hour late, we landed in Dubai around midnight local time to the captain's announcement that it was 38 degrees.  Luckily we didn't have to go outside and kept inside the air conditioned terminal.  We stretched our legs and walked around the terminal a bit.  It was extremely busy at this time of the day with people everywhere and hardly enough seating for everyone!

Our onward flight to Rome left at 3.20am and was a relief that it was only 5.5 hours from here on!  We landed safely in Rome early morning to clear skies and lovely warm temperatures.  What a relief to get out of the flying tubes!!