Summer sojourn

The trip we had been waiting for throughout the whole of a miserable January was finally here. We boarded our plane to our first in stop in Dubai, very excited to be getting out of the cold and wet European winter. 

Our luxury flight

Emirates was a pleasant change to our last long haul flight with China Eastern Airways, for one there was a wealth of movies and the food was actually pretty good. Thanks to some sleeping pills, Louise got a serious amount of sleep and before we knew it we were in Dubai. We also caught up with Anna who was also heading home and then got back on the bird to final destination of Auckland.

First impressions were that nothing had changed, and also it was very bright. Our poor eyes had been living in darkness for months so we were squinting away. Awesome to see the Mum and Dad Weller, and I think they were a little excited to see us!
Had an awesome summer BBQ at mum and dads with freshly picked corn. Delicious.

Jet lag hit at about 3am the next morning but Hamish had to get up to get on his flight to Nelson so that was ok. He had a great couple of days with Dave and Donna doing all the things that the boys do when they are together, hunting, swimming and drinking.
Louise spent her time in Auckland hanging out with the family and catching up with some friends.

What a man

Kaiteriteri

Me and mum in Napier

We headed down to Hawkes Bay on the Thursday. We spent the next couple of days catching up with friends and family that we hadn't seen for ages and running round doing wedding stuff. Luckily NZ turned on the weather. We had forgotten what heat was like!

Amazing room at Ormly Lodge

Family shot

James could of smiled but was too worried about the dance....

The wedding was great, awesome weather, yum food and some good tunes. Special recognition goes to James for his first dance - ole twinkle toes, Nan would have been proud :)

Hottest people out

First Dance

Hamish's job for the day

Hamish conquered...

We headed back to AKL on Valentines Day, how romantic - in a car with mum and dad for 6 hours....

We hopped on another plane to Melbourne on the Tuesday, so nice having short flights! Very nice to see Tracy and Bennie, especially with the stocked fridge that I am sure we didn't even dent. True to her word, the Christmas decorations were still up and we had a very delayed Xmas dinner and present opening which was great! Summer Christmases are so dam good. We also celebrated Tracy's birthday a few days early and gave her some amazing presents. In particular an enlarged photo from Hamish's photo shoot.

Xmas at the Bennie's

Sunny day at Geelong

Rain at our picnic at the billabong:(

Spent our time in Melbourne eating, shopping and hanging out, So nice to relax after a relatively stressful time in NZ!

Before we knew it, it was time to get back to the Northern Hemisphere. This time to Dubai. We landed bright and early and got a cab to our hotel at Dubai Marina. The city is incredible, its a big chunk of sand with a hell of a lot of unfinished sky scrapers. It seems like every architect was having a competition with the others to build the weirdest shaped buildings. We managed to check in early and score ourselves an upgrade to a poolside villa. We dumped our bags and headed to the beach. The hotels along the Marina were awesome and the sea was such a gorgeous blue. If only it was a bit warmer!! (it was their winter though). 

At the Marina

After a buffet breakfast we got a cab to Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall is the largest in the world based on total area and and it was pretty incredible, they manage to make the Mall an experience rather than just a group of shops. It was also situated right next to the tallest building in the world - the Burj Khalifa. We didn't think it would look that impressive but we were wrong, it was soooo high - 828m to be exact.

My ride...

Crazy high

Also in the Mall was an aquarium that we went into which again was pretty amazing. Took way too many photos of fish.

Feeding time for the python, eating a chicken!

After trying Taco Bell for the first and probably last time at the Mall we went back to our villa to get into some togs for the beach. Like I said it wasn't that warm, but it seemed all the other expats were taking advantage of the cooler temps to be at the beach as well. We stayed there for a few hours before cruising out for some nice Japanese for dinner. 

We were pretty knackered by this stage so we hit the hay knowing we would have to get up early for our final leg of the trip home.

The flight home was uneventful and we landed to a misty cold day in London. We hoped we would be able to get home in reasonable time but these hopes were squashed when we saw the tube from the airport was closed and there were replacement buses. Welcome back to London public transport.

Highlight: Seeing all friends and family, the wedding, the weather, the food, the break from work!
Lowlight: Prices in NZ & Aus, and not having enough time back home.
Interesting fact #1: The tallest building in the world is 828metres high
Interesting fact #2: The Dubai Mall houses the Largest Acrylic Panel (the aquarium) (32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg).
Interesting fact #3: There's no place like home...