Sunday September 16 - Tuesday September 18 (Napier to Dubai)

Sunday

I flew up to Auckland and stayed in a Motor Lodge near the airport for the night. I fly out tomorrow and, as I am not flying Air New Zealand, I decided to come up the day before in case of bad weather! 

I went out for a stroll this afternoon and encountered this car, so my question was “Where is The Printer?”. My room was comfy and a decent size and the shower was excellent, nice and hot as well as a moveable shower head!

This trip will see me travel with Emirates for the first time. I got a really good Business Class deal and that includes being collected and dropped off from/to where I am staying at each destination!

As the first flight stops in Dubai I decided to have a stopover and see some of the city sights. It will be a big, if rather hot, adventure, the forecast states 100 + F. I am looking forward to this new experience even though it was down as a 17 hour flight, that in itself was an experience only bettered by the flight out from the UK in 1971. It lasted close to 24 hours, we landed about ten times but were not allowed off the plane!

Monday

I woke early, ate some breakfast and finished packing so the adventure could begin! I ordered my car early for an evening flight as I had to checkout at 10 am!

I checked in online last night and went to the Emirates counter bag drop. My bag was checked in and I then went to get assistance. That is when the proverbial hit the fan, I should not have been checked in that early, lol!

My bag would have just gone round and round and could have got lost! It was taken off and stored in their office until 4 pm check in time, i just hoped they wu=ould not forget it!!

Anyway, a nice young man came down and explained that I could go in the Qantas Lounge until the Emirates lounge opened. The poor unfortunate lass who checked me in had to take me up to the lounge as her punishment, lol!!

it seems that chaos has a habit of following me around, lol!!

The Qantas Lounge was fairly basic but at least it was somewhere out of the crowds to wait. At 4 pm a lady form the Emitates Lounge came through to collect me and I was the first person to enter for the day. 

The food laid out was excellent with a huge choice of cold and hot fare. I had some smoked salmon and a couple of small open egg sandwiches along with a baileys and Ice, lol. 

The lounge was not very full and the flight also had many empty seats in Business Class.

I was taken down to the gate, a very long way from the lounge and boarded early. 

I must say the setup was excellent and the seat very comfortable, in fact it could be described as very swish! 


There was even a small lounge at the rear! On the plane one of the pilots was female, yay, and the 25 cabin staff came from 20 different countries! 


As the plane was an Airbus 380, First (14 seats) and Business Class (76 seats) take over the upper deck.

As we took off I managed to get some photos of the lights of Auckland. 

We crossed the Tasman Sea and headed for the east coast of Australia south of Brisbane. the route took us across Australia before a mostly sea crossing to Dubai.

Tuesday morning

After all that way we touched down 15 minutes early although at a remote gate so we had to catch a train to the main terminal. We were well looked after on the flight and there were a few bumpy spells but nothing very bad. At 5.20 am it was 33 C (91.4 F) in Dubai so it was going to be a warm day, lol!

We were given fast track cards so the queues in immigration for us were not very long. it was very quick going through immigration, phew, no Visa needed for short stay NZ citizens. There were lots of smiles and so I was in Dubai! There was a line up of BMWs outside waiting to take us to our destinations, all part of the Emirates Business Class service!

My first impressions of Dubai, clean and green with lots of construction going on and the locals seemed very friendly.

My hotel was just across from the Dubai Mall and the Burj Kalipha, my first trip for the visit would be to go up to the 124/125 floors in the afternoon. 

The early morning cloud/mist had already disappeared by the time I had unpacked. My room was lovely and had a great view, althugh the windows were a tad dirty, lol!


The hotel was very interesting, lots of wall murals and displays of various types, very modern and well set up.

I had a pleasant surprise when I arrived, a Starbucks outlet, lol, on the hotel ground floor, located beside a Market and I was told that both were open 24/7. Behind them, I found a restaurant, so it made life a bit easier.

I went and cllected  coffee and then back to my room to rest up before the afternon's activity!