Breakfast in Dubai, Lunch in Melbourne, Dinner in Auckland

I’ve just got back from a 6 day trip down under – a night in Melbourne, quick hop to Auckland for 24 hours, then back to Melbourne for another day. The last time I did this trip was back in January, when I got it on my reserve month. I normally tend to avoid multi-sectors as I always end up a bit jet-lagged, but I couldn’t say no this time as I was going to see my cousin Sarah!

She was away in New York on exchange last time I came to Melbourne, but luckily this time around she managed to get some time off work so we could hang out!

The trip over was nice and uneventful, and after a 12,5 hour flight we landed into Melbourne at around 6am.

I headed to bed for a couple of hours, and soon enough it was time to get ready to meet Sarah for some late breakfast. It was a pretty grey and miserable day, 12 degrees and a drizzle of rain. Just what I needed after a constant 40 degrees in Dubai!

We drove to a place called The Crux & Co, which had a queue out of the door (must be a good sign!) , but luckily only a 10 minute wait for a table.

We sat up at the bar and ordered some eggs and coffee – if you’re looking for the best coffee in the world, just head to Melbourne. It’s a fact!

After a good catch up and gossip, we headed over to Sarah’s place to drop her car off, and decided how to spend the rest of our day. Since I had a 4am wake-up call the next morning, I didn’t want to do anything too late, and with the weather getting considerably worse, we decided to head to the cinema!

“Sully”, the film starring Tom Hanks about the pilot that landed on the Hudson River was showing, so being the cabin crew that I am we decided to watch it. We splurged on the posh seats and had reclining armchairs and free popcorn! (If only we’d known about the popcorn before buying a huge bucket to share…)

After the film we stopped off at a nearby bar for a quick drink before I had to head back to my hotel for the night. It was an early start the next morning for our flight to Auckland.

We waved hello to our neighbours from Abu Dhabi, before the 3 hour flight over to New Zealand. Once we touched down, the weather was so much better than in Melbourne – beautifully sunny and crisp.

However, once we arrived at the hotel the early start combined with a big bed with fresh sheets were  just too tempting…so I gave in and had a nice nap!

Once evening fell I headed down to the hotel bar to meet up with the rest of the crew for some drinks and dinner.

Surprisingly a big group was already there having a drink, so once they headed off to The Occidental (which seems to be the crew restaurant of choice in Auckland – not my favourite and not that special really!) I was left with one of the other English girls from J Class as well as the captain and FO.

The captain had been raving about a restaurant called Depot, so after another drink (thanks 50% crew discount at hotel bars!) we jumped in a taxi and made our way there. Not before stopping for a quick picture with these guys in our hotel!

The restaurant was fantastic – our waitress suggested quite a few dishes to share and we were happy with all of the choices. If you’re heading to Auckland I would highly recommend Depot, and make sure you get the fish sliders, they were the highlight of the evening. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any pictures as the NZ Sauvignon Blanc seemed to be flowing even more freely than the constant stream of dishes arriving… 😉

Needless to say the next morning was a bit of a write off, luckily I hadn’t made any plans! I just managed to make it out of bed to grab a coffee and some fresh air before the wake up call.

It was another short and uneventful flight back to Melbourne; thankfully the cabin was only half full so we weren’t worked off our feet.

Once we landed into Australia, I managed to order some room service and called it a night.

The next morning it was time for another breakfast date with Sarah. She’d suggested a place called Bluff Town, which was about a half hour drive from the city. Since it was pouring with rain, we couldn’t do much outside, and although we were near the beach there was no chance I was getting soaked in the rain!

More delicious coffee was ordered, as well as some tasty breakfast.

We sat and chatted while the windows steamed up, discussing anything and everything.

After a chilled breakfast we made our way back towards town, stopping off at a supermarket so I could get a few things to take back to Dubai (caramel Tim Tams…mhhmm).

There was just time to squeeze in a quick lunch at a cute little ramen place Sarah knew…as if we hadn’t eaten enough already that morning! Since the portion was huge I saved half to have before my wake up call that evening.

Before long I was back in my hotel, trying to squeeze a couple of hours nap in before the long flight home. Once again it was a full house, but since the flight was overnight most of our passengers went straight to sleep after dinner. We landed back into Dubai around 5am, totally ready to fall straight into bed!

After a couple of days off in Dubai to recover from the jet lag, I’m jetting off to Rome in the morning! One of my favourite European cities, I’m planning to stroll the city and eat my way through as much pizza, pasta and ice cream as possible! As you might have been able to tell from this post… I love food! Luckily all of that walking up and down the A380 aisles seems to be doing something as my uniform still fits nicely 😉

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