We had a stressful departure as Kim had bought a Navman GPS for driving around the UK … after loading the UK/Europe maps it stopped working.  Fortunately we live closed to the Navman warehouse and they opened up after hours so he could swap the unit out.  It is funny that once things like that […]

Above:  Great Barrier Reef flying from Cairns. Flying on standby can be nerve-wrecking, especially when flights are busy and don’t run every day.  We returned the rental car at Cairns airport.  We were pleased to have boarding passes issued to us for the 1130 flight, not minding that we were stuck at the tail of […]

I was meant to be jobless by now.  So I booked a winter escape to Cairns and the Barrier Reef. But as it turned out, I got extended in my contract rather unexpectedly.  So I get to keep a job and go on a short holiday.  Having my cake and eating it too 🙂  Is […]

Onboard the Malaysia Airlines B777, the 2-5-2 layout of the aircraft seating worked well for us.  We were lucky to get a block of five seats to share between the both of us.  It was possible for both of us to lie down at the same time, heads at either aisle and our legs pointing […]

Leaving Auckland A trip to Sipadan has been long on the cards but prompted by expiring frequent flyer miles on Malaysia Airlines’ programme “Enrich”.  In these days of fuel surcharges, the programme turned out very disappointingly compared to, say, Emirates’ very generous programme called “Skywards”. We needed 60,000 points from Auckland to Kuching, open-jaw to […]

We got our boarding passes for the 1130 flight back to Auckland on standby with no hassles.  When one is travelling standby, just getting a seat is good.  Doesn’t matter front/back, aisle/window.  Just a seat! The flight time is considerably shorter flying towards the east at only 4h15, and we landed at 1815.

We were flying standby from Auckland to Adelaide early in the morning on standby.  It is a longish flight for the A320 and apart from the passenger load (which can be high being Easter weekend), there are sometimes weight restrictions which could see us not get on despite seats being available.  Fortunately, we got our […]

It was an uneventful flight back to Auckland.  The weather had been glorious and I’m glad I made the most of the summer with visits around the country.