Back from my multi sector and I am doubly tired as I’ve just had two multi sector trips back to back. This time I was going Dubai to Melbourne, Melbourne to Auckland, Auckland to Melbourne and then finally Melbourne back to Dubai. Again I was eagerly looking forward to this trip as I was going to visit a new country again – New Zealand!!

The first leg of the trip began with a 14 hour flight direct from Dubai (DXB) to Melbourne (MEL). The flight didn’t feel as long as I thought it was going to and we get a 2 and a half hour rest in the crew rest. My first experience in the crew rest was an experience. I couldn’t sleep and I also forgot to take my head phones in there to watch a film or something on the tv, so it was just laid there tossing and turning trying to sleep.

Soon we were preparing for landing and I was ready to get to Melbourne and crawl into bed even though it was a 6:30am landing.

When we got to the hotel it was around 30 degrees and myself and a few of the other crew decided to go and sleep for a couple of hours and meet back downstairs to go to St Kilda beach – one of the more popular beaches in Melbourne. However, I managed to wake up 4 hours after we were meant and the weather had also taken a turn for the worse and was raining so much! So instead of heading toward the beach, I got changed grabbed my umbrella and headed into Melbourne to see what it was all about.

How cute is this which I stumbled upon in a random shopping centre?

Melbourne doesn’t actually have many tourist attractions to offer (please correct me if I’m wrong) and I struggled to find things to do and so did other people who I asked. It also didn’t help that it was a Sunday afternoon and a lot of things were closed. I wandered round taking in the sights, doing a little shopping and trying to stay out the rain as much as possible before heading back to the hotel to get some sleep for the 8:30 departure the next day.

The next day was a short 4 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand where I was going to meet my friend from university Steph. Steph had been travelling since we graduated in July and I was super excited for a catch up and to hear all about it. I arrived at the hotel mid afternoon and was soon joined by Steph, so we got changed and went out to explore Auckland as she had only just flown in that evening too.

We wandered around the city centre before stopping for a bite to eat at the Britomart Country Club (a really cool place for food and drinks and not at all expensive) which I highly recommend for anyone visiting Auckland. After a couple of hours we decided to move on and found a cute little bar and brasserie with an outdoor terrace where we sat and had a glass of wine.

The next day we woke late, went and grabbed breakfast in the city before we parted ways for my flight back to Melbourne. It was so lovely to see Steph and so nice just to see a familiar face as I’m missing home especially over the festive period.

Back to Melbourne for 24 hours and a few of the crew had decided to meet down in the hotel bar for food and drinks as it was around 10:45pm when we got to the hotel. The next day I had arranged to meet up with another two friends from uni who were travelling in Australia for lunch and  catch up. We found a cute little restaurant with outdoor seating area where I had the world’s biggest pulled pork sandwich – so so yummy!

Just before we were about to leave I noticed a girl walking by and I thought how much she looked like someone I knew from school, when she stopped and said “Jess???”. I couldn’t believe it, I had randomly bumped into someone from school at the complete other side of the globe? Such a small world!!

I headed back to the hotel to get a couple of hours sleep before the flight however I failed and ended up skyping my Dad who had just gotten to work before I went to check out before the flight.

It was a really fabulous trip made by being able to see uni friends. How great is my job being able to catch up with friends all over the globe? I’m now off for a few days over Christmas and my birthday so I will be going out to celebrate and definitely relax after the past few travel busy weeks.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year and as always, feel free to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more daily updates:
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🙂