Here I am, in New Zealand, after a gruelling 24ish hours in the air courtesy of Emirates Airlines - who are fab! Every seat has a screen in it, where you can watch movies (we saw Bolt, Australia, Twighlight and Madagascar 2 between us), listen to an awful lot of music and watched the 'Pilot view cam' or 'downward cam' - live links that show you what the pilot is seeing or what you're flying over. The food was more than adequate and frequently served!

The first leg was 6.45hrs, to Dubai, which was daylight and warm. Didn't leave the airport, as it was only a short change over. Dubai to Melbourne was the killer at 11.35hrs, but luckily it was vastly underbooked so we were able to stretch out over a couple of seats and get some rest. We landed at Melbourne at 5.35am (their time) on the tail of a northerly wind, which made it feel rather more like we didn't so much land as were shot down! During the hour we were in the airport, the wind changed to westerly, bringing with it the rainstorm on whose wings we flew out.

The final part of the flight was 5.50hrs, landing us at Auckland Int. at 12.40pm, lunchtime. April 14th was 9 hours long and had 3 meals and an Equatorial crossing in it! Limpit and I got our photos taken just about as we were crossing the line, her first time, my second... No major ceremonials like dropping her overboard or dousing her with anything but an event commemorated regardless.

So far I've added a pukeko and myna birds to my list, along with a possible oyster catcher (the NZ one is a bit different to the Eurpean one) and possibly a barwit or three - and that's with just one drive around Manukau!

We went to see my mother later, after a quick change of shirt and an ablute... I think it's a good job we didn't wait to come. However, she was pleased to see us, we'll visit her often whilst we're here.

More later when I've thrown off the vertigo and jet lag, I keep listing to starboard.

LTS