The flights to Australia were good. I am always a bit scared of flying, albeit I am fascinated by it. But night flights, especially over water, are a bit scary to me.

Now I was looking at nearly 13 hours non-stop over water, with maybe one or the other secure landing strip in a couple of hundred miles distance, at best.

However, I had only slept 4 hours in the night before, and a little dose of Melatonin did the rest – I slept at least 6 hours on the way to Auckland. There was only minor turbulence, so I really slept.

Air New Zealand is a great airline. I didn’t get the emergency exit seat I had hoped for upon check-in, but the plane was not totally full so the two middle seats remained free and I could stretch out a bit.

The stop-over in Auckland was fast and efficient too. Not huge queues, no immigration, customs and re-checking of your baggage, just a simple transit, and on to the next plane. The way it should be.

In Australia, we made a nice final approach right over Sydney with great views on the harbor bridge and the opera house. Customs and immigration were relatively fast, and my friends were waiting for me at the exit.

We headed for a café where we would get the tickets for the NYE party tomorrow, and had breakfast, in my case the third one of this day, after being served one on each of the previous flights.

Welcome to Australia.