Day 1  Saturday 9 May

After a lovely time catching up with family on route, we settled into our airport hotel bracing ourselves for the early start today.  The alarm went off at 3:45am, so we pulled on our clothes, brushed our teeth and saddled up with our bags. The short walk to the airport of a couple of hundred metres has us there in a few minutes and bag drop off for Business class had us quickly in the ‘lounge’ with a coffee in hand.

We originally booked this trip with Emirates the night before war broke out. Although we had a 24hr window to cancel our booking – we really were unsure how long all this Middle East turmoil would last, therefore we did not cancel.  Regret number one of the holiday and not a major except we spent the next month and a bit waiting for things to either settle or the date where we became eligible for a full refund without penalty.

Fast forward to 30 April and we could finally apply for a refund. Yay. Now the question was do we still go? Can we afford an alternative with the sky rocketing prices? Was it safe? Then family came for Easter and we were still waiting for the official confirmation that we had in fact received the refund and could rebook. We then had to make some speedy decisions on where we went and how long would it take to actually throw this holiday together.  I was also concerned that we had now moved from shoulder season into the high season and imagined that all the other delayed travellers would be descending on Europe en masse – leaving limited options and also pushing prices up.

We made the decision to go and allow till early May – almost 4 weeks to put our itinerary together and book accommodation. Qantas had a good special, however we could not stopover half way as is our custom to minimise risk of jet lag.  We threw budget to the wind and booked premium economy – also on special – to assist with comfort and sleep for the trip straight through.  For the leg Christchurch to Sydney there was no premium economy – just economy and business, so we were moved to business on the same fare structure.  The latter a first for us, however we have flown premium economy all the way through once before to Russia in 2019 and found it so much more comfortable.

The holiday planning was challenging – we have never had so little time to do so much in this manner. We also book everything ourselves so it is a lot more difficult than booking a tour, or using an agent.  I managed to complete it with one day to spare, and have told the perfectionist in me to expect some glitches, but also to be very proud that I actually have pulled it off in the main.

Back to the airport – the lounge was very nice and coffee much enjoyed. We also had a small light breakfast snack to wake the body up before the meal on the plane.  On the plane I was surprised to be offered a glass of bubbly at 6am, but accepted – after all it is my birthday today!

The flight to Sydney went quickly and smoothly, a mere 3 hours and then we had a nearly 6 hour layover until our flight local time at 2pm.  Relegated to premium economy was a little come down, but still so much nicer to sit there with another glass of bubbles (its is still my birthday) whilst seeing the envious looks of the passengers moving past to their economy seats.  Oh how well do I know that feeling!  Sydney to Singapore was nearly 8 hours, where we stopped for a refuel and plane change.

We had contemplated trying to get a shower in the airport while we waited just to feel more human once we arrived in Paris 13 hours later.  After lots of walking (on top of the 6km I had already managed to clock up in Sydney airport) we found a shower facility as part of the swimming pool at the airport for 19 Singapore dollars and enjoyed freshening up. It was a really good idea we would do it again and recommend.