We are aboard a Qantas Airbus 380 crossing into Europe, the bulk of our journey home is done. We left the hotel in Auckland at two in the afternoon on Monday (one in the morning in the UK). We will land at Heathrow just after half past twelve Tuesday lunchtime via Melbourne and Dubai…. A tough ask for any traveler.

This time my ‘cunning plan’ to book window and an aisle seats actually worked. My simple logic was by booking the aisle and window no one was likely to volunteer to place themselves in the middle and someone would only end up there if the flights were busy. The shortest sector Auckland to Melbourne we volunteered to ‘give up’ the window seat to a lady travelling alone. On the two longest sectors no one was placed in the middle so we had a spare seat…. Result!

The last few days we spent in New Zealand’s metropolis, Auckland. A sizeable and quite pleasant city with a waterfront that provides the option to catch a a downtown ferry to reach a variety different communities including the wine producing island of Waiheke. On balance we liked the city although the increase in the number of people living on the street did generate an edge to the city which was a little unwelcome.

Auckland is certainly the most sharpish of the New Zealand’s cities and towns we visited with service levels much quicker and a sense of people being switched on a lot more.

So our journey is all but complete. I have certainly enjoyed my visit to this visually stunning country and to meet such warm and kind people of many nationalities…

I have always liked to travel to new and interesting places, to see how different peoples live, to understand their histories, culture and to enjoy everything such countries have to offer. This has been a longish trip by my standards , I left the 6th – today is the 24th, and as the plane crosses the skies of Europe towards London i have the same recurring feeling. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to many different countries over the years and despite having seen and experienced so much each time I travel it is always so good to come home.

Probably this is a good time to close this piece and avoid (any more) cringing sentimentality….

And so for New Zealand 2015 that is wrap….