Morocco and Portugal, here I come!

In a few hours I will get on a big silver bird to fly to Auckland and then after a few hours of fannying about at Auckland Airport, will do the first 17 hour leg to Dubai where I'll have a shower (thank you, god of airport lounges) and then a couple of hours later do the 8.5 hour schlep to Casablanca

I'll be doing a seven night tour of Morocco for a story and then flying to Porto for a five night river cruise, also for a story. Thank you Emirates Airlines for taking pity on a poor journalist and bumping me up to business class. I truly heart you.

See you on the other side.

(Images of Morocco and Porto c/o Google Images)

       

The world's longest flight

A few months back I wrote about taking the 17.5  hour direct flight from Auckland to Dubai, currently the world's longest air route. Tomorrow, I'm doing it again.

Before that there will be lunch in Auckland with my old mate Lil and some work in the lovely Emirates lounge before being herded onto the plane for what seems like forever. This time, sadly, the Travel Gods were off having a long lunch and I wasn't able to get into business class. But at least I scored some lounge passes so I can have a shower in Dubai before the next 6.5 hour schlep to Rome.

I shall miss my two boys, especially given the aftershocks that are still rumbling through the region. Poor Bristol is so freaked out he'd rather sit in the garden, even in the rain, than come inside. It breaks my heart. Here's hoping the quakes stop soon.
 
See you on the other side....

Eating Dubai

Happy New Year. We are just back from two weeks at the beach house and I am missing the sea already. I can't believe how much our simple wooden bach has become my happy place.

In the meantime, another of my stories about a Dubai food walking tour is published in the Flight Centre blog (click here to read).

Bella Bologna

We arrived in the capital of Emilia-Romagna at noon today, after a six-and-a-half-hour flight from Dubai (the early start was mitigated by the glorious Emirates lounge and the free reflexology session - God I love media trips!)

After lunch (pasta for the three carnivorous boys and a delicious Caprese Salad for me, with rounds of buffalo mozarella the size of bread plates) we embarked  upon a walking tour and ended up at Prendiparte Tower, one of about 20 fortifications left over from medieval times.

We huffed and puffed our way up hundreds of steps to the roof but it was worth it - this city is all manner of worth it.

Tigers - and arrivederci

One flight down - four to go until we reach Bologna (with a day and night in Dubai inbetween, of course).

Am currently in the glorious Emirates lounge at Auckland Airport - gobbling down the yummiest poached salmon and trying to ignore the gleaming mounds of meringues that are calling my name. But as the coming week looks set to be an exercise in carb loading, I'm trying to pace myself.

In the meantime, here's the online version of another of my India stories published in yesterday's Sunday Star Times (pics by the talented Animator - how cool is that tiger?) Click here to read

See you on the other side...

(Note the tiger pic below was my feeble effort, not the Animator's)

         

Bologna

While on a lunch-time dash to get some Euros today I ran into a friend who asked where I was going.

Bologna, I said, for an Emirates media famil. For a week.

"But you haven't mentioned anything about it on your blog," she said.

She's right. I've been so busy trying to sort out stuff from the last media trip three weeks ago to the US, I haven't sorted anything for the next one on Monday.

So yes, I am going to Bologna, Italy's seventh most populous city, for a week with those lovely folk from Emirates. We also have a night in Dubai, where I was in April. I will, hopefully, be catching up with one of the women I interviewed for Urbis Magazine back then.

And then we fly to Bologna and a week of flash Italian cars, cooking schools, food, wine and, hopefully, shopping.

And hate me all you want, but there will be business class and Emirates lounges and luxury designed for someone far more posh than me.

There will also be photos.

     

Dubai Urbis Magazine story

Back in April, I spent three nights in Dubai (after my Oman famil) for Urbis Magazine.

The Aug/Sept issue is out today and features my 15 page article (click here to read). 

A taste of the exotic

The second story from my recent Oman/Dubai famil is published - this time the story of a food walking tour I did around 'Old' Dubai, which is published in this week's New Zealand Woman's Weekly
(click here to read).

Touching the sky

If you've ever been to Dubai - and even if you haven't - you'll probably know that this small city state is in a constant race with itself to be the biggest, brightest and best.

In 2010 it achieved one such milestone - building the largest man-made structure in the world. Standing at 829.8m - and with a stonking 163 floors - the Burj Khalifa is a pretty amazing building by any measure. Today I whizzed up to the top (it takes just over a minute) and now totally and utterly understand what all the fuss is about.

Later there was a spot of shopping at the world's largest shopping centre (there's that one-upmanship again), the Dubai Mall and, later still, an interview with my hotel's art curator and an Aussie artist.

The day finished with a visit to Al Karama and I am now about to strap myself to my laptop to finish an interiors story that should have been filed a  few days ago. Oh well...

        

Dubai

I did the short hop from Oman early this afternoon and, once again, the Hotel Gods (or rather the tourism peeps) have been kind to me with a suite in the fabulous Jumeirah Creekside Hotel which is all kinds of wonderful (esp the artwork and the bottle of wine that was waiting for me).

There was just time to get changed and I was straight into work mode - firstly with an interview with an expat Kiwi fashion designer for Urbis Magazine, and then my driver dropped me to my second interview for the same article.


And then it was onto a three hour walking tour with the fantastic Arva at Frying Pan Adventures for a food walking tour around old Dubai. For three hours 12 of us walked, ate and chatted. I now officially need to lie down in a darkened room; fortunately I have my incredible suite in which to do so.

And yes, there are  still images from Oman to share - I promise I'll get around to those later this week.
   

How to get deep vein thrombosis

Currently girding my loins for the four flights I have to take today/tomorrow.

First up it's the usual hop to Auckland (Jesus, how much longer do we have to wait until they extend Welli's runway?!), then Auckland to Brisbane (Emirates doesn't fly directly to Dubai), three hours wait and then the long haul (14 hours?) to Dubai. Another three hour wait and then it's an hour's flight to Muscat, the capital of Oman. Thank God for Business Class and Emirates lounges, is all I can say!

Still, it's got to be better than the flight to Vienna last May when I stopped counting at 36 hours...

Today's visual is of my favourite two boys - as usual, I shall miss these guys like crazy.

See you on the other side....

       

You win some, you lose some

The day began with the offer of a media trip to Melbourne; sadly I had to turn it down because I will be away overseas on another famil - to Dubai and Oman. Just waiting for the flights/accommodation to be confirmed and we are set. And yes, Oman is close to ISIS hotspots but I'm firmly of the opinion that if we allow terrorists to prevent us from living our lives, then they win.

On the plus side of the ledger, a very famous, amazing fashion designer I interviewed a few years ago asked me to write some copy for her website. She asked if I wanted cold hard cash or one of the pieces from her Autumn/Winter collection. As if you even need to ask which option I went for!