It is nearly a week since we arrived
home and time to finish off the blog for this adventure.
Our last day in Dubai – the Browns
made it safely to the airport and texted us some tips to make our journey, the
following day, a little easier. We spent
the morning at the Dubai Mall, the newest of the large shopping centres, and
certainly something else. It had all of
the well known English shops and quite a few American ones as well. We thought that Ella may have run out of
steam for shopping, but that was not the case!
The mall also had an ice skating rink, huge aquarium, and water-fall
with amazing sculptures of divers and fantastic food hall. It was pretty amazing.
After the mall, we headed back to the
hotel and explored some of the shops in the Bah Dubai area where we were
staying. We even bought some ‘knock off’
hand bags and sunglasses, in what was probably the dodgiest deal that I have
ever been involved in. Just goes to show
what a sheltered life we lead! The shops
around that area were clearly where the bargains were and it was quite
acceptable to bargain for goods. Quite a
mix of different stores, some up-market, with others definitely selling lower
quality goods.
Ella and I went back into the city in
the evening to see the dancing fountain at the Emirates Mall. When we arrived,
there were heaps of people, but we were lucky enough to find a spot close to
the water. It was well worth the effort, the whole experience was very
dramatic, with the use of classical music and lighting.
We made our way back to the hotel
safely, ate more cake (to get ‘free’ internet) and packed our bags for an early
start the next morning. Amazingly
enough, we managed to get all of Ella’s purchases in our bags!
A 5.30 am wake up the next morning and
the hotel staff were amazed that we were going to get our own way to the
airport. We walked 15 minutes to the
metro and then train to Terminal 3. Even early in the morning, it was hot and
the traffic was starting to build up. We
decided that the Metro was a better option than a taxi stuck in traffic.
Checked in on time, lots of fun duty
free shopping and then heading toward home. One of the treats of the flight
from Dubai to Melbourne was flying over the Maldives. The atolls and aqua
coloured water looked amazing. Apart from the wee boy in the row ahead of us
screaming for most of the flight, it was pretty good, though we were very happy
to get off and stretch our legs in Melbourne.
Ella didn’t feel well on the Melbourne
to Auckland leg and managed to have two flight attendants helping her and
providing a fruit smoothie from first class, in a glass. Apparently the best smoothie she has ever
had!
Landed safely in Auckland and a bit
more duty free shopping, before heading to the domestic terminal for our final
flight. Our friend Joy was at the
airport to meet us and it was so nice to be somewhere familiar. The biggest challenge
was the huge temperature change – 38 degrees in Dubai and 7 degrees in Dunedin!
We were even home in time to collect the cats the same day!
Another
fantastic adventure – time to start planning the next one.
