Sophie's travels 2011-2012

I managed to sleep for about 7 hours on and off nicely stretched out then spent the last 4-5 hours of the flight watching movies and finishing my blog updates and sorting photos.

We arrived into Melbnourne at 8pm and I had to clear immigration and customs and check into my domestic flight with Virgin by 9pm at the latest so I was racing (which wasn’t very pleasant in 12 layers of clothing!!).

I managed to make it through all of the above fairly quickly and got checked in with about half an hour spare so I was pretty happy with that.
Flying into Hobart and seeing the lights of the Tasman bridge from the air then walking out onto the tarmac at the 'Hobart International Airport' was surreal. After looking forward to this moment for so long I also felt a little sad that my dream year of travel had come to an end. That didn't last long though, I was met by Kim and the family at the airport and went home to the fresh bush air of Fern Tree - there's no place like home!

Flying into Australia

The Etihad flight with the plane camera on - sunrise

Sunrise over Australia from the plane camera

Melbourne airport waiting for my flight to Hobart!

I got up at 5am ready for our scenic flight around Mount Everest and the Himalayas. We were dropped at the domestic airport then went through a number of different gates where we were patted down every time but never asked about all the stuff crammed into our pockets… then eventually boarded our 30 seater plane. We all had window seats (I was up the back) and it was an amazing clear blue sunny day so the view out over the Himalayas was spectacular! We flew by with one side of the plane getting the view out over the mountains and the other side of the plane took it in turns to go into the cockpit and meet the pilot and take some photos (I didn’t think you could do things like that anymore but anything goes in this part of the world! There was even a gold course right next to the run way – hate to think what a golf ball might be like to land on!). We flew alongside Everest (in the distance, which the co-pilot kindly pointed out to me while I was in the cockpit!) then turned around and flew back parallel with the mountains, it was so so spectacular! We were given a panorama card which labelled all the mountains so we could see what we were flying past – very cool!

We managed to avoid any golf balls on landing and got the bus back to the hotel in one piece. I did my last bit of shopping and final pack of my bag then farewelled the rest of the group before getting a taxi to the airport.

I got to the airport in good time and checked in (managed to get an emergency exit seat for my leg from Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi which was great, only a 5 hour trip though). I went through all the security checks which are segregated into separate belts for men and women which is interesting (and everyone gets patted down, despite whether they set the detector off or not!). Getting onto the plane, females are allowed onto the bus to take you to the plane first which is nice!

The flight to Abu Dhabi went right over the Himalayas again so I was treated to another amazing viewing (from my emergency exit window seat, with no one next to me!).

We arrived in Abu Dhabi on time and I managed to get some duty free before boarding the flight to Melbourne. We sat on the plane for an hour waiting for traffic to clear on the run way which was very nerve racking for me as I had a tight connection with my domestic flight from Melbourne to Hobart.

I had 4 seats in a row all to myself for the 13 hour flight which was amazing because I could stretch out and sleep comfortably (more comfortably than half the beds I had slept in over the past few months!!). Etihad are a great airline, very comfortable and friendly staff.