After heading back to London and picking up the rest of our gear it was time to head back home to New Zealand. Not wanting to spend too long on a plane we had a stopover in Dubai.

We arrived late at night and headed up to the cocktail bar in our hotel for an expensive drink but with some lovely views. The next day we got a bit of the London life and squished into a very packed metro on way to Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world. We took an elevator up all 125 floors and at the top were rewarded with 360 degree views across the madness that is Dubai. We managed to find an old favourite - Burgerfuel - for lunch before heading off to the Dubai Marina staring at the million dollar boats. Not far from here was a pretty crazy beach which included sunbathers, camels, BBQs and skyscrapers. We made it back to the Dubai Mall in time to watch one of the choreographed fountain & music shows they run each night which was really impressive. After a pretty busy day we headed back to the hotel before using a voucher we had very kindly been given from the One Element crew to do a dinner cruise on a traditional Dhow boat. We spent the night eating, drinking, listening to music and checking out the sites along the river.

The next day we headed to the old town in Dubai and visited the Spice Souk and the Gold Souk. A highlight here would be seeing the heaviest gold ring in the world (a whopping 64kg!). We then joined the locals and took an Abra boat across the creek and back to see the views. The sun was pretty hot by this stage so we took advantage of the offer the hotel had given us (seeing their pool was being rennovated) to take a taxi to another Radisson Blu in Dubai and use their rooftop pool. This was a great way to spend the afternoon and after a spa and shower later we were ready to head back to the airport to fly to Australia.