As we suspected, our body clocks were all over the place. Despite the plane leaving Singapore at 8:30pm local time, we'd only been awake for 7 hours so there was no way we were going to be sleeping again so soon. Added to that, of course, was the excellent entertainment system and the never ending flow of wine.

We had wine until breakfast was served. That sounds bad but it’s really just a combination of jet lag and flight times. For seasoned long haul travellers, like us, we consider an 8 hour flight a short one. By the time a meal is served after take off, there is barely enough time for a couple of standard length movies before breakfast is served.

The 3 hour layover in Sydney was hard. By the time we got off the plane it was about 7am, but not having slept for 16 hours tiredness was creeping in and giant cups of coffee barely made a difference.

As if to prolong the agony of our wait, the boarding of our flight was delayed and then the gate was moved. It seemed that another flight to Fiji was being kept open for ****** up Aussie passengers with no sense of urgency. It was obviously easier to annoy New Zealand bound travellers rather than take people’s luggage off the Fiji flight.

We eventually boarded our flight 30 minutes late and were on our way. The pilot warned us that it might not be a comfortable flight; there was a lot of turbulence en route. That turned out to be a bit of an understatement, it was so bumpy that the meal service had to be suspended. Fortunately it was resumed before we landed and we managed to get a bit more caffeine into our system.

As we approached New Zealand, the sky began to clear and there were some great views, especially on the final approach into Auckland. The Hauraki Gulf, Auckland’s coastal playground, looked glorious with the numerous wee islands dotted throughout the sparkling blue water.

After the plane landed, it didn’t take long to disembark and to make our way through immigration to the to the baggage hall. The two suitcases came out on the main belt while David collected the snowboard bag from the oversized bags area. We just needed the backpack and we were good to go. We waited and waited but it was just the same couple of unclaimed bags going round and round. We checked the other belts just in case but we knew in our hearts that the bag hadn’t arrived in New Zealand.

We made our way back down to the far end of the baggage hall to register our missing bag. We noted the lady’s words as she took the details. It seemed that bags coming from Sydney are quite often delayed - 'delayed’, not missing or lost which was a comfort. With the paperwork filled in, we felt optimistic we would see the bag in a day or so. The bag mostly contained stuff we wouldn’t need until we move into a new home. Apart from David’s jandals that is.

We passed through bio-security without problems and were soon out in the fresh New Zealand air with the sun shining down on us. We took the Shuttle Bus to the Stöckli’s in Grey Lynn but were unfortunate enough to be stuck in the rush hour traffic and also being the last to be dropped off. The trip would normally take about half an hour in a car but today it took about 90 minutes.

The long journey, which took us through Parnell and the city centre, did give us a chance to see what had changed in the year we’d been away. Surprisingly, there weren’t really any obvious changes. It was as if we hadn’t been away.

When we finally arrived at our temporary new home in Grey Lynn we saw our first major change. Luca was only a few weeks old when we left for our adventure but now he was over a year old and on the verge of walking. We’d seen a few photos of him throughout the year but it was quite different seeing him in the flesh and realising how much he’d grown.

We dumped our bags in the spare room, our home for the next few days, and settled ourselves down in the garden. It was a beautiful day and there was still a lot of heat in the evening sun. Daniel had the perfect remedy for that, some ice cold beer. David has tasted, well perhaps more than just tasted, dozens of different beers over the last year but it was good to have a cold New Zealand beer again. It wasn’t all beer though; there was some nice, chilled, white wine for Maria.

The welcoming treats didn’t stop with a few cold beers and wine in the evening sun, Daniel & Heidi set about making some homemade sushi. It had been a while since we had sushi and it was one of the meals we had been looking forward to once we were back home.

Daniel has pretty much perfected the preparation of sushi rice; even using a fan to cool the cooked rice down quickly, it was good to watch his technique. Heidi meanwhile was chopping, cutting and slicing a whole host of fillings and in next to no time there were three plates piled high with slices of sushi roll. The sushi was delicious and even though there was far too much on the table, we couldn’t resist finishing it all.

Stuffed and jet-lagged, we didn’t manage to stay awake for too long after we’d finished our dinner. We made our way to bed and crossed our fingers that we would manage to sleep through the night.