In spring 2018, I embarked on the trip of a lifetime, which came about by chance and perfect timing.

I make no apology for the length of this post. Writing it was like listening to a great song that takes you straight back to a moment in time and I’ve loved reliving this extraordinary experience.

It was such an adventure that there’s way too much for one post, so I’ve broken it into separate posts: the flight, East Coast Australia and Sydney (Hamilton Island, New Zealand and Singapore still to be written).

‘I love it when a plan comes together’ (showing my age)

A year before my trip, I was talking to my friend in Australia, about my trip to the upcoming London World Athletics Championships in August. She mentioned that the Gold Coast in Eastern Australia was hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games which is not far from Brisbane, where she lives with her husband.

Being serious and successful triathletes, I wasn’t surprised to hear that they intended to apply for tickets when they went on sale in April. Knowing I had been to the 2012 London Olympics too, she flippantly said I should get GC2018 tickets and stay with them - I laughed and said something like ‘I wish!’

The thought kept going round and round in my head and an internal battle took place:
’Australia! Wow, that’d be amazing.’
’Don’t be silly, you can’t afford to go to Australia. It would be at least a 3-week trip.’
’But, you shouldn’t let this opportunity go by.’

So, to quieten these voices, a few weeks later I asked if she’d been serious about the offer. There was no hint of hesitation in her reply. ‘Absolutely’, she said and immediately sent me details about the events and ticket dates.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. I also thought that if I was going all the way to Australia, it made sense to visit my friend in Auckland, New Zealand at the same time - I convinced myself it was a bit like island-hopping!

Nine months before departure, I visited a travel agent. This was a trip I needed their expertise to organise. Together we planned a mind-blowing itinerary:
London-Dubai-Brisbane for 2 weeks;
Brisbane-Sydney for a 4-day stopover;
Sydney-Auckland for 1 week;
Auckland-Melbourne-Singapore for a 4-day stopover;
Singapore-London.

I had always said that if I ever travelled to Australia, I would upgrade my seats, so she quoted Premium Economy seats - a good price.

I enjoy researching and watching YouTube videos about Business and First Class seats, (@thepointsguyUK are good), so for a laugh, I asked how much Business Class might be - well, you’ve got to dream!

Little did I know that travel agents often have access to prices that the public don't and the earlier you book the more chance of getting a good price. To my absolute amazement, she clinched an Emirates Business Class round trip for a surprisingly good price. I think it was called an 'O' class ticket and came in at £4084 (£1800 cheaper than British Airways) - I’m guessing they would be a lot dearer nowadays.
I know it’s a huge amount of money, but I looked at it as my hard-earned reward for 20 years slog. Considering the number of flights and destinations involved, it was thousands of pounds cheaper than I ever expected. I know someone who paid half of the total cost of my ticket, just for an upgrade from Dubai to London!

I felt like royalty

A swanky part of being an Emirates Business Class ticket holder is a chauffeur-driven limo pick up from your home. Being in Jersey meant I’d fell well outside the 70-mile radius limit! So, I decided to fly to London a day early to catch a show (Tina - The Musical - fabulous) and enjoy every benefit on offer.

I’m one of those crazy people who love the whole travel experience, including being at the airport, so it won’t surprise you that I ordered the limo for the earliest possible time, allowing me to enjoy 3 hours of pre-flight bliss. If my girls read this they’ll be rolling around the floor laughing, as they do the exact opposite, to the point of almost missing their flights.

The minute I lock my house door and head for the airport, I’m on holiday. Sat in a cafe, people-watching, reading a book, or browsing the shops is all part of the adventure for me.

I accept that getting delayed can be a pain, but I usually take it in my stride and grab another coffee. One of the risks of living on an island is that the fog can roll in without much notice causing delay chaos. Pretty inconvenient as our airport is relatively small and any delay runs the risk of missing a much longed for concert, specialist appointment, family event or onward flights from the UK.

Well, there was no such worry on my mind, as I stepped into the beautiful, spacious, black limo outside the hotel. I felt so posh.

After a chilled out drive to Gatwick North Terminal (literally almost to the departures hall door), I arrived at the check-in desk ready for a smooth transition to the Business Class lounge.

Hmmm - it didn’t quite work out like that, as it turned out my visa had the wrong birth date on it! I think my heart rate hit 200 and a feeling of panic surged. I felt so stupid. How could I not have noticed this?
The Emirates staff were amazing and could not have been kinder. They immediately called Canberra, Australia, and got a new one issued for me in about 30 minutes - superb service and I couldn't have been more grateful. Now, that sort of delay would have been pretty upsetting.

And that, dear readers, is why getting to the airport early pays off. You just never know.

Let’s get down to business

I usually travel in a comfy pair of jeans and a top, but not this time. I was making the most of the whole business class experience and got dressed up to travel. I probably stuck out like a sore thumb in the lounge as a ‘newbie’, but I didn’t care - I suspect if you can afford to travel like this, then it’s jeans every time.

As it was a night flight, the large lounge was relatively empty and, actually, there was a varied selection of attire from jeans to suits. There were comfortable leather chairs and a wonderful buffet and drinks selection to chose from. As I was still in a state of shock, I had a good-sized glass of red wine with some cheese and biscuits, and started to relax again.

I had always wanted to fly on an Airbus A380, so was thrilled when I learned that this flight was indeed on the huge double-decker plane which can seat over 800 people, although Emirates keep it to around 500. As our flight was called for boarding, I was in awe of the fact that there were two walkways onto the plane - one for the lower deck and another for the upper deck.

On entering the cabin I was blown away by the sheer size of it - on this particular A380, the whole top deck of the plane was reserved solely for Business and First Class passengers. Mind-blowing!

I was shown to my ‘seat’, and I use that term loosely. It’s oh so much more than a seat. It's an beautifully finished private travelling space which I guess is about 3.5 feet wide from the fuselage to aisle. Before pre-booking my seat, I did a fair bit of research on various sites, one of the best being SeatGuru, and chose seat 11K. The cabin was laid out 1-2-1, with the window seats staggered, so I purposely booked one with the ‘desk’ area on the aisle side. This meant that once I sat down, I was almost cocooned with complete privacy.

The casual dress is explained further down.

Having unpacked several books and magazines and stowed away my hand luggage in the large overhead cupboard, I familiarised myself with my plush surroundings. To my right, there were two large storage pockets under the window, and an electronic blind enclosed in the window. To my left was a minibar containing snacks and soft drinks, a mini TV, two USB sockets and a plug, with the pull-out table tucked neatly under the desk.

In front was a large touchscreen TV and footstool, which my little legs could barely reach. The number and variety of in-flight entertainment choices were staggering. Thousands of hours of TV programmes, blockbuster films, music and sport.

It wasn’t long before an immaculately dressed stewardess arrived with a glass of champagne and the food and drinks menus. I was pleasantly surprised to find a choice of alcoholic options, including cocktails, which I didn’t expect on Emirates. Then she was back handing out Bulgari gift sets to each passenger containing either female or male skincare products, perfumes and other bits.

Fasten your seatbelts

I settled in for the 7-hour flight to Dubai, where there was a short stop-over, followed by a 14-hour onward flight to Brisbane.

Outside cameras dotted around the plane, streamed live pictures to the TV screen, and without me realising it, the huge plane had already started its massive engines. The physics of flight has been explained to me several times over the years, but it still astonishes me. Taxiing down the runway was very smooth and seemingly far too slow for this behemoth to get airborne. But, somehow, it reached the required 195 mph/315 kmh and we gently left the ground.

I was on cloud nine - excuse the pun - though, the best was yet to come.

Cosmo, please

Fifteen minutes after take-off and I made my way to one of the most incredible experiences of my life - the Business and First Class bar. Yes, you read that correctly - an actual fully stocked bar on a plane, where you could watch live sports on a massive TV and that served cocktails to order. Now I’m a Cosmopolitan girl, but I got chatting to a couple on their honeymoon and they highly recommended an Espresso Martini. It was a bit too sharp for my liking, so I followed it with my usual Cosmo. I mean, why not?

We stayed there for around an hour and headed back to our seats for dinner. It was now 11:30 pm but as I soon came to realise, all sense of time was lost over the next couple of days. The quality of the food on board was outstanding. My filet steak, served on beautiful crockery, was cooked to perfection and accompanied by a glass of red wine - which turned out to be both a disaster and a blessing, depending on how you look at it.

Wined and dined, and showered!

I’m sure you’ve had times when something is about to happen, but it’s too late to stop it and everything goes into slow motion. Well, that’s exactly what happened as the stewardess was clearing away my dishes.

I wasn’t keen on the wine, so I had left most of it. As the stewardess leaned over to pick up the tray, the wine glass tilted and disaster struck! To paraphrase a saying, ‘into every life a little wine must fall’, and it came pouring down my left side. I was aghast, dripping in wine and well aware that my squeal of shock had probably created a bit of a scene. I felt so sorry for the poor stewardess who was mortified and desperately dabbing me down.

But here’s the silver lining.

Another incredible fact about the Emirates A380 is that it has a fully functioning First Class shower room. I’m sure you’ll understand that I wasn’t prepared to smell of wine for the next 20+ hours, so I asked if I could use it. Needless, to say they were more than willing to accommodate me and agreed to soak my clothes.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how little old me came to have a shower at 40,000 feet. A life ‘To Do’ ticked that wasn’t even on my bucket list!

Cleaned up and dressed in a pair of extremely comfortable First Class Emirates pyjamas (my clothes were too wet to wear), I turned off my TV and stretched out on the fully flat bed, under a soft fresh duvet. Pure bliss.

Thankfully, I had packed a pair of jeans and a top in my hand luggage so after a couple of hours sleep, I got up and changed ready for landing at Dubai.

Wifi. Why not?

The second and much longer leg of the journey was heavenly and thankfully uneventful in comparison. It was 1st April and my family were having Easter Sunday lunch together. Another amazing perk of a Business Class seat is access to wifi for the whole flight. So as they sat down I Facetimed them for a chat. OK, the connection was a little jumpy, but even still it was astounding to think this could actually happen - I mean I get a dodgy signal on the north coast of Jersey and here I was 7 miles high travelling at over 600 miles per hour.

Was it worth the money?

As Meg Ryan once screamed, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes!’ - perhaps that’s why it’s called an ‘O’ class ticket!

During my 4 week adventure, I spent a total of 53 hours flying with Emirates and it’s partner Air New Zealand, and loved every minute. From the outbound London hotel pick up to my arrival back in Gatwick a month later, the service, amenities and perks were superb and worth every penny.

Even now, I can’t quite believe how lucky I was to experience something like this.

If you ever get a chance, grab it!

Trip of a lifetime - Emirates A380