Well, we made it!!! We are here in Malta! After about 36 hours of travelling in total (24 of which were spent in the air) and 3 stop-overs (Melbourne, Dubai and Larnaca) we finally made it!! I have never flown for such a long period before, and quite frankly I'm surprised that I made it through relatively tantrum-free. However, it was inevitable that we would have a few adventures along the way.

NOMS and FATTIES
I started off my journey at McDonalds in Auckland International Airport by eating two cheesburgers and half a packet of large fries, since I was hungry and hadn't had my afternoon snack yet. On the way to Melbourne, we got fed a really nice dinner of lamb and delish chocolate fudge cake, and then we got ANOTHER WHOLE DINNER after Melbourne which was Moroccan chicken, yellow rice and Arabic CocaCola!!! The next day we had breakfast #1 on the plane, and then we got fed YET AGAIN on the way to Larnaca (breakfast #2)! Ryan then had the snack which they provided after Larnaca (so he was an extra big fatty) but the turbulence put me off my food :(. It was really nice too - some kind of wrap and salted peanuts. With all this extra weight on board, it was a wonder we could even stay airbourne!

MELBOURNE is the new PROHIBITION
Okay, so enough about food (one track mind much?). We had some major drama in Melbourne. We thought we'd be clever and stock up on alcohol in Auckland Duty Free, and they had some really good deals, including a brand new hazelnut flavoured Baileys. We bought 2 bottles of alcohol each. But then we got to Melbourne and THE CUSTOMS PEOPLE CONFISCATED ALL OF IT!!! :( Apparently they only allow about 250mL of alcohol into the country/city, and we had way more than that, so they ended up putting it all in the bin!! :( I still cry a little when I think about my poor hazelnut Baileys and Malibu all lonely and rejected in the airport dumping bin :( MELBOURNE YOU SUCK!!!! I was so upset, I went and bought a AUD$3 chocolate macaroon at the airport, which made me feel slightly better, but it still didn't completely take away the pain of the injustice of Australian customs. We did end up buying replacements in Dubai, which have made it through and which are now sitting safely on our dining room table in Sliema.

AIRPORT ADVENTURES
So turns out we had three stop-overs in total, which we were not informed about (tsk tsk Kol Fu!!). Dubai airport was amazing - everything was shiny and they had big TV screens everywhere. It was strange how there were hardly any "Arabian" people in the airport - I guess this reflects the fact that less than 20% of the population of the UAE are Emirati, the rest being expatriates. I dragged poor Ryan everywhere in an attempt to find Arabian coffee and figs, but alas, no such thing!
Larnaca, Cyprus, was a surprise stop. Unfortunatel,y we weren't allowed off the plane, but I still managed to snap a few pics from the plane window.
Emirates Airlines provided an excellent service for us - highly recommended. The hosts and hostesses were great, the food was really good, and the ICE entertainment system was amazing! I spent most of the time listening to Arabian Pop Music and watching this random movie called Al Academiya, which didn't have subtitles and so I had no idea what was happening.

IN MALTA
We got picked up by an MMSA guy called Samuel, who is a 4th year medical student. He seemed like a nice guy, but was perhaps a bit overwhelmed at my enthusiasm at the SIGN HE WAS HOLDING!! It was my first time with my name on an airport sign! Malta itself is all the same colour - sandy. And all the buildings look like they haven't been restored after they got bombed in WWII! The streets are narrow and rather windy, and I get the impression that Maltese drivers can be absolute nutcases.

Well, that's all for my first entry!! I'm off to grab some dinner, and then to bed. Gotta get up early to get to the bus stop by 7am!!!! @.@