Day 28 The Journey Home. 

Today is Wednesday in New York, Thursday in Adelaide, and today we start our journey home.

It has been an amazing holiday. 28 days, 5 cities and hotels, an 8 day cruise with 4 island stops, too many meals and drinks. We’re going to have to do some serious dieting on our return.

We had a final breakfast at the Vaind cafe next to the hotel. We packed our luggage for the final time. Then we rested for a couple hours watching TV and reminiscing about our time. We had lunch at the cafe and said our goodbyes to the wonderful girl who served us most days.

I got a message from our driver that he could be at the hotel an hour early, and we really appreciated the change. An hour and half to the JFK airport.

Upon arrival we checked in our luggage and had to remove the coloured band we use to easily identify our suitcases, a first for us, apparently the band can get caught in the belts that transfer your luggage. Who knew!!

Because we’re flying Business Class with QANTAS we get to use the Greenwich Lounge for the 4 hours. Only way to wait for your flight. Self serve alcohol and food. Comfortable chairs with easy access to power outlets to charge phones and laptops. Even high speed wifi.

Boarded our flight just before 7pm and off to Auckland some 16 hours away. A couple of glasses of wine and a decent meal and it’s time to try to sleep. At least the seat turns into a bed even if it is a little uncomfortable for me. Woke up about 5 am New York time and waited the next few hours until breakfast was served. We had ordered just after take-off.

Somewhere around 5 am Friday (we crossed the dateline over the Pacific) New Zealand time we landed in Auckland for a one and half hour stop. Checked out the QANTAS lounge for half an hour before returning to the same plane for the leg to Sydney. 

Three and a half hours later around 8:30 am we arrived in Sydney. Immigration and Customs here and we pick up our Duty Free. Two hours in the QANTAS Domestic Business Lounge  and we’re off to Adelaide.

Arrive in Adelaide at around 12:30 pm and Hannah’s waiting for us to take us home. We picked up our 3 dogs, Oskar, Lia and Chloe from the kennel and tried to return to normal life.

Already planning our next big adventure around September 2026.