I’ve been told I favour Australasia quite a fair bit, and I don’t deny that. What’s there not to like? It’s a whole new world away without the 18-hour flights, at least that’s what I thought.

I made last minute plans to go down to Auckland, New Zealand to take part in the filming of BodyCombat 40, which incidentally is its 10 year anniversary! How fast time has passed, and the programme has changed my life. From the way I view my health (slobber then) to the friends I’ve made, I’ve indeed come a long way.

What I didn’t count on was a 20-hour flight to Auckland. Yes, you heard me right, 20 hours. I only knew my outbound flight was stopping over at Adelaide for an hour when I checked in, and that’s on top of the official Sydney stopover, and my next flight onwards was 4 hours later. So imagine,

Singapore -> Adelaide -> Sydney -> Auckland = 6 + 1 + 4 + 3 (plus 5 hrs time difference)

I arrived at Auckland at a grand 10pm. I left Singapore the previous night at 10 pm. Go figure.

Of course, there’s the importance of great company too. Without which, I wouldn’t have made my way to LesMills filming. Stayed together with Mark, William, Toshie and Angie. We entertained ourselves by watching Naked on E! (imagine the irony), and Dr. 90210 (William’s favourite), while slurping inordinate amount of junk food and instant noodles.

And now, I’ve booked for a trip back to Melbourne. I should give it a term sometime soon. How does “Babka Pilgrimage” sound? It happens to fall on the May Day and Vesak Day week, which is also the day Melbourne holds its 2nd quarterly for the year at Monash, yay~. Don’t really fancy the dreary winter, but I do need a good break!