Sydney, Wednesday morning

As surreal moments go, it’s up there with being on a beach in Cannes while the sun sets and someone says: “Meet Miss Mexico”.

We’re a few hours in to what will be a 36 hour flight to Hobart, the cabin is in semi darkness, and sleep is drifting in. Then I hear something about Leicester, so I look up. And there close to my seat is Serge from Kasabian.

Anyone who knows anything about me will know that outside family the loves of my life are whisky, rock music, The All Blacks and Leicester City – and not necessarily in that order.

Combine any of those together in any way and I’m in dreamland.

Just last Friday I tweeted extensively about how good the new Kasabian album is. The band are fellow Leicester City fans and have a number one album in the UKand they are on their way to being huge.

And blow me, here they are on the way down to Melbourne for a one-off show. Turns out their guitar tech is sat next to me. He’s no spring chicken and it turns out he’s been touring with bands since he first hooked up with The Stones and The Kinks. He’s got some great stories to tell and the flight to Sydney passes in a flash. Unfortunately, though, so does my opportunity to sleep and prepare myself for a mammoth four days in Australia.

I’m on my way to cover a live online whisky tasting on Thursday with Laphroaig. It’ll be on in the United Kingdom at 10am, 6 pm in Sydney, and distillery manager John Campbell will be conducting the tasting and opening a rare bottle late on. There will also be the chance to visit a few bars.

First, though, I’m taking a slight detour and heading down to Hobart to visit some of the eight whisky distilleries which the island can boast.

I’ve championed world whisky in general and Australian whisky in particular for a long time now, and for a long time I’ve dreamt of making this trip.

I have only got 24 hours in Tasmania, and it’ll turn out to be a jet lag-induced, sleep deprived, alcohol-fueled blurry bubble of fun. And everything I hoped it would be…