I travel between Europe and NZ 2-3 times year. In economy class. I've got what works for
me down to a science:
- Try to book a morning/afternoon departure from Europe and stay awake on the first flight if at all possible: combine it with a flight from Asia to NZ that is an overnight (a "red eye") with an early morning arrival time in Auckland. For many people they'll sleep soundly on the second flight since you'll arrive in Asia in late evening/early morning European time. You'll be knackered by the time flight #2 departs...but you'll almost certainly sleep! If you do this make sure your accommodation will be available in the morning--which usually means booking it for "early check-in"--an extra night, in other words. Believe me, you do not want to have to kill 4-5 hours while you groggily (and grottily) wait for your hotel room to be available at 2pm...
- If you're already booked on an evening departure, try the reverse: sleep first and stay awake on the second flight. You'll be arriving in AKL mid-morning to mid-afternoon, so you'll only need to push through half that first day and go to bed in NZ after a few hours.
- Assuming your connection in HKG is at least 2.5 hours, you can prebook/prepay a shower here. Works out to about GBP25 per person--TOTALLY worth it. Book the shower for 30 minutes after your scheduled arrival: that's plenty of time to go through transfers at HKG and if you're a bit late they'll adapt. It's an airport; they need to be flexible.
- After showering, get a drink (and food if you need it). Otherwise, grab a free luggage cart and stroll around the terminal. You've just been on your bum for 12 hours and will be again shortly for another 12. HKG airport is basically one massively long set of gates with a wing of services at either end, so it's easy to integrate getting refreshments (or some duty-free shopping) at the end of a "lap" of the terminal.
- I definitely take a sleeping pill on any flight I hope to sleep. Zopiclone (sometimes sold as immovane or zimovane) is a hypnotic rather than a tranquilizer per sé: it just sort of turns your brain off. I find that even after an hour asleep with zopiclone, if I need to wake up I'm not drowsy. Regardless, if you want to ry using a sleeping pill do it at home first--being on an airplane is not where you want to discover you react badly to it! My husband gets by with half a pill: I use 1-2 depending on circumstances. But he also has a glass or two of wine: I'm a teatotaler.
- Most airlines have pretty good in-flight entertainment, but I make sure my iPad is charged up; ditto my Kindle and iPhone. That way I have podcasts, some games, The Economist and a few books if there's nothing on "telly" that interests me.
- Buy a decent eye mask and some earplugs as well. Even if the airline supplies them, I've found they're often not dark enough or noise proofing enough.
I just flew home a couple of days ago from Budapest: 2 hours plus 11 hours plus 11.5 hours plus 4.5 hours of connections: 25 hours, not including getting to/from airports. Absolutely manageable.