Just wanted to come back and say that it’s been an amazing experience so far being a dad! I’ve already learnt more about me than being a dad lol
I am planning to do a trip to New Zealand once the baby is 6 months old, if anyone has done long-distance with kids, will appreciate the tips
I keep looking at flights and none of them automatically offer the seats with a bassinet when you choose one of the passengers as an infant. is this normal?
It of course can be done, but I wouldn’t be brave enough to do that 
Each year, we aim to keep our 3 and 6 year olds entertained during ~4 hour flight, which feels like a long stretch to me. They can read, colour, and, if we’re lucky, have a brief nap, but towards the end, they’re usually completely done. But a new born is going to be a real challenge to keep occupied for that amount of time and be exhausting for both you and them.
Under two years, you have to hold them in your lap. I’d break up the trip if I were you i.e. do a short stopover or two in each direction.
Also, check the vaccinations with your doctor. I think it’s typhoid that you need for New Zealand. Our cousin who is a nurse in NZ was less than impressed that we needed to get that.
Air freight? 
Congratulations on your (now not so) new arrival, sounds like you have some great adventures planned together.
We stopped flying once we had the third as we just didn’t fancy travelling with three young kids.
Eventually went to Kenya last year when they were 5, 7 and 9 and it went surprisingly well.
I got plenty of looks from airport security for carrying five sets of iPads and headphones, but it was well worth it to have them sitting quietly and keeping themselves occupied on an 8 hour flight with no issues whatsoever.
I wouldn’t fancy taking a new born all the way to NZ but it can obviously be done and should be too bad if there are two of you and only one kid.
iPads are a lifesaver! 
(Amazon Kids Fire Tablet in our case)
We did the same and barely managed to make it through. Surprisingly, our young kids can only handle so many games and series before they lose interest.
No matter when we travel, they’re always too excited to sleep. I think what bothers them most is being confined to such a small space. They just want to get up, move around, and explore something new.
We did lots of flying with our little one at this age and it’s much much easier when they’re this young vs when they’re older. At 6 months they don’t have a clue what’s going on so keeping them entertained is super easy in comparison 
Bring food and drinks with you onto the plane, airport security is a lot more lenient with the liquids rule when you have a kid. You can check on the airport website the specific rules around kids.
Lots of airlines will let you travel with both a pushchair and a child seat for free, I think even Ryanair amazingly.
Then with vaccinations, you’ll be surprised by how many you’ll get on the NHS for free, just make sure you book with your GP early enough.
This is very sage advice, especially about the effect on each other.
My only advice is to don’t cheap out on things like Buggies and car seats. It’s good to have ones that will see you through this child until 4 and potentially into the next child if you choose to do it all again. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish on those type of things. Also, when you buy a cot, get one that can convert as they get older.
My top advice;
Oh my baby is a cat.
Try them on chicken tikka when they get onto solid food, but don’t tell the health visitor 
Our little guy lapped it up and it went down just fine. Only side effect was that he turned really bright red 
glad to hear it’s going well!
I’ve only done one long-haul with a baby, which was the east coast of the US when our oldest was 9 months old. We went BA, and were able to select the bulkhead seats at no extra charge, after booking. (Come to think of it we may have also booked the flights before she was born, and had to add her to the booking afterwards!)
Three tips:
Expect that the baby might want to be attached to you or your partner for a fair chunk of the flights, so don’t get your hopes up about being able to eat or sleep at the same time as each other. If you have a friendly cabin crew they might be able to bring one of you your meal at the start of the meal service and the other at the end, so at least you can both eat it while it’s hot.
If they’re crying at take-off or landing, it may well be the pressure differential in their ears, so if you can, give them a feed, because sucking on something can be enough to solve that.
The airline will give you an option as to whether you want the buggy returned at the gate on arrival, or at the baggage belt. They will invariably do the opposite of what you asked. Give it a good once-over for damage as soon as you receive it, and report anything straight away. Over the course of several flights our second-hand Babboe became the buggy of Theseus, because airlines had to keep replacing the bits they broke.
This is absolutely infuriating. It doesn’t matter what you agree with the person at the check-in desk or what stickers or tags they put on the pushchair, the airport workers at the other end will do whatever they like.
There’s also the fun game of ‘does this airport consider my pushchair as oversized luggage or will it come out on the belt’ and of course the oversized luggage door will be at the complete other end of the baggage hall to the belt assigned for your suitcases.
haha we had that Throw in some really complicated directions to get there and you’ll find your pushchair essentially abandoned in the middle of a busy airport.
Thank you all! You’ve all been so helpful, some of the things I didn’t even think about and didn’t even cross my mind! My wife and I are still surprised that we are parents, thinking it will take some time to wear off. On an off-topic note, the following is making me tread carefully, not much has been reported in the media here in the UK. I did some googling and this is all over news in Asia. I will have to see how this evolves before I book any tickets since most flights traverse through the middle east/Asia to get to NZ. I could take the USA route but the service on US Airlines is terrible and everytime I’ve travelled on one of the US airlines they make you regret it instantly