A trip to New Zealand - Part 1

It was around 8:50pm when we left my home, on reaching the airport, it was all about weighing your luggage and taking out stuff so that it did not cross the weight limitations, I un-fortunately had to remove all my Concert DVD's :(. I even had to wear the blazer to reduce weight, It was now time to say a small good bye to all and went in to the check in counter, fortunately and un-fortunately the weighing machine was not correct and he just let all my bags in, :( should have taken my DVD's.

I got the boarding pass and then headed to immigration, only to realize that I had misplaced my Passport and the boarding pass too, after some frantic phone calls and searches it was found in Friend's bag, which was traveling with me too. Strange enough on how it reached his bag. All this took a little time and finished the immigration procedure and the security just in time to board the flight. The flight took off at the right time and in three hours; it landed all safe at the Bangkok Airport. We had a 14 hr Transit at Bangkok, so couple of us, took the Visa on Arrival and went for a 5 hour tour to Bangkok, by now we already the feel of being a student, thinking 10 times before we took the money out to spend on anything, including food and water.

The Bangkok trip was nice but very hot and humid; we went to couple of Buddha temples and back to airport in time for the transit flight to Auckland. The Thai people were nice, very helpful, and very patient. The traffic situation in Bangkok is horrible than in Bangalore, in the 5 hrs we were out in Bangkok, we were in traffic for 3 hrs and we hardly traveled 50 km. But it was fun, the guide told us some interesting facts about Thai people worshipping Buddha and also link with Lord Shiva, that was little surprising for me, I even saw the Shiva Linga in couple of places.

We were early to the airport for the next flight, so we waited at the waiting hall that had recliners, the moment I sat on them I went off to sleep for about 2 hrs I think. It was very relaxing.

We boarded the flight and it was a B777 flight with individual entertainment system that was pretty cool. Then came the dinner time and there began my hunt for veg food, The flight attendant told me they had no veg food, but when I told him I don’t eat meat, he somehow managed to get me some fruit salad and curds and believe it or not, two Aloo Paratha. I was so happy to see that, and thank the flight attendant for being very sweet. :)

Landed at the airport and customs clearance was all fine, we had a warm welcome from the university people, and the people were sweet and helpful, they arranged for our airport transfer to temp accommodation. They even gave us couple of chocolates and a Tetra pack Juice.............

More to come…………