We are going to Auckland!! That’s what we said to each other about two months ago. After initial euphoria, the first question was about funds :). We estimated about Rs. 80K per person and included two more people. Once we checked air-fares, we knew that Rs. 80K was just a miniscule chunk of fat expense.
The best deal was from Cathy Pacific with Rs. 61K return fair and reasonable timings. The flight departs from Bangalore at 2:40 AM (yes, early morning!) and reaches Hong Kong at 11 AM. The next connecting flight is at 9PM. So you can roam around in Hong Kong or at least get a feel of the city. Flight reaches Auckland next day at 11:30 AM. We gladly chose this option. Hotel booking was piece of cake with Expedia.
Next problem was leaves. We applied leaves in our offices, and prayed to God that things go as hoped. Fortunately, this step cam out as easiest. We all got leaves but for just 3.5 days stay in Auckland. It’s a short time considering such a long journey and such a beautiful place.
Anyway, next we applied for visa. TT Services in Bangalore handles visa requests for New Zealand. These folks are good mannered and helpful. You just get your documents right and that’s all. It took us about 20 days for visa. The painful part was getting bank statements stamped from the bank and getting DDs prepared for visa fee and TT services fee.
After getting our passports pasted with a tourist visa, we had to cover two more important tasks: Forex and planning activities in Auckland.
It is very very hard to get New Zealand dollars in Bangalore. So we bought USD 😦 We chose Centrum forex. These guys are decent and reliable.
What would we do in Auckland in three days?? That was the question after sorting out all preparation stuff. We browsed many websites and selected Jet boat ride, bungy jumping, caves, Hobbiton, lots of shipping and yes, sky diving.
To Be Continued…
Tangerine Tomatoes 