A Solo Journey of Wellington, New Zealand

Hello friends,

I keep posting my experience through these blogs, few of them are very big. Hence, I have maintain the sequence by segregating the stories in chapters which could be convenient for you to read.

Even today, in this blog, I am going to write about my first trip (solo) to one of the beautiful country, New Zealand.

First Solo Trip

This article is a presentation of my experience travelling abroad and it is also going to be long. Therefore, I have decided to write it in chunks so that you can enjoy it well and keep you interested.

You all patiently are reading my each blog and loving them. Heartfelt thanks to all of you for this.

Sometimes when a person remembers the moments spent in her/his life, then there are some moments which she/he wants to share with her/ his friends.

Yes, I enjoy traveling by train because during the journey there are ample opportunities to meet new people and make friends. But once the plane is taken off, then landing takes place in an hour or two. And the longer the plane stays in the air, the longer my breath gets stuck. Just the mind says that the plane should land quickly and I should run away from here. However, if anything such things happens for the first time in life, then there is a lot of enthusiasm in it.

I am from Delhi. It is not a new thing that at some point of time parents start thinking about the marriage of their son or daughter, same thing happened with me as well. I used to teach in school before marriage, and while teaching in school, I realized that by working here, I would not be able to teach kids as expected. Hence, one day, I discussed about this with my parents and they advised me that why don't you do something of your own? You will have freedom of implementing your own teaching methodology. My brothers gave me full support in this initiative and hence, I started teaching by renting a small place. Few more teachers accompanied me in this new journey and like me, they also started teaching kids with great sincerity. The first few months went to make us believe in our work. Hard work soon paid off. Our education center was filled with students. There were not only children studying by paying the fee, but, kids with financially weak background also used to come for study and they don't need to pay anything. In summary, I started my own coaching center and soon it became very famous in that region because of quality of the education, we provided.

In addition of running a coaching center, I also had a good knowledge of tailoring and parlor work. Since, these two things are my hobbies, so I used to do on Sunday for few hours. Everything were going very smooth.

As time passed my marriage was fixed with someone who was in the IT profession and working for an organization called IBM and was located in Bangalore. When a girl gets married, there is a big change in her life, especially in Indian families. As soon as a girl gets married, she has to leave their family, parent's house and live with husband and his family. Just thinking of this, I decided to hand over the Coaching Center to someone else so that the children's education would not get affected.  I got married in December. It was an arranged marriage. Our knowledge of each other was limited.

I travelled to Bangalore with my hubby. It was a very long but smooth train journey. While living together, we started to know and understand each other. The days were were filled with happiness.

My husband got an offer from his organization, which required to travel to New Zealand. I didn't have a passport and hence he helped me in applying my passport. As soon as my passport was ready, we both applied for the visa. Once all the paper submission was done, we started preparing to go to our home town. Everything was happening according to our plan. But it is said that when it has to happen, it happens. As my story title says, it was a solo journey and hence things turn a little bit and my visa got delayed and my husband had to travel without me as his visa was ready. There is a saying that destiny is already written and delaying visa was reason for my solo journey. I had to travel alone, which was no less than an adventure for me. My husband didn't want to go alone. But, he had to report to the office in new country and hence he couldn't delay it for long and hence he travelled alone. My husband flew on 7th September 2012, I remember the whole family went to drop him at Delhi Indira Gandhi Airport.

After staying with my parents in Delhi for some time, I came to my in-law's house. I celebrated Diwali's festival while living their. My husband was following my paper work very closely but the it was taking little longer than expected. Actually, he wanted to celebrate the first wedding anniversary with me. I still remember that morning of November 21, 2012. When he told me on the phone that the visa is ready and I have booked your ticket for 28 November to come here. I never thought that I would ever travel such a long journey in my life alone and get a chance to travel abroad .I have even never traveled alone in the city bus and metro. So going to other country alone was no less than a surprise for me.

My husband was living in Wellington which is the capital city. I was lucky lady who got a chance for a foreign trip because of my husband profession. I was happy but a little afraid as well. It was my first trip to abroad. Although, I had the experience of flying by Airplane, but that was within my own country and that too with my hubby. I would still remember this very long journey. My ticket was booked from “Delhi to Singapore” , "Singapore" to Auckland” and “Auckland to Wellington”. 

In the eagerness of travel, I forgot all my fears and started preparing my luggage so that I could not forget any important things, As I mentioned earlier, that I was in my in-law's house and my international journey was starting from Delhi. Hence. My father-in-law travelled with me to my parent's home (Delhi). While packing, I was very confused about what I should keep and what I should not ?. My visa and tickets were also ready. After doing all the packing, I started waiting for the date of my journey. My husband had already provided me all the necessary information about the journey. These information made the journey a little easy. I reached Indira Gandhi National Airport Delhi by car from my residence. I was thinking on the way after leaving home that I never even had experience of travelling alone in a domestic flight. How would I travel in an international flight? But I  believed in myself, as I said, my husband had provided me all the information about the journey, so it became a little easier for me. I reached the airport at 4 in the morning. My whole family came to drop me at the airport. I was very nervous when I entered the airport. After that I saw the view inside which was huge. I realized that the airport was full of traveler and airport staffs. The items which were kept for selling at the shops were very expensive. My flight time was at 7am in the morning, so I did not have enough time to walk around in the shopping areas. International journey require to show visa and passport to the counter, so I followed the airport guidelines and started arranging the papers to show. I went in the queue of Singapore Airlines and waited for my turn. At that point of time, I was a little worried what would happen next, but I was also confident that everything will be fine. My luggage was checked in and I got two boarding passes. One boarding pass for Delhi to Singapore and other Singapore to Auckland.  After that passport and visa verification was also done by the airport authority. Now I was relieved a bit as all the paper work was smoothly done. The next step was the security check which took some time and after that I went to the waiting area and sat with all other passengers until the boarding started. Once announcement was done for boarding the flight, I started moving along with other passengers towards the departure gate to sit on the plane. I took the entry by showing the boarding pass and passport to the flight attendant. My ticket was economy class, so accordingly flight attendant helped me to show the seating area of economy class. I went in the suggested direction and sat on the seat after seeing my seat number. There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the plane as the plane was huge. All the passengers were sitting after seeing their seat numbers. All the passengers fastened their seat belts once announcement was done. I also fastened my seat belts. After running on the runway for a while, the plane started flying in the sky. After a while, I unbuckled the seat belt and was feeling relaxed.

While in the plane, the air hostesses, who were looking like a fairy tales girl, started serving food and drinks to each passengers on a small beautiful trolley with a gracious smile. There was a small LCD screen in front of each seat and a foldable table placed under it. Food stuff were being severed on these foldable table. I also had enjoyed my meal being kept on table. I could not sleep because of tiredness on the plane. I had a lot of curiosity to understand new things, I got up from my seat and tried to know, what other facilities were provided in the plane? Two gentlemen were sitting next to me. We started a conversation and got to know that they have to travel every six months for business meetings. They provided a lot of information about Singapore Airport, for example, I should be fixing my watch timing as per Singapore time zone. I can inform my family and friends about myself through the mail which I can access at the airport because of free WIFI availability. When those gentlemen got to know that, this is my first trip to abroad. One of them said with great confidence and with a lighter note that now you are flying to a different country, wearing a suit salwar, I am sure, you will be returning back wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The plane landed at Singapore's Airport at 2:30pm (local time).

My next flight was four hours later from Singapore to Auckland, I explored the most of Singapore Airport area with due diligence. I found free wi-fi area with computer facility available. I took advantage of this and grabbed one of the computer and chatted with my husband. The security checking was done on time. Once security was done, I went towards the boarding gate and waited  for my flight. Soon the boarding started. This journey was a bit long and hence I was relaxed and calm. There was a good arrangement of snacks on the plane. I didn't even know when I arrived.

On landing at Auckland international Airport, I inquired about my next flight from Auckland to Wellington. While walking on the pavement, I got a call from my husband and he informed me that I need to catch the green bus to go to the domestic terminal and suddenly I saw the bus coming and hence get on the bus once it is stopped. The bus driver helped me putting all the luggage into the bus.

There is no sky train facility to commute between international and domestic terminal, However, bus service , which is free, could be used to commute between two terminals. It takes approximately ten minutes to travel between terminals. I reached to the Auckland domestic airport . The next trip was domestic and it was "Air New Zealand" flight, hence I got my third and final boarding pass for Wellington. With boarding pass I went for the security check. Boarding time was 3.30pm (local time) and it was on time. I was sure as soon as I boarded the plane because my husband was waiting to pick me up at wellington airport since morning, In fact he was about to come to pick me up in Auckland. But due to vacation time he couldn't make it as ticket were not available. The distance between Auckland to Wellington is approximately 480 kilometers. It took approximately 1hrs, 5min.

Wellington airport

On reaching Wellington airport, I picked up my luggage from conveyor belt and stepped out towards exit gate, I found my husband who was waiting for me. Just looking at me, he hugged me. I still cannot forget the happiness on his face that I saw on that day.

Wait for my next chapter till then...

BE HAPPY….BE ACTIVE….AND BE FOCUSED….

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Recipe : Aate Ke Khasta Namak Pare .( आटे के खस्ता नमक पारे)