In the name of Allah.
The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
Assalamu'alaikum, errbody!
Kia Ora
~ Maori for "Welcome" ~
How long has it been? 2 months. Damn. Anyway, MPhil (Masters in Philosophy) has been killer, man. Not in the sense that I got lots to do. It's just that I got a lot to read and...Ok, maybe I got a lot to do too. I got some assignments to do and I need to modify a program that follows the specs of the equipment of my research. Long story short, not going so good.
But enough about that. I'm gonna tell you about what I've been doing from mid September to early October. A fortnight. The last time I went off on a proper vacation was 5 years ago. Soooo........
I went to New Zealand, y'all! My parents and my yet-to-get-married brother tagged along. Been telling my mom about going there for quite some time and you know what? You get the chance, you take it. I booked the flight about 2 and a half months before we went and a month before I got the offer to do my master's degree. Sorry, doc. You offered it too late, I'm still going to NZ. Haha!
I'll simplify the flight process including luggage and ETA and all that.
Whatever your luggage's weight limit is, best to follow it. Weigh your luggage from home, people! If your limit's 30kg, then 30kg it is. Don't go over it and think, "Maybe they'll let it slide.". Don't bet on it. As for the flights, usually the boarding time for international flights is about an hour before take-off. So just to be safe, you might wanna check in 2 hours before take-off. But the earlier the better. And of course being Muslim, food is often a tricky issue. So if you're bringing food, bring food that are processed and in packages. Like 3-in-1 coffee, Brahim's and things like that. Don't, and I mean DON'T bring any fruits or other cooked stuff. You can make 'em in NZ. Believe me. Last but not least, list down ALL the food that you're bringing. I'll explain later in this post.
Our flight was at 11.55 pm but we were at the airport by maghrib. Best to settle Solat awal2, ye dok?
After checking in our luggage and dinner with Along and his family.............
We waited at the lounge. Not sure if we look excited........
We had a 75-minute layover at Gold Coast. And after another 4 hours of ass-numbing flight...
We touched down at Auckland International Airport! We were stoked, man! We arrived at 5-ish p.m local time. We were prepared to explore some of the sights and check-in to our Air BnB but we were stuck for 4 bloody hours. Now this is where that list should've come in handy.
When we were filling up the forms, we declared that we brought food. If we listed down the stuff, the staff at the airport will just randomly pick from the list and we can show it there and then. But we had to wait but by the time it was our turn, it took just 30 secs.
We had to wait for a shuttle bus outside the airport to get to the car rental place and the second the cold wind hit me, my nose hairs got frost bite. What do you expect? It was about 9 p.m.
We got to meet Sofia who owned the apartment that we were staying in.....
She's awesome. She knew we were late because of the hold up at the airport so she came all the way down and handed us the keys.
We were tired but the second we got there, not anymore! Her place was amazing! Nothing lavish or fancy but just practical. Nak senang kata complete la.
This was barely day 1 of the trip. Lemme show you a glimpse of the next post.
I'll post the next one in a day or two In Sya-Allah.
See you guys on the flip side!!
P.S: Believe it or not, I'm already planning another trip somewhere. Haha!
