Saga de New Zealand – 2010/11 Part 1

New Zealand is a country every nature lover would like to visit at least once if not many times… Abundance of natural beauty and limited human population with a peaceful lifestyle has contributed to be one of the most dreamed tourist destination on the planet….

I boarded Singapore Airlines’s flight from Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad’s New International Airport is much better than the old one and it seems to be in line with many similar sized airports. As I had already done web check-in, I could get my boarding pass from Business Class check-in counter. It though took almost an hour for Customs person to appear at the post-immigration counter where I could get an export certificate for the camera and lenses I was carrying with me. By the time I finished this formality, the boarding was about to finish and I had no time left to loiter in other areas of this airport.

Flight to Singapore was uneventful and after a day’s stop over, I boarded Auckland bound flight. This flight too was uneventful and even though I could not get a complete empty row of seats, I had a good relaxing sleep of 8 hours.

J-Lo and HG came to pick me up and seeing them brought an instant happiness.

J-Lo’s home is located just near sea-shore and its so peaceful there.

The view from one of the balconies is so serene…

And the surrounding is so beautiful…   

When they brought me home, many surprises were awaiting for me…
…and one of them was the iPhone4! I was happy with 3GS J-Lo had gifted me during my NZ trip last year. And I always believed that iPhone 4 is not value for money compared to 3GS. But its Ratina Display, the powerful processor and of course Facetime is worth the additional cost.

On very first day, I measured my weight and the scale showed 67 KGs. I prayed hard that I don’t gain any weight in this trip but my heart did not support this prayer as it knew what was coming…
(Image courtesy: reuters.com)
Every morning, HG used to feed me with two toasts with 5mm later of my favorite Kraft’s Philadelphia Cream Cheese. After a week of such breakfast, red cells in my blood were replaced by the molecules of this cream cheese… Too early in the blog to reveal how much I ended up gaining in this trip but my cheeks are so inflated that they hide both of my ears now!

The work started from very first day and it was just work work work for first few days.

One evening, we had a quick visit to Sylvia Park Mall. It had a nice Christmas tree in the cetner…

J-Lo, HG and Darshanaben paused for me beneath the tree. We had a long coffee break in Borders that evening and were escorted out by a beautiful barista when it was a closing time.

While we were pretty busy with the installation work, we managed to regularly visit Starbucks to pump in enough caffeine to keep us up and running past midnights… A trick to get a cost-effective drink from Starbucks was shared and the gang accepted it overwhelmingly and practiced regularly then onward…

DS and family were leaving for India-Canada and that morning, we went to see him off at the airport.

Baba, DS and J-Lo… three key persons of Auckland center…

Even though its a small center, the unity in the team is very strong and significant. DS had been very instrumental in bringing this unity in place.

After almost 10 days of continuous work, J-Lo decided to get a break and planned a short trip to Mount Maunganui – a popular tourist location. Its about 3 hrs from Auckland. Dilu, Paneer, Baba and Chooni also joined the trip.

Half way to Mt Maunganui, we stopped at Karangahake Reserve for a quick breakfast… Dilu presented me the sight and J-Lo ensured that I did not get hit by a car while taking this picture.

This used to be a gold mine area earlier and has still preserved its beauty.

And of course, many tourists stop by this place and while kids do mountaineering practice, mom can get the documentary evidences of it…

The beauty of this country was visible everywhere… And even though this highway was just one-lane each way, there wasn’t any traffic nor the congestion…

J-Lo had booked the accommodation in one of the luxuries resort appartments CuttersCove.

The views from the apartment balcony were spectacular. While I had a walk on the beach with Baba, J-Lo, Dilu and Paneer went to buy some grocery… Chooni cooked a great dinner that evening.

We then had a long walk on Marina Parade… Paneer believed that the post Dilu is pointing contains the life waist and first-aid box for beach-goers. But Dilu said that its just a “thambhlo” and nothing else!

Dilu, J-Lo and Paneer decided to sleep in balcony. Dilu’s iPod was so loud that the next door neighbor complained the owner of the apartment in the morning.

Chooni made so delicious breakfast that it put Dilu into trance… While Baba, Paneer, J-Lo and Dilu were playing Tennis, Chooni prepared another delicious meal. After lunch, we headed to climb the mountain.

We parked the car in the foothill of the mountain and Baba started practicing his photographic skills…

As we started going up, the surrounding beauty started revealing...

We also came across some of the scenic spots in this climb… The gang was kind enough to pose for me.

Left to right: Baba, Chooni, Dilu, Paneer and J-Lo.

Conquering the summit of Mt Maunganui… Dilu is pulling Paneer’s chaddi… Its his normal behavior though…

It was one and half hours of the expedition which made everyone tired and hungry as you can notice in this picture…

Even though we were destined to be at this location for three days, some emergency back in Auckland demanded me to be back there next morning. So J-Lo, Dilu and me left for Auckland right after dinner. Even though very tired, J-Lo was fresh and energetic throughout three hours of driving in dark.