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2 April 2025
Background This trip was conceived with a booking made 14 months ago with a single flight on AirAsia X from Xian to Kuala Lumpur to use up vouchers that were issued during the pandemic when the airline was went belly-up pending revival. Over the months, I slowly built up an itinerary to include places that […]
10 January 2025
We had a relaxing start today, hitting the road at 0900 for the drive to Auckland. We stopped at the supermarket to get some fruit as we didn’t have breakfast. That ought to sustain me till brunch which we had at Mokau River. Fortunately, Kim remembered that we had parked our car at a hotel […]
9 January 2025
Continuing on the road After lunch in the Whanganui, we continued our drive to New Plymouth, getting to the Devon Hotel around 1730. Driving through town in search of dinner, we came across the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre with its impressive mirror-finished exterior. We took dinner at a Korean fried chicken and […]
9 January 2025
It was about 1000 when we started our drive leaving Wellington. The car performed well, with Kim doing most of the driving to Whanganui where we stopped to visit friends Michelle and Colin. They live on Durie Hill overlooking the city, by the War Memorial tower. The suburb is served by a 66m elevator since […]
9 January 2025
Above: Mt Taranaki on the flight from Auckland to Wellington. Landing at 0910, we were met by David, the seller of the Lexus ES300H. I was surprised that he had parked and came into the terminal for us, holding a rose. At his age, maybe 80, I expected him to pick us up at the […]
9 January 2025
Trip overview Today we fly to Wellington to look at and hopefully buy a car, then embark on a road trip to New Plymouth for a nightstop enroute to Auckland. If we don’t buy the car, we have backup standby flights from Wellington to New Plymouth and then to Auckland next day. As the flight […]
12 December 2024
My flight arrived about 10 mins later than the scheduled time of 0940. Auckland Airport, sometimes known for its awful queues at arrival due to biosecurity screening was a breeze today. Our flight had been selected for an express arrival trial. With nothing to declare and no luggage to collect from the carousel, I was […]
10 December 2024
Technical failure I have an evening flight to Auckland today. With the time difference back in India, I woke up early and had a snack before killing time and packing. Mid-morning, I went out to grab brunch but my preferred meal (cha siew rice) to finish all my HKD wasn’t yet available. So, I settled […]
10 December 2024
Arriving in Hong Kong My flight landed in Hong Kong at 0600. One set of immigration queues were closed, leaving the remaining one backed up. Despite that, I was outside in about 45 mins waiting at the pick-up area. Alice picked me up and took me to her nearby apartment about 10 mins away […]
9 December 2024
Flying to Delhi Today’s a long day for me with an early start in Nashik, flying to Delhi for a nearly 12h self-connect to Hong Kong, with the second flight being on standby. I left the hotel around 0640 by autorickshaw, summoned on Uber. It was colder than I had thought and I had to […]