LET US GET STARTED ! -NEW ZEALAND JOURNEY

BLOG POST 9

The wake up call came promptly at 6 am and we saw a message slip from our tour guide Mr Tony with details of our tour for that day, we got ready and pinned on our personal name badges, our baggage with luggage label tags were put out promptly at 7 am otherwise we had to get them into the bus ourselves so putting out the bags was done very diligently by all of us all through the tour, we then went down for breakfast

For the entire tour we had no problem with breakfast as it was a lavish buffet,  with a lot  of items to chose from - eggs with crisp streaky bacon, baked  beans, grilled tomato, hash brown, mushrooms and sausages, tomato avocado , corn fritters  with bacon, English muffin with poached eggs, cinnamon French toast, maple syrup, grilled bacon and banana pancake stack , fresh pancakes, whipped cream, omelettes , selection of breads, house-made cereals, yoghurt & sweet pastries.

 Filter coffee, freshly brewed coffee, decaffeinated coffee and a selection of teas and chilled fresh juices - Freshly cut fruit - Assorted cereals and grains - Natural yoghurt - oven fresh baked croissants & rolls - Danish pastries ,choice of toast, white or wholemeal - assorted cold cut meats - assorted cheese

We used to prefer omelettes, hash browns,corn flakes , muffins ,pan cakes, fresh fruits and yoghurt was our favorite,yummy with so many flavors !

Coffee and tea were taken cold by most of the people without milk, most places milk used to be cold and we  who preferred coffee steaming hot had to make do with hot water and creamer

As we sat having our first Kiwi breakfast I was looking around to see if we could trace any of our tour mates with whom we were going to spend  next 19 days going around the entire country, I could see few people wearing our tour badge.

We went up to our room to get our small bags and came down to our bus as instructed by Mr Tony, Lo ! the bus was waiting ,my pride that I am usually the first to arrive at any place took a heavy fall as we could see most of the tourists already seated in the bus

Our tour guide Mr Tony came ahead and welcomed us, later during the course of our journey we came to know that he is an Australian who has worked as a tour guide for 19 years after spending 21 years in the New South Wales Police Force,firstly in Canada/ Alaska, South America and China and for the last 9 years in New Zealand for Grand Pacific Tours.

 He accompanied us throughout the tour and made everyone feel welcome, relaxed and ensured that our holiday was a memorable experience. He was full of energy and concern ,never spared an effort to make us feel comfortable

 Our coach captain was Ms Megan a Kiwi who has experience driving coaches in Australia and New Zealand for a number of years and is now based out of Auckland.  she had  expert knowledge and extensive driving experience ,she had in depth knowledge about the Maori culture ,told us a lot about the North Island and assisted us with every aspect of the tour, handling heavy luggage .

 We enjoyed her professional commentary with numerous facts and figures, myths, legends and many laughs along the way.

Although our coach could take 48 passengers we were only 24 luckily, we found that we were the only Indian tourists ,Tony later told us that he thought these two poor Indians just landed ,had only few hours sleep ,how they could cope with the day journey ,he was pleasantly surprised when he found us as fresh as daisies all through the day !

We were allotted our seat numbers quite in the front for the first day, unlike other tours where we used to shift either to front or back by one seat everyday ,here our  seat numbers were arranged in a seat rotation policy in such a way that everyone got a chance to sit in the front which had a better view, the last row was called the naughty corner for obvious reasons!

Bus was a modern coach featuring panoramic windows, had superior suspension for comfort, air conditioning, reclining seats , CD and DVD player, entertainment system, intercom systems, air bag suspension, restroom which we never used  even once as the coach stopped every 2 hours at a comfort stop , two door access and cold water storage where we could put in 3 dollars in the money box and take a cool water bottle by ourselves ,there was a rubbish bin and hand sanitizer at the entrances