The trip is delayed

One week before the departure the travel agent said that she can't obtain for me an electronical transit Australian visa, and suggested me to apply for this visa to the nearest Australian embassy.

That was a catastrophe, because I had no time for that before the departure. Only sending the documents to Moscow and back again would take ~ a week. I've checked everything once more. Australian imigration rules clearly state that:
I require the transit Australian visa even if I won't leave the airplane that have a stop in Australia.
So, I'm going to sepnd in Australia only 1 hour and a half, and I won't change the aircraft, but still I have to have the Australian transit visa. And that visa can not be obtained electronically for a number of countries (including Kyrgyzstan and Russia).

I was upset, and gave up updating this blog. But it was decided just to postpone the flight till January 2008. Now I'm back, and I hope this time everything will be ok, and nothing more would stop me. I've already obtained the Australian transit visa (had to send my passport to Moscow once again). So, let's wait until January.. :)

Booking the tickets

At some stage I had to book the tickets (there and back). And it appeared, that it's not so easy also..

When I applied for a visa, one of the additional requests from the embassy was the itinerary - i.e. I had to go to the travel agent and ask him about the available itinerary to Christchurch and back. At the same time I could book the tickets there..
Then we find such an itinerary (it was the chipest one):
Bishkek-Tashkent-Kuala Lumpur-Auckland, and the same way back. From Auckland to Christchurch I had to fly using local (NZ) airlines, and book the tickets separately.. This is because we couldn't find the direct way from Bishkek to Christchurch.

But when I came to that agent later to buy the tickets, it appeared that the Kuala Lumpur-Auckland section was no more accessible.. This is strange, 'cause I reserved the place, but the agent couldn't explain, he just said this way is no more accessible.

After searching the other ways (it took about 2-3 hours!!), we found the other way for me to fly to Auckland, but the departure point was Almati (Kazakhstan) - I had to travel the the Almati Airport by car.. And also the travel agent suggested to buy the ticket as soon as possible..

In disappointment, I've asked my sponsor in NZ, whether it was possible for him to book the tickets for me remotely.. He tried to do so, and he was more lucky than me.. Finally he reserver the tickets for me, and we decided to use this last variant (also because it was easier to pay for the tickets in this way). So my way to NZ and back would be:
Bishkek-Istanbul-Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney-Auckland-Christchurch
and a month later - the same way back..

I like to fly.. I like the feeling of acceleration, when the engines start to work at full power on the runway.. But it seems to me, that at the end of the trip I'll hate flights.. :) I'm going to have 6 flights there and 6 flights back. It'll take more than 2 days of flights in either way.. (i.e. I depart on 20th of November early in the morning, and I'll be in Christchurch only on Nov 22nd in the evening).. Wow..

I hope, I'll have inernet access between the flights - so I could share my feelings/photos here.. my HTC P3600 - Windows mobile phone with roaming, Wi-Fi, Photocamera and GPS module will be with me.

preface

So, I begin..

Let me explain how that happened, that I'm going to have this small trip to such an exotic country:
Last summer I've found a very interesting and extraordinary project.. I've started to work on it, and at some stage, my customer (he is from New Zealand, Christchurch) suggested me to have a small trip to New Zealand to finish the project there - also because the project required my being there.. It is related to some hardware device, connected to a PC, and it would be difficult to make integration and tests remotely (via internet)..

So, I had to take a very difficult decision: if I go to NZ, I should leave my current working place, 'cause my bosses couldn't accept such a long holiday for me (the trip was going to take 2 months). From one side I had a stable profitable work here in Bishkek, and on the other side I had the opportunity to fly to another country - to see the world, to get new experiences..

I have to say, that I had not much travels in my life.. Only once I was abroad (beyond borders of the former USSR) - it was already long time ago, before my marriage, I was 19 years old.. I worked in Genoa, Italy as a software developer for 8 months, after that I had to return to Bishkek.. Since that time I didn't go anywhere except Issik-Kul - the common place for summer holidays..

So, I've made the decision (right or wrong - time will show). I'm going to travel to NZ. In september I've submitted an application for visitors visa to the New Zealand embassy in Moscow. Here I want to thank my friend Michael Shogin. He's working in Moscow in @mail.ru, and he helped me a lot with documents. I.e. - I didn't even go to Moscow, I just sent the documents to Michael, and he submitted them to the embassy.

Now I have the visa. It allows me to stay in NZ till Feb 28th 2008.

It was not so easy to get visa.. I had to gather lot of papers.. fill several forms, agree the details with my sponsor from NZ (the person who invited me), and so on.. After that, the embassy officials sent me a lot of requests for additional information... But I could supply them with everything they needed, and finally I've got visa! So the trip become more and more real, and I'm looking forward for this journey with great anxiety!!!

I was asked about photo-reports from some of my friends, and thus, I've decided to create this blog. I'll post the photo-reports and my thoughts/impressions here.. Everybody are welcommed to leave posts/comments here.. And even if most of my friends are russian-speaking, I've decided to narrate in English, 'cause some of my friends can't read English...

Ah, forgot to mention: the approximate departure date is 20th of November.. So, I have plenty of time for preparations..