Planning For A long Awaited Trip

It's August already, and soon we will be flying to New Zealand Insha Allah. Unbelievable how time flies so fast. 

My friends and I are scrambling to book our hotels now for the South Island. So relieved that we managed to book all the hotels in the North Island last week. Also so grateful for all the discount codes that I received from Digi and AirAsiaGo that have made our booking fees slightly cheaper.

I mean planning for an expensive and long trip like this makes every cent counts. So we are still in the midst of researching, reviewing and booking all these hotels. Glad, one of my friend from the trip, Julia has a credit card. It makes the booking process easier :)

I really never thought that I was able to make this trip a dream come true. But Allah's powers are magnificent. Always have faith and be positive.

The idea of flying to New Zealand came to me last year. I initially really wanted to perform umrah and go to Australia to work in gardens picking fruits for a month or at least 3 weeks, this year. But due to the strict visa policy imposed by the Saudi government of the ban against single women performing umrah without mahram left me with no choice but to alternatively plan another big trip this year.

Hence, that was when the idea of New Zealand came about. I thought the next best thing to do after not being able to perform umrah was to visit one of the most beautiful country in this world. Plus, my friend Nurul also informed me that she was migrating back to New Zealand after a few years staying in Malaysia.

I didn't have any idea who I was going with but I was determined to make this trip a reality one way or another. And on that one fateful day, while my friend Julia and I were catching up on our Beijing trip, she brought up the idea of New Zealand. I just looked at her with my mouth agape. Her bestfriend was studying there and leaving this year, And like everyone said, the plan between her and me was history.

We decided to invite another friend for the trip, my court gang, Aa.. and that makes the 3 of us in this trip excluding Julia's bestfriend who is already studying there.

So hence we have been planning for this trip since last year.  We have researched the places, we have studied the activities, we have planned our budgets, we have saved up money and bought flight tickets for months. It's so surreal to think that it is almost coming true now.

Well, I pray that we will have a wonderful and smooth trip, Insha Allah. We have a few more hotels to book, passport to renew, driving license to renew, visa to apply (since we are transiting in Gold Coast, Australia), traveling insurance to purchase, list of food to prepare and buy, luggage weight to add, and buy other essentials including toiletries and extra clothing, depending on the weather.

May all of this become a reality, amin.