At the start of my trip I’d decided that I would apply for my India visa whilst in Argentina. However I hadn't anticipated having to re-new my passport, nor the amount of time it would take. By the time it finally arrived back it was too late to send it off again for an India visa, which left me in a pretty difficult position, as I hadn't budgeted enough time to get it in Chile, New Zealand or Australia either.
Of these three countries, Australia has the shortest processing time for non-residents applying for an India visa (10 working days). Therefore I decided I would need to extend my time in Australia from 2 days, to 2 weeks.
That in itself wasn't a bad thing, as I was already feeling that I’d been a little stingy only allowing myself 2 days to catch up with my old friends in Oz. However the difficulty was that the extra two weeks would have to either come out of my New Zealand trip or my India trip as it would be too expensive to push back all of my subsequent flights, plus I have a hard stop to my travels in August, for my friend Kelly’s wedding. It was a tough choice to make but finally I decided not to go to New Zealand.
NZ has been pretty high on my list for a long time, and I've always regretted not making it there when I lived in Australia. However since I started travelling in October, I’d been feeling less enthusiastic about it. I think it’s partly because I knew it would be really expensive (and I've already blown my budget by spending so much time in Argentina, which is by far the most expensive country I've visited on this trip) and partly because I don’t really want to do it on my own, on a bus. It feels like it should really be done in a camper-van with a good friend (and I have just the person in mind, Ms Coerkamp...).
On the other hand, of all the countries I've visited so far, India is the one I've loved the most. It's also very cheap, AND I've arranged to meet my good friend Becky there, so I'd hate to have to mess around with those dates.
So decision made. I'm disappointed that New Zealand continues to elude me, but I will get there one day! And on the plus side I now have more time in Australia to catch with all my old friends there. I can’t wait!
Of these three countries, Australia has the shortest processing time for non-residents applying for an India visa (10 working days). Therefore I decided I would need to extend my time in Australia from 2 days, to 2 weeks.
That in itself wasn't a bad thing, as I was already feeling that I’d been a little stingy only allowing myself 2 days to catch up with my old friends in Oz. However the difficulty was that the extra two weeks would have to either come out of my New Zealand trip or my India trip as it would be too expensive to push back all of my subsequent flights, plus I have a hard stop to my travels in August, for my friend Kelly’s wedding. It was a tough choice to make but finally I decided not to go to New Zealand.
NZ has been pretty high on my list for a long time, and I've always regretted not making it there when I lived in Australia. However since I started travelling in October, I’d been feeling less enthusiastic about it. I think it’s partly because I knew it would be really expensive (and I've already blown my budget by spending so much time in Argentina, which is by far the most expensive country I've visited on this trip) and partly because I don’t really want to do it on my own, on a bus. It feels like it should really be done in a camper-van with a good friend (and I have just the person in mind, Ms Coerkamp...).
On the other hand, of all the countries I've visited so far, India is the one I've loved the most. It's also very cheap, AND I've arranged to meet my good friend Becky there, so I'd hate to have to mess around with those dates.
So decision made. I'm disappointed that New Zealand continues to elude me, but I will get there one day! And on the plus side I now have more time in Australia to catch with all my old friends there. I can’t wait!
Don't worry you made the right choice, I've heard NZ is overrated... ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've heard the people are a bit odd too.
DeleteMaybe we can bring NZ to you...
ReplyDeleteIntriguing. How will that work? Does it just involve seeing you or are you going to do the Haka or something?
DeleteOh I thought from the title of this blog entry that it was about cricket....
ReplyDeleteHa ha, yes it was semi deliberate!
DeleteObviously the right choice!
ReplyDeleteYes, no regrets!
Delete