Takes me a while to process my thoughts, must be old age!
The Cook Islands is nice but just not for me. Perfect if you want a hosteling or WWOOFing holidays, just when it comes to these locations you really need to spend good money and stay in luxury. Whilst there are a few luxury hotels they are just not my standard of ultimate luxury. The small things like waiters cycling around as not to make a noise and disturb you. It has to be ultra clean and everything in working order and of course a over water bungalow. Perhaps even your meals delivered by boat.
This is just me and having experienced this luxury in French Polynesia, nothing else really compares unless you are staying on Necker Island but there you are spending $54,000 a night and have everything at your disposal.
Sorry probably makes me sound like a snob or a *^%%{}{] take your pick! I do believe when we have worked hard for our money we can sometimes splash out on the finer things.
Today we were home with Puaji. She is an amazing lady, she is in her late seventies, very active and very up to date with technology and world affairs. The other day she was telling ME what the current exchange rates were!
Paji was home before going to his clinic and it was nice to have a quick catch up over a cup of tea.
Manjot was home after school, she chatted with us for some time before studying for her exams. It was nice and good of her to take time out whilst she is studying for important exams. She has achieved so much!
I fancied a wonder around town, on the way I checked the car tyre pressure and noticed a slow puncture. As soon as I arrived home I called Jucy who said take it to Firestone and it will be sorted, there are no fees for us to pay…nice!
In the evening we met phenji and Kulyjot who arrived with paji. It was fantastic catching up, the last time we met was seven years ago. I asked Kulyjot if he wanted to play hockey on the pitch (which has been built in the huge back garden), he agreed,so paji, Kulyjot and I were playing, I got a quick lesson from Kulyjot, later Manjot and Sangeet joined us.
After dinner we had a video Skype call with Karanjot, she is studying medicine in Auckland.
We did not go out for any sightseeing, spending time with Puaji and later with everybody else has been excellent. It is great to see the children make awesome achievements in their studies and hobbies.
In the evening Kulyjot and Manjot played the guitar they were excellent and played to a high level.
Today, Puaji (Puaji = means dad’s sister), Sangeet and I went to the Gurdwara in Hamilton, the sangat here are so welcoming and warm. The round trip from Rotorua is 4 hours, crazy when we are used to a 20 minute round trip.
After the programme we had lungar where we met Mandip Phenji’s (Phenji = sister) parents. They invited us to their beautiful home, there we met their two eldest grandsons, Jaspreet and Manvir.
The welcome was very warm and we learnt about their family history. We left their house around 5pm and headed back to Rotorua.
In the evening Phenji, Sangeet and I all sat and watched the GIMA Music Awards together.
Hostels usually have an early check out time, this hostel it is 10am, you have to take the pillow cover and room key to reception to get your key deposit, I took the cover off my pillow and, well lets say insects would not use that pillow! The joys of hostelling!
We left the hostel and popped to the library to check last minute emails, Sangeet also enjoys the library coffee shop’s soy hot chocolate!
Afterwards with heavy rucksacks we walked to the car rental location, the walk was through Albert park, which is near the University of Auckland. This location was a complete opposite to Queen Street which was just hustle and bustle. It actually felt good having a 30 minute walk with our rucksacks fully loaded, really felt we were one of the backpackers! Saw some interesting buildings on the way.
High Court
As soon as we got to the car rental place,the process to pick up the car was straight forward. Papers were signed and we were shown our car, ‘El Cheapo’ it was even written on the rear window!!
As soon as I got over how small the car was (I am used to big sized engines, makes a change us having a 1.3L car!!!) we headed to a health food shop to stock up on a few supplies. The shop was called ‘Harvest Wholefoods’ and had a good selection, the bill came to $121.59!!!!! Things here in New Zealand have become expensive!
Shop address:
Harvest Wholefoods
405 Richmond Road
Grey Lynn
T: 09 376 3107
F: 09 360 1616
w: www.huckleberryfarms.co.nz
After getting over the shock we headed south on southern motorway 1 towards Rotorua, you take 1 to Hamilton then 5 to Rotorua. You drive on the left, same as UK, for some reason I could not get used to it! Think I still miss the States.
We passed through three Gurdwaras on the way, Otahuhu, Takanini and Hamilton and enjoyed delicious lungar at each one!
Indians started arriving in New Zealand at the end of the 19th century, most immigrants arrived from Punjab, and Gujarat. Most Indians settled in Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch. Indians are often stereotyped as owning convenience stores known as ‘Dairy’s in New Zealand. Also there are a large number of Indian Restaurants in New Zealand.
With the Sikh community in New Zealand increasing The New Zealand Sikh Society was developed in 1964, and the first New Zealand Sikh Gurdwara was built in Hamilton in 1977 and another in 1986 in Otahuhu. With the increasing number of Sikhs in New Zealand an increasing number of Gurudwaras are being built.
The number of Indians are increasing rapidly in New Zealand as seen in the 2006 census compared with the 2001 census, over the five years there was a 68.2% increase in the number of Indians in New Zealand.
In the 2006 census there were 9507 Sikhs in New Zealand.
Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji Sikh Sangat Otahuhu
Otahuhu Gurdwara
Name: Sri Guru Nanak Dev Sikh Sangat Gurudwara Sahib Ji
Address: 120 Princess Street, Otahuhu, Auckland.
Postal Adress: PO Box 22579 Otahuhu Auckland.
Telephone: +64 9 276 9043
Fax: +64 9 276 9236
This is the largest Gurdwara in New Zealand
Takanini Gurdwara
Address: 70 Takanini School Road, Takanini, Auckland
Telephone: +64 9 296 2376
Fax: +64 9 276 9236
The first Gurdwara in New Zealand
Hamilton Gurdwara
Address: 6391 State Highway 1, Te Rapa, Hamilton
Postal Adress: PO Box 9464 Hamilton
Contact Telephone: +64 7 849 4952
Status: NZ Sikh Society, Hamilton Branch
We had lungar at the Hamilton Gurdwara, afterwards we got talking to a lady Rajvir who said they are holding the Akhand Paath. We explained that we are on the way to Rotorua to see our Puaji, she asked what is their name we said their sons name is Dr Karandeep Singh Lall, she said “you serious?! they are very good friends of ours!” – what a small world. She asked us to come on Sunday also to bring Puaji. It seems like the further south we go the friendlier the people are.
Once we said our byes we headed south on 1 then took 5 to Rotorua. It takes about 1.5 hours from Hamilton to Rotorua and the maximum speed is 100kmph.
We arrived in Rotorua around 7 pm and got to paji’s (paji = brother) at 7:30pm, last time we came in 2005 and got lost, we arrived at the house 4 hours late!!
When Puaji opened the door it was great to see her. We totally forgot what a beautiful house they have, also the garden now has a hockey pitch and a small park! We enjoyed a nice meal together, chatted and watched a Indian comedy before a good nights sleep.
When we go to places, what I love is getting out early and just watching people in their everyday activities rushing to work, college, or wherever they are going….in this town you are mainy backpacker watching! There will be backpackers waiting for the early bus or moving from hostel to hostel. Also I noticed quite a lot of Sikhs another miserable lot, when you say Sat Sri Akal, you just do not get any response! Crazy and we are suppose to be able to approach one another with open arms!
After a very relaxing morning, we used the time to book a car rental from Auckland to Christchurch this was through Josh at Base Travel at the hostel. nice guy with lots of piercings! We went for Jucy Rentals, the car group we used is called ‘el Cheapo’ just hope it does the job!!! We popped out to Loving Hut for lunch, as well as great food this restaurant also has free wifi a luxury in Auckland! After a fantastic lunch, Sangeet had Singapore rice noodles, I had lemon ‘chicken’ with a portion of ‘duck’ (yes, it was that good!) and chinese half jelly for dessert, we used their wifi to call family in Rotorua, send several emails and book our WWOOFing work in the South Island! We spent about four hours in the restaurant, this was just eating and using their wifi! When we left I was hungry!!
We had a wander around downtown including the malls and went to see the ferry terminal….we then walked up Queen Street towards the library…..we noticed that there are a lot of smokers here, it is just impossible walking without inhaling a lung full of cigarette smoke! Met an interesting guy called Anand at the library. He has lived here for a few years and was telling us about the growth of the Sikh community.
I also noticed how people mostly just do not smile, you smile and usually people smile back, here in Auckland, not many do. A lot of people seem to think they are really stressed here, maybe that is why so many of them smoke!
Once we got to the library we logged on but found the Internet VERY slow. Internet speeds have been around 400kb download and 80kb upload…..painfully slow especially when you have a lot of pictures to upload.
Afterwards we walked Queen Street, there was an an opening speech in the plaza area (Aotea Square) followed by a variety of open air performances. At first they had some majorettes / dancers then had a couple of actors pretending to break out of a prison. Both very good performances. We left during a solo performance by a girl. We then walked to Dosa Plaza where we shared a starter (paneer tikka and naan) and I had a masala tea. For mains we went to another restaurant called:
Basilicum
M17, Elliott Stables
41 Elliott Street
Auckland
New Zealand
e: [email protected]
w: www.basilicum.co.nz
t: 09 379 2710
Elliott Stables is a building with many different restaurants and common dining area, this restaurant is lacto vegetarian (also they do not use garlic or onions) we had pakoras which were very nice and crispy tofu with cucumber and crushed peanuts which was okayish, a bit of a boring dish. There drinks are very good. Sangeet ordered a very berry smoothie which was delicious and I had another masala tea!
Afterwards, we walked to the hostel and relaxed in the lounge area whilst our clothes got a much needed wash in the hostel laundry.
By the way the daytime temperature is 17 degrees C and drops to about 10 degrees C at night……for me this is VERY cold!
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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