Seminar at Auckland, New Zealand

I am writing this article to share my personal experience, ten years ago, in Auckland ..........

My nomination has been accepted by Communications International (An International Body which the Union of our Company is affiliated to) to attend a South East Asian and Pacific Sub-Regional Women's Seminar. The theme of our seminar is 'Impacts of Technological Change on Women's Employment in Communications Industries'.

How we get there??? Aha..... a long and hectic journey indeed!! There are two of us from Kuching. Our original flight schedule is Kuching direct to Singapore my MAS, unluckily our flight changed last minute while we are checking in at Kuching airport from Kuching to Johore instead. With no other choice in hand so we flew to Johore. There we have to take a bus to Singapore through the causeway..... mind you.... have to drag our luggages through the long queue at the Imigration, up and down the stairs some more..... It is indeed a frightening experience of my life!! Finally we made it to Singapore Airport, in time for our next flight to Sydney (Qantas Airways).

Our flight is ETD 2015 from Singapore and ETA 0635 in Sydney. I wasn't used to sleeping in the plane, so..... I have a whole night of 'Non-Sleep' travel!! It's torturing...... but the moment I see sunlight..... my heart lightened up as I knew that we will be arriving soon in Sydney. What a relief!

We manage to stroll around Sydney Airport..... buy some souvenirs..... then take another flight from Sydney to Auckland, which is another five hours journey. We finally reached Auckland at 1530hrs. We then took a bus from the airport to our hotel.

The participants are from Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. We are all put up at Novotel Hotel, Customs Street, Auckland which is also the venue for our seminar.

Novotel Hotel

Auckland is not as busy as Malaysia...... people are friendly, but the streets are rather quiet after seven in the evening. Our seminar is from 0900 to 1700, and in the evening we are free to go on our own.

Doing presentation on behalf of the Malaysian Group

A group visit to Auckland Post Office

On the last day of our seminar we are given half day off, so the group from Malaysia and Thailand rented a van to pick us from our hotel to a few famous spots in Auckland.

The Rose Garden (left) and One Tree Hill (right)

At one of the Shopping Center - Kiwi

The beautifully decorated shopping center (left) and The Sheep Farm (right)