Adoption Update #10 The Flights are Booked!
The title of this blog really lets the secret out, but it's the journey there that is the real story.
Near the end of last year I started looking at flights and accommodation as I prepared to travel to India, hoping to leave in early February. At the time there were several depending factors including booking a space in MIQ*, isolating for a week in India and working out who was going to travel with me. MIQ was an interesting dilemma as I had to work backwards and forwards at the same time as when you go into a MIQ lobby you aren't guaranteed the date that you want. At the time isolation in India was just for some high risk countries including New Zealand.
In order to book MIQ I needed to know how long it would take to fly to and from India (at the time I was planning on flying to Mumbai), stay in a hotel for 7 days in isolation, get a test on day 8 and wait for the results, work out how to get from Mumbai to Akola (train-10 hours, plane and drive-6.5 hours or just drive-16 hours) and how long to stay there, sort out a guide and a driver for safety, collect my daughter, travel back to Mumbai, start the exit permit process which can take 3-14 days and decide what hotels were good to stay in at the three cities that we were visiting. There were a lot of ducks to get in a row.
In December I was feeling very overwhelmed. I was waiting for birth certificate, certificate of conformity and passport to happen in India before I could book flights. But I also knew that booking flights was impossible without an MIQ space and that all of this needed to try and fit in with the guide. So I messaged a lot of my christian friends and asked them to pray that isolation in India would be taken away as this seemed like something that might change. And it did... A couple of days later isolation became mandatory for every international traveller entering India!!
When things were looking promising with being able to guess a time for an MIQ booking the booking in December was postponed until January 6th. I created a login on the MIQ website which involved adding the details of the people I would be sharing a room with. This was difficult when I didn't know who was definitely going with me and I didn't have a passport number for Bunny. I rung the MIQ helpline to be told that if I didn't have a passport number then I couldn't put her in the room and once I had a room I would not be able to add her in it. I have to admit I was rather angry about this. This was the whole reason why I was travelling and I couldn't even get her into a room! I then wrote an email to MIQ complaints explaining the situation and asking for clarification on the issue. The reply was very apologetic and gave me very clear instructions on how Bunny could be added to the room later on. Several weeks later the conditions changed and you were able to add those who didn't have a passport yet to a room.
On January 6th at 11:51am I joined the waiting room in anticipation of a space in MIQ. I watched as the timer counted down the hour until the room opened. At 1:00pm I was assigned my number by lottery. Number 7541 out of 16,000 for 1250 rooms. The math didn't work. I watched the numbers tick down over an hour and then the room closed. I got down to a number in the low six thousands although I don't know exactly what. Part of me was gutted. The other part was relieved as I still didn't have clear dates or times and there was a risk that the room I booked was not going to work with the timing anyway.
There was hope though, another MIQ opening on 20th January. Until there wasn't. On the evening of 18th January the New Zealand Government cancelled the next room release and any further room releases until further notice. I. Was. Devastated. I had began to feel like things were moving. All we needed was her NZ passport which I had already applied for. But it was January... and NZ government departments don't do much in January, including passports. Now I just had to wait.
On Thursday 3rd February the New Zealand Government were making an announcement about borders. I was at work but I don't have a classroom at the moment so I was able to watch the announcement while working. There was great excitement in our little office when they announced that NZ citizens were able to isolate at home from 13 March. Things were moving. I started making plans, there was one less duck to line up now (MIQ). I messaged Sarah in India who was organising our guide, Tuna. Unfortunately the dates available for Tuna were quite tight. I could only book him before 11 March or after 24 March. Now I needed to work out the best time to go factoring in our time of isolation in India, Bunny's passport being ready and Tuna the guide being available.
On Monday 7th of February I was able to confirm with my aunty that she would be coming to India with me. That Wednesday I talked with Wendy from Intercountry Adoption NZ and discussed flights and accommodation. We had decided that flying into Delhi would be better as the accommodation was cheaper than Mumbai and the domestic flight that we needed to take would only be half an hour longer. That evening I sent an email to Business World Travel to book flights, they were filling up fast due to NZ borders opening and I had been warned by Wendy that it would probably be difficult to get a flight home for several months as thousands of New Zealanders were trying to get home.
On Thursday 10th February I received an email from Nick at Business World Travel saying that he would not be able to look at fares until the next day due to the amount of people now wanting to fly. I understood the predicament and the next day I was relieved for it. That night, as I went to bed, I quickly checked my phone... I still haven't learned not to do this! Someone had put a screenshot of a news article on the Indian Adoption Facebook page. The screenshot stated that India would soon be stopping the weeks isolation when travellers arrived. I sent it to my mum stating that it was probably 'fake news' as I wasn't able to find a news article about it. I checked the Facebook page again and someone had posted a link to a news article that said India was stopping the weeks isolation on entry from 14 February! This was huge! I went to bed upset though as this meant that I was probably going to have to leave NZ at a later date of 22nd March in order to fit around the guide's dates of availability. But from here the miracles became visible.
The next morning I emailed the lovely Nick again informing him that isolation in India was no longer required. I noted down the dates that would need to change from the email on Wednesday. I then hummed and harred whether to ask about other flights. I had already been told this was impossible and I might look like a real plonker by asking. I asked anyway. "Are there any flights free coming home on 13, 14 or 15th March?" I expected I knew the answer already but I had tried. Nick replied saying that he would be looking at my flights later in the day. I was in a class that day and at 1:30pm, while the kids were changing after swimming, I saw an email from Nick saying that if I wanted the flight I needed to get back to him by 2:30. What flight! I scrolled through the emails and found one I had missed saying that there were 3 seats left on a flight home on the 14th March!!! I couldn't believe it!!! But now I only had an hour to check that the guide was free, that the accommodation was available, check that my aunty was okay with leaving earlier (and how long you had to wait after having your typhoid injection) and teach a class!! Luckily we have an afternoon break from 1:40 - 2. I rang my aunty, she was all good with going earlier and I had Googled about her typhoid injection. I usually wouldn't recommend Goggle as a doctor but time was ticking. Google said to have at least one week before travelling so we were all good. I messaged Sarah in America to see if Tuna (in India) was still free on those earlier dates. She said she would get back to me... but it was only 6am in India. Fortunately Tuna was awake. He was available! I emailed the accommodation but decided that we were going anyway. If we couldn't stay there then there would be other options available. I emailed Nick and said YES!
That afternoon Nick rang me and we discussed the finer details. Leaving Chch 5th March for Auckland. Leaving Auckland 5th March for Dubai and then arriving in Delhi 6th March. Staying one night in Delhi then meeting up with Tuna and flying to Nagpur then driving for 5 hours to Akola. Staying the night in Akola and then collecting Bunny the next day and driving back to Nagpur. Staying the night in Nagpur and then flying to Delhi. Leaving Delhi on 14 March and arriving back in Christchurch on 16 March for 7 days home isolation.
I have a massive list of things to do before now and leaving so lets hope we can get that done. Thank you to all of you who have donated towards travel etc over the past few weeks and thank you to all of you for continuing to share in this journey with me. I can't wait for you all to meet my beautiful daughter. We will take our time getting to know each other first and slowly introduce new people as we go.
*For those of you who don't know what MIQ is it stands for Managed Isolation Quarantine. NZ had (and still has) hotels that inbound travellers (NZ citizens and residents) had to stay in for 7 - 14 days on arrival in to the country. You were only allowed to leave your room at specific times to go outside and there was no room on the toilet door to allow airflow. It was a way to keep Covid-19 at bay for awhile.
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