I'm off to see the wizard

I'm leaving for Australia tomorrow to attend Boyong and Lani's wedding. Then I go to New Zealand for a much needed vacation which the doctor has been telling me to take but I couldn't because there's been too much work blahblah excuses. Anyhow, the NZ trip has been at the back of my mind since two years ago, but i always encountered glitches. I felt that Mordor was meddling with this affair. This time, as soon as I got the Australian visa, I applied for the NZ visa.

The Oz visa was easy -- didn't even have to appear there to get it. But the NZ visa was a different matter. I submitted the same papers I gave to Oz, but Middle Earth asked me for more papers. I felt that I had given them all sorts of papers I could produce and was poised to send them oslo paper and onionskin, when they required me to appear in a face-to-face interview. I was tempted to say that I couldn't make an appearance because I was stuck with The One Ring, hehe, but I nixed that thought when I saw the serious look on the interviewer (who turned out to be Pinay). I also planned on bringing a ring and, when asked why I wanted to visit NZ, I would say: "To destroy THIS!" (holding up the ring and show a Frodo-wince/grimace while throwing a sidewise glance at the ring).

Anyway, the interviewer seemed to be a nice person but for some reason or another (probably she was being controlled by Grima), she decided to put on a grim face and grill me very closely about my family life, my work, my income -- stuff which I would otherwise refuse to give out to strangers even if they tortured me by forcing me to watch Master Showman for 52 weeks.

The interview left me a bit drained, especially since the interviewer told me that they may not be able to process my visa in time for my departure. So I told her that I would have no choice but to move that trip for the coming year again. After the interrogation session, a transformation occured: the interviewer's grimness faded and was replaced by what I suppose would be her natural face. She managed to give a smile, but the damage to my bubble had been done. I left, feeling dazed and thinking of the things I could have done, better answers I could have given but I was straightforward with them and I hoped that straightforwardness still mattered and was still apparent to embassy interviewers.

Yesterday, my travel agent followed up and told me that there was a great chance that I would be given a visa. Hmmmm. I think the Elves are on my side, after all. So I altered my itinerary again, to once more accomodate the NZ tour. I'll be leaving tomorrow.

Check out the LOTR guidebook I used.
Or view the Photos at Flickr.

Update: Read follow up story. More to come!