Day 2 was ermm nothing much. We went to Waitomo Caves and had a tour of staglatites and staglagmites and the only reason why i was quite interested in it was bcoz erm it was mentioned in potter book 1. haha. so like prasan gringotts bank kejap. HAHA. Then we went to watch GLOWWORMS. the worms GLOW. like green colour glow. and the whole tour was erm rather dark. yes.
Ahhhh!! THIS DAY WOULD BE THE MOST FUN DAY OF THE TRIP. for me. DAY 3. THREE. Ok first, we went to this Maori Village Place in Rotoroa and watched Maori lifestyle. The big picture up there: The maori men teaching the males how to dance the hakka. HAHA. ok dance as in not leisure. they do the hakka last time to scare other tribe-men away so that before they go for war, the other tribe members will like gentar u know and cabots. Which i think plays a BIG role in today's All Black's Rugby Team bcoz the hakka dance (in my opinion) does play a big role in scaring the other teams. Confidence building they call it. =)
Anw, while we were there, we were supposed to take off our shoes lah. then we met with this group of Taiwanese tourists and OMG they are SOOOOOOOOOO kanchiong they push ppl so that they can get the front seatsssss. like whatthehell. and one of them, seated right next to us, took off her shoes and then the whole hall started to smell so badly. and then she happily pinch her nose and eyed us. LIKE WHAT THE HELL YOU TAIWAN-NOT-YET-A-COUNTRY PERSON!
Oh and the fountainish thing is called a Geyser. Pronounced as (guy.zer.) not gay.zer. ok. it's natural. and the water shooting from it is 100degrees celcius. so if ure planning to kill someone, go drop him from a heli and make sure he lands there. 100% dead. ok rather expensive plan. but why do u want to kill someone anw. tsk.
FUN FACT
DIDYOUKNOWWWWW: New Zealand had NO mammals AT ALL before the British came and intrude their space. The Brits and the Aussies brought in all the Sheeps and Cows and whatnots. Now, there are more sheeps than people living in NZ.
AND THE SHEEPS ARE CUTE OMG.
ok no link.
THEN WE WENT TO AGROVENTURESSSS. THIS WAS WHEN ALL THE FUN STARTED.
This is the SWOOOP. I shall explain how it goes. Look below. We are stuffed into a bag. like we are the stuffing and the bag the turkey. so we go in it and the only things outside the bag are our heads. woo. scary. anw we are pulled up by this crane to the position on the RIGHT. see our faces like clueless. haha. then we are supposed to PULL plug ourselves and let us fall a freefall then we swing back and forth till the force of gravity defeats us and brings us to a rest. it's like ur primary school kinetic, potential energy shit lah. pendulum. yess.
Anw back to the TOP photo. Thinking that it would be hectic and sporty day, we thought we'd wear our hats instead bcoz the tudong would be like totally chaotic. So i wore it up there. But when we got released, MY HAT FLEW OMG HAHAHA. like the force was THAT great. bcoz it fits quite firmly on my head. haha.
As aforementioned, we were supposed to pull the thingy ourselves, but smart Ms. Mats of a sister didnt listen to the person properly. (u know all the excitement ur ears dont exactly function with all the adrenalin pumped up to ur brains) but anw, the guy there told us to released the thingy at the count of 3! but mats dint hear. and while we were up there, we were like ?? whats happening u know. he counted till 3 and like nothing happened. Then mats went .. "WHATTTT??? WHATTTT?" and the guy like gestured this toilet bowl flushing action. and mats followed suit with the plug in her hand, without an idea of what would happen next. AND SO DID I. SO WHEN WE WERE RELEASED IT WAS TOTALLY UNEXPECTED. it was really like pulling the plug of a life machine u know. so yeah. u know what happened next. someone screamed. mats went deaf.
HAHA. then we went to this place and bought a combo. 2 Luge, Chairlift, Gondola and the 3 person swoop thing which i forgot the name. ok. ANW the LUGE is NOTHING like sentosa's. Which i just found out is just this tiny winy lane and u have to queue to get aroound. like wth. in nz, you travel 2km on the luge each time and the lanes are half the size of normal roads. which is quite wide for something so small. ANW we sped half the time and the chairlifts (altho slow nak mampos) was fun bcoz we got to see rabbits running around. OH YEA. Half the scenic places we went to looks like teletubby land with bunnies hopping all around haha. NICE STUFF.
OH and before that we had a ride on the swoopish thing and we thought it was erm milder than the real SWOOP. BUT THEN HAHA. bcoz our our over-confidence, the effect was tremendous! haha. Coz when we were let go, it seems like we were gonna be thrown into the open open space since it;s supposed to be scenic so u feel like ure gonna be thrown towards the lake and the hills. SCARYYY NAK MAMPS. and if ur pantat huge like yours truly, then prolly u will slide down the seat, making you damn insecure like "omg im gonna fallll!!" haha.
Then day 4 we drove to Taupo and went for the Huka Falls Boatride. Disclaimer: We drove around like alottt. like one day can drive up to 5 hours like that. haha. so this applies to all other days. Anw, we reached Huka Falls at about 1030am then took the boatride and looked at the sceneries. =D OH and i made friends with 2 German kids. HAHA. and thank GOD they were only kids bcoz the only think i can remember from German is to count from 1 to 10 and saying ICH MAG CHOCOLADE and WIE HEIBE DU?! AHHAHA if the grammar is at all correct. heh! But they are sooo cute! just look! *points*
Ok, anw
FUNFACT: hukafalls is supposed to house a lot of those black swans. the thing is, the black swans originated from Aussie. And since they dont have predators in NZ, they are like pests. i know swans? pests? And so the government permits them to shooooooot a number of birds at some point of the year to control their population. poor things.
Anw the hukafalls is supposed to be like this very prettyyyy waterfall. natural of course no fake. and the water is really very deras and BLUE. like baby blue. so it's really very pretty. my dad has this SUPER NICE photo of the hukafall but he dint burn it in this cd. so i post another day.
THEN WE DROVE TO WELLINGTON
FUNFACT: Wellington is known to be the City of Wind. Coz it's damn windy. Like u can fly away kinda windy. No kiddings.
Ok first thing in the morning, we went to Te Papa museum which is one of the TOP 5 MUSEUMS IN THE WORLDDD. dont play2. it's really very interesting. got rides also. =D After which we had to go to Wellington Ferry Terminal to take the ferry and cross over to South Island, Picton. =D South Island is much prettier than North Island and fewer inhabitants also. But the cost of living there is higher esp the food, it can cost like twice as much there. uhuh i know.
Then that was pretty much it since the ferry was moving at 30km/h and reached 4 hours later. and checked in into hotel. dinner. tired. sleep. OH wait we cooked! we cooked a lot!
Then we went to Bleinheim and stopped over at some random cherry farm and PICKED OUR OWN CHERRIES. HAHA. and guess how much we had to payyyy. 7bucks for a kg. !!!!!!!! cover ur gapping mouths. haha. I KNOW. CHEAPPPA. so yeah we picked many many and ate many many. AND CHERRIES MAKE U FART A LOT. haha. so fart many many.
Then we went to kaikura to watch SEALS. The seals are really cute but we couldnt get closer bcoz the terrain for the trail at the bottom was very very very rocky. and Abah thought it was unsafe since we werent well-equipped to hike.(with handbags and slippers.HAHA) so we went to the top trail which was much better. And we did our JUMPsHOTS. I know you may be a little sick of this phrase, but the sceneries are REALLYYYY PRETTTTTYYYYYYYYYY. U go to NZ to see sceneries lah basically. not much shopping or whatnots.
Then we drove to Christchurch and went to the BOTANICAL GARDENS WHICH IS NOTHING LIKE THE ONE IN SINGAPORE. THey have got acres and acres of fully bloomed flowers and it's just sooo beautiful. ESPECIALLY THE ROSE GARDEN. (see above) hehe. Half the time Mats and I were going, ABAH AMEKKAN! ABAH! ABAH! ABAH! haha! i think the gift that he'd appreciate most at that time would have been earplugs. heh. but in our defence, THE FLOWERS WERE BIG (like palmsize) and of ALL SORTS OF COLOURS. only dnt have black ah i think. We stayed there till evening and then left for home.
Nothing much. Gondola ride to the top and back down. Nice view. Oh we went there like an hour before it shut. so we were the only ones there haha! So yeah whole place to ourselves! TAPI COLD since there's not much sun left and we were at the top of a VERY high hill so there were clouds all over us. COLD.
On the way to Mount Cook, we went to an Alpaca Farm. The owners placed a sign "ALPACAS FOR SALE" kesian nak kener jual. BUT THEY WERE CUTEEE. Look at the butt of the Alpaca in the Mats picture. Like want to bite right. AHHA.
Then we droooveeeee and droooveeeeeeee and droveeeeeeeee to Mount Cook and checked in toour lodge. Look at our bed! My mom said it looks like hospital. HAHA. But we had a nice view of the mountain! Oh and the picture of the 3 of us on a couch, damn fierce. it's bcoz of that STUPID SHOP at the back lahh! i came into the shop and the sensors started beeping. (NOTE: This isnt our hotel. But if it were, we would have been MILLIONAIRES. A night in this hotel costs $800-$1000++ so a bit paisey if the sensors beep coz u have all the rich ppl looking at u like ure some thief). BUT I WAS COMING INTOOOOO the shop what did i steal INTO THE SHOP. walaoey. make me look like some stealer... stealer sey. thief thief. so i had to go out right, and it BEEPED AGAIN. freak. so pissed ah skejap.
NEXT DAY. After much gluttoning at the previous day's SALMON buffet. OMg it was like heaven the salmon teriyaki. we went HIKING to lose all the calories. =D We just walked and walked and walked for like 2 hours or so? Oh and we crossed this bridge which was really NICE besides the fact that the floor of the bridge had holes so u can see the bottom so gerun kejap. and the water was really very deras so if u fall U DIE MAN U DIEE. but noone died. and we lived happily ever after.
HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
BEFORE I START!
FUNFACT!!! YOU KNOW THAT MIDDLE PICTURE. THE HEAP OF GOLDISH THINGS AT THE BACK. THOSE ARE REALLLLLLLLLL CRUNCHIE BARS HEAPED UP LIKE THAT! HAHAHA I KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! IT's LIKE A HEAVEN OF CHOCOLATE.
Anw our hotel was just opposite the chocolate factory HAHA. so we could smell the chocolate from the hotel. WOO. Anw we went for a tour of the factory, but camera's are not allowed. So no pictures. We had a guy-guide who had BOOBS, AHHAHA. like saggy ones. Anw he gave us each a plastic bag and we were to carry it around and at different parts of the factory, he'd give us a tray of chocolate and we were to take and keep some in our bags. SO FUN RIGHT. yeah like goodie bag like that. haha. OH then he brought us to the CHOCOLATE WATERFALL. YEAH LIKE WILLY WONKA's. JUST A LITTLE DIFFERENT THO. the only difference is that, this one is for SHOW only. haha. bcoz it doesnt make it any frothier or nicer.
FUNFACT: NewZealanders hate Aussies to their guts and they dont bother hiding it.
how is that even fun. i dont know.
World's Steepest Road: Baldwin Road/Street. It's inclined at an angle of 45degrees. Climbing it was a chore. OH and the playgrounds in NZ ARE REALLY FUNNNNN!!! look there. the merrygoround is self-turned and the more u push/pull the faster it gets. so we were all like screaming our lungs out. FUN STUFF. MUST TRY.
MILFORD SOUND. a lot of tourists. VERY pretty place. u see the picture on the left second from the top. the yellow poncho-ed person is me! the boat goes very near to a waterfall and u get splashed by SUPERRR COLDDDDDDDD water. Oh and there were seals too. And this time, the seals i think are already accustomed to the touristy setting so they were a little bit showing off. so good for us. Anw, milford sound is this paradise like that, with many many different waterfalls shooting out from the rocks. andd the brits never realized there was even a milford sound bcoz the opening of the sound from the ocean is very small. so noone knew smth so wonderful existed in there till like the late 1800s or was it 1900s. smth like that.
ok note: i took off my tudong during road journeys and that place there had noone. so justified. no judging. Anw we stopped by the roadside bcoz the flowers were SOOOOOOO PURPLE AND PINK it seemed surreal. and there was this BEAUTIFULLLL stream which we went to celop our feets inside but then the water was super cold it made us wonder how the people who sank along with titanic managed those last few moments of their lives. and how rose actually survived. and why jack died. bcoz steven spielberg said so. haha. anw we played who can throw the furthest stone into the water. =D
THEN QUEENSTOWN! we went jetboating and para-sailing? is that what it's calleD? anw, for jetboating, we were supposed to wear our anti-wet suit to prevent us from getting wet HAHA WE LOOK LIKE POTTER-FOLKS YES. excited kejap. Anw the jetboat turns 360degrees so ure like flung from one side of the boat to the other! SO FUN AND EXCITANGGGG. OOh and the parasailing is VERY FUN and u feel very adventurous sitting on nothing but ur own harnest attached to a cloth with holes and a smiley face. (look above) BUT when ure up there, (apart from it being cold due to the wind and sorts) it's rather relaxing! haha. and picturesque. very. very.
Day 14: Cromwell, Queenstown
ERm now no pictures. dont know why. But anw, we went to Cromwell at Queenstown. This is like a Fruit Farm with many different companies rivalring for tourists to buy their fruits haha. it's rahter cheap too. OH and they sell WASABI PEAS to attract the Japs. HAHA.
Day 15: Flight to Auckland!
Then we took a flight to Auckland. It was pretty much that since there was much confusion at the airport and we wasted 4hours just like that. So evening already.
Day 16: Auckland SHOPPING! (like mad)
WAKAKA. This day would be the second most enjoyable dayyy coz we went to this Factory Outlet Shopping Centre and THEY SELL STUFF LIKE HALF THE PRICE WHEREVER. Like adidas Cap can like 10bucks. erm bottle buy one get one free and one costs 10bucks. And they have all sorts of shops. adidas nike puma jeans-on levis cotton-on roxy quicksilver ALL SORTS. and we went to roxy and got really crazy. haha. IT'S FREAKING CHEAPPPPPPP. like you get a roxy dress for 20-40bucks? CHEAP. and the dresses are niceee. but mostly no size bcoz it's either tooo small like a size 4. or size 3943907583475. yeah.
we got a bag like this. same version but different prints. (it's muchh nicer =D ) for 70NZdollars. SEVENTYYYYYYYYYY. HAHA! I KNOWWWW CHEAPPPPPPPPP.
http://au.roxy.com/collections/product_detail.aspx?id=7082So we shopped there like the whole day. and then the next day we shopped at Sylvia Park. It's like Singapore's Courts, Giant, Ikea site at Tampines just that there are 6-8 different malls and we only got to go to one. wastedddd. OH and just imagine, they had COUNTDOWN ANDDDDD Foodmart IN THAT ONE AREA. that's like having GIANT AND NTUC (BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG ONES like bigger than the GIANT at tampines) in one area. TALK ABT COMPETITIVENESS. TANAK KALAH. Speaking of countdown, countdown is our FAVOURITE supermarket as it opens at 6 and closes at 12. and in small towns like dunedin, population few hundred thousand BUT THE SUPERMARKET IS SOOOO HUGEEEEEEE U WANT TO STAY THERE FOREVERRRR. anw we always go to the supermarket to get groceries at around 10pm. and by then the NZ-ers lazy to go out already. So like we feeling sultan-brunei kejap. haha. bcoz we are like ONLY ONES in the supermarket and the supermarket is likE SOOOOO HUGE u feel like u've gotten everthing u wanted for that 45mins ure in that place. haha. but it's not thattt cheap ah. i moan a lot when looking at the herbs' prices. like in mustafa centre, u get Coriander for 30cents. over there u get coriander for like 5-6dollars and it's only a little.
Ok.then after that we got onto the flight back home. OH at the Auckland Airport there was like some HomeAlone Drama! haha. as in our family. bcoz we arrived quite late and then need to return the car and all. So when we checked in the person was telling us, "OH U NEED TO HURRY THE GATE IS ALREADY OPEN FOR BOARDING BUT THEN THE WALK THERE IS REALLY REALLY VERY FAR! YOU NEED TO RUNNNN!!!!" SO we, with all the handluggage berat nak mampos, RANNNNNN the long distance. it's like more than 2.4km i think. and we arrived JUST IN TIME. haha. like homealone2 u noe. when they had to run to the gate. remember? no? hmm.
OK that's all. a lot of words. but worth reading if ure planning to go to NZ for holiday! OH and u may want to go to the fox glaciers. we dint go coz we got tired driving around so much and not going would save us 14hours of driving ttotal. heh. So check that out too. =D