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Chapter 3 - Blog/Travelogues
This page will contain our travelogues. If condition permit I will update it during the journey in "middle earth". However, I will not spend great length of time typing the details or even uploading photo here. The idea is just a brief one . . . I rather spend more time go exploring.
Ok, do check out this page from time to time.
22/04/05
Final day in NZ, leaving in the morning. It will be another long day on traveling. Estimated to spend around 19 hours in airport. First, Auckland to Singapore. Start the day early in the morning, wake up around 6:00am, leave Skyway Motel around 7:30 to return our rental car. It was a simply procedure, at EZY Car, they just check thru the milage, petrol level, condition of car(windscreen, paint and exterior), signed off and we are done. the Nissan Pulsar really served us well, for our trip, it don't have any problem at all. Althought NZ is a small country, our milega is more than 5,000 km!!!! in total (not to mention tour and some others mode of transportation). Bye BLP250. Get a transfer to airport, after check-in and paid the airport tax, we decided to walk to a nearby shopping center outside as still have 1.8 hour extra. Bought some fruits (actually 5 apples) etc. Then, on board NZ81 for our 10.5 hour flight to Changi, Singapore. Waiting for transfer to KL, then Penang. Time to check mails, news and update this page.
21/04/05
Auckland. The last day to visit the city. First stop, Skycity, walk along Victoria St, then Queen St (lots of shopping). Reach the harbour, continue to Maritime Museum, spent the whole morning day. Have some indepth look into the maritime history in NZ and around the world. Really good exhibition there. Like the NZ affair with America Cup a lots, lots of infos. Really insipired by all those pioneer sailors....... lunch beside the harbour, nearby Hilton Hotel(which look like a cuise). Continue back to city center, shopping along the way until University of Auckland and AUT, have a walk around, esp the clock tower. Took a bus to Civic Center, more shopping and finished it off in Queen Victoria Market. Drive to Mt Eden(still consider active volcano). The view from the top is awesome, have a panoramic 360 degree view of Auckland city. However, only spend 10 min on top as it is very windy and cold. Drive to our accomodation near Auckland Airport. After have dinner, refuel and give our forever reliable car a wash. Back in motel, do packing and really for the next day.
16/04/05
3rd day in Rotoruo, 1st visit the Paradise Valley Spring - lots of Rainbow trout, and other trouts, Lion, NZ wildlife.....the coolest one is some pigs with piecing. Then went to Agrodome, some adrenalin rush again, I skip Zrob, but then Ooi decided to try Swoop and we did it together, almost same as bungy, but more funs. Then take up the Farm and Sheep show. Later, just take a walk around town and the garden and the lakes. Leaving Rotorua tomorrow, heading north.
15/04/05
Still in Rotoruo, 1st went to Waitopu Volcanic area, saw Lady Know Geyser(pretty impressive), lots of strange scene for all those Volcanic - colorful lake, smoke everywhere.... 2nd, went to Waimangu Volcanic Valley, choose the 2 hrs walk(to see "How the world begain").It was a nice walk again, the best view is the Frying Pan Lake and Tarakewa Mt, walk the whole valley. Lots of wildlife there, birds and finally end in the lake, very pretty with lots of Swan there. Ooi claimed she saw "kangaroo" there???? Evening, we go to Te Puia, for the Moari Cultural Show and Hangi Meal, was challenged by a "moari Cheif".... of and did my lesson on Haka dance. Nice meal, lots of meat and meat.
14/04/05
Going to Rotoruo, just before getting there, we stopby Lake Taupo. It is a fantatis lake, lots of acti to do. We went for Huka Jet(get fun, just slightly scare), then visit the Huka Fall and Dam. Lunch there at a nice place called Volcanic Kitchen. Continue to "Crates of the Moon", saw some nice Volcanic activiti area, it is like forest fire in Malaysia. Went reach Rotorua in the evening, even before getting there, one will know it, it stink!
13/04/05
Got to North Island, and got ourselves to Wellington, the capital of NZ. Plan to visit Tepapa Muzium, but it only open at 10 and we can't wait... so drive directly to Tongoriro National Park. Nothing much on the way, found the south Island more populated. On the way, passed by Wanganui for lunch. Reach National Park (NP) around 3:30pm(quite far 450km). Was impress by the mountain. After check in to YHA, directly hit out to look for a track, choose for Taranaki Fall. I guess it was the best that happened, it took us around 3 hours to complete, saw the fall half way in the loop route. Then hike back, very nice evening sunset(but temp fall tooooo fast for us). Rest, cooked and have dinner. Enjoy the view from my room, Mt Rhepehu in front of us. (Note: LOTR Mt Mordor is not Mt Rhepehu, it is the side Mt which is). I guess one should come back to this NP again, esp to do the Tangoriro Crossing, maybe in the near future, I love this NP, no wonder it is the world heritage reserve.
12/04/05
Wow! I showed Whale, Seal, Dolphin, Albratoss in wild! The best is the whale watch tour. We managed to see 5 whale sighting(I only manage to shoot photo of 3 of them). It is strange looking at them, know what, I don't even have sea sick - just in awe looking at them. On the way back, manage to see some playful dolphin. Very glad that we joined the tour. After that, leaving the town to go to Picton. On the way, more and more wineyard, we took some time off and visit 3 of them, and have some wine tasting. You can guess it, we are quite high after that. I bought 2 bottle, one very special one. Reach Picton in 3pm, just shop for food and dinner. Will sleep very early tonight cause tomorrow we will going to catch a very early ship to North Island at 4:30am. Bye -2 South Island
11/04/05
To Kaikora, before leaving ChrisC, we went to the Antartic Centre. Spent the whole morning there, very informative place. Enjoy almost "real" experience how to live in Antartic. Go thru -30 degree temp and took a ride in Hunglund(much better then any roller coaster I have tried). Reach Kaikora around 4:30 pm, along the way, the scene change, less and less farm, and more wineyard. The climate is much warmer. Upon reaching Kaikora, see the beautiful scenery of sea and mountain meet.
10/04/05
Going back to Christchurch today, our starting point. First, go to Shantytown nearby Greymouth. Interesting old town, I did my gold panning, just manage to get 2 NZD worth of gold(real one). During the way, we cut thru the mountain range, very very beautiful scene again. This time we can really see them up close. Lunch at Arthur pass, then go for a walk, nice walk it was, the forest is soft and bird singing all the way. Saw the KEA bird first time. The highlight of the day is the drive thru the mountain.
09/04/05
Exciting day again, everyone can't wait to go to the glacier. We drive back to Fox Glacier. The guided tour start at 9:15, after change to the right gear, for boot and socks. Then off we go, once reach the public parking, we took a hike up the hill, within around 45 min, we are finally on top of the Fox Glacier. It is an incredible experience, on top of a giant block of ice(can make lots of ABC). After hiking around there for 30-45 mins(with some photo shooting and relaxing). We finally walk back, it is a fine half day tour. Met a special lady during this tour, she is very brave. First of all, she is from Beijing, China, and can't speak English. The interesting part is that she have the courage to do backpacking alone around NZ. During the way, we try to translate some instruction(cautions and precaution) to her.... somemore she don't have a pre-booking for her stay. Continue to Greymounth, got some seaview again, beautiful.Check-in to Global Village Backpacker - very cosy place. Cook dinner
08/04/05
Left QT to Frank Josef Glacier, afte 1.5 hour, reach Wanaka and stopby at Puzzling World, enjoyed ourselves there. Have fun and play the puzzle too.... Lunch at Wanaka town, by the lake. Then continue to FJG . . . not much time to stop. Reach there already 6:30pm. Stay at Glow Worm Cottage. Very tired, After dinner, just watch the John Pope Funeral live, and go sleep early zzzzz.
07/04/05
Second day at Queentown, Join our second tour for the LOTR / Paradise Found trip. Visited some shooting scene there, Isengard, ELves forest and etc. Frodo and Sam repoose for the movie at the same spots. Afternoon, visited the Arrowtown- old gold miner town.... and the chinese settlement area (sad stories). We also took a walk at Tobins track - too tough for us, I guess. When we finally reach the top, at 1-2 hours, really soak into the view from the top.
06/04/05
Went to Queentown, the capital of Adrenalin. Reached there around 3:30pm. Along the way, the magnificient Mountain range review itself, beautiful, no wonder Peter Jackson choose lots of scene for LOTR. YES! I did the bungy at Kawaru River. The experience - woooooo toooo fast, and even Hun didn't able to shoot me. Frodo did it also. In the evening, sometime more relax, took the gondola ride to top of the hill. Enjoy the view, from sunset till late night.
05/04/05
Drive from Invercargil to Milford Sound. Quite a difficult one, lots of pretty views and scenic around. We can't stop cause time shortage, stop at Te Anau, beautiful lake. Saw lots of LOTR shooting scene along the way, esp when near Milford Sound. Check in at Milford Sound Lodge, went for the Milford Sound Tour. It included a boat trip thur the Sound (fiordland)to the sea, saw lots of waterfall, rainbow and awesome awsome view. Shot lots of photos. Then process for the observatory - 9m under water to check out the community there - the highlight, the black coral(but appear in white). When the tour finished, we just lay back at the beach and enjoy the sunset.
04/04/05
Wake up early as usual. Visited the World Most steepest street at Dunedin, Uni of Otago, World of Cadbury and the Octagon before leaving Dunedin at 10:00a.m. & head to Invergarcill. Decided not to take the Highway, and took the Southern Scenic View. Raining all the way but luckily it stop and allow us to Nugget Point for a short visit. Saw seal, pegiun and some wildlife. Correct choice - the view along the way is awesome. More on seaview and farm(look like hobbiton to me). Rush to Invercargil, check-in YHA Tuatara and then hit to the Bluff. Went to Viewpoint(everyone almost blown away) and the start of highway 1. Look for dinner (osyter)..... rest for the day, doing laundry for the 1st time. Driving first time on gravel road and some difficult winding road, it feel great, just like playing Colin McRae Rally Game, but 10X the fun cause it is for real.
03/04/05
Drive out from Mt. Cook, revisit Lake Pukaki, simply fanstatic visit, diff time - diff view and perpestive. Along the way, passby some lakes, dams, farm, mountain range..... some where in between, we bought ourselve a Salmon fresh from the farm(for dinner) and some veg (in honestly store - and we little hobbit are honest). Our traveling time is delay again - cause by beautiful view. Reach Dunedin around 5:30pm. Went straight to look for Blue Eye Penguin.... chilling weather, waiting for almost 1 hour and saw a few of them. Damn hungry.... Stay at Leviathon Hotel (HOTEL with Backpacker room??)
02/04/05
First time on the road. Leaving Christchurch to Mt Cook. I guess I am not ready for the trip - the view is simply to beautiful and I don't have any words for them. Reach Lake Tekapo, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!! Having our lunch there, by the lake and enjoying the view, with companies of duck and seagull(feed them with chips.) Then continue to Lake Pukaki, same shoot tons of pic. Reach Mt Cook late(2-3 delays), cause by all the stopover for those incredible scenic view. Check into YHA, then choose one of the trail (crossing) 2-3 returns. Awesome view again, saw glacier for my first time and the mountain range cap with show. We were the last them the leaving. The temp drop down very fast after the sunset, it's very cold. After some extra effort to get out from there, everyone was glad - tired and hungry. Reached YHA, go cook ourselves dinner. It's a frantic scene, 5-6 team cooking in one same kitchen!!!!
01/04/05
After all spending all those time in flight, very happy to reach Auckland. It's on April fool day, and the pilot told us the weather is perfect(surely no one believe it). However, it turn out to be true, it's prefect. Clear custom, no issue. Walk to domestic terminal to transfer to Christchurch. During the flight, when almost reach christchurch, saw the beautiful mountain range and plains, very beautiful, unbeliveable (special thanks to a Kiwi lady who give up her window seat for me). Got our rental car, Nissan Pulsar Auto. Driving to city centre - lots of confusion (traffic sys etc). However, it turn out ok after some hassle. Stay in Charlie B backpacker - it's ok. Walk around the city, nice, after found out the Gondola is cover the cloud.
31/03/05
The construction of the few NZ Trip pages was done in one hour and ready to be upload(as very simple one).Ready to go!!! Reach Singapore airport around 2:50pm, got our boarding pass, will go walk around till the next flight at 8:20pm tonight for our flight to Auckland.
We spent 3+ hours walking around Changi Airport, Terminal 1 & 2. There is quite a lot of shops to go around, and lots of stuffs to do. First of all, there is free internet(where I check out some mail, play X-box games(Halo2 etc), watch movie etc). I found the most important thing : Begawan Solo Kuih, bought a few of them. Hmmmm.... yum-yum, been waiting too long for them. Beside that, Hun bought me a camera pouch. It is from Sumdex,compact,well paded and built. I chose the blue color one. Wearing it immediately. Later, gave a call to some "old friend".Everyone bought some stuffs. Now, 6:00pm, got tired, at T2 food courts - eating Burger King onion and french fries, while watching some basketball games. Oh! Started shooting photo already, at T1 - you won't believe this - at Toilet (Movie Theme), LOL!!
30/03/05
Finally completed a great project STUPW at work : - )
Lots of stuffs to do ..... packing up, sent tax return, sent my pet for temporary adoption etc.
1) Our itinerary
2) Our fellowship
3) Our travelogues
4) Our planning (to publish later)
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