Sunday, January 11, 2009
Ok, so I returned from Melbourne for about two weeks before I flew off to somewhere else. This time it was NZ. In that two weeks, I had Christmas eve dinner at my place, Christmas dinner at JJ's place and also Christmas service in church.
To give an overview of the NZ trip, Kev and I joint a tour group organised by a company called Contiki. The tour lasted for a week and covered the south island of NZ in a clockwise sequence. There were approximately 50 people joining the tour, most of which are individuals aged between 18-35 (Contiki: Holidays for people aged between 18-35). So, it was pretty much a young crowd, from people who were (finished) studying like Kev and I and also people who already had a steady career. Without further ado, here's my account of the trip.
31/12/2008
We arrived at Christchurch at around 2pm. After checking into the backpackers place (The New Excelsiors), we zoomed out into the city centre for lunch! (Poor poor hungry stomachs we had). The backpackers we stayed in were ok by comparison to Victoria Hall in Melbourne. For one, it had a dodge key-lock. However, it had a clean toilet and bathrooms to be used.
Anyway, we went to the city and snapped pics there and here like any tourists do. I particularly liked to sit under the willow tress beside the River Avon which ran through the city. You can actually pay to punt on the River Avon (basically, you sit on a 'sampan' and someone guides the sampan with a stick, just remember Venice). It was a cool windy day that evening in Christchurch and sitting under the willow trees on that breezy day was just amazing.
Something very peculiar happened in Christchurch that day. A group of Indian film makers were producing a Bollywood film I suppose in the city. They were shooting a scene where an Indian girl came skipping along with some flowers by the Christchurch tram.
To celebrate the coming of the new yea, the city council organised a concert at the Cathedral Square. Large crowds gathered to watch various bands performed on stage. There were a lot of old Irish music (after a while, I got sick of it) and also some modern pop rock songs (I like :)). We had Green Tea Latte from Starbucks while enjoying the music there.
When the countdown began, there were blasts of fireworks into the midnight air. Everyone was overjoyed and started greeting each other Happy New Year. There were dancing and merrying which further cascaded into booze-drinking. As for us, we headed back to the backpackers place to have a good rest for an early start in the morning.
In essence, we celebrated New Year in Christchurch. It was not bad, but I preferred celebrating it at home.
1/1/2009
We greeted the new year at 6.30am. We left the backpackers place and walked all along Manchester Street for 25 minutes before reaching Bealeys Hotel where we met our tour mates. The tour was supposed to commence at 8am but due to some excessive New Year Eve celebration on the night before, it was delayed by 1.5 hours. On that early stages of the tour, we met some of our tour mates (Poh-Lynn and Tony, Steve, Andrew).
We boarded the bus and left for Lake Ohau lodge where we would stay for the night. On the way there, we stopped at the beautiful Lake Tekapo. The clear skies of the day made the waters looked incredibly turquoise. The scene was just amazing! Even the postcards depicting the waters of Lake Tekapo couldn't capture the turquoise colour of the waters as we witnessed on that day.
We then passed Lake Pukaki and headed to a suburb called Twizel. I supposed Lake Ohau lodge was located at Twizel. We stayed there for one night overlooking the magnificent Lake Ohau. The lakes in New Zealand were incredibly huge. I suppose that lakes in Malaysia were considered as puddles if compared to the lakes there in Kiwiland.
The first night with our tour mates started with a BANG! We had a toga toga toga party! Basically, we rented a sheet for NZD$2. We wrapped it around our half-naked body Roman style. It was essentially a costume party which resembled the olden days of Socrates and Julius Caesar. Then, we headed to the bar and mingled around which each other. I got to know a few other tour mates a little bit more and finally we ended the night in exhaustion.
2/1/2009
After breakfast, we headed to Milford Sound aboard the Milford Wanderer where we would eventually stay a night. On the way, we stopped by at a fruit stall in Cromwell, where I bought some kiwi jams to be brought home.
We also stopped at Te Anau a few hours later for our lunch break. I purchased a new pair of shorts there as well as a sandfly repellant because Milford Sound was (allegedly) infamous for its irritating sandflies.
That stop was particularly interesting as Kev had to sing out the Malaysian national anthem in the bus in front of all the other tour mates. Why did he have to do that? I wished I could say he was over-patriotic but nah...he was just late. You see, the tour manager formulated a rule which required latecomers to do one of two options:
1) Sing their national anthem; or
2) Answer 3 questions truthfully.
I reckoned Kev didn't want to be horrified to be subjected under a "truth booth" so he opted for the national anthem instead. We (Kev and I) were principally the only Malaysians on board (Poh-Lynn was also Malaysian too, but I supposed she had lost all her Malaysian roots after living in Australia for 20 odd years). So, no one realised that Kev had replaced some words in the national anthem because he forgot some of them, except for yours truly, of course.
The slight embarrassment was quickly forgiven and we headed onto Milford Sound. It was a rainy day on the Milford track, which was quite normal for the West Coast of New Zealand. The tour guide tried to appease us by stating that we were lucky to witness Milford Sound in its original natural state. Huge volumes of rain poured onto Milford track that day and caused the formation of countless number of natural waterfalls which scaled the mountain sides like snakes slithering down the steep mountain edges. The added bonus to this was that the strong winds actually picked up some of the falling water and blew it into a mist back up into the air again. The waters didn't reach the ground but was blown up again into a fine spray of water vapour. Amazing! We even had the opportunity to taste some natural fresh river water from Monkeys Creek.
When the rains eased, the raindrops draped over the mountaintops like curtains overhanging from the sky. One particular memorable moment was when the tour manager played the song, "What a Wonderful World" in that song. The timing of the song overlapping with the sceneries of majestic mountains streaming with water was incredibly mesmerising. It was truly magical!
We arrived at the ferry terminal half an hour later. After boarding the Milford Wanderer, we headed out into Milford Sound. In geographical terms, a 'sound' is formed by a sea flooding a river valley. However, in the case of Milford Sound, the sound arose from the carving activities of glacier on the valley which was then flooded by the sea when the glacier receded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_(geography)). This type of sound is also called a fiord.
Fortunately, the rain has ceased after a while. I took the opportunity to kayak along the waters of Milford Sound, while Kev went on a small boat trip around Milford Sound. It was a relaxing kayak as I took time to absorb the beauty that surrounded me in that sound. After kayaking, I decided to kick-start my adventure gear: jump into the chilly cold waters of Milford Sound...twice.
(Thanks Kev for the pics!!)
Brrrrrrrrrr!!! It was incredibly cold in that 12 degrees Celsius water (brain freeze!!). I had a hot shower and headed straight for dinner. The night was particularly relaxing as we indulged ourselves into board games. It's pretty remarkable how board games can keep people really occupied for the whole night. Then, it was lights off!
I fell in love with Milford Sound.
3/1/2009
In the morning, the captain of the Milford Wanderer navigated his ship out of the fiord, into the Tasman Sea (the sea that separates Tasmania from New Zealand). The sea was so choppy that it was difficult to keep ourselves standing straight. I reckoned some of the tour members got sea-sick in the end. We even managed to see some seals resting on a rock, adequately called the Seal Rock.
Then, we disembarked from the Milford Wanderer and off we went on the bus again to Queenstown. Everyone was excited to venture into the Adventure Capital of the World! The reason for this was that everyone had signed up for their own optional activities a few days ago. Optional activities were not included in the tour and we had to pay for those ourselves (although there was a slight group discount if we signed up with Contiki). For me, I've signed up for the Fox Glacier hike, Skydiving, Twin Challenge (Shotover Jet + White water rafting), Canyon Swing and Maddog River Boarding.
We stopped by in Arrowtown, a township similar to Ballarat (in Melbourne), as both towns came into existence due to the gold rush in the early 20th century. As we entered Queenstown, the bus stopped us at the Kawarau Bridge bungy jump where we witnessed about 12 of our tourmates attempted to jump to their death from the 43m bridge. This was one of the three bungy jumps in Queenstown and was the mildest form. The trick with this bungy jump was that one could be immersed into the river at the lowest point of the jump before being hauled back up again. Nevertheless, everyone came back alive and was greeted with the heartiest congratulations.
(The Kawarau Bridge)
(Our friend stepping off and weeee...there she fell)
(They gave a TOE TAG to every participant in the bungy jump; to prepare for their close-shave demise...hehe)
Eventually we reached Queenstown and checked into the Queenstown Lodge. The accommodation provided was comfortable and was the best in the whole tour. We were going to spend 3 nights there in Queenstown, which will inevitably be filled with adrenaline-packed stunts. Woo-hoo!! Kev and I called it a day early as we needed to prepare for our SKYDIVE early tomorrow morning!
4/1/2009
I have had countless sleepless nights pondering over the stupidity of jumping out of a plane at 12000 feet and the ramifications which could follow. Anyway, we woke up early as the tour manager had scheduled our skydive to be early in the morning. To our "despair", the dive was cancelled as it was too windy that morning. Being the resolute and brave human beings that we were, we demanded for another time slot (Why?? Why??!!). Anyway, we booked ourselves for the 5.30pm slot, which was pretty rushing as our Twin Challenge was due to finish close to that time.
We had a gap in the morning and so, we went on a gondola ride to have an overview of Queenstown. Then at 12.30pm, it was Twin Challenge time.
Twin Challenge was so-so. The Shotover Jet was just ok but the only interesting part was the 360 degrees turns. Then, rafting was a new experience for me. That was fun as we had to cooperate as a team to manouver our way through the rapids under the guidance of an experienced rafter.
(Preparation for rafting)
So, after that, we rushed back to Queenstown to register for skydiving. I'm freaking scared of heights but all my fears had sort-of numbed my heart and mind when I got into the plane. That was partially because everyone who had gone before me came back down safe and sound. And one thing good of joining this tour was that we did all the scary stuff together. Having your mates doing the scary stuff with you does make it less scary to attempt! So, after being strapped up and harnessed, my tandem partner, Caleb (Liz from our group thought he was HOT!), and I jumped into the plane. We were in the same plane with Kev and another girl from our tour group.
As the plane rose to 12,000 feet, my heart was pounding but I did not freak out (as you know, I've been numbed). When it was our turn, I had to be hanging outside the plane with my feet in MID-AIR, while Caleb took his sweet time swinging in and out of the plane before he jumped off (with me tied to his front of course). We free falled through the clouds (which was COOL!!!) for about 10-15 seconds. In the clouds, everything was just a blur but as we came out of the clouds, the landscape beneath us was unravelled like the opening of theatre curtains for a show. Right at that moment, Caleb opened his parachute (Thank God!) and we cruised down to ground in 5 minutes. The aerial view of Queenstown was spectacular! It was just spectacular!
After the exhilarating experience, we headed back to the Lodge and had our late dinner. As other people prepared to head to the Minus 5 ice bar, we decided to take a rest in the Lodge.
5/1/2009
I woke up in the morning to join River Boarding for another joyous fun which I'd never forget. It was even more fun than rafting as I had the chance to get my whole body into the water. Basically, they gave us a board and taught us how to kick our way through the rapids in the river. 3 essential tips were given. First, we had to follow fully the path our guides took through the rapids. Second, we needed to try to stay at the centre of the river as that was where the water speed was the highest. Third, we needed to "go with the flow" - we should never attempt to fight the river. The guide told us to swim 45 degrees to the river current as that would make our swim through the rapids easier.
The whole activity was physically tiring as much as it was an adrenaline rush. Many of our tour mates got leg cramps throughout the swim and had to be practically 'towed' by the guides throughout the activity. Remarkably, I learnt a few life lessons from this.
1) We should try to stay with the river current at the centre of the river, in case we got caught in an eddy (calm part of the river) and other people passed us by.
2) Going with the flow would make us less exhausted; if the river wants to spin you around, spin with it.
The last activity on the plate was the Canyon Swing, whereby you jump off the edge of a canyon and free-fall vertically for 3 seconds (60m) before you swing across the Shotover River. I was terrified to start the swing because it was sooo high. Why wasn't I less afraid of this after the 12,000 feet skydiving yesterday?
1) In skydiving, you won't see the ground coming straight at you; you sail down onto the ground comfortably.
2) In skydiving, you had someone to jump WITH you; in the canyon swing, you jump ALONE.
I treated the Canyon Swing as a substitute for the bungy jumps that we missed (no $ ler). As such, I decided to jump HEADLONG into the canyon, to resemble a jump from a bungy cord. Therefore, I chose the Hand-stand style. In the hand-stand, you start with a push-up position with your hands gripped onto the edge of the platform. The operators will pull your leg up vertically so that you'll be in a handstand position. And then, they will push your leg forward and you have to push your hand away from the platform at the same time.
(Preparing for the jump)
And so, I fell headlong into the canyon Superman style! I saw the edge of the cliff in an upside-down position and being so terrified, I closed my eyes for 1 second. I regretted that action as I missed out on the fall. Before I knew it, I was already swinging above the river. I'll definitely try the canyon swing again if I return to Queenstown one day.
Apart from the thrill and excitement in Queenstown, we enjoyed the burger made by Ferg Burger. That is a must-do in Queenstown!
6/1/2009
The breakfast today marked the end of our stay at Queenstown. We left the lodge and headed to the West Coast only to be greeted with...guess what? RAIN!! It is incredibly wet in the West Coast of the South Island with the annual rainfall measured in metres, not in milimetres! The programme of the day was the hike onto Fox Glacier.
The 4 hour hike was physically demanding too as it was wet, slippery and cold. All elements were against us that day and we were treading rocky terrain, slippery muddy slopes in the forest and finally the icy blue-white Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier are two of the world's most dynamic glaciers. They advance at incredible speeds through the valley due to the abundant rainfall onto the West Coast.
The experience of stepping and hiking through ice was extraordinary. I guess this would be the closest I could get to hiking on Antartica. At the end of the hike, I was :-
As an aside, a few days after we hiked, two Australians were killed at the very same glacier we hiked due to an ice collapse onto them (http://www.stuff.co.nz/4813157a11.html). **My mum's not gonna be happy with me after reading the news....
Anyway, we spent the last night with out tour members in a bar at the Rainforest Lodge in the Franz Josef township area. We had a few drinks of Monteith lager (purportedly NZ's originally brewed beer) and had a nice chat with our tourmates.
7/1/2009
We headed back to Christchurch in the morning. On the way, we stopped by at Hokitika to see some Pounamo (Maori for greenstone/jade). I didn't know that NZ had jade, but as broke as I was, I didn't purchase any jade.
When we arrived at Christchurch, we bade farewell to our tour members and checked-in at New Excelsiors again. Then, we met up with some of them at Coyote, an eatery by the Avon River. That was the last time we saw them.
8/1/2009
The next day, we went on a road trip with Jo (from Dunedin; "Duh-Nee-Den") and Hao Jin (from Christchurch). Both of them were Kev's college mates form Inti Penang. We headed to Akaroa, which was a scenic bay-like town. Kev said it resembled Redcliffe in Queensland. I have never been to Redcliffe, so I couldn't comment. Hao Jin then drove us back to Christchurch where we had German beer together before she dropped us off at the airport.
We spent a night in the airport like refugees from war (hehe) to check-in for our 6am flight. And thus, we left New Zealand in the wee hours of the morning when the Kiwi sun was just about to peek out from the horizon.
Highlights:
1) Beautiful turquoise colour of Lake Tekapo
2) Kev's rendition of Negaraku
3) Milford Sound and the Milford track - beauuutifull!!!
4) Contiki tour mates, who made the trip more enjoyable and the adventure activities less daunting
5) Ferg Burger in Queenstown
6) Adrenaline Rush - Skydiving, Canyon Swing, Rafting
7) Getting wet on River Boarding
8) "Sweet As" T-shirt (Kiwis say "Sweet As" all the time...If you wanna know its meaning, you can have a read on my T-shirt - IF YOU DARE)
9) Drinking Lemon and Paeroa (the only soft drink found in NZ....oops!! haha, what i meant was, the soft drink ONLY found in NZ)
10) Meeting Peter Loh. This guy is really special. He suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy ever since he was born. He has a deformed grip and he talks and walks with considerable difficulty. However, he lives alone in Brisbane and is really independent indeed. He has a stable working job as an IT guy and he did ALL THREE BUNGY JUMPS, SKYDIVE AND CANYON SWING. He is really an inspiration for I could see his strength and resolution of living life beyond his disabilities!
(Peter is the one standing beside me in this pic)
Disappointments:
1) Having to spend more to alter our departure flight due to the inavailability of the tour on the date we originally wanted
2) Having to spend more to upgrade our return flight because I had to check-in my Royal Jelly and because our hand-luggage was over-weight (haih...greedy people we were)
3) Being cheated by money changer at Queen Street mall
4) Didn't go through Dunedin
5) Airport departure fee from NZ (NZD$25)
6) DARN YOU KIWIS FOR SUCKING ME DRY OF CASH
Oh, before I forget:-
They even named their islands after me! Pretty cool, hey!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Well, I'll take this chance to share my experiences in my opinion, the most exuberant city in Australia, Melbourne. Having never stepped foot onto Victorian shores before, I found the anticipation for the vacation in Melbourne particularly exciting.
I travelled with my housemate, Kevin, who had just graduated from his Masters course. Treading the soil of Victoria with us were KC's family (4 of them). If you're wondering who's KC, I strongly recommend you to visit Kevin's blog (http://www.kevinkks.blogspot.com/).
1st Day
We arrived at Melbourne at approximately 4pm. After checking-in at Victoria Hall (a exceptional backpackers place at an affordable price), we headed down to Melbourne city led by our 'local tour guide', Sian Hong. He led us through the complicated network of Melbourne's trams and we ended up at Eureka Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Melbourne. We spent the night there overlooking the city and the skyline was just beautiful.
2nd day
Thus starts our day tours in Melbourne. The first of which was the Great Ocean Road tour, where we traversed hours of coastal highways to witness magnificent rock formations carved by the very elements of nature herself. The one which I vividly remember was the Twelve Apostles, which had only 8 of the original 12 left standing.
We arrived in Melbourne at around 7.30pm. Approximately 10hours of travelling had its toll on all of us. However, I was not discouraged as I had booked to watch the musical WiCkEd, which was totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I had been waiting for this musical to come out thanks to Ming Zhan who raved all about it when it was showing in the UK. And finally it was in Australia! Since it wouldn't ever come to Brisbane, I couldn't let that golden opportunity to pass me by.
Wicked it basically a musical which narrates the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch. Both characters were made famous in the classic Wizard of Oz novel. The musical revealed the sequence of events which led to the Wicked Witch treading on her evil path. It generated sympathy towards the Wicked Witch and reminded us all that evil and wickedness in one's character stem from one's own choices, which in turn are influenced by one's very own social circles and their perception towards one's self.
3rd day
We headed to Ballarat on our second of four day tours. The most interesting place was Sovereign Hill, the place where whole town, which fluorished in the early days of the gold rush in Victoria, was re-enacted with particular attention to the style, living etiquettes, fashion and architecture of those times. It was like walking into a Wild Wild West story. We spend most of our time here watching gold mine tours, taking pictures and of course, buying souvenirs.
On that night, I had dinner at Lygon street with Chor Han, my high school mate from KHS. Lygon street (as everyone knows) is famous for its Italian delicacies. As such, we dined at an Italian restaurant, eating pizzas, and then enjoyed sumptuous hot chocolate at Koko Black (yummm). Well before that, we treated our sweet tooth with some gelato at Il Dolce Fredo.
4th day
Well let's not stop now, we have another day trip to go. We steamed off to the Dandenong Range, but we first dropped by at a national park, where Kev and I were being attacked by cockatoos (those huge white parrots), as we were attempting to feed them. Anyway, we moved on to take a ride on the steam train, Puffing Billy. It was interesting on a historical point of view, and that was as interesting as it went.
Next, we went on an alcohol drinking frenzy at Yarra Valley wineries where wine-tasting and champagne-drowning made my head spin! Pinot Nair, Cabernet Sauvignon, Muscato............
Now, dinner was something special too. We had Peking Duck for dinner at a restaurant called Old Kingdom which was located at the Brunswick suburb in Melbourne. Kev and I dined with Kev's friend, Shiang Yuan (also called Tiffany) and her mates as well.
5th day
It was pretty much a free morning and like any tourists, we spent our morning and afternoon, roaming around in the city, mostly to obtain information on our self-driven road trip down to Mornington tomorrow. We obtained maps at a tourist information booth in Federation Square.
In the late afternoon was when the fun truly began. It was our final day tour (phew!) to the Phillip Islands to watch the funny little birds in Happy Feet - the penguins. Called the Penguin Parade, the tour highlighted the amazing phenomenon of watching penguins coming in from the sea after a full day of "work" (getting food for the family, that is), and straddling their way back to their burrows which may be located up to 1 km from the shoreline (as you can see, I made up that figure, but the idea is they need to walk very far). However, the trick is, the penguins only returned when the sun sets, which in the summer was approximately 9pm. So, there we were, waiting for the little penguins to come into shore.
But things were not as simple as they seemed. The penguins needed a little more coaxing to step onto shore. On land, the penguins were most vulnerable to predators. As such, we had to watch them hastily running back to the ocean once they sensed danger a few times before they actually felt safe to step onto solid ground.
The tour ended at around 11pm. Night fell, lights out.
6th day
You'd think we would be sick of touring around Melbourne, but you were so wrong. These bones still had marrows of youth to last them a whole week! So, we rented a car and Kev drove to Mornington, led by two reliable navigators, Sian Hong and yours truly...hehe. We ventured to a cherry farm for cherry-picking but it was closed. So then, we headed to a strawberry farm and collected huge punnetts of strawberries!!! Juicy, red, fresh strawberries. (Strawberries resemble heart-shapes...I reckoned those times were pretty romantic for some members of our group...hmnm..I'll explain more about this later)
Then, we moved on to Borneo Maze and Wetlands where we tried to find our way through artificial maze. (I discovered I had an knack for finding dead ends, how interesting!). It was a decent park with a costly entrance fee, $12.
We did a few sightseeings and we were done for the day at Mornington.
Now, at night, I had a chance to meet up with my friend, Ian. We were in the same swimming team together and it had been quite long since I met him. Dinner at a Greek restaurant, Stalactite, was ensued with hot chocolate at Max Brenner with Jaslyne, his sister, who was working part-time at Kookai. I then crashed his place for a while before I returned to Victoria Hall for the night.
7th day
Back to Brisbane and bid farewell to KC and her family who left for Sydney on the same day.
Highlights:
1) Breadtop, amazing breads, they should open one in Brisbane
2) WiCkEd musical! Melbourne is truly Aussie's cultural hub!
3) Max Brenner, Koko black, Lygon street, Il Dolce Fredo - Melbourne is delicious
4) Meeting up with Ian and Chor Han
5) Peking Duck - first time trying
6) Kev's secret escapades into the night with KC...shhhhh!
7) 3 power couples and one single guy (ME!) The three couples were as follows:-
(Imagine the horror of being squashed in between two power couples!)
Disappointments:
Zap! none!
Acknowledgements:
1) Uncle Teoh (KC's dad), who had treated us our lunches and also paid for the rental car. Cheers!
2) Sian Hong, who painstakingly grabbed us 4 day tours at an exceptional good price
3) Kevin, who drove us all the way to Mornington, and for showing me how romantic he could be (to KC of course)
Oh yeah, before I forget:
("BE A MAN! DO THE RIGHT THING!" - Russel Peters)
Parents, teachers, friends. All of you have led me to this stage
God alone deserves all glory!!