So anyway, we went to NZ for 14 days (3 march to 16 march) in 2005.
We did the-rent-own-car-and-drive-by-ourselves thing. You know lah, just so that we can bathe in the glory of being presumed as smart and daring when those ah ee from the market type start saying 'you not scared meh, you can find way meh, can do like that one meh, how u find your way leh dan bermacam macam lagi'.
To keep our cost down, we stayed in youth hostels. NZ has this wonderful hostel chain called YHA and have hostels all over. The rooms in the locations that we stayed at are clean and hospitable.
Our itenerary was something like this. We first flew in into auckland and picked up the rental car. Then just go for leisurely jalan jalan around auckland on first day. took a ferry over to devonport. nice quaint little town with nice looking houses. Manyak syok loh...

snap shot...

next day, woke up early and checked out fron the hostel and drove to Rotorua. Stopped by huka falls and a freaky place called craters of the moon. then checked in into rotorua yha.
Huka Falls...
Craters of the moon...
next day, went to the wai-o-tapu thermal park and see the 'geological wonders'.
wai-o-tapu...
after wai-o-tapu stopped by the mud pool and then drive back to auckland. More jalan jalan...
next day, take plane and fly to christchurch. at christchurch, picked up the rental car and head to the west coast through arthur's pass. stayed a night at arthur's pass. Too bad it was raining quite heavily, so cannot do anything. just stayed indoors.
Next day, just left early and drove down. first to greymouth and then took a detour to punakaiki (sounds like a vulgar word) to see the interestiung formation called the pancake rocks.
punakaiki, i still have problem mentioning this name with a straight face...

pancake rocks, look more like layer cake to me...
then drive back to greymouth and then on to franz josef. reached there in the evening, but since it is still bright, hiked into the galcier valley. went all the way to the terminal face. wah! technical term loh. but basically it just means the point when the glacier ends.
franz josef... Franz jo's terminal face...
after franz josef hike, went back to the cheery yha hostel. it rained the whole day the next day. so cannot do anything - again. Wanna check out fox glacier also cannot, drive to lake mattheson also didn't see anything, but all is not lost, mrs webster's ingenuity ensures that we were entertained.
i think for now cukup oredi lah. will write some more next time. maybe will write a day to day journal thing when i have more time.

OK Got some time today so can continue on the some more on the story.
Anyway, after the bad weather in Franz Jo, we checked out early the next day and started out trip to Queenstown. On the way we stopped by Fox Glacier. A bit different than franz Jo, but equally if not more impressive.

Fox glacier terminal face...

After fox, we continued to queenstown. Nice lake. Stayed there for a night but it rained the next day. Bummer. Almost got our shotover jet trip cancelled.
Queenstown from a very high place...

a bungee jumper...
these jokers will jump from anywhere they can build a ledge...

Stayed another night at queenstown and then left early the next day to te anau on the way to milford sound. The trip is very very nice. The big rock outcrops makes you feel like a hobbit sans the curly hair.
have to wait out side homer tunnel, so snap!
waiting outside homer tunnel...

After milford sound, drove back to te anau and spent a quiet night there. It was only there that the excellent speight old dark was discovered. The one drink that should not be missed.
milford sound...

there are waterfalls every where you look. the toilet was a welcome relief after i got off the boat...
From Te Anau, we drove to wanaka and overnighted there. Checked out the next day and visited museum of sorts that has lots of optical illusions.

From Wanaka it off straight to Mt Cook. Did some hiking and then spent a night there. very very nice. especially night time. can go out and see the stars.
mt. cook...
apparently a guide and 3 hikers died on their way up hiking mt cook a few days before we got there...

the valley overlooking mt. cook... Next day did some more hiking and then drive to the last destination, Christchurch.
tasman galcier valley...

Checked in into Christchurch YHA and spent the next day ronda ronda + buying souvenirs to appease the relatives.

Christchurch is named after this church...
check out the suspended house, btw, it's really there and not photochopped...

Next morning is check out and fly back home… end of journey.

Comes to think of it, it’s been fun recalling the trip, so probably I’ll do a day to day blow next time.

of blogger and mah fan...

Wah… must have been ages since I updated this blog…. So many things happen so fast and also compare to facebook, blogger seem so mah fan to update already :D.
Anyway, Ah fie is now four years old already and we have finally relented and sent her to school. We originally thought that we will delay sending her to school and let her enjoy her childhood a bit longer, but mana tau, seems like school maybe did her good too. I mean previously she is just stuck in the babysitter’s house the whole day watching cartoons. And knowing ah fie, she likes to interact with people so probably the interactions at school is good for her.
As it turns out, she is having such a party at school and quite literally too. First day itself, she had so much fun until she didn’t want to go home… it’s been a month plus since she started school and she still have this impression that school is equals to reward instead of something dull or something like that. She will think of going to school as something fun or a reward for something good. So we as any good parents take this to our advantage. Instead of buying her present or goodies if she behaves at home, we just tell her that we will not send her to school if she is naughty.

Ah shawn pulak, is fast approaching two, but somehow still have not learnt to talk. Not even any first work. He is talkative though. On any good day he will mumble on and on and on in his own language but nothing makes sense to us. Maybe he is just like one of those kids who have achieved some super duper high level of consciousness and intelligence, and he is speaking at a higher level language that we could not comprehend.
Or maybe he already knows how to speak but just pretend not to be able to speak just to humor us… we wouldn’t know…