Family vacation in like, yonks and yonks. Why New Zealand? My dad spent a good part of his youth studying in Wellington, and since he retires this year, he thought he'd go back for a visit.
He just didn't know the whole family was tagging along :p
We started out on a Saturday (May 19th). The flight was rather exciting at first...my first long distance flight. And there were on-demand in-flight movies. Whoo! Airplane food! Whoo!
After a few hours, I changed my mind. It was a darn pain in the ass, sitting around for that long with the earphones digging into your flesh :p It was an experience, however, and I will always remember it.
We arrived! We arrived! On Sunday. As the cool breeze of a new country swept gentle kisses on my face, I was convinced that Malaysian's humid weather will never endear to me again. Little did I know, five days later I'd be willing to lick the sweaty skin of my back just to have temperature above 20 degrees again :p However, it was initially a nice change, the weather. People jog at 11am in the morning there. Heck, they even play rugby at 2pm.
We checked into Tuscana Motor Lodge (I reckon the owner has OCD. You can eat off the floor). Terribly jetlagged, I slept most of the afternoon. Infact, I slept a whole lot in NZ, jetlagged or no. Must be the shorter daylight hours :p It's dark by 5:30pm and you can barely see by 6pm. And it wasn't like Sabah where the sun rises annoyingly at 6am either, the days were just shorter.
The day after, we immediately packed for Queenstown. Busride. Busride. Busride. I've developed this phobia for busrides now. We spent so much time on a bus, getting from one town to the other. New Zealand is vastly fields, fields, mountains, lakes, sheeps, and fields. Frankly, before I came here, I thought it'd be more of a developed-country-type with lots of skyscrapers and stuff. I mean, I know it has mountains and all, but no skyscrapers? Hell I was wrong about New Zealand. Journeys from one city/state? to the other is freaking long. The view, however, was MAGNIFICENT. There's only so many mountains you can take, however, I soon got a crick in me neck from extending it in excitement looking at sheeps crossing the road, and fell asleep. Slept a lot on the buses :p
The bus drivers were an entirely different story. Most of them give commentaries, and we had a few characters. The first busdriver, Mr. Sweetass (No, he didn't have a sweetass, he just kept saying
'sweetass') was rather entertaining but long-winded. I also did not realise that New Zealand is steeped in culture, and he spent a lot of time telling old Maori stories and how the names of the mountains, lakes, and things like that came about. Busdriver #2 was rather quiet, didn't like him much anyway, cause he almost left us stranded in Cromwell, the bastard :p
And Rolland. I swear, my sisters have crushes on this guy. He has a really pleasant voice, like those voice used in adverts, or airport announcements with the 'ding, ding ding, ding' at the end of it, no kidding. He was really funny too, the possum at the side of the road story being one of the funniest story. And I suppose he holds a special place in ELZ's heart after the whole chasing after the bus incident :p
Queenstown. Imagine waking up to a spectacular view of the mountains everyday. We checked out some properties there and man, they were pricey :p I will set up a retirement getaway there. Someday.
Off we went to Milford Sound the next day. View, again, was crazy gorgeous. Weather was, just plain fucking crazy. It was cold like hell and I went around looking like a dork, bundled up in my red fat jacket most of the time. Saw a reverse waterfall, where the wind is so strong, it blows the waterfall back the other way. A fascinating first for me.
Dunedin. Home of the chocolate factory :o) Did not tour the factory, but bought helluva lots of chocolates :o) Happy happy happy. Though most of the chocs were for giving away :p
Back to Christchurch. Went for a walk at the Botanical Park. Started out early but only got there at 1pm-ish. Was distracted by roadside performers along the way. They juggle, dance, sing, act. And they're actually good, unlike some stuff you get in Malaysia :p
The food. FIsh & chips..mmmm...Hot meatpies...mmm...We must have eaten 3 or 4 meatpies each in that week :p I had a plate of
nyin nyong which costed NZ $ 9 = RM 25!! :0
And then, all too sudden, it was time to go home...Though all the walking made me miss my car, and all the frostbite made me miss the warmth of the sun, I loved this vacation. New Zealand is such a GORGEOUS country. It's only been a week since I came back, and already I miss it terribly.
Reached Malaysia the next Saturday, and almost kissed the ground cause the flight was another agonising 13 hours :p
