Lazy NO Cure

04/07/2010


After collecting our Estima from Juicy Rentals, we departed our North Island trip heading towards Kaikoura. According to our plan, we should be proceeding to Hamner Spring to have a look but we were too late when we departed, so gave up and headed straight up to Kaikoura.

our Estima!!
(though a bit old aged...)

Kaikoura, a town in combination with ocean and mountains, is famous for eco-tourism. The extension of the sea brings abundant marine animals to this town, thus the tourist attractions are whale watching, swimming with dolphin and seabird watching.

Once entering Kaikoura, we were driving along the coastline. The scenery was awesome yet mind-soothing. We stopped by at Goose Bay to try our luck whether we can see any seal. Too bad, the luck is not at our side...

our room...

haha, 老千poker card!!

After having our Indomee+egg lunch, we drove to Point Kean to look for the seal colonies. We stopped by at South Bay and took some pictures.

nampaknya orang ni owe many people money wo....

see the seal lying there?
its lazy pose cheated me and its angry roar scared me off!!

cheese-baked crayfish with salad and fries as sides

fresh raw mussels

After dinner, we went to the well-known Fyffe house front to have our self-organized star-gazing tour. The surrounding was dark and quiet. We lie down at the roadside looking up the sky observing the amazing star-filled sky!!

05/07/2010

After having breakfast, we departed to our first destination of the day, Wither Hill Vintage. Wither Hill vintage is located in Wairau Valley of the Marlborough region. Marlborough is New Zealand's largest wine making region, producing the majority nation wine output. This region contains soil that are fertile for grapes to grow.

Wither Hill vineyards are flourished, with varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris planted at their vineyard site.

Ting Feng is sleeping almost throughout the whole journey.

Wither Hills Vintage

the very kind and friendly staff organising our wine tasting session.

CHEERS!!

Wah!! so many wine bottles!!! Wish it's my wine cupboard leh~~

After the wine tasting session and wine shopping, we proceeded to the Picton Interislander Ferry Terminal for our ferry ride across Cook Strait to Wellington. The journey was 92km and took 3 hours to reach North Island. Interislander operates 3 passenger ferries and the one we took was Kaitaki. Kaitaki ferry is the largest ferry operating on New Zealand waters.

Guess what were we doing while waiting?
UNO!!

We drove up the ferry and parked our car according to the instructions of the workers. Each of us need to pay NZD61 per journey. And from here, we started our journey to the North!! We could walk around the ferry throughout the three-hour journey admiring the scenery of Cook Strait.

HAHAHAHA!!!

see~~ what's there?? stars? money?? $$$$

the Colossal Squid

Night view of Wellington from musuem

We continued to have a walk around the musuem before departing to our Wellington temporary home of the night...

say hi to the Parliament door! =)

the Beehive, Executive Wing of Parliament building
(even the PM's office is here...but of course i didn't get to see the PM..)

After taking pictures with this iconic building of Wellington, we drove back to our accommodation and have a good rest before starting a brand new day!



~jj~

01/07/2010

Being in Australia for the third year, finally I decided to visit the sister country of Australia, New Zealand!!

According to my mum, whenever I travel, it will never be smooth and calm... i will definitely meet with some obstacles.... even a simple thing like booking a flight ticket could be an obstacle for me.. haiz... Anyway, I booked Air NZ from Brisbane to Christchurch reaching there around 12am.

my flight meal - with a bottle of red wine

The one who should fetch me is Wong Choon Seng but in the end, my honey and Eric came because the conscienceless Mr Wong overslept and forgot to fetch me!! Hng!!


02/07/2010

Day 1 in Christchurch

Visiting university of the area is compulsory for my trip, so we decided to visit University of Canterbury early in the morning.

i love this scenery... botak trees~ hehe..

if not mistaken, (from left) my honey, me, CS and TF

the map of the uni on the floor

main library of the uni

the view of Christchurch from the library

Future engineers at engineering lab

a future pharmacist taking photo in someone's University Pharmacy

After visiting the University of Canterbury, it's time to visit the Christchurch city!! The largest city in New Zealand South Island. It is a city designed and built by the English colonialists, building a large number of Neo-Gothic style buildings. The very center of the building is the Cathedral Square and one of the most visited church buildings in Christchurch is the Christchurch Cathedral.

Had a Korean style lunch in the city

This 18m sculpture with 42 leaves as design to feature the different native plants of the country was built to commemorate the new millineum and 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the city.

the Anglican Cathedral (free entry)
The environment here was calm and serene.

climbing up the 134 steps

the recognition of climbing 134 steps
we can buy a recognition cert from the Gift shop, if we want...

Views from the top of the Cathedral:

from top: the statue of John Robert Godley,
the founder of Christchurch and Canterbury.

oops... someone is doing something illegal!
破坏公物!!!

Canterbury Musuem, one of the finest historic buildings in NZ.
It was closed when we reached... so too bad, we can't enter...

a good way of parking bikes i guess..

02/07/2010

Together with Ting Feng from Sydney, we visited the famous Sumner Beach after having lunch. The stretching of the beach with the random assortment of rocks forms one of the most picturesque beach in Christchurch. Having a stroll along the beach, looking at kids playing water and swimming safely in the sea also makes this beautiful beach one of the most famous beach in Christchurch.

the stone Scarborough Clock Tower

Cave Rock,
the cavern formed at a protruded volcanic stone due to the erosion of sea water