06/07/2010
Visiting university of a place is a must in a vacation, so we headed to Massey University. See? Welcome to Massey University!!
Due to time constraints and macam lost in direction, we left soon after 'visiting' the toilet and taking pictures.
From Massey University, we drove to Palmerston North and stopped by at Dick Smith. Our 'smart' driver brought his player without adapter, so we tried to get one in this big electronic shop. (though we only used it once for the rest of the journey... macam not so worthy~~)
'haere mai' means Welcome!Welcome to Waitahanui town, a town with the largest lake in NZ in it.
Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ, was super big that we can't see the edge of it.. The place was so windy and cold that we left after taking few pictures. *not that pretty as I thought*
Since the lake is unsatisfying, we proceeded to my favourite, waterfalls!
obviously, our afternoon snack is Oreo...As you can see in the following pictures, the water from Lake Taupo is flowing through this narrow channel which was carved by the strong current of the water surging through to the Huka Falls.
Ok, what does the word 'Huka' mean? See the pic:
What do you think now?Huka = foam.
Along the narrow canyon, there are a few sets of small drops but not as impressive as this 9m-final-stage-falls. The water is plunging in about 200,000 liters per second causing it to pick up massive of tumbling air bubbles, as if there is foam on the water.But Erique said it's just a larger longkang!
Group picture taken by a leng lui from China..Having enough of the water, we drove back to our house of the night. All of a sudden, we saw a big banner writing 'New Zealand's largest underground wine cellar'. Without any hesitation, we parked the car and then enter this wine cellar.
looks so pro...And there it is!! Underground wine cellar! it's open for all FREE!
pic from shop to underground!
pic from underground looking up to the shop.
along the stairways...
some of the world most famous wines...of course, we bought nothing... time for dinner!! Fried bee hun + wine, kinda new combination...
Cheers!!
the awaiting list~~Drank one of those after dinner, while we were watching 'Hitler' and chor dai di-ing...
07/07/2010
4th day of the trip... yet we still having some problem fitting all our luggage and food into the car...
4th day of the trip... yet we still having some problem fitting all our luggage and food into the car...
packed like sardins...While we were packing everything into the pitiful car, mou mou dei played her role fully being a vet.. we were requested to throw the rubbish of the house before leaving but the bin was 'guarded' by a big furious dog. Mmd was the only brave person to 'communicate' with the dog allowing us to throw the rubbish.. Having 自知之明, of course I weren't there...
After filling the fuel, we departed our way to Tongariro National Park, one of the main interest along the way. It's just few km away from Lake Taupo. There were 3 main volcanoes in this NP where Lord of the ring was filmed. (of course not the only scene but visiting one of them is exciting!)
Tongariro NP, the oldest national park in NZ, was the 4th NP established in the world and is now acknowleged by UNESCO as one of the 25 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Having such high compliment and value, hopefully it is not disappointing la~~
After filling the fuel, we departed our way to Tongariro National Park, one of the main interest along the way. It's just few km away from Lake Taupo. There were 3 main volcanoes in this NP where Lord of the ring was filmed. (of course not the only scene but visiting one of them is exciting!)
Tongariro NP, the oldest national park in NZ, was the 4th NP established in the world and is now acknowleged by UNESCO as one of the 25 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Having such high compliment and value, hopefully it is not disappointing la~~
It should be one of the volcanoes in the NP but i'm not sure which is which... 
Of course we are not taking the 3 hours walk... it's because not enough time for us to do so, ahem ahem...nothing to do with my stamina...
hmmm... which way to go? left or right?
Tanaraki FALLS????!!!of course not la!
oh honey, why are u trying to jump? U jump, I jump!
Oops, caught u throwing stones!
erm... a very lame competition of whose eyes are bigger...Tadah!! the Taranaki Falls!
After the apparently more than 1-hour walk, we proceeded our way to Rotorua, the city (it's not a town) famous for its geothermal activities. We don't have much time in Rotorua and thus we missed lots of Rotorua attractions.. =(
The house we checked in had a thermal pool at the back of the house, which i did not have a chance to try... The clothes i brought were either wool or long sleeves, what to do?
*i'm getting chin chai in updating these posts.... getting lesser words from post to post... nvm la, i wonder is there any1 really read the words.. at least i don't...
~jj~
