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~~)


The journey from Palmerston to Taupo was super long, estimated to be 4 hours drive but ended up a bit shorter than that.. so here we reached Waitahanui town, a town named after the Waitahanui River which flows into Lake Taupo.

'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...

Yes, it's the Huka Falls, a falls that connect Lake Taupo (the largest lake of NZ) and Waikato River (the longest river of NZ). It's a set of waterfalls of the beginning of Waikato river before the river travels along to Auckland, while draining the water of Lake Taupo.

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...

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~~



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~

Medical Report (Summary)


Patient last name : Kong

Patient first name : Jia Ji

Symptoms : Malaise, depressed
Diagnosis : Home sick
Medication : Flight ticket to Malaysia, preferably reaching Ipoh.


Patient's comment : too expensive, can't afford...



纯属无聊....


~jj~

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...


So we just continued our journey to our kingdom-like temporary home!!



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....



Finally we reached Point Kean!!


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





Kaikoura can be translated as 'meal of crayfish', thus having a meal of crayfish is a must when visiting Kaikoura. Crayfish industry still plays an economic role in this town. Stalls selling crayfish, either cooked or raw, can be found along the road. Crayfish, which are freshwater crustaceans, are generally known as small lobsters. So, no doubt, crayfish is our dinner!!

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?? $$$$


When the journey ended, the sky was getting dark. We drove around Wellington until GPS guided us to Te Papa Tongarewa Musuem. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and Te Papa Tongarewa Musuem is the musuem of New Zealand.



Te Papa Tongarewa Musuem:
(Te Papa Tongarewa = the place of treasures of this land)




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...


The Parliament Building of New Zealand


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~

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If you hope to find serious stuff or extravagant words in my blog, then i'm sorry to disappoint you lo! As what my blog title suggests, i'm a very lazy person who lazy in everything except sleeping n eating. hahahaha!!

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