Pictures From Our NZ Trip - South Island

Darn. Had blogged this post halfway already and then I accidentally deleted it without saving. Damn frustrating. Anyway, was mentioning that it seems impossible for me to post our trip pictures on Facebook, so I'll try to direct people here instead.Have added some pictures to the North Island blog as well. So technically if you're reading this for the first time, you should start with the previous post first.


Our first stop in the South Island was Kaikoura! Unfortunately we couldn't go out to see seals due to the choppy seas, so we had to settle for the seal colony at the Kaikoura Peninsula. This fella is the size of a big dog and starting growling at me the closer I got.


Our trusty Mazda 3 for our South Island tour. Served us really well and I'm impressed with the new range of Mazdas, especially the fuel consumption. Think we clocked some 1,800km on this baby in our little time here. Can you spot a pesky seal?


St James Walkway, Lewis Pass. Heading to the west coast and this was the first snow we saw on our trip. Not only was the ground covered in snow, it was literally snowing while we were playing around. Friggin' cold though. Here is my best "throw snow" impression.


Franz Josef Glacier. An amazing view from the scenic lookout. It would have taken us an hour and forty-five minutes to walk to the terminal of the glacier.


Haast. This is wifey screaming for dear life as she is being attacked by sandflies! Corner shadow is me calmly taking a picture of her in distress.


Queenstown. We got ourselves a damn power room. That is The Remarkables there and this picture was taken from our balcony. I shit you not!


Pelennor Fields! This was near the location of where the LOTR battle was filmed. On our way to Milford Sound. Wifey is so enthusiastic in her jump!


The Southern Alps behind me! The scenary starts getting abit too beautiful and mesmerizing that you just feel like stopping everywhere to get a picture. I'm so pumped I'm jumping for joy! I would've been more creative with my jump but its really windy and cold!


Homer's Tunnel. I'm so psyched I'm power jumping now! Check out those abs! And then the mountains behind.


Milford Sound. What more can I say?


Fergburger. Queenstown. One of the best burgers I've ever had. Period.


Linus Pass. This was during our drive to Christchurch and would be the last time we would see natural snow. Boohoo!


Christchurch. Full of old buildings and architecture. The city walk was probably most fun in this city.


Auckland. The best highlight was Mt Eden. You get a 360 mesmerizing view of the city and when the weather permits, you get fantastic blue sky. Here I am fiddling with my camera. Summit's in the background and there is a crater in the middle. Its huge. You can almost imagine a postcard out of this picture if I weren't in it!


The skytower. There was a skyjump platform up above and we were straining our necks for a long time trying to catch someone jump from there. Then we realised nothing was gonna happen...

That's it folks. I think overall we had a really awesome and fun trip. Between me and wifey, we took more than 3,000 pictures, travelled more than 2,500km on the road and had so many nice funfilled surprises and sights along the way. If you're wondering if New Zealand's a good place to go(especially with the wifey), hell'yea!

Pictures From Our NZ Trip - North Island

Wow, it took awhile just to get the pictures into this computer. Cameras these days are abit too high-tech for me. Tried to load them on Facebook but it keeps jamming on me. Darn.

Hopefully they'll look okay here!


We start heading out of Auckland towards Whitianga. I'm so pumped up right now!


This was in Coromandel, the beginning of our 40min trek down to Cathedral Cove. The cove wasn't especially spectacular but the views from the car park were the beginning of the breathtaking sights throughout the course of our trip.


And this was me 15min into tramping...


Our trusty bright red Ford Focus during our North Island tour. So early in the trip and it's muddied all over. Served us very well. Wifey is trying to grab her scarf (to wrap around the exposed waist?) because its really windy.


The Swoosh. Its a fun ride in Rotorua where wifey and myself are hoisted on a crane some 40m high and released like a gigantic swing, whereby at the lowest point, we're just ONE metre from the concrete ground. The scary part was while we were dangling for dear life, one of us had to pull the release cord then sent us plunging(obviously it was me). I swear the series of shots leading up to this photo would have exponentially added to the humourous effort.


The Zorb. Extremely over-rated and expensive. I have no idea why anyone would pay 50bucks to roll down a hill in a giant ball. All over in 20seconds and I climbed out of that stupid ball feeling pukish. Oh, and wifey is just pretending that the ride's awesome.


I dunno about you but this animal rates as one of the funniest in our travels. Which part of the "Survival of the fittest" theory did this poor bovine fit in to survive till this day? Camouflage definitely wasn't one of its strengths. Has it been hiding at the zebra-crossings all this while?!


Hell's Gate. Thermal geysers, hot spring et al. The sign says it all. Steaming. Cliffs. All 120degs of it.


This was a popular brand of potato chips over there. Bluebird. Try saying it in Hokkien. Didn't taste good at all and in fact was quite smelly.


My virgin bungy jump. At Lake Taupo. Freakin' awesome. This is the most popular jump site in the North Island. 47m drop. Jump platform is on the right. There're scarier places to jump, but this was a start. The DVD and photos cost almost as much as the jump itself. Haha.


Turangi, south of Lake Taupo. Here's wifey thinking that she's caught a rainbow!


That night we both got high at Stell*r, a swanky restaurant in Wanganui. Good food, good wine, good company.


One of the best and surprising sights on our trip. Kai Iwi Beach. Somewhere along the way between Wanganui and Wellington. The crashing waves of the Tasman Sea has caused this erosion of cliffs in such magnitude. Just the awesome power of Mother Nature in full glory. That black speck is wifey, who got so emotional that she ran as far as her legs could take her, until the strong winds blew her back to me :) Took awhile to get this jumpshot right as the winds were so strong.


Te Papa. Wellington. Father sky and mother earth. Nuff said.


On board the InterIslander, South Island bound! Wifey thinks she's stronger than the wind. The winds are so strong that we cannot stay on the deck for more than 10minutes without getting blown away. Haha.

Going out liaoz! That's it for the North Island. Later tonight will post some South Island pictures!

The Morning After

Groan.

Suffering from jetlag.

Slept so late and can't sleep any further. Its 7.15am man.

Weather's not helping. Its cool now in the morning but its humid too. Sigh.

Yawn.

Think I'll upload some pictures from our trip.

Watch this space.

Day 14: Singapore

Back.

After so long, we're finally home. First thing we did was go down to our local kopitiam for some supper. Miss the local food quite abit.

The last few days in Christchurch and Auckland were really fun. We spent most of our time walking around the cities with their recommended single day walks around town. Saw as much as we wanted to.

Damn tired now. Watched the latest inflight movies almost the entire 10hour trip back. Haha.

Singapore's so warm! 30degs?!?!

Day 10: Christchurch

Geez...its just freezing here all the time. 7degs here in Christchurch. We've just arrived from Mt Cook/Lake Tekapo area. The whole South Island tour has been one heck of a drive. Been fun, but all the driving's been really tiring. Lucky the wifey took over the wheel at times.

We went from Picton to Kaikoura to Franz Josef to Queenstown to Milford Sound to Lake Tekapo and now in Christchurch. Over 1,500km of driving in the South Island alone. Amazing. Well at least now we're done with that. Its time to assimilate back to our urban lifestyles by spending more time in the cities. So its Christchurch for the next two days and then a short flight back to Auckland for another two days before we head back to sunny Singapore.

I kinda like the cold here, and its damn shiok walking around when you hardly sweat. And we have had pictures of some of the most fantastic mountain and ocean views I've seen too. Really proud of my photography skills. :)

Miss the Singaporean food though. I think me and the wifey are SUPER junk foodies. Having breakfast AND lunch in a moving vehicle is WRONG.

Day 6: Wellington

Weather here is seriously getting colder by the day. Its 9degrees celcius even though its still autumn and even on the radio they're saying its an unusually cold autumn.

Its been a helluva trip so far! And this is the first place I can find enough time and have fast enough internet speed to blog. Else the computers are WAY too slow and we're in the mountains here and there. Even radio reception gets bad every one or two mountain passes away.

So far we've headed south as planned from Auckland to Coromandel to Whitianga to Tauranga to Rotorua to Lake Taupo to Turangi to Whanganui and finally to Wellington.

Finally bungy jumped at Taupo Bungy. Was an awesome experience. So awesome I spent even more money buying the DVD and photos of my jumps, which cost more than the actual jump itself. Tamade.

Saw some amazing, breathtaking scenary there but from the looks of it, there's gonna be more to come. Met some amazing people as well. I can't say all New Zealanders are friendly, but most of them are to say the least.

Ok I thnkmy ship's finally arrived. Stupid Interislander ride to the South Island was delayed by two hours. Threatening to screw up our driving plans. Its on to Lailoura once we reach Picton. Whale-watching here we come!

Call me on my private mobile cuz if anybody needs me. Can't seem to get any Blackberry reception at all here.

Cheerios!

4 More Days To Go...

To New Zealand! Whoot! Screw swine flu!

Knee still hurting. Don't think can play soccer come Thursday night. Season's ending already.

Found alot of my old Camp Chief Ouray stuff in the store, along with all the sweaters, fleeces and jackets. Yay, don't have to buy anything :), sure helps save money.

Its getting more and more exciting as the trip draws near. Can't wait. Really need the holiday so badly so badly so badly.

Golfing Weekend

Was at Laguna Bintan on Saturday playing golf with the company people. Think I'm really getting into the game. Somemore my knee felt ok and wasn't that painful with the kneeguard on.

Played my best round ever. Think I was really on form. What with the trauma of the Ambassador's Cup having spurred my to reach for better scores and not be laughed at anymore. For auditing purposes, I've attached the scorecard below. First time I've achieved a score of 106! Amazing and tied with Eugene somemore!



I know its small (couldn't be bothered to touch up), so just click on the image to enlarge :)

Next target, below 100!

Market's been going up crazily. Hoping for it to crash soon. What goes up must come down. Today's a good taste.

Mother's day buffet last night at Ikoi @ Miramar Hotel. Awesome stuff. Ate till I was full to the point of bursting. Then today buffet at Swissotel Merchant Court (durian pengat?). Died. No one in their right frame of mind should EVER have buffet on consecutive days. Wifey's in pain.

New Zealand here we come! Five more days to go! Flying off early Saturday morning!

Swine Flu

May have to cancel our New Zealand trip liao.

Damn xianz.

And there's no alternative place to go given that everywhere's susceptible to getting confirmed cases at anytime.

Cui.