New Zealand

And I went back in New Zealand again, for the second time this year. This time around was to travel around the South Island. This trip was a house trip as I went with two of my housemates, Hong and Amy. Too bad the other two housemates gotta work :P. So, we did a loop around the island (represented by the yellow line).

DAY 1

As soon as we touch down at Christchurch airport, we picked up the car and started heading south. The first destination was Lake Tekapo. By the time we reached, it was already dark. Couldn't see anything and there wasn't much to do. Had a taste of a proper winter :P

DAY 2

We woke up early with hope to watch sunrise. But to our dissapointment, it was cloudy. Nonetheless, the scenery was still amazing. The photos say it all.

As we were about to leave Lake Tekapo, it snowed!! Never have I seen snow, what more experiencing snow falling. The timing was just right.

We then continued our journey down south, driving cautionly. After all, it was first time driving in the snow :P. On the way to Dunedin, we stopped by Moeraki Boulders.

We reached Dunedin by midday and decided to visit the Cadbury factory. Each of us came out of the factory with a bag of chocolate :P

On the way to Otago Peninsula for our accomodation, we detoured to the Larnach Castle. It was snowing again!! We took pictures until it was too dark for anymore activities.

We stayed at a Lodge that night. It was one of the best budget accomodation I have ever stayed in. It was a complete house, just too bad we didn't have much food to have a feast. We had the whole place to ourselves :P

DAY 3

After a good night rest, we went to the tip of Otago Peninsula.

We headed back to Dunedin and walk around. We visited University of Otago as well. Amy and I were supposed to study there initially but we went to UQ instead. Haha.

It took us a while to find Baldwin Street. It is certified as the world's steepest street. Quite cool.

Done with Dunedin, it was a long drive to Te Anau. Nonetheless, the scenery wasn't dissapointing. A lot of 'wowness' and 'omg-ness' along the way. Haha. Everything was just simply amazing. We detoured to Lake Waihola. It was pretty.

We stopped for a night at Te Anau. The weather wasn't very good. The road to Milford Sound was closed due to bad weather and snowing. We were quite worried but nothing could be done as we would only find out about the road condition the next day. Just hope for good weather tomorrow.

DAY 4

The weather improved the next day. The road was scheduled to be open at noon. We got onto a tour as we did not want to take the risk of getting stuck there if the weather turned bad. So while waiting, more pictures of Lake Te Anau.

On the way to Milford Sound. The journey was splendid. Beautiful scenery.

Mirror Lake

The cruise

Milford Sound cruise. One magnificient view.

Due to heavy snowing the night before, the snow was one of the thickest in recent years. It has never been so white. I was lucky as our timing was just in time for the best condition. We took the opportunity of play with the snow.

DAY 5

Queenstown. As all 3 of us have different interest, we split up and spend money on different activities. Haha. Hong decided to walk around Queenstown and snap more photos. He also took the gondola up to get a better view of Queenstown. Amy decided to go for horse-riding to Glenorchy, which was the site of Isengard for Lord of the Rings.

And I went for Canyon Swing. Initially I wanted to go for the Nevis Highwire Bungy. But after much contemplation, I decided to try something different. As I have tried bungy at Lake Taupo, the swing would be something different. I just love adrenaline rush. I actually didnt feel scare. Maybe I have done too much jumping :P. I did two swings; one with a hand stand and another on a chair. Cool.

One night in Queenstown and another night at Frankton. More lakes to witness. This time was Lake Wakatipu.

Once again our timing was perfect. That night was the official opening of the Queenstown Winter Festival. We joined the crowd to celebrate and watched fireworks. New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark was there to officiate the festival. So unexpected.

DAY 6

We visited Deer Park Heights as recommended by Joo Ann. It was much more fun than I expected. There were many spots for us to take more beautiful pictures. We spend more time there then planned as everyone was enjoying themselves. And there was the feeding animal part. I was pretty afraid of the alpaca. As they were almost my height and they came close for food, I felt like they were gonna kiss me anytime. Haha.

Next destination was Wanaka Puzzling World. I was left in the maze all by myself as both of them took the shortcut out. Boohoho :P

And there was Lake Wanaka. We had lunch by the lake.

A random pitstop along the way. Waterfall...

Finally, we got to witness sunset. The weather was much better in the westcoast. It was gloomy during the first few days of our trip and have not seen much of the sun. It was the perfect sunset. Another good timing.

However, two unfortunate incident happen after that. First, we ran over a rabbit. It came out from nowhere. And as we were speeding and it was dark, it was pretty difficult to avoid it. Luckily rabbit is a pest in New Zealand. Then, somehow we punctured our fuel tank. It was leaking all the way but luckily we were not far from our destination. By the time we reached Fox Glacier for accomodation, it was already late. Our car could only be repaired the next day. There were some tension in the air.

DAY 7

The car was send for fixing first thing in the morning. Luckily we bought insurance when renting the car, so it was fully covered. While waiting for the car to be fix, we went to Fox Glacier. I would love to do the glacier walk next time.

By noon, everything was settled and we could continue on with our journey. Thank god. We drove to Hokitika and Greymouth. As it was a Sunday, not much shop was open and there were nothing much to do in those town. So we decided to continue driving to Punakaiki.

Punakaiki was beautiful. I reckon it was much better than the 12 Apostles in Melbourne and Moeraki Boulders. I think many of the New Zealanders did not even know about it or have visited it because it was out of the way. But I would strongly recommend visiting it. The waves were strong and could even feel splashes of drops of water. I could stand there for ages looking at the waves and waiting for it to splash :). Furthermore, the combination with sunset at the background was just perfect. My favourite!!

DAY 8

After a night at Punakaiki, we stopped by Greymouth for branch. We then drove through Arthurs Pass back to Christchurch, completing our loop. Stopped by Castle Hill. My second time there. Haha.

We arrived Christchurch earlier than expected. I managed to find our way to Raymond's place. Could still remember. I was back to a familiar place once again. Haha. He showed us around Christchurch city. It felt nice to be back in Christchurch experiencing a different season. The lookout of Christchurch city, a place I did not visit during my first time there.

DAY 9

On our way to Arthurs Pass, we stopped by for some pie. Yum yum. We went to the Devil's Punchbowl. It was magnificient. The waterfall wasnt frozen much but that would do.

On the way back, Ray made a pitstop for us to play with more snow as we dont get this kinda chances in Australia, Brissy especially. Haha.

Then we headed to Taylor's Mistake. This time around, I walked further ahead than the last time. Haha. It was then followed by dinner at Q-Pot and witnessing Ray's practice dance. You guys were great! Casino was the last place we went to for this trip before heading home early next morning.

Thanks a lot to Ray for being a great host, sparing time to bring us around and not to forget sending me to the airport in the wee hours of the morning again. Waiting for you to come over to Brissy (if you ever planned to).

And with that, I have completed the whole New Zealand; both north and south island. Yahoo!!