15 April 2013: started to make our way to the airport, detoured to westfield food court to have lunch first, then caught the train to the airport, I have to say even though I really like my blue handcarry luggage, it can be quite heavy especially if you have to carry it to walk long distances and up and down stairs... took us approx 90 mins to arrive at the airport, got there really early, and not many things to see at the airport anyway, so we pretty much were sitting and stoning at the waiting area for approx 4 hours... finally came the time to board approx 2000, the flight there was pretty alright, was quite tired, so slept for most of the journey, and luckily it was only a short 3 hours flight... finally landed in Christchurch, it was already midnight when we arrived, so could not really see much, but there were quite alot of people though despite the late hour... it was pretty hot in sydney that day, but it was much cooler when we arrived at Christchurch...
rang the free shuttle service to pick us up from the airport, we were waiting at the wrong spot, hence missed the shuttle, but found out that the accommodation which we were staying at, called Sudima Hotel was only like a 5 mins walk from the airport... by the time we checked in, both of us were exhausted, and lost our way around the place trying to look for our room, so when we finally actually arrived at our room, we have pretty much gone past the exhaustion phase... by the time we finally showered and unpack what we required, it was like 0200 in the morning, and we were being picked up the next morning at 0700, so not much sleep that night...
16 April 2013: picked up at the hotel by the shuttle whom brought us to the Christchurch train station, to catch the TranzAlpine train to Greymouth... approx 4 hours journey, scenery was pretty although apparently NZ has just had a major drought just before we arrived, so the riverbeds were dry, and we were informed that the scenery was more pretty in winter becos there would be snow capped mountain peaks...when we arrived at Greymouth, it was raining, so we had to walk across the road to the nearest food place which was Subway and grab a quick lunch cos our tour bus will be departing pretty soon, the annoying thing was we were right on time when we arrived at the tourbus, and that was becos we pretty much inhaled our subway sandwiches, the bus driver was like you guys are late, you almost missed the bus... in a rude way as well... anyway, the bus was quite packed when we departed, another 4 hours journey on the bus this time...
when we arrived at Franz Josef town, it was becoming dark, checked into our Bella Vista Motel... the motel room was not too bad, equipped with a small kitchenette, there is even a microwave and a towel heater, and a heated bathroom light... dropped off our stuff and went to await our shuttle to take us to the glacier...
when the shuttle came, we were the only ones on the shuttle, and was informed that becos it was becoming dark, we may not be able to do the walk to get a closer look of the glacier, which was apparently approx 1-2 hours walk, we were like no problem, we will take the shortest walk, which was approx 30mins one way... thought it would be quite easy until we were actually doing it and realised that it was pretty much an uphill climb... no wonder it was only 30mins! anyway, by the time we got up to the lookout, both of us were panting and struggling to catch our breath... took some pictures and came back down not long after... the shuttle lady was also telling us that the whole town depended on the visitors coming to see the glacier, which is gradually disappearing due to global warming, so say in the next 20 years, once there is no glacier, the people living in the town will not be able to survive... after returning back down, decided to look for a place to have dinner, and decided upon this little cottage cafe called Alice May, the food was actually quite nice and there was a complementary glass of wine as well... in fact the dinner that day was probably the best meal we had throughout our trip in NZ...
17 April 2013: picked up in the am by tourbus at approx 0730 headed to Queenstown, very long drive... few stops along the way, lunch on the way...approx 9 hours on the road... weather that day was beautiful... arrived into Queenstown finally, quaint little town and the good thing was everything was located in the town, and all are within walkable distances, alot of adventure sports shops... dropped off at our accommodation Bella Vista motel where we will be spending the next 3 nights at... this motel was not as good as the one at Franz Josef though... anyway, dropped off our stuff and went exploring the town... finally decided on this cafe called Chico's cos they had a dinner special... not very nice in the end...
18 April 2013: free day at Queenstown... decided to go on this city tour on an old style London bus in the am... visited the lake, saw someone bungy jump, which was pretty cool even though it was not quite that high, visited Gibbston Valley winery and bought goat's cheese, visited Arrowtown, which was pretty cool as well, and there were this group of Chinese tourists on the bus as well, and for some reason, saw us and started speaking to us in Chinese, and of course, without thinking, responded back in Chinese, and had to translate some stuff for them along the way... after the bus tour, we walked around the town area again, found this cookie store, which sold freshly baked cookies, and it was yummy... ate like 3 cookies and then felt sick after... bought an Icebreaker thermal for myself... hot pink colour one... it does keep you warm especially when it was really cold at night in Queenstown... after that, went to catch the free cable car ride up a mountain, beautiful scenery, it was actually quite crowded once we arrived up there, people were queuing for the buffet dinner, paragliding and luge riding... wanted to wait for the sunset but later realised that the sun was behind the mountain, so made our way back down via cablecar, and when we arrived back on the ground, saw some people paragliding and landing close to our motel... decided to have Korean food that night as it was really cold, and we felt like eating rice... which for me is definitely strange, I never feel like eating rice usually... anyway, was quite disappointed with the food, was not as good, and we ended up having 2nd round of dinner at Mcdonalds, cos we saw the double fillet o fish burger... yummy! one thing I learnt was that NZ used to have millions of sheep, more sheep than humans, even now, but people are now moving more to dairy farming instead of high country sheep farming, due to the change in demand... and with high country sheep farming, the farmers used to have to climb up high in the mountains to locate the sheep, with the help of dogs, but now they use helicoptors...
19 April 2013: milford sound day trip, picked up early in the am at 0700, the bus was full, urgghh, this was the first time during the trip that the bus was fully packed... alot of Japanese tourists... made a few stopovers along the way, beautiful weather and scenery... approx 6 hours bus journey to milford sound... there were alot of tour buses heading the same direction, which meant alot of people everywhere we went... stopped over at this mirror lake which was really clear and it really does reflect the mountains and the skies, a stream with fresh mountain water, had a drink as well... finally arrived into milford sound ferry terminal... so many tourists... there was lunch included in the tour, but it turned out to be a cold meal and it was disgusting, did not eat any of it... the ferry ride was approx an hour return, which was probably for the best, as I was starting to feel seasick, the best part of the ferry ride was us being up close and personal with the waterfall, it was really amazing... the bus ride back to Queenstown was not as exciting, by the time we arrived back into town, it was quite late, and so we ended up eating cup noodles which we brought from home...
20 April 2013: time to leave Queenstown and heading back towards Christchurch, picked up early in the am by the bus, and we were headed towards Mount Cook, approx 5 hours journey... not a good day at all, it was cloudy for most part of the am, and when we arrived at Mount Cook resort, it started to rain, so it was not very interesting at all... the only interesting thing we saw was Lake Pukaki, which was a really nice blue-green colour lake, and you could actually see the colour reflected on the clouds... stopped by at the famous church of the good shephard for a photo stop... it was still raining then... and it was another 5 hours from Mount Cook into Christchurch... we were tired and hungry and cold by that time, at least the rain did stop... the motel was actually quite nice, the sad thing was we arrived late at night, and had to leave really early the next day, hence not able to really see the surroundings of the motel, cos it was medieval style... and the room was quite nice as well... anyway, dropped off our stuff and went in seach for food, walked like 20mins down the street and could not see any foodplaces, so in the end, turned back around and ate at this hotel next door to our motel, the food was not nice at all...
21 April 2013: picked up early in the am and taken back to Christchurch railway station but this time we are catching the Coastal Pacific train instead... 5 hours train ride to Picton... pouring with rain for most part of the journey, not much of a scenery even though we were so close to the pacific ocean and we did see some seals... arrived in Picton and it was still raining, walked to the ferry terminal and it was a 3 hours ferry ride across the Cook Strait to Wellington... the ferry ride started off ok, even though it was pretty crowded, then it started becoming very rocky once we hit open waters, and that was when I started feeling sick, so had to go outside onto the deck for some fresh air, even though it was raining, but there were inconsiderate people around who kept smoking... this part of the trip was not fun at all... finally arrived into Wellington, got picked up by the shuttle to Ibis hotel, the room was not bad, we were surprised that we got to stay in a hotel even though we chose the motel option for the tour... unpacked our stuff and decided to walk around the place and look for food, the city was boring and dead, pretty much, most of the shops were closed or closing, so in the end, found Burger King (that's right, not Hungry Jacks), and it was bad... the food was just wrong...
22 April 2013: picked up by the shuttle and arrived at the bus terminal to wait for our bus heading to Rotorua... there were alot of Maoris and some really strange people on the bus... 8 hours bus ride... few stops along the way... I have to say, the scenery in the North Island is not very pretty at all... finally arrived into Rotorua, and our accommodation for the next 2 nights, at Novotel... the room was pretty good though... unloaded our stuff and decided to walk around, it was still drizzling... had pizza for dinner, not very nice though... finally had internet and computers to upload our pics and check our emails... the hotel was nice as well...
23 April 2013: picked up by the shuttle, and first destination was Te Puia... a thermal springs, mudpool and kiwi tourist attraction... this was probably the best attraction out of all the ones we went to in Rotorua... got to see the hotsprings up close and personal despite the smell... the second best attraction was the Agrodome, where we watched the sheep show, really enjoyed the show, it was funny and got to take pics with the sheeps up close... the next place we went to called Rainbow Springs was pretty boring, got to see some native trees, and the kiwi, but not allowed to take any pics as they are nocturnal creatures and sensitive to light... after our am tour, returned back the hotel, and we went in search for food... did some grocery shopping at the woolies equivalent but called countdown... bought manuka honey, was told that it has healing properties and that we were allowed to bring into sydney, so we bought 4 bottles... ended up eating cup noodles for lunch as we did not want to miss out on the hangi (maori traditional way of cooking their food) meal during the night tour. Picked up by the shuttle and it was full, to the Maori village of Mitai... was treated to a hangi meal where the food was cooked for hours in the ground, a Maori warrior sailing through the river, cannot see anything cos it was dark and the place was packed with people... a Maori performance, this was nice, the food was not very nice, and they did not inform us that there was only one serving each person... and after that, a walk through the forest with only torchlight in hand to see the glow-worms...
24 April 2013: picked up the next am by the tourbus headed for Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms... approx 3 hours bus ride... the bus driver was especially chatty and there were only 3 of us in the whole bus... did not have any chance to sleep at all... and we were informed that we may not be able to bring the honey back with us through customs... which got us panicking the whole trip... so in the end, I came up with the idea to post the honey back to singapore just so they do not get confiscated at customs... so anyway, arrived at the caves, the weather was holding up pretty well... the tour through the caves was quite nice, and the boat ride was nice, got to see alot of glow worms, but not able to take any pics though... once we left the cave, it started to pour with rain all the way through our bus journey to Auckland, approx 3 hours... once we arrived in Auckland, it was still raining, so we had to carry our luggages through the rain in search for a post office... and it cost me a bomb to send the honey back home... after that, we lost our way looking for the Auckland city hotel, and poor pongie had to carry both my and her luggage uphill... by the time we finally arrived at the hotel, we were both exhausted and sweating... it was really shitty as well to go from Novotel to our hotel in Auckland, cos it was quite crappy... so anyway, the rain eased and we decided to walk around the city and look for food again... went to the Auckland tower, and found this korean buffet place for $20 each, which was pretty good, but the food was not great... and by the time we finished, it started to pour with rain again... it was disgusting having to walk back to the hotel in my sandals, it was wet and yucky...
25 April 2013: had to wake up at 0300 in the am to be picked up to the airport for our flight back to Sydney... when we arrived at the airport, nothing was open so it was pretty much sit and wait... the flight back to Sydney was horrendous, the landing was so turbulent, the whole plane was shaking like crazy, and all sorts of images popped into my head, like the one in day after tomorrow, and my hands were so shakey after... this has to be one of the worst flights I have ever sat in... never use LAN airlines! arrived back into sydney, the weather was beautiful, caught the train back, and part of me was glad to be home but the other half of me wished I was still on hols... started unpacking, washing clothes, and cleaning, in preparation for VIPS arrival the next day... oh and my new uniforms arrived, and the pants and jacket are ugly... pants are clown style and jacket was biker style... so decided to exchange them for another style...
