New Zealand Day 3

Packed our stuff and left off for Whangeri and Bay Of Islands.


Snells Beach Resort

On the way to Pakiri Beach, we passed by some horses and decided to stop and take some photos of them.


Horses

Following the signs on the road, we ended up in Pakiri Beach when we intended to go Pakiri Horse Rides. The beach is incredible though. There is only another couple at the beach with the 4 of us and the whole scenery seems cut out from a postcard.


Awesome scenery


On Pakiri Beach

After enjoying the wonderful view, we headed to Pakiri horse rides. There were only 2 slots left for the hourly horse ride and Jr and i went for it first. It was slightly uncomfortable sitting on the saddle but i feel much taller while sitting on the horse. The horse trainer was bringing us on the 1 hour horse ride and our horses followed the lead of the trainer at a leisurely speed.


All prep to go!


Bumpy ride

It is a bit of an adrenalin rush when the horses trot briskly and we jerk up, down, left and right. We don't really know how to control the horse fully and we cannot predict the horses' movements.

There was one part when the horses start to gallop and we held on to the saddle with our feet and hands. During which, my left foot slipped out from the feet holder and it was dangling freely. If the horse had gone any faster, i might have fallen off.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience and i enjoyed the ride as well as the beautiful scenery.


End of the horse ride

After the 1 hour ride, it was Jm and Jh's turn and we had a bit of chat with the locals. Having about half an hour to spare, we decided to explore the area on our own.

We crossed the road, walked across a thin plank above a river, walked along the faint walking trails, went past the sand dunes and finally saw the sea again. Took several photos along the way.


Pakiri Landscape


The magnificent blue ocean

Received a phone call from jm and jh that they have finished their rides and we ran all the way back. We were exhausted and panting but our sweat was nowhere to be found.

We continued our journey to Bay of Islands and grabbed a bite at the nearest town for lunch.


Passed by some cows which are rather abundant over this country

We headed to Whangeri Falls along the way to Bay of Islands.


Barely visible Whangarei Falls


Waterfall in its full glory

Abel Tasman Motel was our final stop of the day after we had our dinner at a restaurant in Bay of Islands. Another $30 gone!

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New Zealand Day 1 to 2 (Expanded)

My mum and sister were at the airport to send me off and i set off on a 13 day adventure to New Zealand.

Jingru and i in the 10 hour flight to Auckland

I watched Match Point again during the flight and caught bits of Big Momma's House, The Longest Yard, Nightwatch, etc. It was 10.45 pm by the time we reached Auckland International Airport and Junming and Junhui were there at the airport to fetch us back to her house. The both of them were already in Auckland 1 week before Jr and i arrived.


Auckland International Airport

We spent the rest of the night unpacking our stuff and flipping through brochures to check out the things we want to do and the places we want to visit.


Junming's house in Mission Bay Auckland

The next morning, we headed to Jm's friend house early in the morning to catch the soccer match between Arsenal and Barcelona but Jr got the date wrong and it should be scheduled for the next day. Anyway, we had some coffee and tea before leaving to tour the city.


Outside her friend's house

Breakfast was next...


In a cafe having breakfast

My breakfast costs $15. Expensive right? We headed to Mount Eden and the view was magnificent. There were quite a lot of tourists up here as well.


On top of Mount Eden

As you can see, most of the buildings are rather low lying other than the city centre. There is abundance of space in New Zealand and they do not need to maximise the usage of land.

Mount Eden is actually an extinct volcano and there is a crater on top. We walked down the crater just for the heck of it.

In a crater on top of Mount Eden


At the bottom of the crater


A group photo at the peak of Mount Eden

We drove to Auckland City Centre next and parked at Sky Tower carpark. 1 hour of parking costs $3 there and it was the supposed cheapest carpark in city centre. We headed up to the casino and Jm played jackpot machines, Jh played blackjack, Jr played Big Small while i watched them play. I so guai right? Haha... I'm just too conscious of being addicted to gambling.


Auckland's Sky Tower

Jm, Jr and i went Queens St to go to some souvenir shops while Jh continued to gamble for a little longer.


Along Queens St with Jm

Bought 2 t-shirts and checked out some souvenirs before heading back. We left the city centre and got a quick bite at Mac before heading back to the house. Fish fillet burger in singapore tastes better. We packed our luggage for 3 days as we were heading up north to Whangeri and Bay of Islands.

The sun had almost set by the time we reached Snells Beach Motel and it was only around 5.30 pm.



We unloaded our luggage and headed to the row of shops across the road to have fish and chips for dinner. Next was a mahjong session and i lost $7. It's been quite a long time since i played while the rest are mahjong fanatics.

End of Day 1 and 2

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Last Day in New Zealand

Got back to Singapore this morning. New Zealand is indeed a very nice country to go to. Highly recommended but wallets must be very full before going there. I am seriously troubled by how i am going to squeeze the entire 13 day NZ trip inside this blog.

Last Day in New Zealand

We woke up quite early to pack the stuff in Junming's apartment. There were a number of stuff that need to be arranged, tidied and packed in the basement and we were helping her with the chores. Next was washing the car she borrowed from her uncle and we cleaned the grime from the tyre plates and the car body. Headed to a Dim Sum restaurant for breakfast cum lunch with Jm's property agent next.

The ordering style was rather unique, there were people coming around each table bringing their dim sums around. The food was instantaneously served and we each ate to our stomach's full.

After our lunch, we headed back home as the property agent has to view the apartment before it gets rented out when all 4 of us heads back to Singapore. We all spotted a big rainbow outside the window and took some pictures of it.


Jingru, Junhui and i then headed to the Skycity Casino the 2nd time as both of them wanted to gamble a little before leaving. I was watching Junhui playing blackjack and Jingru play 'Big Small' or "Da Xiao" (not too sure about the name of the game). I didn't bet a single penny as i didn't have big bucks on hand and i would not take it easy on myself if i lost anything more than $20.

After 1 to 2 hours in the casino, we headed to Mission Bay Movenpick cafe to pick Junming up from her appointment with her NZ friends.


A picture before leaving the house with the packed luggage in the vehicle

We headed to Jm's aunty Loraine's house for a farewell dinner specially prepared for us. They were an incredible couple and just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Aunty Loraine prepared so much food for us. There were hawaiian and meat pizzas, bacon and egg pie, cold bacon, green peas, soup, baby potatoes, french fries, pan fried bacon, delicious sausages and salad. All these were served and we were full just by looking at the food.

After the 6 of us cleared around 50% of the food, we had a breather walking around the nicely decorated house and we chanced upon a bum washer in the toilet upstairs. I've never seen such a thing before and snapped a picture of it.

Bum washer!

After the tour, Aunty Loraine had cleared most of the main course dishes and she started to bring out the deserts. There was yoghurt ice cream, boiled apple bits, pineapple slices, whipped cream, sweet fluffy looking cake and lime tarts. After having parts of the deserts, many of us feel like our stomaches were going to explode.

That's not all. She brought out the apple strudel from the oven and we each had a small slice of it. Finally, there was new zealand ice cream slices as the last item. I swallowed each bite of food so slowly as i feel that i could vomit anytime.

The food is actually wonderful but she is such a nice person that we will feel bad if we reject any of the food she offered to us. There was so much food left as well. We took a photo together before leaving.

At Aunty Loraine's house

Drove to Jm's uncle's house next and he fetched us to the airport.

Auckland International Airport


At Auckland International Airport minutes before leaving at 11.45 pm.

Watched only 1 movie, Kung Fu Mahjong, during the 10 hour flight and slept most of the journey back.


Safely touched down in Singapore and bought DFS Chivas Regal and Absolut Peach vodka.

Spent a grand total of ~$3000 for this whole trip including air tickets. What a waste of money but totally worth the experience. Will recommend New Zealand to everyone and anyone.

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Bye Bye Singapore

I've been packing for half a day today. Going to New Zealand tomorrow and the trip is almost 12 hours long. Be back in 2 weeks time. Hoping to have internet connection over at my friend's gf's house in NZ. Gonna wake up very early later as my flight is at 8.50 am. Cya then!

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Travelling soon

Went Lot 1 to get my spectacles fixed and they exchanged my spectacles with the same model for free. They transferred my lens onto a new frame and it was done in minutes. The colour of the new frame is now navy blue compared to my previous shade of matt grey as it was sold out in the store. Very nice of them to replace my broken spectacles for free.

I headed to Bugis next to get a tripod and a multi plug adaptor for my trip to New Zealand in 2 days time. Went to Alan Photo (great prices and good service) in sim lim square as usual and bought a compact extendable tripod for $15. It's original price is $25 but the saleperson gave me a discount as the only stock left was the display item.

Next was discussion for the Taiwan trip in july at KAP. Gs, Edwin, Terence and i discussed from 9 pm to 12 midnight and most of the details have been finalised. What's left is the booking of the train tickets and hotel rooms.

I haven't packed anything for New Zealand yet. Gonna start tomorrow.

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Muscle Ache Day

When i woke up today, my muscles were kind of sore from the badminton session yesterday. Woke up rather early to go to the temple with my mum. We headed to Bugis (again!) to the famous Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho temple. We had our breakfast/lunch at a nearby hawker centre and i spent some time shopping with my mum after that. There is a storewide discount of 10% at OG and many people were inside looking for cheap offers.

Next, i headed to Maju Camp as i had booked my ippt at 4 pm. I didn't really care too much about it and the only exercises i did prior to the ippt was only swimming and badminton. The last time i ran was several weeks before the exams which is around 2 months ago. Can't remember when was the last time i did a chin up. Maybe 1 year ago? My laziness paid off as i failed my 1st ippt after i ORDed.

The first 2 items was a breeze as i got 5 points for the shuttle run and sit-up stations each. I even had 25 seconds to rest within the 1 min after i completed 40 sit-ups. It was all downhill after that as i only got 230 cm for my standing broad jump. I was even boosting to Ks minutes before that standing broad jump is no kick at all. 3 points added. My most feared station was next and it's chin-up. I had expected that this station is my achilles heel and i was proven right. Only managed to do 4 chin-ups (6 to pass). IPPT failed!

I wasn't disappointed or anything coz i didn't put in any effort in training for it at all. Ran for the 2.4 km run although i can skip it since i've failed 1 station already. Got a lousy timing though. Haha....

Ks and i headed to Queensway next as we wanted to buy chin-up bar to improve our chin-ups. Bought a Kettler chinning bar for $27 there. Had dinner at Alexandra Food Centre before heading back.



My naughty cousins snatching my laptop away from me.

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Slackers

Met up with my jc friends to play badminton on friday at Safra Toa Payoh. We were playing enthusiastically until i bent to pick up the shuttlecock. My spectacles flew forward and snapped into 2. My second time this year! My barely 4 month old spectacles was broken into 2 pieces and i was extremely furious with myself that it has happened again. I was "black-faced" for around 20 minutes before i was back to normal again. After spending almost $600 yesterday, i am now going to waste more money on a pair of spectacles.

We spent 2 hours playing badminton from 1 to 3 pm. Rested for some time before getting a shower.


We then proceeded to the main lobby to discuss where to go next.



We decided on Toa Payoh Central for lunch. There was more discussion on where to go after our lunch and we considered options like Sentosa, East Coast, Orchard and Bugis since most of us drove there. We finally decided on Changi Airport to see the new Budget Terminal. We all squeezed into Clarence's car and embarked on our aimless travel.

When we reached the Budget Terminal, it was like being in another country. The landscape around it was only grass, low-lying buildings and roads. It was like we were in Australia. We took a few shots together using Edwin's tripod.


6 people with lots of time to spare.



It seems very bright in the photo but it is actually evening time.



Inside the Budget Terminal, there is nothing much to see or do. There were very few people in the arrival hall and there is only a restaurant (Hans) and no shops within the public limits. We spent approximately 15 minutes inside the new but rather empty terminal. Looks promising on the outside but kind of disappointing in the inside. It's a budget terminal anyway.

We left promptly and there was no place in mind for us to go. Bugis was our next destination as most of us were sick of Orchard. After walking around in Parco, we walked along Liang Seah Street for food and had our dinner at Subway Shaw Centre. We had our second serving at Causeway Bay Cafe.

We then wrecked our brains on where to go next and we ended up near Kallang River. We wanted to use the night scenery mode on my new camera to capture the night scene.



The building in the background is a waterfront restaurant.



Starry Sky mode. Exposure 15 seconds. The length of the exposure made the dark sky bright and the lights exceptionally bright. Quite a cool scene mode to use.

We then headed back to Toa Payoh to collect our vehicles before heading back home.

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New Camera!

Went out with Stephen today for lunch and we headed to Coffee Club Express at Taka. It has been quite some time since the both of us met up. I accompanied him to look for a pair of shoes around orchard and we then headed to Sim Lim Square (should be my last visit there) as i had made up my mind to buy a digicam. Fickle-minded me right? Bought Panasonic FX01 for $598 inclusive of a leather case and a 512mb sd card.



The rest of the time i spent when i came back home was taking macro photos, taking high sensitivity photos, taking slow shutter photos, taking flash/non-flash photos, taking long exposure photos, taking videos, taking portrait photos, taking low light photos, etc. Noise is a slight problem when it comes to taking high sensitivity photos and it is a bit grainy on the areas with low ambient light and where the flash cannot reach. The flash pictures are impressively clear and vivid though. White balance is excellent and the colors are well saturated. The main difference between my new digicam and the others is mainly the 28 mm lens. Most digicams start from 35 mm of focal length and the area of capture is around 15% smaller.

Some of my jc friends and i went to Bukit Timah for supper and it was a very last minute decision (we decided to go at 11.45 pm). Paiseh to those who were not informed. Took a few pics also.

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