Day 1 - Sydney Australia

Sydney, Australia.

Day one was hardly exciting - aside from the fact that it was a girls trip away. Had a full day of work and left in the mid-afternoon to get there by 6pm. Luz, Mel and I ended up at the airport together and so we boarded the train and got to the hotel with minimum fuss. Although the weather was stupid and annoying and raining and what not. It was rather crazy and we walked around in circles, getting wet until we got to the hotel. Even though I had a wheelie luggage, it was still a pain!

Got to the hotel, spoke to Nicole on the phone who was with Ruth and Elizah and were trying to figure out where we should go for dinner. It was finally settled that we were going for Indian and we set out for the Indian food.

The Indian restaurant was AWESOME. The food and the staff were delightful, and although I can't remember the name of the restaurant now, it was great. Had a good time with the girls, drinking and eating and was even tempted to karaoke upstairs. Thought better about it and headed to the Lindt cafe by the waterfront.

To say that that was an enjoyable experience would be lying. THe staff were extremely rude and at one time, one of them was yelling at Ruth's husband. Doesn't matter how good your product is, the staff was rude, rude RUDE. Asian kids, all of them - annoying as all hell. And I can say that, I'm Asian. Shared a hotel room with Elizah which was good fun.

New Zealand in a nutshell

Thus ends my NZ travels for now. I had only done the North Island, would love to go back and explore the South Island*.

While the initial impression of New Zealand was rather scary and the end of the trip was not as crash hot (considering I was dying to get back on Australian soil), I had enjoyed the trip very much, especially my experiences in Rotorua. I look forward to coming back here one day - I think my mother would enjoy it very much.

I will endeavour to write up my posts a lot quicker though.

xoxo

*Turns out I am going back to NZ in 2009! A more exciting trip because I'm going to the South Island (with possible skiing/snowboarding on the horizon), with my darling Luke AND going to watch the Bledisloe cup! I think it will be better. Surely.

Auckland Part 3

I should say that this blog was written on my little Gambit (for those who don't know, it's my Blackberry) so there are lots of shorthand, lack of punctuation and lack of capital letters. Will edit when I find the time.

Had a leisurely faffing session while getting ready to take the explorer bus to surprise, surprise, explore auckland. $30 is meant to take u to 14 attractions. Apparently only three attractions are really worth seeing, the museum, sky tower and kelly tarltons. I'm not sure abt going to kelly tarltons, after all, I'm considering the dolphin n whale safari and I have been to the underwater world in singapore and the sydney aquarium, so it may be unneccessary.

So I headed to the museum to have lunch. And had to listen to this woman complain how outrageous the prices in the museum were. Hello, its a tourist area, what do u expect. Then she proceeded to complain to the manager abt the size of the font of the coffee prices. Very annoying indeed and was definitely interrupting my lunch, as she also spoke to me. I wish she didn't talk to me and just go away. anyway, I just scoffed down my lunch and went into the museum.

So it turns out I'm not that cultured. I really didn't enjoy the museum that much and didn't see what the big deal was. But it could be attrbuted to the fact that there were screaming kids around me. Yup, my visit coincided with a school tour. Plus there were glass cages of what looked like a thousand cockroaches and that completely put me off. There were other glass cages of creepy crawlies, which completely grossed me out.

So after the museum, I headed to Victoria markets where I was told that it sold heaps of arts and crafts. Once again, was rather disappointed. This market did not have the colourful stalls like Salamanca or the bargains like Victoria markets in Melbourne. It was really quite nothing really. A dead little sleepy market, with the regular souveiner stalls selling what looked like cheap china made goods. Definitely not something that I want to buy for the peeps back home. The only store that grabbed my attention was the nike sotre and tried as I might, there was really nothing to buy.

Headed down to viaduct harbour and wandered into Fox Ale House who told me that they WILL be showing the match live on their big screen tellies. Sweet.

Somehow found myself on Queens street again and wandered into the same stores. None of which were chic or fashionable. Are u kidding me? I was under this impression that big Auckland city would be the centre of cutting edge NZ fashion. Instead I look around what was meant to be the shopping precint of Auckland and saw nothing but b-girl wannabes with the bling. Those that were not dressed rapper-style would definitely not be considered fashionable. I'm starting to view NZ like how the Americans view the Canadians.

Nothing to buy, nothing to shop, this city is NOT appealing to me at ALL.

Cut to later that night, made my way to the Fox tavern where I was told that the afl was playing. Was it playing? NO, stupid EURO 2008. Are u kidding me? Soccer? I f-ing hate soccer.

Sorely disappointed, I headed back to the hotel, cabbed with this very eccentric cab driver, who is another story himself. What I will say for now though is that he nearly scared me half to death.

Thus ends day 3 in Auckland!

Xxx
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Auckland part 2

So I arrived in Auckland after my whirlwind of a trip to Rotorua. Who knew that travelling was so tiring?

Anyway, went exploring for half the day around the city. Walked down to Viaduct Harbour which is apparently the hip hop happening place to be. In all honesty, I was looking for the Price Waterhouse Cooper building which was where I was meant to get my visa label printed. After waiting in line for half an hour (and having this American woman tell me that there was no way in hell I was getting my visa- what was she on?) , I got my label printed ( btw, I'm an official PR now, yay) and walked on. There were only a couple of hours of business time so I had to make the most of it.

The Saints play Freo tomorrow night and as Freo is my second fave team, I had to find somewhere to watch the match. And would u believe it, everyone who I asked " would u know any pub that would show the afl tomorrow night?" Laughed at me and told me that it was a stupid game. And funnily enough, three years ago, I wouldve agreed with them, but I'm a convert now so I was mildly, but amusedly offended.

Found Mecca, which to the normal person translated to the All Blacks store. They were having a sale too. Oh dear! I just might move on from there...

Stumbled into Queen street which is apparently the shopping precint district. Wandered into several cute shops, and even went into Gucci and Louis Vutton. Can't help it, old habits die hard.

Decided then to walk back to the hotel, it was getting late. The one thing I will say about Auckland is that there doesn't seem to be much to eat. I have chipped myself to the brim and was absolutely ravenous for some vegetables. I know, for those who know me, you might want to read it again. Some VEGETABLES. I'm hanging out for some stir fry for sure. But was there anywhere good to eat on the way to the hotel? No. Japanese food and Korean food aplenty. But the equals to carbs carbs and more carbs. Enough!

Finally found somewhere to get some roast pork and roast duck rice, which was quite bleah as well. Can someone give me a salad already?

Te Puia - the Concert

Ok, so I take it back. The concert was AWESOME. And the Maori culture is so fascinating, but I could go on and on - you need to see the snippets for yourself:

There were the awesome dances:

I thought this first dance was really cute and it had a catchy tune!

This was the stick dance that I was like "Yup, too uncoordinated to do this one!"




And of course, the HAKA. What everyone has been waiting for. It starts with the hot guy doing the weapons demonstration and then it moves into the Haka. I tried not to zoom into his face too many times! Haha! AND the only reason why I did that in the first place was because I didn't want the people behind to realise that I was perving! HAHA!!!

Yes, I could potentially have someone at home waiting for me,* but I think he's going to dump me anyway, so I'm not holding my breath! And seeing is nothing!

Loved the concert- loved the culture. This is the New Zealand that I wanted to see!

Te Puia - the Natural Wonders

Aahhhhh... Te Puia! The Maori Village that Tom and I decided to go to - as opposed to the Night Maori Village that was meant to be fantastic. Either way, I think both of us (esp. me) was keen to do a bit a sightseeing, so we bought our ticket for the Explorer bus from the tourist centre and headed out to Te Puia, which was our first stop.

We managed to just make it for the guided tour and went on foot to explore the Maori Village. We were also told that the Maori concert was awesome and that some people had wanted to see it more than once. I'm like, yeah, whatever.










First thing I see is this big mother of a thing which is none other than a geyser! I was quite excited because I have never seen one before, let alone film one! So it was all a very exciting thing for me! Old Faithful, eat your heart out! (Was Ole Faithful even a geyser?)



And then further along the village we got to see some more bubbling mud, but this was fascinating too! (Note to self to buy the mud scrub at the shop - I'm such a tourist!)

Rotorua

So I take the bus to Rotorua. Met my travelling buddy, Tom Morgan who seems quite nice, but not quite as crazy as I would imagine my travel companion to be, but it's only for two days, so if we don't get along, I suppose it doesn't matter!

Now because I was clever the night before (asking the cab driver to drive past the bus station on Hobson street), I knew exactly where I needed to walk with my heavy suitcase! It was about 15 mins from my hotel but definitely felt alot longer thanks to the suitcase and the uncertainty about where I was going! Walked about 15 mins to the bus terminal (my sense of direction is not bad, actually) and then boarded the bus to Rotorua. The journey took about 4 hours, which was really painful! We finally got to Rotorua and got something to eat. And because I was craving it, of course I had the big breakfast. Evidence attached below:

This is of course Tom, having the massivest pancake I've seen in a while!

My thoughts on Rotorua: small sleepy town. But don't let that fool you! This town is full of adrenaline packed activities and needless to say that I was game to do most of it! Unfortunately, my travelling buddy Tom was on a bit of a budget, so we're just going to have to make do.

Prior to arriving to Rotorua, I had done my adequate research and found a $10 ticket to take me to Rotorua for the next two days. I was excited because I wanted to see the Maori village and more importantly, I wanted to do something on my list: zorbing. Yes, there are three things on my list and one of them is actually zorbing. And lucky for me, I was at the home of where it all started.


On the way to Rotorua, got to know my travel buddy a little more, and was a little dismayed that it was raining! However, passed a lot of interesting structures and buildings! Everyone tells me how beautiful New Zealand is, but really, I don't think it's any different from Tassie! Well, the North Island that is! As for the South Island, it is yet to be seen!

Arrived in Rotorua, which was a pretty little town! Booked into Base Backpackers on the Hot Rocks and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a thermal pool at the back of the hostel. Yay! Went walking around the city centre, which wasn't very big at all. Headed to the jade factory to buy my mother something and watched the tradesman carve jade, which was not as interesting as expected!





What I thought was most interesting was that a little park right behind the backpackers, which had awesome bubbling mud and also some weird air vents where all the steam was escaping. It made for interesting video footage, which I have included in this! It drizzled a little bit, but I didn't mind, I was on holiday!

More importantly, the back of BASE had a thermal pool, which meant lovely warm water in the middle of a freezing winter! It was good fun and note to self, come back here with either my girls or a nice man!

But the end of the night wasn't as exciting as I had hoped. Because Tom and I had decided to go for the day Maori village tour, which was with Te Puia, we decided that drinkies was in order and went for a night out on the town. We managed to find Henessy's a pub which offered two for one cocktails, but we were about the only patrons in there.


(Yeah baby - 2 for 1 cocktails! -->)

We also stopped at the Pig and Whistle and finally back to the Lava bar, which was quiet at first and then everyone came streaming in, just back from the night Maori Village, which I can't be sure what the name was. Either way, I was in and out of there - I had to sleep because I have more travelling to do tomorrow!



This was the range of beers they had at the LAVA bar - like what the???