New Zealand!

Day 1:May 2 GMT +8:00
5:45pm: ZZ and I arrived at Singapore Changi airport!
6:00pm:checked in our luggage and waiting for boarding...
7:50pm: QF6 take off to sydney.

Day 2:May 3 GMT +10:00
5:10am: arrived at sydney international airport.
6:00am: we managed to get our luggage after going through the immigration. I had an upset tummy and not feeling very well.....beginning of our advantures....
8:35am: QF46 take off to christchurch

GMT+12:00
1:00pm: arrived at chc.
2:00pm: We managed to get our campavan from TUI CAMPUS.
3:00pm:We lost our way immediately we drove out the car from TUI CAMPUS....trying to look for Ferington AVE for the supermarket which is suppose to be just around the corner.
3:30pm: We found it.
4:00pm: We set off to Arthus Pass which is a 2 hrs drive away from Chc. 1000feets abv sea level.
6+pm:The sun has set.We drove thru the Pass and we decided to camp in the big grassland facing the lake in the middle of no where. After a tired day, we decided to sleep early that night. Unfortunately, the heater of the campavan doesnt seems to be working ...given no choice, I tried to sleep in a freezing cold car.... that night..... I hardly can sleep....

Day 3:May 4:
7:00am: We woke up in the bright sunny and fresh morning. The morning scenery is wonderful!!! I simply love it despite the cold of abt 2 degrees...
After snapping some photos, we move on to Franz joseph glacier...

10am: We stopped at hokitika town...a nice little town where we had our humungous breakfast each and bought a little guitar and irish whistle in D major. (which turned out to be quite useful in the later part of our trip) as well as the heater fixed.

4:00pm: We arrived at FJG and bought the tickets for the next morning glacier climbing... It cost us NZ$180 for both on a 1/2 day climb.....a drama series is abt to begin..

4:45pm: We decided to go to Fox Glacier for dinner..and Lake visiting... It was 21km from Franz joseph Glacier, probably a 20mins drive.

5:00pm: Our car clutch gave up on us. (-__!!!)
We called for help by asking the AA (*222), Automobile Association in NZ.,despite there were some nice guys who pulled over to help us to push the car to shoulder side of the highway and another guy who went back to FJG to call for help, though no one came back to us.
For self entertainment, we took out the guitar and whistle to pass time......

7:00pm: AA guy came and tolled us back to FJG, and we put up a night in the car first for tml's event.
That night we parked our car in Rainforest resort.

Day 4:May 5
8:45am: We set off to FJG, an exciting and life changing experience was abt to begin.
It was raining with drops of rains continuously hitting on me.
I had no idea of how a glacier looks like, hence, ignorantly I thought It was merely a rock climibing session.
Never did I realise that trying to balance on the rock and ice was so difficult. ZZ was trying to fix his ice talons while climbing up the damn high glacier. It was pouring hard. To such we are the last group of the day to climb up the glacier before the down side river begin to overflow and flooded the lower bank. Being unable to go back to the ground level, we were told that we have to be evacuate by helicopter! I tried boeing 747/767/777/737 but nv on a helicopter!2 mins ride, life time memory........

Day5:May 6

2Pm:Our new campavan finally arrived.Everything shifted from one car to another. (If I were to say this is for wat we deserve for having cheap air fare, this is not hte end of it.)
It took us 8hrs to travel to queenstown as we were 1 day lag due to the delay. The 1 night stay in QT is very uncomforatble. As we arrived at 10pm, there is no moto camp open for us to check in. We have to sleep in the car on the street. A miserable night.

Day6:May 7
6:30am:It was a wonderful and sun shining day in QT.We set off to deer park after breakfast to visit the lord of the ring site!Again, we lost our way for 1 hr plus coz we thought the "Deer park height" is a "heights", in singapore term, it's kind of like a condominium apartment to us. But the actual name of the park is call Deer park heights.We realised it only when we took a closer looks at the instruction of the signboard. Anyway, we went to the Lord of the Ring site which is indeed an ice cream to the eye... We had very close contacks with LAMA and Roosters and Mini Horses..... etc....

12nn: We went to Gondola where we paid $43 each with buffet lunch. A lunch which both us concluded that the owner prob is a singaporean as the dishes is so ....singaporean style.
At the top of the gondola, we are able to view the whole of QT. It is magnificnent. For once in this trip, I felt so happy but it only last for 1/2 day....

4:45pm: Our campavan is 20+km away from invergargill...we heard a loud bang from the bang of the car......and the car begin to sway......We stopped by the side and checked the tyre......sigh.......it had "exploded"....another 1 hr hiccup....We paid $25 for the change of tyre svc...
Enuff.....that night we checked in Belle Vista Motel at $93.....

day 7: May 8
10am: we moved from invergagill to geradine... The senic route that we decied to take is wonderfull. First we bypass Dunedin then to temuka. when we reached Temuka it was already 7pm. At 8pm, we reacjed Geredine.

we checked in Geradine Moto Camp and cooked that night. do our cleaning, bathed and dismentale our stuff of the campavan and we slept at midnight.

Day8: May 9 the climax

A disaster morning. As we were abt to leave the geradine in the mornin, we hit the roof of the cabin as we try to make a turn out of the area. As a redult, we had to pay the owner $200...
To make things worse, the roof of the cabin make a "hole" into our rood of campavan..... as a result, we had to compensate nz$1715 to the TUI CAMPUS, despite paying a $20*7=$140 bond (which waived us for paying them the spare tyre.....)
Worse of all, we didnt buy any travel insurance.
And the clutch issue on the previous car was still investigating on the previous car was whose fault, if it our fault due to overexertion to the clutch result in the tear, we have to compensate $1.5k in addition.
Sigh, perhaps things just happened for a reason.....

Hence, we decided, we were gg to put up one night stay in Sydney before going back to singapore (anyway the connection time between the 2 flights is too tight) and enjoy the last day of the trip!

Day 9: 10May -A one day trip in sydney

[[We put up at Travelodge in sydney at walk in rate of AUS$89 and had our dinner at the a noodle shop the day before when we touched down from chc. It was laksa and horfan........VERY NICE! ]]
In the morning, we set off by WALKING 2km to the sydney harbour and visit the opera house. I really enjoyed the walk. It was just brisk walking and we saw the hyde park where the ANAC (Australia and New zealand Army call) memoria is.
The whole street of Elizabath street is so cosmopolitian. There are more Asian than I expected.
The Opera House, despite being built in 1960s, still stands out as if it was a 21st century architectural building.

I wish to visit syd again......as well as chc...but i think I will only go straight to queenstown as the west coast is consider tropical season all year round. Queentowns makes me feel that autumn is really coming in the southen hemispere....

3:50pm: QF5 back to singapore.

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