Windy Wellington, Palmerston North, Napier, Hawke's Bay

Have alot of photos but not in the mood to post it up so just did up one collage for the family.

Guess I am feeling kinda lost and confused about going back to Singapore.

On one hand I am looking forward to it, on the other hand it is as if these past 6 months have been a dream and now we are heading to the end of 2006 and the start of 2007.

Robert and his dad have been great to me and we been shuffling between Palmerston North on the weekends and Wellington on the weekdays.

And last week Robert's dad arranged for us to visit the famous Church Road vineyard and this really really nice place called Mission for wine tasting and lunch.

While picking me at Taupo they also brought me to see the Huka Falls and Craters of the Moon.

We also visited Napier which kinda reminded me of Tauranga with its sunny clear blue sky and palm trees.




This weekend we shall be visiting more vineyards again and it shall be my last weekend at their home in Tokomaru (countryside slightly out of Palmerston North itself) before heading back to Singapore next Friday.

Then it's goodbye to New Zealand.

Oh yeah got back my results.

Evolution of Jazz Music: A
China Civilization: A
Services Marketing: B+

Not too bad considering I was travelling in between my jazz and services marketing exam to Abel Tasman with Mallory. Heh.


Anyway here's a nice photo I took of myself which I think depicts Windy Wellington well enough. Apparently El Nino is the cause of this shitty weather in NZ right now and is responsible for NZ seeing one of its worse winter and spring weathers in quite a few years.

Guess it's just my luck to come here at this time then. Oh well!



And of course, a clean shaven Robert and me.

22 - 23 Novermber 2006: Sky Diving, Lake Taupo

Ok DEFINITELY the highlight of my trip and maybe even my entire stay in New Zealand so far.. SKY DIVING AT LAKE TAUPO!

Arrived on Thursday afternoon but weather was not suitable for sky diving and so was cancelled.

Tongariro Crossing was closed too due to bad weather for the next few days so it was a real bummer for us.

Didn't make things better when we realized that we could not all extend one more night at YHA because this weekend coincided with the Great Lake Taupo Cycle challenge and the whole town was fully booked accomodation wise.

I felt so miserable I spent the afternoon just feeling sian in my room and later in the evening forced myself out to take a walk near the lake.




Nothing I could do really but pray REALLY hard that the weather would be good the next day for skydiving else it would have been the FORTH time I failed in my attempt to skydive all thanks to crappy weather. And also that the hostel would have ONE last bed left for me to extend another night as I needed to stay till Saturday before Robert and his dad would drive up from Palmerston North to pick me up.

AND MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!

Weather on Friday was good enough to skydive and Junren and me got picked up in our limo to do a tandem skydive over beautiful Lake Taupo! AND! The hostel found one last bed for me to stay in an extra day! Wheeee!!!

Before I post up photos of my skydiving photos, here's some facts about Lake Taupo. I know this is boring but I think it would make more sense to know something about the places I am visiting before you see the photos as only then you would appreciate them more.

Anyway, from Wikipedia, here goes:

Lake Taupo is a lake situated in the North Island of New Zealand. It has a perimeter of approximately 193 kilometres, a deepest point of 186 metres and a surface area of 616 square kilometres.

The lake lies in a caldera created following a huge volcanic eruption (see supervolcanos) approximately 26,500 years ago. According to geological records, the volcano has erupted 28 times in the last 27,000 years. The largest eruption, known as the Oruanui eruption, ejected an estimated 1170 cubic kilometres of material and caused several hundred square kilometres of surrounding land to collapse and form the caldera. A Māori myth says that this eruption sent out so much ash into the atmosphere, that it blocked out the sun across the entire world for two weeks.

The most recent eruption, which occurred in 181AD, is believed to have ejected 100 cubic kilometres of material, of which 30 cubic kilometres was ejected in the space of a few minutes. It is believed that the eruption column was 50 kilometres high, twice as high as the eruption column from Mount St. Helens in 1980. This makes it one of the most violent eruptions in the last 5000 years (along with Mount Tambora and Santorini). It was sufficiently large, due to the ash expulsion, to turn the sky red over Rome and China (as documented in Hou Han Shu). This eruption further expanded the lake. The volcano is considered to be dormant rather than extinct. It lies in the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

Tourism is now a major business for the area, attracting over 1.2 million tourists per year. The fact that the lake is the largest fresh water lake in Australasia, and approximately the same size as Singapore ensures it is a huge 'must do' component to many tourists. Christmas and New Year Holidays are an exceptionally busy time of the year for Lake Taupo, with holiday makers booking up to 12 months in advance to avoid missing out.

The town of Taupo is hugely popular with events, one in particular that is held each year is the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge where cycling enthusiasts cycle around the lake, this usually take about 4-10 hours depending on the cyclist. Hundreds of volunteers from the Taupo township help out to ensure the famous event is a success



So I guess I was pretty lucky to stay on to witness the cycle challenge. It was nuts though. I was near the finishing line around 12pm and people have started to cycle pass it. When Robert and his dad came to pick me up, we had lunch at Hell's Pizza and stopped at Huka Falls and Craters of the moon and there were STILL people cycling back when it was already 4-5pm.

Yup. That is how long it takes to cycle around Lake Taupo. Amazing man these people.

Anyway! SKYDIVING.

OMG EVERYONE HAS TO SKYDIVE IF YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO OK! And picking the right location is damn important. When we first were told that we could not skydive on Thursday, I was really disappointed but Bec was comforting me, telling me that at the very worse, I could go to Wellington to skydive.

But honestly I am glad I did not have to cuz the view in Wellington is quite sucky and the prices are like almost $100 more expensive despite the not very nice view.

Skydiving over Lake Taupo was one of the most memorable and exhilirating experience I ever had in my whole life.. and honestly.. it is the ONLY way you should see Lake Taupo - from the TOP.. 12 000 feet above!

I thought I would be scared shitless but I was so happy at the thought of jumping that the only time I actually felt nervous was the few seconds Eric (the guy who was tied together with me to jump) was hanging me outside the plane door with nothing below me but clouds and air.

Then WHOOSE! Without warning, off into the air you go. Your ears hurt because of the ear pressure but instead of being overwhelmed but the pain I was kept reminding myself to enjoy and remember the moment and how I felt as I fell through the air.

The view of course was splendid as for once you really see how far Lake Taupo stretches and you really start to believe that it REALLY is as big as Singapore.

My DVD ended up being one of the best to, if Junren and the other girl who jumped before me are to be believed. But I think it was done well too as Eric made special effects on it and I was a cam whore and really hamming up to the camera so it made for good entertainment.

You have no freaking idea how pleased I am that I finally got to do my skydive as it was the number 1 thing on my list to do even before I came to New Zealand.. and diving over Lake Taupo? I couldn't ask for more.

Ok except maybe another jump someday. Heehee.

Photos captured by their cameraman as well as my video.






















And yeah, if you were wondering, it IS my spot of drool on the camera. Heehee.

Had a nice cheap dinner at some pub for like onlhy $10 which included a drink as ir was a backpacker's special and we retired for the night as the rest of the Singaporeans prepared to continue their trip down to Wellington the next morning and I prepared to stay yet another day before Robert and his dad would pick me up.





Ok. I must have did like 5-6 entries today and very tired now. Shall continue blogging another day. Byebye!

20 - 21 November 2006, Tauranga

From Wikipedia:

Tauranga is located at the head of a large harbour which extends along the western Bay of Plenty, and is protected by Matakana Island. The town and headland of Mount Maunganui stand at the entrance to the harbour, five kilometres north of Tauranga. "The Mount", as it is known, is often regarded as a satellite town of Tauranga.

The name Tauranga comes from Maori, it roughly translates to "a sheltered anchorage".

Due to its sheltered position on the east coast, Tauranga enjoys a warm, dry climate. This has made it a popular location to retire to. During the summer months the population swells as the holidaymakers descend on the city.

Now. If you look in any guide book, very little is written about Tauranga and most people would probably skip that area. However I am SO glad my curiosity got the better of me and I insisted the Singaporeans made a detour up to Tauranga from Rotorua instead of heading straight to Taupo because in my opinion, Tauranga is probably one of the most beautiful and loveliest places to live in aside from Christchurch.

The houses there are absolutely gorgeous and it seems to be a rule that all houses must maintain a well trimmed lawn which is adorned with rose bushes and sculpted tree or something. Pretty ridiculous man, sitting on the bus and watching rows and rows of beautiful houses.

But then again, Robert said that there are plenty of rich old people who retire and then live in Tauranga so that kinda explains the houses.

But the shopping there is pretty good with lots of modern and new stores. Not as many as Auckland of course but good enough to keep one satisfied! And it's close to the beach as well! And the beach has numerous cafes.

The one that we visited had really good food man. My calamari salad (which I decided upon after seeing Junren ordering it) was scrumptious as it was served with garlic aoili. And it cost only $13.00 despite the MOUTAIN load of calamari generously laden on top of the panfried salad leaves. Mmmm.. mouth watering just thinking about it now.

We went to two different beaches on two different days and this is definitely one of the more enjoyable moments for this entire north island trip.

Just really relaxing to lay on the beach watching the clouds passing by, hearing the waves crashing and just having very little people nearby to disturb you.

Yep. I have decided. I love Tauranga! =)

Oh yeah. Before we left the beach, we saw this really old woman decked out in her bathing suit and braving the icy cold water to surf the beach waves! Really admire the livelines of these people. We should all live our lifes like that!

19 November 2006: ZORB, Rotorua

According to the ZORB receipt, ZORB is:

A vigorous wash for the unclean, a cool drink for the thirsty and a revolution for the oppressed masses.

Now of course I don't believe all that bullshit but what a fun load of crap to print on your receipt.

Honestly I didn't want to ZORB at first because I thought it was a waste of money till we met Junren's friend, Alvin (who also knows Jiayu) at Coromandel. He was saying it was damn fun and we should all go... so I did in the end.

When I reached the ZORB site with Weihao and Liren, I still felt unsure as it looked kinda stupid and unexciting because the ZORB ball rolls down slowly... but decided in the end to give it a try anyway since Rotorua is famous for the ZORB. Decided to do 3 rides for $90 instead of 1 ride for $45 as it made more economic sense.

AND RIGHT CHOICE IT WAS!

ZORBING IS REALLY FUN!

I did two hydro ones which mean that warm water was hosed into the ball before you get pushed into a zigzag path and you get tossed around like you're in a washing machine before finally reaching the bottom.

And against the warnings from the guy, me and Weihao decided to let our last ride be a harnessed one which was a slightly rougher and bumpier ride. You see sky,grass, sky, grass as the zorb ball rolls and towards the end when you reach the bottom, the bloody thing BOUNCES... and that's when you go "WOAH! OUCH!".

BUT STILL FUN. EVERYONE GO ZORB OK. THANK YOU. EVEN QIANLING AGREES WITH ME!


WHEEEEEEEEE!

LIREN!

WEIHAO!

ME!

19 November 2006: Hell's Gate, Rotorua

Ok this was quite an enjoyable day for me with the weather being quite good most of the day.

Went to Hell's Gate (FINALLY) on my own in the morning to walk the geothermal park and soak in the mud spa and sulper pool alone as I was the only one who seemed interested. Some of them wanted to go church as it was a Sunday.

Well the Hell's Gate shuttle made a mistake and forgot to pick me up at the stateed time, leaving me waiting at the hostel for about 50 minutes but it all worked out for the best because:

1) Got to watch the Haka by the All Blacks as they played against France (and won!)

2) Beat the tour crowds as most of them started at 9am while I started at 10am and so didn't have to walk with tons of people by my side.

3) Even better it meant that I had the whole sulpher pool to myself. Heehee cuz the bus driver said he would take me back anytime I want as long as I am done since he was the one who goofed up. *grin*

Felt like a princess. Wheee.

Now for those who don't know, Hell's Gate is supposed to be Rotorua's most active geothermal area. And going into the park, I can see why. The whole place was bubbling and steaming away. I reckon someone can get killed pretty easily by falling into any of the pools.

For more information, do check out http://hellsgate.co.nz

18 November 2006: Wai-O-Tapu, Rotorua

First a short introduction:

Wai-O-Tapu is associated with volcanic activity dating back about 160,000 years and is located right on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera (depression) within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone. With the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Zone, the Thermal Wonderland is the most active part of the 18 square km reserve and has at its northern boundary the volcanic dome of Maungakakaramea (Rainbow Mountain).

It is an area associated with the immense pressures attributable to the Indian – Australian Plate rising and overlapping the Pacific Plate causing a fault line which enables heat from below the earth’s crust to radiate upwards towards the surface and form geothermal features. In basic terms beneath the ground at Wai-O-Tapu is a system of streams which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. The water is so super heated that it absorbs the minerals out of the rocks through which it passes and conveys them to the surface as steam where they are ultimately absorbed into the ground. The wide range of colours are all natural and are due to different mineral elements.

The uniqueness of the landscape is essentially attributed to land alteration through (1) Steam discharge (2) Acid-sulphate water (3) Alkali-chloride water.

- http://www.geyserland.co.nz


Day started out well enough with fairly good weather and the gang of us boarded the van that we rented to head to Wai-o-Tapu to see the Lady Knox Geyser as well as enter the geothermel reserve.

Some information on Lady Knox:

The Lady Knox Geyser In 1901 the first open prison in New Zealand was established at Waiotapu, its object was to accommodate some of the better behaved prisoners from around the jails of the Rotorua Lakes District. As an experiment, under the guidance of forestry experts, these prisoners were required to clear the light bush and scrub from the area and plant trees.

It was a gang of those prisoners who first discovered the clearing in which the geyser is situated and that the bubbling hot water spring could be made to erupt by adding soap. A fact discovered when they first used the hot water to clean their clothes in. Rocks were subsequently placed around the base of the spring to enhance the eruption and over the years silica from the eruptions has built up to give a white cone shaped appearance.

Named after Lady Constance Knox, the daughter of Lord Ranfurly ( 15th Governor of New Zealand) who visited the prison in May 1903, the geyser erupts daily at 10:15am reaching heights of up to 20 metres and can continue to erupt for up to one hour. The height and length of the eruption will, however, vary from day to day as they are essentially dependent upon weather conditions.

- http://www.geyserland.co.nz




I must say, I really enjoyed walking through Wai-o-Tapu even though the weather turned CRAP on us towards the last quarter of the walk and started pouring!!

They gave us an information pamphlet to explain the different craters/pools/etc so it was like geography come to life! And for the first time, I finally start to appreciate all the geog. crap I memorized for the '0' levels waaay back when I was 16 years old from the ever-so-thick Marianne Cheong physical geography textbooks.

Those who read Kenny Sia's blog will know that he went to the same place as I did. However he seemed rather unimpressed and made the whole place sound boring. But it is not so! And I really like the way they get creative in naming some of the formations like "Devil's Ink Pot", "Bridal Veil Falls" and "Devil's Bath". Makes the whole thing seems more fun really.

The famous champagne pool looked really nice too but the CRAPPY weather together with the steam coming up from the pool fogged up my camera real bad so some photos look quite misty and blurred. Sorry bout that.

Do enjoy the photos anyhow! =)












Visited the Polynesian spas in the evening where there were quite a number of hot sulphur pools to soak in.

Shiok.

But bloody lot of tourists man!

Also bought quite a few packet of Polynesian Bath Salts and Mini Mud Masks and soaps as gifts for friends.

No photos in this entry but I doubt you really want to see men and women of all different race, shape and sizes in their bathing suits.

But I must say though, being in the women's changing room which had no partitions and you see everyone's body, you feel slightly better about not having the overhyped, perfect model's body that are so often glamourized in the magazines.. because you realize.. those aren't REAL women's bodies. You want to see real, come to the changing rooms in Hamner Springs or the Polynesian Spa please.

Oh yeah! Met Qianling who was travelling around NZ after her aussie studies. Hehe! Nice to see a familiar face again and I got her to do ZORBING which was DAMN fun!


Ok on to tomorrow!

17 November 2006: Rotorua

Rainy crap weather so I didn't take any photos. No mood man.

We decided to rent a van to travel around Rotorua the next day and I honestly cannot remember what we spent the rest of the night doing as the weather was so bad it just put most of us off doing anything at all.

On to the next day!

16 November 2006: Waitomo

Waitomo Glowworm Caves is one of New Zealand's natural highlights.

World renowned and a magnet for both local and overseas visitors, the Waitomo Glowworm Caves occupy a high placing in almost everyones New Zealand vacation wish-list.

The Waitomo glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is unique to New Zealand. Thousands of these tiny creatures radiate their unmistakable luminescent light as our expert guides provide informative commentary on the Caves' historical and geological significance.

-Credits to www.waitomo.com



Yup. Bec and me went to see the glow worm caves which were pretty amazing but unfortunately, no photography was allowed. So if you want to see them, your best bet would be the website above or travel down to Waitomo yourself to see.

The guys did the legendary black water rafting instead. Bec and me didn't choose that option cuz the price was a little steep. Not very keen on tramping in dirty dark caves with water anyway. Heh heh.

There was also a car rally in nearby Hamilton and we spent the next morning watching the rally cars zoom pass one after another before setting off for Rotorua.

15 November 2006: One Last Dinner in Auckland

And we just went trigger happy!

Think Andreas (german) is finally learning our Asian ways of snapping photos. Hehe. He even poses with us now!

15 November 2006: Mission Bay, Auckland

The rest of the NUS people and Andreas are back from Bays of Island. Saw some photos and indeed the scenary was nice but I don't think I missed out on TOO much.

Feel really energetic and recharged after having some time to spend with myself over the last 2 days and everyone of them were commenting on how different I am since they returned.

Heheh. See? I know myself well.

Spent the past 2 days in Auckland alone just watching movies, chilling out at cafes and Borders and just walking alone on my own.

Had century egg porridge and red bean ice at this Hong Kong Cafe place which was really quite good! Yummy!

Cinema there kinda reminded me of Cineleisure. Caught FAST FOOD NATION on Monday and FLAG OF OUR FATHERS on Tuesday.





They had the airnz grab a seat game which people tried stepping around on the ground. I didn't do it of course heh heh. Trying to refrain from looking like an idiot.







Went to Mission Bay with the rest of the guys since the car rental wasn't due till 5pm. Had pizza at La Porscheta which was really bloody good. After eating pizza from these places, you really think that Pizza Hut and Domino serve CRAP pizza.

There. The 3 girls shared a medium pizza, half mushroom and half chicken for like $9.90 or something. CHEAP and DELICIOUS.




Oh yeah we parked in a place that charged $5/hr and they said they would tow away the car if the parking coupon was invalid. And bloody hell, they were not joking man. We saw one car being towed away. I reckon it would be a nasty surprise for the owner! Hardcore man.

Silly Junren spilled my Starbucks Iced Peppermint Chocolate over my jeans!! )@#*($)!@!!!! Luckily he caught me in a damn good mood.

Weihao has cool sunglasses. Heehee.

And I think I am a pretty good photographer despite having no training!

Random photos.

Leaving for Waitomo at goddamn early time tomorrow. Have to wake at like 6.30am to pack and wash up and catch the bus at 8.15am.

Hopefully someone helps me with my HEAVY bags.