Kia ora New Zealand

Back from NZ!

Still recovering from jet lag.Woke up at 1am plus yest (6am in Nz:normal waking up time) ,took my nap at 4pm (9pm:near sleeping time...) woke up at 7pm!it should be 5:/(12am in NZ )

So trying to tune the body clock...its 10 plus now and the drowsiness is wearing of a little...n everyone is sleeping already

The country is totally beautiful and spectacular

Picturesque (resk) views...
Amidst the occasional dozing offs in the bus..

Green pastures
Suffused with dots of brown, yellow, red and two bobbing black
Then a splash of BLUE!30min

La er la la er la la er la la

La er la la er la la er la la

Black Cows..White Sheep

Scorching Sun Biting cold

(Stupid sweets...oh so sweet I miss..its hard for some to stop in the midst of getting what they want...so they stop you instead)

Jewel in the palace

Perfect...

To be continued?

Followed Magic...so met many other cool young backpackers

But being kinda quiet and yellow,had little conversations:p

Brief overview:

6/02:Changi Airport:love the airport!epitomises excellence...warmth from home!

7/02:Sydney transit...Christchurch :Short peek into Syd but couldn't do much cause I was so lethargic due to the lack of sleep in the plane.Fascinated by the loads of Asians I saw there..globalisation.The roads are excellent for people like me..who have yet to learn driving and are easily confused as to where to look.

8/02:Grey Mouth:Sat the TranzAlphine from Christchurch...scenic route. Sparked my love for sheep and cows.If only my camera can zoom like those gigantic black ones.Saw this guy next to me having an excellent picture of two sheep.

9/02:Franz Josef:I wonder how Josef is now...Anyway wondered how the 'fit' and 'adventurous' me actually scaled the Franz Josef glaciers!Gosh...they had us divide ourselves into 4 groups in order of decreasing fitness and ability to scale.And we got ourselves into the 4Th group to discover that we had almost all the Asians in that batch and a group of am(kinda think they wanted to be in 3..but the group had too many people already...Our guide was only wearing a T-shirt and jacket please..cant believe he does that everyday?Rock cum glacier climbing career...almost unheard of here

10/02:Queenstown:Milford Sound...The cruise was great...though kind of cold..from this day I started wearing 7 layers in summer...The waterfalls were breath taking and the cruise even went so close that you could feel the cold water splashing on you...cam died then but by that time I had already taken enough shots (seals)

11/02Dunedin:Cadbury Choc Factory!It was an eye opener...they told us how they make choc eggs which were empty within..some magnetic trays thingy..and if you asked questions they would actually reward you with more samples...so there was one like 'why is Cad bury purple?' haha...lame..some royalty colour reason.Got loads of NZ only chocs for tasting but not really a fan of chocs...only for Crunchies...

12/02:Tekapo:The lake was so blue it looked unreal at times..but it was the best lake in the whole journey...Went for star gazing at night.Wanted the Mt John one but ended up going to Cowan's Hill due to persuasion from this other visitor.We viewed the stars using a 14 inch telescope...which was really huge was and humongous...one even taller then me!I had to stand on the step to look through it!Saw the Alpha Centaurus (have doubts about the spelling) the brightest star, then Beta something, then the 'rhombus','jewel box', 'cancer!" it is actually the faintest constellation so kind of sad that I cant really see it..then the inverted 'dog','saucepan' ,Saturn with its orbit,a moving satellite with astronauts in it and the BRIGHTEST MOON!LIANG!ILLUMINATION!..

this hker actually exclaimed "ho cheng chor ah'...and before we knew it they were talking about rabbits on the moon,chang e...Wanted to snap some pics before we left...and stupidly on my camera and the LCD was the totally blinding in the absolute darkness...and snapped... FLASH!my gosh went on the second time even though I tried to off it and it was totally embarrassing when the astrologer said 'you cant capture stars with the flash (smiley face) now we know how bright the LCD screens are"...0:0 (totally embarrassed face! luckily it was dark!)

and there was this noble astrologer from Japan who actually wrote a proposal to UN on conserving the areas available for star gazing around the world cause the areas are fast diminishing due to urbanisation.Thought it was noble because his own home country has already lost a site and he is fighting to preserve the others in NZ.All the buildings in that area actually had to comply with regulations to use 'not-so-bright' reddish orange lights...so it was really a superb example of community spirit in achieving a common goal....

Anyway the astrologer said something about Spore..not really able to view most stars form here as it is too bright and near the equator..so hmm... not much use for a telescope(haha)!

Indeed intersting to see people having careers like an astrologer..which is almost impossible and unrealistic here..he studied for about a year in Cowan''s hill before moving on...passion....

(best shot of the moon and a few stars)

13/02:Christchurch:Went to sit the tram around the city..they actually had a Chinese Lantern Festival to celebrate the end of CNY...they had the face changing thingy..but there wasn't really an expected reaction till he changed like 5 faces:?

14/02:Kaikoura:Actually meaning 'meal of Crayfish', had my best dinner there after walking along the peninsular.Waited for 40 minutes!this couple ordered before us and finished and our food hasn't arrived...but worth the long wait! absolutely fresh and tantalizing!

15/02-20/02:North Island...Wellington,Napier,Mount M, Auckland.It was much less fun then the south but the weather was hotter so better for me..liked Auckland the best ...City life. Bought Min ties in Auckland.San Yi's sweet...It's here even when you are gone...I remember vividly how I feasted on them when young..I only wanted one but temptation got in and think I ate like 10 in a row or sth..maybe that explains my week teeth now...

On the return flight to home..Kris world had a prob..so drinks had to be served many times...was started about 45 min into the flight..then I couldn't watch the movie I wanted...then I couldn't hear anything on the headset except for muffled sounds..then headset was changed but it still didn't work..then I had to plug the handset in the empty seat next to me for the audio and look at my screen to watch the movies:/but nevertheless the 8 hour flight was still fine for a SIA supporter:)

Going to FB the other pics and have decide to put only an album to prevent overdose.

ok bye...

cant believe Mon is coming..korw!gosh.

holiday withdrawal symptoms

Kia ora NZ.

Luv

Yl