Land of the Long White Cloud

Day 2 (27 Sept’09). Aotearoa.

Get up really early and walked to the train station which is about 7 mins away - hem… our journey finally begin.
The flight was 20 mins delayed and NZ is on Day Light Saving Time; meaning we need to add one more hour - thus 5 hours different from Malaysia. And yet, we still arrive ahead of schedule, basically we were almost 1 hour ahead of time, perhaps no air marshal guarding the speed on Sunday (Andrea said)! Hahhahaha…..

The flight to New Zealand was smooth, lotsa of cloud (almost never ending), guess that’s why the Maori named in “The Land of Long White Cloud”; I couldn’t agree more.

But before I “story” my journey, we have one BIG worry - food that we plan to bring… will it go thru NZ immigration. We googled, read, asked around, everything we can think of, just to comfort ourselves. OK! No dairy (we all know that) product. My sis and I combed thru all instant noodle in Tesco strangely (not to our knowledge), most of the instant noodles are with milk (bet most of us not aware of that huh). Only few selected brands aren’t with (and those won’t be my favourite flavour). Sigh…

Touched down, went thru the immigration, passport was ok, when thru the “food declare” line, they confiscate my serunding (chicken floss), arghhh.….. As suspected. Gave in willingly. Instant noodle? LEPAS! YEAY!!!

We walked straight to Information counter, booklets on NZ was at abundance, I meant really at abundance!!! KID YOU NOT! (am still in denial on why not Malaysia do the same, something we should learn and adopt). Scoop almost the entire shelves (just kidding - only on South Island), of course my hand-carry bag is heavy like hell now. KIASU! Enquired on how to get to our accommodation and was told that we can take the shuttle for NZ$25 for 2 pax and it drop us in front of our backpacker in. GREAT!
Excitedly we reached our JAIL! SERIOUS! We managed to book ourselves at this place called JAILHOUSE ACCOMMODATION in Addington, Christchurch. It was a prison loooooong time ago until a couple bought it over from the government and change it to a hostel for backpackers. The place is really really cool. Will cerita to you guys much later as we will be back here before we fly back to Brisbane, then Malaysia. By then I will have more pics to share and will be able to tell you the jail story, in fact; will reserve one entry on this alone! Bet none of you stayed in a state prison before, in NZ (unless being forced to) !?!? Hahahhaa…… COOL HUH!
Reached the “jail” at 5ish, dumped our luggage, snap a few pics and went out to Park & Save to buy some bread to eat with Andrea’s goreng belado ikan bilis (chili anchovies - yeah! She got away with it! ENVY!). The lady said it’s a 20mins walk, and as we suspected 45 walk - Asian smaller maa….. Ahhahaa…..

Bought bread, water, Kit Kat dark chocolate and chips. Oklar to alas perut for the night. Reached the room, apa lagi, makan lar…. And multi-task ie doing some researches from those booklets we’ve just gotten, repacked out bags, warmed ourselves (sitting near the heater) and blogging (me lar tuh, ahhahaaa). Sigh….. Abit tired now as we have been traveling none stop switching countries and time zone, body aching - needed the much rest we owe ourselves. *YAWN*…. Heading to bad now.

But before that, which one would adek Fatin like?

Journey to the Middle Earth

Day 1 (26 Sept’09). The journey begins.

Woke up superbly early, ahhh…… my journey to New Zealand. We took MH flight to Brisbane and book Sir Richard Branson flight - Virgin Pacific to Christchurch (I just have to mention RB don’t I).

Fooling around with the Andrea’s new toy and thought this will be good profile pic for my Facebook.

Played with my darling camera, random snap shots of my nonsense - iPod, took a pic of my shoe and the changgih camera owner (boring maaa). We slept through out our flight to Brisbane as we hardly enough sleep - must be the excitement.By the way, I just realise, the food served not only have a HALAL sign but they also have a logo for Kosher, hemm… interesting. Aside from that, they also indicated that they don’t have peanut (for those with allergy) but is baked in the same oven of other products with nuts. Other then that, we were served the normaly airplane food lar, no biggy.
Reached Brisbane close to midnight as we have to transit in Sydney (without us knowing). We stayed one night in Brisbane (reach at nearly midnight) at Brisbane City Backpacker. Took a 6pax per dorm as we were just staying for few hours before we catch our next flight to Middle Earth.

ZZZzzzz…

Credits : Brisbane City Backpacker, Virginblue, Wikipedia

Stress - haven't pack yet!

Stresssssssss……

Haven’t pack yet, so far am at 3 pairs of shoes - (1) Timberland/Adidas for walking cum hiking (2) slipper for shotover ride and (3) ballerina shoe for Il Divo.

Sigh.... Great! Just great! 2 weeks of traveling and am only at 3 pairs of shoes, I believed some attire are required during this trip (!?!?!), but which one? what to wear? when to wear? will it look good on the pic (very crucial here as I don't have the $$$ to go NZ again for retake if it did not turn out "A" OK) …. Now with all the office work that I need to finalise, approve and clear… I don’t have enough time to pack….

ARGHH!!! Anyone care to help? For RM20? Ehhehehee….

Cheapskate!

Sigh….. Macam mana ni…..Ok…. Focus Lily! Let's just do this and get it over with!


1. Grey short dress that I bought recently - saving for this trip - Christchurch
2. Purple mini dress from F21 - wear with legging - Mount Cook/Twizel


3. Green ala Laura Ashley dress for Il Divo (woohoo!)
4. I Heart Malaysia for Shotover ride or in Queenstown - mesti promote Malaysia babe!
5. Blue checkered skirt with blue turtle neck at Greymouth

**Hey… am on the role here…… finalizing my attire in my brain, now need to figure on executing it, RM20 - anyone? Heheheh….**

6. Red checkered skirt (feel like Scottish) with black turtle neck - Christchurch
7. White floral dress for Arrowtown
8. Legging with ??? Top (haven’t figure it out - sigh..) Milford Sound cruise.
9. Legging with ??? Top for don’t know whichever day….


10. HRC Fiji first day in Brisbane

11. "Mister Men and Little Miss" blue top for Goldcoast HAPPY day trip
12. "I like to travel" turquoise shirt on one of the days lar...
13. Must bring - Liz C sweater and jacket.

This should be it for now… will try to pack on Friday night…. but for now?

Zzzzzzz

Kiwi-land must get Souvenirs

Just announced that Raya is on Sunday, and this year our family prepared and started early. All done up ready to go except that my sis need to fold the clothes she washed early this morning. And..... she is putting beads on her NEW baju kurung and thinking of DIY a hair band - very ambitious. Apa-apa lah labu….

Wanted to go to bed but then I got an “inspiration” to blog… macam real, not much just on magnets. Anyways, I have this list that I must buy min of 20 souvenirs for 20 pax and this excludes my sis, mom & bro’s family. In total about..let say… 30 items…. Plan to get fridge magnets for all.

The thing is, I already have a few plush toys fridge magnets from few countries, and was thinking & hoping NZ have Kiwi plush toy fridge magnet - perfect for my lil’collection. YEAY! Or or or…. Perhaps of a sheep :D

I know and remembered I have few of Kiwi-land fridge magnets given by friends traveled there…. Need to make sure I don’t duplicate these, thus did a little digging and found all 3!!! Of NZ x2 and Rotorua x1. Hemm… now my task; if possible - magnets from Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Mount Cook, Milford Sound, Greymouth, Picton, Brisbane etc etc…

Too bad they closed down HRC in NZ, I collect them as well, shirt and shot glass, guess I'll lack of one country then.... sigh.



Other then this…. Hemm… ideas?

Credits: Wikipedia, Flickr, Giftbasket

How prepared am I for NZ?

Sigh….. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT READY! Wished I have 1 more week. Loads of work to clear, and half the month gone to my trip during the last month of my co.'s Q409 cum FY09 closing. Bad timing huh! It was well planned earlier on but I guess the marketing activities is so fluid that now I feel bad going for long hols. Nahh….. I bet the guilt will last me for 1 day ie until my feet touch the next country. Muahhahaha…….and my work? You guys “chap sang” lar… MUAHHAHAH *a more evil laugh*

Seriously, how lar….?

OK! Lets see what I’ve done and try to stay positive (note the word “try”). What I have accomplished so faaar? Hemm...
1. Booked all accommodation except for Mount Cook, not sure whether to stay at Mount Cook or Twizel. Getting Andrea’s feedback on this as well…. My opinion - Twizel, Why? The name is CUTE! (ada ke pulak)

2. Accidentally book wrongly (ie extra one day) for Wellington, need to drop an email to inform them… revised the spreadsheet which was done earlier. My bad! :(

3. Booked TranzAlpine and TranCoastal, and the TranzCoastal tix is a direct journey from Christchurch to Picton, and ferry ride from Picton to Wellington. YEAY! Taking ferry.

4. Booked Noah’s Backpacker in Greymouth, hopng to get either the penguin or zebra room… *wish wish wish* and I get to see my Pancake Rock ROCK!

5. Confirmed seat on Milford Overnight Cruise to see the fiords. No expectation instead am keeping my expectation open (!?!?! what are you trying to say here gurl?)

6. THE BEST - SHOTOVER JET…. Need I say more. SOOO BOOKED!

7. Andrea’s favourite - Il Divo concert tix in Christchurch - done by hers truly.

8. Brisbane’s Brisbane City Backpacker in front of Coles…. Heaven.

9. Gold Coast - consider it approved!


Hey.... Not THAT bad, I think I am on the right track…phew….

Credits : Newzealand.com, Transcenic, Realjourneys, Citybacpacker, Shotoverjet, Dosomethingdifferent, Notjustthekitchen, Hostelworld, Skyscrapercity, Imajicon

New Zealand Mind Gathering

I told myself that I will blog the countdown of my trip to “The land of the long white cloud” or Aotearoa; Maori name for New Zealand. I thought I should start now since I just finished my blog on my trip to Morocco and Spain, can’t do any blog now except local trip as I probably need 1 or 2 entry kinda thing.

I will be leaving to NZ almost 1 week after Idul Fitri, this time around no traveling during fasting month - did this for Morocco/Spain trip as well as Italy - tiring (but save on dollars though). I roughly have the idea on how and what to blog but to pen it down…sigh… MALAS with a capital M A L A S ! (exclamation mark lagi tuh!). After a glass of teh tarik (which normally keeps me wide awake - shouldn't have drank this = WRONG MOVE! Tomorrow is a working day pulak! ARGH!!!). Suddenly mood and ideas datang mencurah curah like beribu ribu lemon! Must be the teh tarik.

Sigh….. Many sigh to come….

I haven't packed my luggage, haven’t decided on which luggage to bring, let’s not start on clothes, and accessories (!!!), HAVEN’T EVEN BOOK accommodation!!! Awww man! This is the most last minute trip I have ever done, wait a minute - did similar for Hawaii, aahhh….. That explains the panic attack. The only thing that is ready is my passport and toiletries (as I have them on standby at any time, beats the packing and unpacking).

OK! OK! Let’s thing positively. I have my backpack ready with my NEW collection of Stitch name tag (ehhehe…. Distinctively CUTE huh!). Then there’s my new passport Stitch cover (Yup! I know! It’s cute - I bought it at Petaling Street for RM4.90 ONLY! PROUD!) We got that out of the way. Oh! I have a pouch with my name on it too. A must brag. Hahaha…..

What are trips with my favourite traveling book - DK Eye Witness; loads of visual (hate those with too much text, hey! Am on a trip, I am NOT going to do that much reading. DUH!) Also bought an “Insight” map, very comprehensive… HAPPY!

Oh! The must remember to bring - air suction bag, travel adapter (bringing 2 different type - KIASU), utensil set, extra luggage tag & medicine/first aid set (panadol, counter pain, ENO, charcoal pill, bandage, vics, minyak angin, nail clipper (how did it got in there), sanitizer, vitamin C and mosquito repellant.

Next! GADGETS! This is rather standard for all my trips except for one new item - my new VIVIENNE TAM Limited Edition HP Mini Notebook. Since I have started to blog, I might as well try to blog daily during this trip, plus I need to do some work lar… (what else is new right…). Other then this, my PSP, iPod Nano, Canon Ixus Camera and thumb drive. I foresee that my luggage will be heavy because of all these and not due to my winter clothing. Sucker for technology!

Oh! I rather obsess with my gadgets “clothing” as well, I wanna have it properly “MATCH”. Seriously, I would much prefer to have all my gadgets GREEN (my fav colour) but I can’t seem to find a green PSP or notebook (die hard HP brand), so I settle for earth tone - brown. My notebook gets all the “ang ang” colour = RED.

Not sure whether this is being practice by many people, but I have few purses for each country’s currency (depending on how many countries I touch per trip lar), this is easier to manage so that I won’t get it mixed up (did that those days before Europe became ONE, a mixed up between Swiss Franc and French Franc, HELL! Learnt from that). And as how it should be for me - all GREEN purses…ahhahah…. Usually uses the M & Keroppi, the one with circle was purchased last year during my Bali trip. Perhaps I could officiate it during this trip? Hemm…

Biggest problem, we doing a transit of MH to Virgin Blue (low cost carrier)… meaning form 30kg to 20kg of luggage weight. My gadgets alone will weight a lot and take a lot of space. So…… which luggage? My GREEN Benetton “L” size or should I loan from my sis her orange “M” size (orange = sis favourite colour). *ponder*. To decide when I start packing.

Shopping bag! I recalled being charged for using super mart plastic in Sweden, didn’t know it’s chargeable - 25cent our currency and I got 3 plastic bags…. That 75cent. I shall bring and protect Mother Nature! The thing is, my foldable blue bag or purple OZ bag? Hem…. Choices! Choices! Choices!

Hemmm… what else, oh! oH! OH! Since I will writing postcards for my nieces and family members (it’s a habit), my sis bought me a Stitch stamp for my “bird-day”…. ehehehheee…. bringing it along.

There’s 3 things am not sure whether to bring or not to bring…

1. torch light

2. Lomo camera

3. External HDD

Next, what to wear… to bring… to pack?

Credits : Wikipedia, MalaysianAirlines, VirginBlue, DK, Pendrive, Canon, Apple, Sony, Lomo

Home Sweet Home

day 13 day (Sept’07). Reality Bite.

Depart from Casablanca to Malaysia via Dubai. Reached Dubai at about midnight, did a little shopping while waiting for the flight, then obviously we walked all over the “tiny” transit island and found out that all the wall clock are of Rolex brand. We were like “WOW!” Talk about rich country!

Oh well! Took the flight home, slept the whole trip. Reached Malaysia with minimal jetlag.

Oh yah! Almost "ter"forgot. To answer my 1st entry question on my trip buddy. Love TRAVELLING with her (was wondering should the word “love” be in caps or “travelling” instead….hemmm…. doesn't matter as we will be travelling again soon).

Till the next trip.

Adios Barcelona

day 12 (Sept’07). Heading East.

Sad to leave Barcelona, wish I have another few weeksss of leaves. Anyway, we drag our heavy heart and our super heavy luggage to the bus stop to airport (they have a bus stop for buses to airport. WOW!) Then the usual drill; look for counter, check-in, and wait for our flight to Casablanca. Oh yah! We have to stay one night in Casablanca as our flight is from Casablanca, transit in Dubai then head home to Malaysia.

We stayed in the same hotel in Casablanca, didn’t do much, walk around the medina while waiting for break fast time. One thing we did find it different as compared to the last round we stayed were here was that the locals were happily singing after dinner hour till midnight. WOW! Where did they get the energy!?! Envy!

After the break fast, we lepak; browsed our pics, check-out what we have purchased and tabulate whether is it sufficient or whether we need to buy more at the airport. CHECKED! YUP! ENOUGH! Phew… Sleep time...zzzzz...

Back to reality.

Credits : Wikipedia, Skyscrapercity

An afternoon with Antonio Gaudi

day 11 (Sept’07). Last day in Barcelona.

Before I came to Barcelona, my sis told me about Gaudi and what a wonderful & unique & talented artist he is, one of a kind. I did Google and saw his “weird” architecture; it didn’t thrill me at the point of time buuuut definitely unique. No doubt about that. I was excited to a certain extend but unable to manage my expectation, read thru his art piece of the houses, hemm…… ok, let’s just see what he has to offer I thought to myself. An early day for us again, took the Turistic Bus, head straight to Casa Batllo; our first stop of the day. One glance (more like a stare) at Casa Batllo, I know I can write 1 entry JUST on it. He is AWESOME! SUPERB! MAGNIFICENT! ……. EVERYTHING!

We rented the “mobile tour guide” in English (of cause), hemm… interesting; apparently the whole house was purposely built without any corner ie square corners or sharp edges. How the hell is he going to do that right? That’s what I thought as well. Guess what, HE ACTUALLY DID! It was base from a “SEA” concept. Yeah… ok… proof! Well, the ceiling for one is circled like a whirlpool, and then there was the balcony window that reminds me of Little Mermaid in Atlantis home, the balcony itself? It was colorful with a mosaic art that look like broken mosaic put in a very pretty way. The stair case area was in blue which make one feel as if in the sea.

We followed the crowd to the rooftop. We walk thru this section of spiral step all of white. They have beautiful rounded arches with French windows, despite the area was empty somehow it gave a pure serene feel. Sigh…. Dreamy.….

Oh boy! Are we in AWE! The white spiral staircase looks clean and innocent, thus not knowing what to expect form the roof top. *Suspense*. Reached the top finally, ahhhhhhhhh………. LOVE IT SO MUCH, colours! Plenty of them, and them chimneys!!!!!!!!! I half expect Mary Poppins to drop by anytime somehow.

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey

Chim chim cher-ee! A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be

We then took a joy ride and passed by another one of Gaudi’s masterpiece - Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, but decided not to go in and view (tix were rather pricey too). The architecture from outside is as good as Casa Batllo.

THIS is the BEST PART of Barcelona - Sagrada Familia (Temple of the Holy Family), Gaudi’s everlasting work is yet to complete even after his death. It has been constructed since 1882. It is mentioned that the building works are expected to be completed around 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death, but I doubt it will be ever ready on time. Well… we’ll just wait and see, shall we?

After all the buildings we been visiting, we thought we should cover something different - a park (my favorite - plus zoo!). Our standard mood of transportation - Turistic Bus, next stop - Park Guell! Another great work of our darling Mr. Gaudi! Wow! He built everything huh! Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia overlooking Barcelona & the Mediterranean Sea, was built from 1900 - 1914 and recognized by UNESCO World Heritage Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí". I seem to be covering a lot of UNESCO for this trip. YEAY! Aside from that, it’s really beautiful and I highly recommend people to visit this place.

Before we call it a day we manage to cover 1 more place of which I need to get souvenirs for my brothers at home - Fútbol Club Barcelona (FCB). Errr…. Not much of a football fan as you can see, jus stop over to get souvenirs, and NOPE! I couldn’t get Real Madrid goodies here! Tried - FAILED! Gotten some Barca magnets, lanyard and etc for the boys back home.

Last but not least, we manage to catch Flemenco performance near La Rambla. We were captivated by the dance move, the music beat and the passion of the dancer & musician. We had our Spanish dinner and proceed to another restaurant for the show.

Never been in love with a country as much as this (of cause I love Italy too), and Egypt and India and Sweden and…. Haahanah).

Well, need to start pack as we're heading home tomorrow.

Heading home.

Credits : Wikipedia, Sagradafamilia.cat