Day 4 (29 Sept’09). Speeding in the city.Hard to believe huh, well you better believe it. It started as early as 7.30am to our next journey to Queenstown. We’ve booked the Milford Sound cruise and it departs from Queenstown early morning at 8.30am. The drive will take us approximately 10-11 hours or so, taking into consideration that we stop along the way to appreciate the scenery and take some photos (some??? Yeah right!).
OK! Back to the summon story. We lug our bags to the car, put all the food on the back seat, read the map and start our journey. Let’s just say that we both (or perhaps me since I was driving) did not pay attention to the speed limit (they observe it religiously here you see - GOOD! Unfortunate for me though) . Start of the journey in the right direction, we were looking for signages that say Hokitika, saw the first sign; but then kept seeing Christchurch via Haast Pass. Hem…..I was wondering. Where’s my Hokitika??!??! Saw 2nd signage and it’s still the same - Christchurch, aiks! Was there a sign that I’ve missed out? I asked Andrea the same question, and just about then, a police car behind me sounded the siren, oh no! Is it me? Yup! Little ol’me owight!
Got pulled over, and he told me I was speeding (I was like huh? I was freaking slow) and asked how fast was I, he said 63kph. I was like “okay… and how fast is the speed limit suppose to be?” he then said 50kmp. OH! Have you ever driven in KL at 50kmp on a Sunday (that was the amount of car on the street at that point and it‘s a week day mind you)? It’s super duper SLOOOOW…. In fact I thought it’s dangerous to drive this slow (BUT after a while I kinda gotten use to it - climatised!). Anyway, he summoned me despite I said I didn’t noticed the speed limit as I was busy looking for the road sign, he said I was on the right direction and that the there were a couple of signages along the way. Oh! REALLY? Serious??? Sure????? Saman aje lar…. By the way, damage = NZ$80 (an unique souvenir I must say). Told Andrea to help a look out for me as I have to concentrate on the road, traffic, road sign while trying to get use to driving in foreign land. You know lar Malaysia, we tend to ignore speed limit… sigh…
From Greymouth to Queenstown - an 11 hour drive. The longest drive I ever made in my live. In ONE SINGLE DAY. On FOREIGN LAND. NOT in my own car. I certainly IMPRESSED MYSELF. Good job Lily *pack on the back*.
The journey was an eventful one I must say. Let’s see where should I start? The drive was by the coastal at first or at least for the first 2-3 hours, then you will start seeing the lakes, didn’t for sea pic as we have take quite a fair bit yesterday. I thought we just drive fast and reach Queenstown to take a good rest. After a while, we figure… we need to take some pics right, we can’t be driving just by taking pics from inside the car (that was what Andrea was doing in the beginning the of the journey, poor girl!). We did our first stop at Ianthe Lake where most people do trout and salmon fishing. There is a space for campervan, I guess most people tend to do a camping trip as well during spring/summer time. Period now? Tail winter going into spring.
Off we head to the next little village of Franz Josef/Fox Glacier, stopped for bio-break, stretch our legs and do a little souvenir shopping and ofcos pic taking! This is the place where you do glacier hiking, helicopter/plane ride to see the mountains and glacier plus skiing. We suppose to do a terminal walk but the time doesn’t jive in with our plan. Sigh….
The day was a bit cloudy, so most of our pic during the initial part of the journey is moody. What a shame… Next stop was Knights Point, scenic view…. Really! Pics couldn’t do it justice…. The sea colour was magnificent and by then the sun has decide to greet us… ahhh….. LOVELY!
Later we saw this unique site which is called the Ship Creek, basically it is a sand dunes with lotsa of twigs and small watch tower hut. They also have a 30mins walking trail that can be taken. No. We didn’t do the trail, but it would have been nice if we were to do though. One of the places I enjoyed taking photos.
Then we continue our journey and stop over at Haast for another bio-break and lunch of which we made ourselves a sandwich and jom makan!!!!!!! Nothing much here, the stop took only 20mins or so.
Arghh….. Car need to be refueled! We refueled at Makarora and at this point we saw a land owner moving his stock from one farm to the other.
Hey! This is THE PLACE real New Zealand LIVE!, Apa lagi, kalam kabut turun kereta to take pics lar..
We saw this beautiful Lake (forgotten the name, will furnish once I dig more info), and decided we have to stop else we will regret it forever. 2 words - serene & tranquil.
Oh no!! How fast the time run, we have yet to reached Queenstown and we are in no position to drive here at night, with no street light etc. We then sped of to Cromwell, nothing much here but it’s the heaven for fruits and winery. Plenty of orchards and vineyard around, stopped over at a fruit mart to get some supplies. Took some of the road stretch as it was really pretty. Andrea drove from Cromwell to Queenstown which is about an hour or so as I was getting sleepy (it was 6ish at that point of time… been driving for the past 10 hours).
Finally reached Deco Backpacker in Queenstown on Man Street, fantastic view. We dumped our luggage and decided to walk into town to purchase a towel (terlupa bawak larr..). Managed to get one (hand towel-kecil saje) in nearby souvenir shop belong to a Chinese lady for NZ$4.50. Took some pics of sunset in Queenstown before going back to our new next for a good rest. Gearing for Milford Sound Cruise tomorrow.
Got pulled over, and he told me I was speeding (I was like huh? I was freaking slow) and asked how fast was I, he said 63kph. I was like “okay… and how fast is the speed limit suppose to be?” he then said 50kmp. OH! Have you ever driven in KL at 50kmp on a Sunday (that was the amount of car on the street at that point and it‘s a week day mind you)? It’s super duper SLOOOOW…. In fact I thought it’s dangerous to drive this slow (BUT after a while I kinda gotten use to it - climatised!). Anyway, he summoned me despite I said I didn’t noticed the speed limit as I was busy looking for the road sign, he said I was on the right direction and that the there were a couple of signages along the way. Oh! REALLY? Serious??? Sure????? Saman aje lar…. By the way, damage = NZ$80 (an unique souvenir I must say). Told Andrea to help a look out for me as I have to concentrate on the road, traffic, road sign while trying to get use to driving in foreign land. You know lar Malaysia, we tend to ignore speed limit… sigh…
From Greymouth to Queenstown - an 11 hour drive. The longest drive I ever made in my live. In ONE SINGLE DAY. On FOREIGN LAND. NOT in my own car. I certainly IMPRESSED MYSELF. Good job Lily *pack on the back*.
The journey was an eventful one I must say. Let’s see where should I start? The drive was by the coastal at first or at least for the first 2-3 hours, then you will start seeing the lakes, didn’t for sea pic as we have take quite a fair bit yesterday. I thought we just drive fast and reach Queenstown to take a good rest. After a while, we figure… we need to take some pics right, we can’t be driving just by taking pics from inside the car (that was what Andrea was doing in the beginning the of the journey, poor girl!). We did our first stop at Ianthe Lake where most people do trout and salmon fishing. There is a space for campervan, I guess most people tend to do a camping trip as well during spring/summer time. Period now? Tail winter going into spring.
Off we head to the next little village of Franz Josef/Fox Glacier, stopped for bio-break, stretch our legs and do a little souvenir shopping and ofcos pic taking! This is the place where you do glacier hiking, helicopter/plane ride to see the mountains and glacier plus skiing. We suppose to do a terminal walk but the time doesn’t jive in with our plan. Sigh….
The day was a bit cloudy, so most of our pic during the initial part of the journey is moody. What a shame… Next stop was Knights Point, scenic view…. Really! Pics couldn’t do it justice…. The sea colour was magnificent and by then the sun has decide to greet us… ahhh….. LOVELY!
Later we saw this unique site which is called the Ship Creek, basically it is a sand dunes with lotsa of twigs and small watch tower hut. They also have a 30mins walking trail that can be taken. No. We didn’t do the trail, but it would have been nice if we were to do though. One of the places I enjoyed taking photos.
Then we continue our journey and stop over at Haast for another bio-break and lunch of which we made ourselves a sandwich and jom makan!!!!!!! Nothing much here, the stop took only 20mins or so.
Arghh….. Car need to be refueled! We refueled at Makarora and at this point we saw a land owner moving his stock from one farm to the other.
Hey! This is THE PLACE real New Zealand LIVE!, Apa lagi, kalam kabut turun kereta to take pics lar..
We saw this beautiful Lake (forgotten the name, will furnish once I dig more info), and decided we have to stop else we will regret it forever. 2 words - serene & tranquil.
Oh no!! How fast the time run, we have yet to reached Queenstown and we are in no position to drive here at night, with no street light etc. We then sped of to Cromwell, nothing much here but it’s the heaven for fruits and winery. Plenty of orchards and vineyard around, stopped over at a fruit mart to get some supplies. Took some of the road stretch as it was really pretty. Andrea drove from Cromwell to Queenstown which is about an hour or so as I was getting sleepy (it was 6ish at that point of time… been driving for the past 10 hours).
Finally reached Deco Backpacker in Queenstown on Man Street, fantastic view. We dumped our luggage and decided to walk into town to purchase a towel (terlupa bawak larr..). Managed to get one (hand towel-kecil saje) in nearby souvenir shop belong to a Chinese lady for NZ$4.50. Took some pics of sunset in Queenstown before going back to our new next for a good rest. Gearing for Milford Sound Cruise tomorrow.
Credits : Wikipedia, Real Journey, Hokitika, Chirstchurch, NZ Transport Agency, NZ Fishing, Franz Josef Glacier Guide, Glacier Helicopters, New Zealand Holidays, Fourcorners, HaastNZ, Makarora Tourist Centre,
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