Destination one, Queenstown

I've wanted to see the snow, touch the snow, being able to ski and do many other unimaginable stuff....on snow. Seems like everything is so pure and white....and fun. Can't explain the feeling, but seeing snow (in the movie) gave me warm and fuzzy feeling. It was years ago, when I was just 5 or 6 years old. Years pass and not one opportunity to see the snow came. I know I had to act if I want to start to tick my list (my list consist of bungy jumping, swimming with dolphin, climb mount everest...no..not really), so about 4 months ago, I've planned my next travel destination and it had to be a snow country. The closest and the most possible one is New Zealand so I contacted my sister and she agreed to go with me. Here I am now, in Queenstown. One of the most beautiful city in New Zealand.

I boarded the plane on 28 June at night and arrived at New Zealand the next day at around 10 am for a stopover in Auckland. I didn't have enough sleep on the plane last night and the night before, I studied for my exam. So it's a suffering comes in complete package because I love my sleep and I couldn't get any for two the last two days. I arrived in Queenstown suffering jet lag and backache (for trying to sleep on the airport bench), as if it's not enough, the weather in Queenstown was bad when the plane was scheduled to land. So we were flying around in circle for another hour, waiting for the weather to improve. My attitude was change in a matter of second, from mesmerized by the view below (snow covered mountains) to "Get me out of this...(beep)...plane!"

But my spirit quickly soar when we finally landed. I saw the sign "Welcome to Queenstown" and thought, I can't believe I'm here! As planned, I catch the shuttle to the hotel. During the trip, the scenery was amazing. Feels like I'm in Switzerland or Austria and it's only the island next to Australia. We drop some people in their hotels along the way and I thought, Man, this is far...this is the middle of nowhere...and then things start to improve. I started to see more people, more shops and...my hotel, right in the middle of the town centre!

This is the view from my hotel room. (I know it's a bit dark, but this is the best shot I can get, ok?)

As if it's not good enough, when I see my room, it's facing the river. The famous Shotover River...and I'll get to see it everyday. Now, we stayed in a backpacker, but our room was the one with bathroom and can be occupied for two people only. Backpacker price with a million dollar view! It doesn't get any better than that. The down side was the other guests who didn't get this view tried to get a slice of our good fortune too. Because our balcony can be access from the hotel's entrance, the other guests were using it to relax, have a chat, smoking...etc and they did it mostly at night. We can hear them chatter while we try to sleep. Why is everything so good has to come with a high price? Even though it doesn't always come in the form of money.

Anyway, I decided to explore this town while waiting for my sister to arrive (her flight was from Melbourne and four hours behind my plane schedule). My...this town is really small. After half an hour, I got bored walking along the same street again and again. I collected as many attraction brochure as I can while walking along the town. One thing for sure, I'm not wasting any time here. Starting tomorrow we have to do something already.

That night I opened my luggage and found....no hairdryer! Omigosh...how could I survive without hairdryer?

My one minute moment of fame

Bad hair day, day 1

I couldn't wait to hit the ski slopes, but yesterday's jet lag was still there inside my body and I realise that if I go skiing today, I'll screw the whole experience. So I booked a relaxing scenery tour to Milford Sound. In Perth, I've done my homework so I know Milford Sound is a must visited place and it's not dissapointing. Several people from the hotel were going to Milford Sound too and we had to be ready at 6.15 am. It's no holiday people...it's a travelling experience to see the world (what kind of holiday require you to wake up at 5 am?). Beside I still have to get used to the idea that I wasn't able to dry my hair this morning, so it's gonna be a bad hair day moments, until I have the time to do some shopping.

The bus was five minute late and after that we still have to pick up some people from other hotel. We suppose to get a couple from a certain hotel but when we get there, they were not on the pick up spot! The bus driver had to stepped down from the bus, went to the reception and even knocking on their bedroom door (what the...?). The driver forgot to close the door when he went inside the hotel, so we all sat on the bus freezing. When this people finally board the bus, the whole bus were staring angrily at them (they made us waited for 15 minutes). The girl enter the bus looked down embarassingly but the guy waved at us cheerily and said, "Sorry about that, everybody!" Sorry...my bum!

Anyway, we continue the journey while listening to a very talkative driver telling us story about the legend of lake Wakatipu and other facts about New Zealand. New Zealander is very protective about their country's cleanliness. The driver said, you can do anything in New Zealand but trash the country.

Along the journey, I saw patches of snow on the side of the road and I got excited. First time I see the snow! Can't wait to touch it! We experienced a typical New Zealand traffic too. A bunch of cow were crossing the street and everyone on the bus were busy taking their picture, including me.

Along the way, we stopped several times to appreciate the beauty of nature. We stopped to see this snow covered mountains (forgot the names), to walk inside a forest and to see this very clear lake...so clear it reflects the scenery of its whole surrounding. No wonder it's called Mirror Lake. We are so spoiled with beautiful view, even from my seat on the bus I can see through the bus's glass roof and watch the mountains all the time.

On one occassion, we saw a Kea (a bird about the same size as cockatoo) walking on the side of our bus. This Kea is the most hated bird in New Zealand because of its obsession to tyres. Most people wouldn't dream of leaving their car if they know the place is inhabited by Kea. This bird shreds tyre to pieces, leaving you stranded because of your broken tyre will prevent you to continue your journey. Of course, this bird is equipped with a very strong beak. This is the picture of a supposedly green Kea, but this one is covered with mud so it's a bit brown.

Then we reached Milford Sound. Basically Milford Sound is a collection of mountains with water falls. These mountains are made of solid granite, no trace of soil can be found on them. Best part is they all sport one or two water falls that comes from the peak, down to the sea below. Some mountain has permanent water fall but some only have them when the frequency of rain is high. Some of the mountains has names, one of them is Mitre Peak. Don't ask me about the other's names, I totally forgot. But we haven't got to the best of the best part yet. We boarded the boat and the journey began.

I sat at the back of the boat at the beginning of the trip, eating my $ 2 lunch sandwich and watching this million dollar view. Then I got bored and start to explore the boat. The boat consists of two compartments, two storey boat. First I went inside to where the comfortable seats are, then went out and went to the bottom part and finally settle down at the head of the boat watching it slicing the water. No one's around, they are all inside try to get themselves warm. Then suddenly the driver announced from the speaker that he spotted a school of bottlenose dolphin ahead. Everyone rushed out and try to position themselves to get the best view. But I already occupied the best spot. When the boat got closer to the dolphins, the dolphins spotted us and swam closer toward the boat.

Talking about intelligent animal...three dolphins swam in front of the boat and they adjust their swimming speed with the boat speed. When the boat started to speed up, they increase their speed too, swimming faster. It was a real joy watching these creatures. I've never seen something so incredible like this, and they are wild dolphin too, not some well trained dolphin in Underwater World. I was able to capture this moment with my video camera, then some people saw a pair of mother and child seals. Unlike the dolphins, they didn't approach us and swam further away from the boat. After the boat crew explained to us that the chance to see all those animals were actually very slim in this cruise (only happened to 20% of the trip), we felt so lucky. There's another cruise to Doubtful Sound, where the chance to see the animals are higher than the cruise to Milford Sound, because that cruise is specifically design to spot them. But we get to see both, the mountains and the animals, good, eh?

We spotted another animal, yellow-eyed penguin on the land. The boat tried to get as close to the penguin as possible, but my camera still wasn't able to capture this animal's picture. But we had enough fun anyway. So we continue to enjoy the mountains. One of the cruise company crew were capturing all the sceneries with his video camera and when he saw me and my sister he started to talk to us. Cliche questions like, "Do you enjoy the trip?" and "The dolphin was quite a surprise, was it?" blah...blah...blah...He saw us taking each other's pictures and offered to take picture of both of us (using my camera, of course). After a while, he hesitantly asked us if we can perform some act for him because apparently his job is to make an advertising video for the company. So we did this silly act for him, he asked us to point toward the mountains and show anticipating and exciting faces. It feels awkward at first but then we start to get into action and give him this oscar worthy performance (yeah right!).

Here I am, in one of my bad hair day moment and was asked to be in promotional video. I think I will stop brushing my hair one day and someone will sign me up to do a movie right away, how's that....Worth to try, eh?

Jet Boating

Bad hair day, day 2

This is a must do activity in Queenstown. Everyone who has visited Queenstown always recommended me to do it. The famous one is Shotover jet and the boat will take us to the maximum speed of 80 km/hour accross the Shotover river canyon. Now...it is exciting....if you dressed up properly.

The company lent us a waterproof jacket. Then they told us that if you have sunglasses that are not loose when you put it on, wear it. I thought, well, sunglasses are unnecessary, it's just a minor gear. While in fact....it is the most important thing to wear....! At least for me!

Then the ride started and that's when I realised I need my sunglasses. I started to cry and I was scared the wind will blow my contact lenses away. 80 km/hour, for goodness sake. My eyes were resemblance of broken tap throughout the whole trip. But that was the only killjoy during the whole 1 hour trip, I totally enjoyed the rest of it.

We are not allowed to bring our camera on the boat, which is fair enough, because how can you take pictures when the boat is moving in such speed. The things that I saw along the river were amazing though. Rocks covered ice, forming stalagmite shape, tree branches sprouting out from in the middle of the river, covered with ice too. Awesome!

The skillful driver took us for 360 degree spin several times. He gave advanced warning before he did it by waving his right hand and pointing it toward the sky. I knew what to do when the signal came, hold on tight, girl! His skill were proved so many times throughout the whole trip. He drove so close to the rocks on the right and left of the river, I thought we're going to hit it. Other passengers were screaming too when this happen. It was exciting, but I reckon it will be better to do this activity in summer. You don't have to get scared you'll thrown into the river because it will be warm (oh yeah, and might hit your head too), but at least your face won't be frozen by the end of the trip (or during the trip). The driver told us about the history of the company and how much they have to pay the government for the whole year ($ 1 million NZ), about how the boat operates and we saw an old machine that was used to be used to strain water in search for gold in that river few hundred years ago. Welcome to Queenstown equivalent of Klondike, ladies and gentlemen.

The driver tried to talk to us several times and expecting feedback, but not surprisingly, no one feels like talking. "Rather quiet, aren't you?" he asked and someone answered, "We're frozen." It was a struggle to talk when your face is freezed, it's hard to move your mouth too and when finally you can talk, the words sounded so out there. Like a one year old who just started to learn to talk. Well, ladies, we might find alternatives to botox here.

History is not written on a gold plated paper...with a gold pen!

Bad hair day, day 3

Today is the day in the life of Maya that will be marked as history. History is about to happen and it's right here, right in front of my eyes. I'm going skiing!! I'm gonna touch the snow!! History is about to be made. I've waited for this moment all my life, as a little girl who wanted to build a snowman, and as a more stylish adult that thinks, If I'm gonna touch the snow, I'm gonna do it in style! Skiing sounds good though...yeah, I'll do that one day.

So, here I am, in queue with hundreds other skier and snowboarder, waiting for our shuttle to take us up the mountain. This small town is crazy about snow. Everywhere you see, especially by the end of the day, around 5-6pm, are people carrying their ski gear or snowboard. It's like a cult, it's like they're all born with built-in winter sport radar in their brain, it's like they don't know what to do if there's no such thing as skiing. Wicked...!

Yesterday, I circled the town in search for the best deal in skiing package. The busiest place was Snow Centre. They're always full of people who wanted to get their lift pass, shuttle pass and other passes related. Also gear rental, of course. Very important! I decided to go with majority, I've no experince in skiing, so whatever looks crowded, that's the place that people trust the most. I booked for a one day ski lesson package (almost go for 2-3 days, but luckily I didn't) and the next day I'm all set to go to Coronet Peak.

Coronet Peak is the closest ski resort to Queenstown. Take half an hour to get there and apparently it's the trendiest ski place in town because it's the only place where you can do night skiing, under the blanket of stars (or whatever other advertisement flyer say). Looks like other people had the same idea and as a result, we are all stuffed inside the shuttle to go to Coronet Peak.

I was watching other people while on the shuttle. Some are wearing gloves, some aren't. I tried to predict how cold can being in the snow get. But the closer we get to the mountain, more people were seen putting on their gloves. Once again, just go with the flow.

Then, here we are. In Coronet Peak. I felt lost though. There were places for clothing hire, gear hire, etc. I got the whole package, so which one should I go first? After a few wrong turn, we were finally on the right track. I have to queue to get my pants and jacket, I have to queue to get my feet measured (to get the correct ski shoes) and I have to queue to get my ski...and my poles...and get scanned as well. Can't they provide a conveyor belt like a supermarket cashier so I don't have to walk around carrying all the stuff that's getting heavier all the time. Then there was another drama with the locker as well and I began to think, I had to go to all this trouble just for skiing, it better be worth it!

We were told to wait near the Ski lesson meet here sign. After a few more people joined in, the instructor arrived. We get divided into groups and we all set to start our first lesson ever.

I was watching other groups when we get our lesson and I was thinking, we are moving too fast! There's another group who start its lesson a few minutes earlier and suddenly they were behind us. Our instructor seems impatient and wanted to finish the whole lesson as soon as possible. She wasn't watching when we perform our ski technique and without waiting for the whole group to finish its lesson, she moved on to the next lesson quickly. When we were dismished to play around by ourselves and were told to come back for the next lesson, I've made up my mind not to go. There's no point.

I keep going up and down the hill and the worst part of all was waiting for the lift. There are hundreds others who wanted to go up too. That's the number one ridiculous. Number two ridiculous was I still haven't mastered the technique to stop and I wasn't in a private mountain where there was no one's around. I'm in the public mountain and barriers are everywhere (in the form of people). So here I am, sliding down the hill, knocking people off the ground. But what can I do? Stop skiing? I'm not that crazy....Worst part were the shoes. It's killing me! I've never been in so much pain before in my life. I was thinking, people who ski regularly must be mad. I wouldn't call it winter sport but pain sport and how can anyone enjoy a sport with so much pain in their ankle and feet. Second worst part, every time I fell, I saw my legs were twisted and bended in a way they've never been before. That doesn't mean I'm flexible, because it hurts like hell. It still surprise me that I didn't come home to Australia with broken leg.

During lunch time, I wanted to take off these shoes from hell when I remember that my own shoes is in the locker and my sister got the key (We were separated). Omigosh...I so wanna scream! So I tried to forget the pain in my leg and eat my lunch. Well, it wasn't easy when you have this bear trap strapped around your ankle, tearing your feet apart. Walking was hell and going up and down the stairs was super hell. And it suppose to be the most anticipated day of my life....very nice!

After a few more round, I decided that enough is enough, got change and was so relieved that I was able to take these bear traps from my feet. I found my sister so I can get access to my own comfortable shoes again. We were on time to catch the last shuttle to leave the place. In the hotel, I check my ankle and not surprisingly found blisters all over them. They look so bad, like someone literally scratch my ankle with barb wire. Gosh, it hurts! There's only one thing in my mind, if I can't master skiing, there's only snowboarding left to do. Either I can do that or I'm not made for winter sport. Geez, am I not glad I live in a place where it's sunny most of the time, even in winter...

Gondola, Luge & Kiwi Weka

Bad hair day, day 4

The one thing that you can found in either North or South island is gondola ride and luge. Gondola is quite self explainable, it's like a cable car that take you for a ride (in this case is up to the mountain) and enable you to see the scenery around from the inside. Luge is a scooter like...or bicycle like (even though it doesn't look like a scooter or bicycle) thing, no engine installed inside it and it moves by riding it sliding down the hill. Totally polution free and must be greenpeace approved transportation type. This two things are a must do if you're in New Zealand because it's like the signature activity of this island.

Anyway, we decided to go up the hill one day for the luge ride. The fee doesn't cost much, but the ticket guy who welcome you to the gondola will take your picture and on your way down from the hill, you'll be able to view your picture, already printed on nice glossy paper and comes with other extras like Queenstown scenery calendar or self-portrait postcard. Then you have to pay $ 30 NZ if you want to get them. O yeah, the joy of tourism business, because tourist will buy any souvenir that catches their eyes. That includes us, and when I got home and opened the package of my gondola experience, I was thinking, "Why the heck did I buy this? I don't even look that good in the picture."

When we got on the hill, we were hungry so we had some light lunch. The price is good, considered they are the only restaurant on the hill and the food wasn't taste that bad either. The view that you can see from the hill is a real bonus. After we feel ready, we brace the luge ride. First, this thingy that looks like a lift in the ski resort will take you up to the higher part of the hill (before that they will ask you to put on a helmet....a bicycle helmet), then you choose a luge and start to slide down the hill, first timer has to ride on beginner track first. After that, they can be allowed to slide on advance track. It's really simple, but honestly, it was quite addictive. I just want to keep going back up and ride the luge.

After that, we went to a Kiwi Park (I think that's the name...I forgot the exact name), and got some Kiwi culture therapy. First introduction is the animal of New Zealand. The oldest and the ugliest one is Tuatara. This iguana like creature is the only reptile that actually live with dinosaur before. I forgot how they manage to stay alive while all the T-Rex was frozen (was it?) and died. They can live up to 300 years, well that's the oldest tuatara in the bird park, imagine if they live longer than that. Anyway, the keeper of the bird park showed us some more creature and it includes a giant pigeon (It's as big as chicken....and it's fat too. Imagine how yummy it is if you cook it). And then there's an Australian bird (Rainbow Lorikeet) and this bird has been trained to put rubbish in the bin. Impressive! We also get the chance to see Kiwi bird, which is so rare, they're almost extinct. This poor creature is so weak when they were chicks, they got eaten by possum, dog and other natural enemies. An adult kiwi is actually quite big and strong, as big as chicken on steroid, and they can defend themselves from their enemies. Kiwi bird is nocturnal, so we can only see them in the nocturnal house. We are not allowed to take picture too.

Then we explore the park with self-learn audio provided by the park and end the journey by feeding some ducks in the pond. Good, eh?

Still in the park, we watch this Kiwi Weka show, where the Maori dance and sing their traditional culture. This 2 girl 1 guy group were performing a little bit of Haka too, even though girls don't usually do Haka. I would really like to watch Haka performed by New Zealand's rugby team, All Blacks. It's gonna be so good. When they were scheduled to play the Wallabies in Christchurch, we were there too and what we need to do just buy the ticket and watch the whole game. But I don't understand rugby, and if I only will enjoy the Haka, which they normally do in the beginning of the game, what will I do for the rest of the game. I don't even know how to count the score, so I banished the idea entirely. Watching the Kiwi Weka show reminded me why I came to New Zealand in the first place. I want to learn other country's cultures, and doing a lot of activities enable me to listen to a lot of myth and legend which help me understand how a country's cultures is shaped.

Minus 5...literally!

This is our last day in Queenstown and we decided to make the most of it. Our original plan was to go paragliding, but as it's been predicted yesterday, the weather was crap. So we booked a farm cruise tour to visit a place called Walter Peak. We boarded this old but stylish boat, TSS Earnslaw, I don't know what TSS stands for but seems like every old boat's name start with TSS. O well...

On board was very nice and comfy, there was piano recital and food and drinks are also available. The whole boat was set up like a restaurant, so if you want to enjoy this 45 minutes journey, the best way to do it is by getting yourself some warm quiche and a cup of hot chocolate! Best of all, the view was spectacular. Everywhere you see is snow covered mountains. After the long and pleasant journey, we arrived in Walter Peak. A farmer met us there and started to guide us toward the animals. We saw some sheeps and of course the farmer's sheep dog followed us around everywhere. Then we see this fury cow that aparently come from Scotland, once again, I forgot the name....Scottish cow? Maybe.....

Then we enjoyed an afternoon tea with homade scones, some funny looking cakes I've never seen before (but delicious) and stayed inside the warm old style house near the fire while watching the snowstorm (not a big one). Too bad I can't capture the snow with my camera, the snow was too fine....

After enjoying all that treats, we went back to Queenstown. It was freezing when we stepped out of the boat, but since it's our last day, we force ourselves to go to Minus 5 bar. I've eyed this bar since our first day in Queenstown, because this bar is not like any other bar. Everything inside the bar is made of ice! That's why the room temperature is kept on -5 to preserve the ice inside. You have to wear this special jacket provided by the bar...unless you want to catch pneumonia.

You can stay inside the bar for a maximum of 30 minutes and first I thought, what?! NZ $25 for half hour? What a rip off! Then again, it's always my big mouth who speak first because I only last 20 minutes there. For NZ $25, you get a glass of cocktail too, not bad...!

The whole bar was decorated with ice sculptures. There were eagle, ram, even the bar itself where we get the drinks from were made of ice. The chairs were made of ice, there's a clock inside a block of ice (it's ticking too, it's really work!) and your glass were made of ice. We were told to hold the glass with both hands otherwise it might slip and broke. We stayed inside the bar for as long as we could and tried to take as many pictures. But as the cold started to sink in, we left the bar in a hurry and glad that we are outside this refrigerator. Overall, we rate our stay in Queenstown as superb. Imagine if the weather is bad everyday, we couldn't go skiing, jetboating or other outdoor activities. Provided it's winter time now and the chance of snowstorm could happen anytime, we were really blessed this holiday.

Quad Biking, on Snowy Hills...Awesome!

We spent our first day in Christchurch by wondering around in the city. We're trying to get to know this place a little bit and it's a relieve to find out that the food price were not as expensive as Queenstown. For $5, you can get a decent meal already. By day two, my body was aching for more exciting thing to do. I missed out on riding snowmobile in Queenstown, so I tried to do that in Christchurch, but no place offered that kind of activity. Then we settled down with quad biking. The place to do quad biking was not in Christchurch itself but in a small town called Hanmer Spring. If you think Queenstown is small, you should see this place. You can walk from the end of the central town to the other end in five minutes. Omigosh!

Took two hour to get there, and when we arrived, the quad biking won't start until another 3 hours. Nice! What can I do in this place now? We tried to get ourselves warm first, so we went to a local bakery and stayed there as long as we could. It was raining too and I thought they're going to cancell the quad biking trip today but when the time came and the woman from the quad bike company picked us up from the information centre, we soon find out that nothing stop her from going quad biking. Even if there's hail storm at that time, she'll still going. She brought us back to her place and from there we drove another 15-20 minutes to the hills area.

The lady's name is Karima and together with her husband, she owns the quad bike company. She's 40 years old but she looks 30, best part of all, she is retired and doing this quad biking thing just as a retirement activity. She was working in an oil company in middle east, and this kind of job always pays a fortune. Long story short, she spent most of her salary she earned on this company because she was totally addicted to quad biking since the first time she rode one and wanted to do something fun when she retired. Karima also told us that we came on the coldest time ever. It hasn't been this cold in New Zealand for ages, in fact, last year was so warm they didn't open the ski area. Thank God, we came on the right time. It will totally defeat the purpose of coming to New Zealand during winter time if I can't go skiing at all. Karima was helped by a boy named William. William's from London has worked for her for ages and he was really good at what he's doing. He rode a funny looking car (forgot what kind of car it was) and his job were preparing our snacks and taking our pictures. Our own personal photographer? This activity couldn't get any better than that!

Karima briefed us quickly about what we're going to do and she let us tried the bike for a few minutes to get our body get used to it. Just for Fun fact: This is the same kind of bike that Ozzy Osbourne fell off from. Riding this bike, we need to move our body with the bike rhythm, don't be too stiff or you'll fall from the bike when it climbs the hill. The bike itself won't topple down, but you will if you're not flexible. After we feel confident with the bike, our journey began.

It was raining and I only wear one layer of socks. I had to wriggle my toes every now and then just to check that I haven't got frostbite. Apparantely, we're going to the river too and I'm thinking, are they nuts? It's freezing cold in here. I don't mind going to the river in summer, but in winter? Well, we were wearing water proof jackets and pants, but...still....

By the end of the day, I only wet about 15 centimetres of my jeans and all my toes are still in their place. It was really really fun, the rain didn't dampen our spirit. Karima and William guided us really well. They themselves are passionate about quad biking, so you really feel the difference if someone does something with passion or does something just for the sake of...money, maybe? We saw so many breathtaking sceneries, sometimes we saw a cow or two passing by. We covered a lot of area on the hills because there were only two of us on that tour so we don't have to wait for too long when the time to cross the river came. There were 12 people the day before and yesterday was snowing hard. Today we got rain, but the snow from yesterday still remain. I've never seen something so beautiful, my snow adventure holiday turned out better than I expected. Going inside the river was tricky but fun and my bike was once stuck inside a deep snow, Karima and William had to pull it out.

Then we had picnic too. William has prepared some sandwiches and biscuits for us. Imagine, we had picnic...on the snow field! This is the best activity we've done so far. We even get to choose between coffee, tea or hot chocolate and we ate all the food using the back of William's funny looking car as a table. William is only 15 years old, but...man...he is as responsible as an adult (even some adults are not very responsible). Several times during the trip to the hills, he warned Carima that the rope to tie the bike was loose. I've never seen a 15 year old behaving like that before. To think that he prepared our meal too....wow! Now, why can't my brother behave like that when he was 15?

After that, we had fun throwing snow balls to each other. According to Karima, we are lucky today because you can form a ball with the snow. Sometimes the snow is too soft you can't form anything with it. I don't know much about snow but I just love the fact that I finally get to be in the snow war!

We did some more round around the hills then we head back to where we left Karima's 4WD. This trip ended too soon. If only we had more time, but we had to catch our shuttle back to Christchurch in time or spending the night in Hanmer Spring, which I'm not so looking forward to it.

We sped on the way back to the central town and after quickly took the quad bike gear off, William escorted us back to the shuttle stop. Karima came a few minutes later, handed in the disc with our biking adventure pictures in it. This day has been fun. I credited the whole thing to God (for creating the whole breathtaking views and sceneries), Karima (for guiding us so well) and William (for preparing the snacks, doing other bits and pieces and taking our pictures, you're a champ, man!). One thing for sure, I have to come back one day and doing it again....in summer!

Snowboarding anyone?

After the traumatic experience with skiing, I had to think twice before deciding to book myself for a snowboarding lesson. But then again, I'm in New Zealand now, I'm near the snow!! I don't want to go home with regret knowing that I haven't tried snowboarding, so I went to the only travel agent I know that organise a snowboarding package. Unlike Queenstown, where you can just go to any shop and book yourself for skiing or snowboarding trip, that kind of thing is not thriving in Christchurch. In fact, when I was wondering around in Christchurch central city, I saw no other travel agent organise a skiing/ snowboarding trip except the one that I go to. The only place I know and the closest one to Christchurch is Mt. Hutt, so I told the girl who booked my package that I want to go to Mount Hutt. The problem is, Mount Hutt was closed temporarily because of the bad weather. Ok, what to do now? The travel agent girl told me that I can go to another skiing area, Porter Heights. What is this place? I never heard of it. But, I had no choice, so I paid for everything and was told I had to be ready by 6.30 am for my pick up the next day.

The next morning, the shuttle came late, I had to wait 45 minutes for it. Come on....don't you think I have something more important to do...? Like getting extra sleep? Anyway, we're off to Porter Heights and it takes two hour to get there. This is not Queenstown where they can transport you to the mountain in half hour, but no prob!

Anyway, when I got there, the first thing I notice was, where are all the people? Coronet Peak was full of people, literally there were thousands there, and in Porter Heights, there were hardly any. Actually, I was a bit happy with that fact, because then not many people will see me making a fool of myself like I did when I was skiing. But the other not so fun fact was that this place looked abandon and not as high tech as Coronet Peak. No wonder it's cheaper to ski here. Coronet Peak has a huge restaurant and bar area and huge ski/ snowboard hire spot. The ski hire area here is as big as my living room and there is no changing room. Well, there's toilet but, come on....the floor was wet! It's cold in here, okay? Can I at least get a dry floor to get change? Anyway, I have to stop acting like a spoiled brat now, just focus on the fun ahead, ok?

Fun? I'll find out soon....

The tour guide was very helpful. He helped me tied my snowboard shoes (which is very tricky to do) and he even take care of my stuff and keep everything in the van. All I have to worry now is to find out whether snowboarding is better (or worse) than skiing. And when he asked me whether I've skied before and I said I sucked in skiing, he said the first time snowboarding is harder than skiing. Oh thanks, I came with no confidence and I've nothing left now!

After I put on all my gears (which is not an easy thing to do with my frozen hands; putting on three layer of pants, three layer of tops, not including the jacket, beanie, gloves and finally, my goggles), I made my way to the Lesson for skiing/ snowboarding meet here sign. Luckily, snowboard shoes are very comfortable. It's like wrapping your feet with pillow, unlike ski shoes that literally wanted to tear your feet and ankle apart. I got a few minutes to play around with my snowboard and when the instructor arrived, I felt ready. The wind didn't help though. Several times, it pinned me to the fence around the snowboarding area. Without those fences, I'll be sliding toward the cliff by now.

The instructor was super nice, compare to the one in Coronet Peak. She tried to remember all our names (there were 6 people in the group) and gave compliments if we can do the move correctly. Snowboarding is so much better than skiing, I totally enjoy the whole day. It was tiring and most of the time I had to pull my feet from the snow. Sometime the snow can get so deep up to my knees. I got more bruises today than I've ever got in my whole life, but who cares, as long as I have fun. The fact that not many people go to this place helped too. I can get more chance to get the lift to carry me up the hill. Too bad, I can't get many pictures taken. This one on the left was taken by stranger who was standing near the lesson area. I was hesitating to ask him to take the picture, but I don't want this moment to go without any picture. So there you go, it sucks actually having this picture because I want a picture when I was sliding down the hill, but hey....it's better than nothing.

I'll never forget this day, one day I'm coming back to do more snowboarding. One thing I learn, the place doesn't matter. The less the people, the better. This place is not as good as Coronet Peak, but I had more fun here!

Christchurch, the Garden City & Antartic Centre

I reckon, Christchurch is like Melbourne and doesn't take a genius to figure out why this city is called the Garden City. This city is so art oriented and there's even trams. Our hotel located opposite the art centre and if you're visiting Christchurch, this is one place that you have to visit (according to the travel brochures). So we went to this place and saw many arts and handmade stuff that I don't understand (I'm not normally like this, usually I enjoy looking at arts. It must be because I hit my head when I did snowboarding, it alters my whole taste on arts!!), the only spot that I understand fully is the Fudge Cottage. You can go around the factory with a guided tour and see how the fudge is made. The fudge is really yummy!

We'll fly to Auckland tonight, so we visited Antartic Centre on the way to the airport, which is just next door to the airport. This is my second time here and this place hasn't changed much. I went in to the snow room where the temperature was -3 degree celcius and it was conditioned like the real Antartica base camp. There were snowmobile, tent, igloo even snowstorms (what the..?). Yeah, we can get inside this room at certain time of the day where a snowstorm is scheduled every half hour. This man made storm wasn't so bad actually, the hard wind that wasn't even considered as storm when I did snowboarding at Porter Heights was even worse. We're not the only ones who were laughing throughout the whole storm process, other people were laughing too.

Well, it wasn't just the no braino things that we did in Antartic Centre, because the purpose of visiting this place is to learn how life is in Antartica. Bad Maya! I also learned that the coldest temperature ever recorded in Antartica was -89 degree celcius, so cold that when you go out from your base with normal clothes you'll die in one minute. See, who says you can't learn from watching movie? Stuff like The Day after Tomorrow really happen. And apparently in you live in Antartica, your hair and nails will grow twice as fast than if you live anywhere else in the world. Anyone desperate to have longer hair? Or can't wait for your next visit to your manicurist?

The highlight of this visit is the Hagglund ride. We can ride this amphibian snow vehicle, only not on the snow but on this big muddy ground. Close enough! Feels like riding roller coaster, especially when we climb up and down the hills. We drove accross a big hole just to prove the point that this vehicle won't fall inside the hole. Of course if the hole is bigger than the vehicle we will all fall inside. Just reasonable size hole, ok? Then on the last round, we went into the water. The driver made sure that all doors are closed properly and locked. The last thing we want is this muddy and cold water to wash over us. This vehicle is really handy. Imagine if you drive on frozen river and suddenly the ice crack and the whole thing fall in the water, you'll float straight away. Wicked...! But, this thing is no V8, ok? So in the water it has the same speed as duck paddling.