Mt. Maunganui!

Greetings from Mt Maunganui, Tauranga. After spending a night in Auckland, met Aunty Serena.. we went down to Tauranga, to my sis's house at Mt. Maunganui. It took 4 hours on a Intercity Bus from Sky City, Auckland to Tauranga town.

A view of Auckland city at night

Had my first Fish N Chip, from the most famous one of course. Fresh Fish Market @ Tauranga. They have loads of other seafood menus..but sadly..im so poor i cant even afford to buy one lemon for my fish n chip! LOL.. just kidding..just saving money and enjoy the natural taste and flavour of the fish itself..

I've done some walking around the town.. and took some shots.. so, here it is.. enjoy!

Now this is Mount Maunganui!

Look how clear is the water here! and how blue!!

There's so many sea shells on the shore!! And the famous one, were the Paua shells..for it's wonderful colors! Paua, or Abalone is a local delicacy here, but i havent got the chance to taste it yet..

There so many paua seeds along the shore.. look!

And i also tried the famous ice cream waffles, called Super Waffles @ 6.90NZD!

and more to come, as i've conquered Mount Maunganui in 30 min hikes.. so, stay tuned for more photos! :P

Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier was one of the nicest place i've been so far.. (well, it's only my first week.. i expect more :P) The photo above was taken at Peters Pool.

We managed to get hitch ride in Greymouth (and it was difficult!) and we were lucky as one couple stops to pick us up and guess what? He owns few backpackers house all round NZ! He's Cedric, and we had an agreement to stay at one of his place if he give us a ride..yeah, why not! We went to quite a places along the way, visiting few lakes, do some shopping at Hoikitika, buying greenstones, and finally reach Franz Josef around 5pm. We stay at Chateau Franz, cost 21NZD a night and we do woofing, working 2.5hours a day for a night accommodation free! sounds great isnt it? my sister got to work as cleaner while me, as a photographer of his place. Sounds not worth it but well, i'm ok with that..

We stayed a night, and plan to go for a full day hike but it's full.. so we stayed another night and went for the hike the next morning. It cost 180NZD for a full day hike, and all the equips are provided, plus a complimentary hot pools entry.

We join the Franz Josef Glacier Guides company and it was one of the good ones there!

It took about 20min to reach this restricted area (from the parking lot)

And the guides brief us for a little bit and divided us to 3 different groups

and here we go, up up here we come..

long long way to go.. the duration to get up there is about 4-5 hours!

after 10-15min walks.. here's the ice!

Such a magnificent crevices!

What a glacier formations.. it changes all the time throughout the year

Look at what we walking on! Blue blue glacier!

And the stairs were made of that too!

What a view...simply breathtaking!

Look at the tiny guide in the centre!

and he is building some stairs for us..

Oh man... so blue!

walking through tight spaces..crawling under the ice.. it was quite fun and slippery!

and that was pretty much the highest point we can go.. :(

Such a nice hike..tiring for me though.. im OLD... :( and legs full of blisters from stupid Hi-Tec shoes and hiking boots.. pains in every steps. SHIT! It was a great experience though, who get's to climb glacier easily? You.. YOU can! just come over to Franz Josef or Fox Glacier in South Island, New Zealand! :P

New Zealand!!

Oh man.. cant believe im in New Zealand already... today is the 3rd day, where i could relax a little bit.. Let me summarize my first 3 days in NZ yeah,

First day..

It was kinda scary at one point, when im at KLIA. Jetstar send me a sms saying my flight from Singapore to Auckland have been cancelled! I was like, What the heck am i gonna do now??? It's all blank and panic for a little while, and i met few of those who had the same situation like me.. so, it was like.. okay.. great.. so we took the flight to Singapore via Jetstar, and check with the counter over there. Each of us got different flight and route to Auckland.. and i got Singapore-Sydney-Auckland via Qantas!! Wohhoooo.. although i reach Auckland few hours late than schedule due to flight change and transit, it was all worth it.. Qantas Airlines is superb! Big seat and leg space.. free meals... entertainment.. man, it was good! best thing was.. i dont need to pay a cent for this upgrades!

After all the flights.. finally i enter Auckland airport and thankfully, the customs were pretty easy going on me.. not much questions asked, and he said, i'm good to go! Phewwwwww!!!

Met up with my sister in Queen Street before check-in at X Base Camp for backpackers.. NZD25 per night!

Den it was all walking around Auckland town before we head out to meet my sister's friend, Uncle Robert and Aunty Lilian from Singapore. We got a good dinner at chinese restaurant called Friendship Restaurant!

And there you go.. my first day in New Zealand! Wonderful!!

Second day..

We woke up early, getting ready for my next flight to Christchurch at 1.45pm.. had my first breakfast at McD Queen St, and guess what.. the Big Breakfast sucks!! Dont eat that.. the sausages are smelly due to the pork over there are not castrated!

There goes my morning..bad breakfast.. LOL! So we head to the airport, hang out a while before our flight.. It was a beautiful flight! And i've finally see snows! Guess what, it was the first snow in over 40 years in New Zealand!!! It is crazy! We land in Christchurch at around 3 smtg.. called Kiwi BaseCamp for pick ups and we stayed a night there.. the staff there were very friendly, a guy from UK and we meet few other friends, from Germany, Brazil, Nepal, Scotland, USA.. nice first backpacking experience!

We walk around the town and well, it was pretty damaged. The guy at the casino told us, there were no more city center of Christchurch! Sobzz... many shops are close.. it is raining, with snows everywhere on the roads.. we walk back to Kiwi Basecamp before my sis's friends pick us up for dinner at another chinese restaurant. Not a bad meals except for a crap fish dishes... totally inedible... Chit chat alot that night before we went back for sleep because we got to wake up early for pick up to TranzAlpine trains at 7am!

Third Day..

We woke up around 6am.. had our quick toast and chocolate before waiting at the gate for pick ups.. The driver pick us up and also few others from various backpackers and sent us to the train station where we check-in and get our seat numbers, hop on to the train and enjoy a marvelous, breathtaking, crazy, one hell of a ride from Christchurch to Greymouth. It cost us NZD55 one way.. but the train ride is amazing, the sceneries.. phewww... u got to see it to believe it! Look at some of the shots i've taken..

LOOK at those photos!! hahaa.. well, sorry cos i dont have the time to edit all yet.. so, stay tuned yeah..

We reach Greymouth at noon.. and trying to figure out roads to Franz Josef. We walk for almost an hour, gosh, it was crazy! it's damn heavy!! Finally, we managed to get a hitch hike with one of the best couple, Mr. Cedric and his wife, Vicky. We had a good tour along the routes to Franz Josef, and bought some nice Paua ornaments and greenstones! So, how great is Mr. Cedric? he opens few backpacking centres around New Zealand, and we are staying at one of his, called Chateau Franz! It was a very comfy place.. im loving it right now.. updates coming soon with photos!

Colours of India

It's been a while i didnt update this blog isnt it? sorry guys.. pretty busy.. next month onwards, it will be filled with travelling photos, so stay tuned!

Last weekeed, we were invited by my ex-schoolmate, Raaj Ganesh to a photoshoot for Colours of India, a charity events by the Indian Society of Penang. Here's some shot of the beautiful models of all ages;

Rebecca