Salam wbt and hello all.
How are you guys been doing? I hope
you all are doing fine. I am doing quite awesome honestly.
I just got back from my vacation in
New Zealand. It is a great place really and beautiful as well.
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| Stopping at Lake Tekapo |
I think I will create at least two
or three entries regarding my trip to NZ. I planned for a vacation in early of
July while I was in Doha. I did not know where I want to go for vacation, but I
want to go for a travel. I haven't travel for quite a while so I was so
thrilled to go for an adventure. Hahaha...
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| Waiting for boarding the plane - Air Asia |
I don't know for sure how I can get in touch with my very old friend, Nabila but I call her Paan. Maybe I saw her quite active on FB sharing stuffs then I asked her straight away her holiday. She said end of August until early of September, around 2 weeks. To me, that's about nice time. 2 weeks in NZ and another 1.5 weeks in Malaysia.
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| Paan, so down to earth person. |
Then, the process of getting
holiday approval and planning for journey begun. I just planned my travel to NZ
and Paan planned for things to do there. All I told her, I want to travel all
over NZ and do bungee jumping. Doing the jump has been on my mind since I was a
student but I had limited resources back then. Hehehe....
There were doubts initially whether
I will make it or not as the journey will be nearly 25 hours involved of 2
hours transits at many airports. The chance of missing the flight is high and
also I had concern about the jetlag and affect of long travel on my body. I
don't know, as this will be the longest travel I have taken so far.
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| View while tramping on Hooker Valley. Yep, that's the name of the place. |
Finally the day has come. I was downmanned from the rig early morning of 22nd August.
Phewww... From the plan, I should
start my travel on 23rd August from Doha.
23rd Aug, Original plan => Doha
- Jakarta - Denpasar - Brisbane - Christchurch
Actual plan => Doha - Jakarta -
Denpasar - Malaysia/Rumah emak - Melbourne -
Christchurch
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| Eating Nasi Lemak while waiting. |
Delayed flight from to Denpasar,
led to miss flight to Brisbane subsequently unable to make it to NZ. Also,
being alone in Bali at night was quite not good experience as the same taxi
driver kept tailing me around. And, limited options of flights/routes from Bali
caused me blurred/lost as the next flight to Christchurch is in the next two
days.
Well, I don't want to stay in Bali
while waiting. I don't feel safe being alone in Bali. Thus, I bought ticket to
go back to KL straight away.
Get on the flight go home, thinking
maybe this is not my time to visit to NZ. At home, my mother/emak encouraged to
not to cancel the plan. As she knows I was so excited for the vacation and
there will be none there to accompany me if I want to come later as Paan will go
back for good. Finally, rebooked the flights. This was on 24th August. (Ah
man...money money money. I need to work harder once I finish the vacation)
On the next day, I started the
journey to NZ. It was exciting and nervous as well. My mother sent me to the
airport and packed me homade Nasi Lemak. Huhuhu...
Alhamdulillah I safely arrived in
Christchurch on 26th August at 5AM. Paan picked me up from the airport and went
to her place. The road trip will start around 10AM as she will need to pick up
the rental car.
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| Feel like crying looking at this view, so pretty. |
So, there were 7 of us and she
rented a SUV. It should have a bigger car like Estima or van but we made it
work regardless. Hahaha...
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| We managed to squeeze everyone into this awesome SUV, believe it or not. This is brand new car, 0 KM. |
The plan was to travel on South
Island first then go to North Island.
I think I will write the itinerary
in Part #2. It is quite long entry if I want to put everything here together.
In the meantime, I upload pictures
on my Facebook. I just used my phone and pictures shared by others. No fancy
gadget as I don't have one. Hehehehe...
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| Glenorchy, in Queenstown. |
Alright guys. See you in the next
entry.
Take care and Salam wbt.
P/S - I am glad I went home and
collect my winter jacket. It was freezing cold in NZ although spring already
started.
