I know I share a ridiculously detailed budget of my holiday but at least you’ll have an idea of  how my money was spent.

Its a budget holiday mostly eating sandwiches, instant noodles and own cook ‘gourmet’. We also brought pickled canned food, dry food like biscuits, 2 in 1 coffee, own milo, own creamer, own sugar, fruit knife, instant rice, Maggi in cup and lots of sweets. We do save a lot from this as getting it from our own country are much cheaper than getting the same thing in NZ.

We never paid for internet usage  only leech on free Wifi and the rest are recorded as we have a ‘Pool Pocket’. Every single cents spent by the group was recorded by Soek Ling, the Treasurer.

In summary of  our major expenses for the trip (a couple), we spent  :

RM1, 516 for FOOD

RM 755 for PETROL

RM2, 184 for ACTIVITIES & TOURS

RM2, 473 for STAY

RM1, 123 for CAR HIRE

RM 3, 145 for AIRFARE

Our detailed Expenses as follows

The summary of my Stays below and Room Rates for a double.

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment here I’ll try to answer you yah!

Finally!!! Last NZ Post that you can’t wait for me to finish. wahahahahah

After Akaroa, after our fun sailing, its time to go home!! We are taking midnight flights back to Malaysia. Sobs!!! We left Akaroa after another round of window shopping and drove an hour before reaching Christchurch. We make use of the time left to visit the Eartquake site in the city. We have to park a distance from the site as several road leading to the Cathedral remain closed.

When I walk closer to the site and saw the barricade, the iron divider I suddenly realised this place looks familiar, as if I’ve been there before. Dejavu!!! I dream of this place before I came here.. creepy!!

There’s a long stretch of road leading to the Cathedral square, all surrounded with safety barriers. These buildings are not safe for occupancy anymore but I think NZ government is doing their best to restore the quake site as quickly as possible, because its already late in the evening like 7PM and the construction workers are still working.

This place has become Tourism site for Earthquake Tourist.

Look at the huge pile of rubble. Pretty scary lor..

Many shops in this area remained closed and I feel sorry for them, its hard making a living when they have to close down their business without knowing when the quake-site will be re-open and business as usual.

Then…we saw plenty of container boutique,  its so practical and modern. I believe they move their business here.

The toppled famous and iconic Christchurch’s Anglican Cathedral.

We can’t smile for the camera.. this is a sad place.

Stones placed  in front of the Cathedral for well wishers to share and to give their support. R.I.P.

Its already late, no other eateries or restaurant is open in this area except the Greek Food on the road side truck. We decided to find our food elsewhere.

We still have plenty of canned food, dry food, biscuits that we aren’t able to finish nor will there be anywhere we can cook it. Drove around the city trying to find a backpacker hostel as we thought we should donate the food. We didn’t spot any backpackers except Motels around this area, so we decided to stop here at Riccarton Westfield a shopping complex with the  Pak N Save inside and Mc Donald next to the complex. Last minute shopping for chocolates and dinner.

Forgot to mention what happened to the food. We give it to the Car rental company.

Reminder: Buy your chocolate here at Pak N Save, you wont regret it. Its cheaper here!!!!!!

My favourite fast food chain McD!!!

Can we have Grand Angus here in Malaysia???!!! Its so good!! Better than our gourmet burger serve in hotel. Seductively delicious!!!! Mc Donald taste better than Subway in NZ.

 I can still go for dessert at Mc Cafe!! Yep.. Mc Cafe inside Mc Donald.  

 Dessert menu approved by WeightWatchers, eat without guilt lor.

Whenever I go travel I always lookout for local free guidebooks. New Zealand is not skimpy on any of these, its easily available every town I visited. Also always try to get free printings from i-site especially maps, its very detailed and make the drive/ walk around the town much easier.

Here’s one of the ‘Free Copy’. We had a bag full of them at the end of the trip and we pass it to the car rental company to recycle it for other excited tourist, same goes to our leftover food.

Be a smart traveller, lookout for coupons!! Who doesn’t like discounts right?

My precious!!

Stone collections from New Zealand. Sorry Kiwi’s dont hate me.

 THE END!

Hi.. hello.. I am keeping my promise to write multiple post. My multiple means 2 I can’t write three. Honestly I am writing this post before dinner. Today was another busy day for me but I am glad I manage to hit the gym for an hour at least after work.  While I was walking on the treadmill, there’s this ‘Angmoh’ (westerner) working out beside me. I am already sweaty, yes I stink but I made sure I spray enough perfume to cover my au naturale.

He glance at my machine display, I realised that even though I am watching the Next Top Model series. So I sneak a peek at his too. Oh My Lord!!!! He is playing Mah Jong while walking. Damn Damn Damn! How he learn playing Mahjong?! I never play Mahjong and I feel like a loser after that.

Enough of my daily life rants kekekeke. Let me tell you more about Akaroa.

Akaroa has a population with an approximate 600 ppl.

So lets move on. First thing in the morning is to cure our hunger. Breakfast at the seaside cafe, enjoy the weekend crowd, people watching, sun and breeze before our 1PM appointment. Scroll down if you can’t wait what you are about to read. We chose Bully Hayes, a popular cafe on the waterfront.

Since I had great food in wanaka, so I expect the same here at Bully Hayes as this restaurant was recommended by the i-site. The ordered Egg Benedict my main intention to dine here but this dish failed me. I cant finish the bread as it is too hard to chew and I only manage to finsih one slice of the bread even sharing. It was a let down.

The Banana & Ham pancake was awesome!! It taste so yummy and highly recommended if you dine at Bully Hayes.

Hubby ordered Omelette, he is not a heavy breakfast eater but the portion was so big! It taste really good too and the sauce complement the omelette beautifully. Thumbs up for that!!!

There are plenty of exquisite local boutiques here selling very interesting item different from what I can find in Queenstown. Window shopping only. Here’s a pic of many tins sold at the local grocery store, I am so tempted to buy but I have to control myself. I ain’t buying things like this that I dont need because its nice and then collect dust at home or chuck somewhere and forgotten. I hate clutters!!

Boy!! The wool product here are so expensive!! Merino wool…

If you plan to buy handmade jewellery, customed made jewellery go to this boutique: Fire & Ice!! The shop assistants are friendly and helpful. Take as many photos as you like, ask as many questions as you like, you’re still welcomed.

There are many selections of Ruby Rock sold here and the price is cheaper compare to the store I went at Hokitika. Maybe of different grade, but its really cheaper here and as beautiful!!

If you have a budget, there’s many stones for you to choose with an affordable price. Hubby gave me greenlight to buy something here but I can’t make up my mind which one to get so I left empty handed. I decided to take home photo of it. wahahahhaha

Plenty of time to spend in Akaroa? They have a Cooking School too! The kitchen very nice.. its white!!!!

A scenery of the harbour, beautiful isn’t it.

Tiny and cute lighthouse at Akaroa. They charge you money if you want to climb up!! Not worth paying lor!!!

Fishing!! That’s not fish by the way its seaweed.

Another activities to spend time at Akaroa. Plenty of Cemetery walk, go when its bright and sunny please!!!

We walk back and forth here passing time.

That’s the yacht club in the background if I’m not mistaken. Hot hot sunny day!!

We went Sailing!!! The Captain ask me to control the wheel like driving a car, boy I can’t see anything in front my view’s blocked because I am sitting. I am suppose to stand up lah!!!

Dont have luck that day, didn’t manage to see the rare Hector’s Dolphins, or even seals, or even penguins. Sigh!!! The sailing was fun though, my first Sailing experience kekekekekeke

Last photo in Akaroa, French cottage house.

Next back to Christchurch.

Its time to continue my NZ post..

Huraaahhhhh.. I am going to end my NZ post today, multiple post. So stay tuned (finger crossed, I hope I hope I hope)

Our plan initially was to travel back to Christchurch from Mt Cook, due to weather we change our route.

We travelled from Mt Cook Village to Lake Tekapo, drive through picturesque Burke Pass heading to Fairlie. From Fairlie we drove to Geraldine a small quaint little town that has a country village atmosphere with many historical buildings sightings.  During winter Geraldine is a Must-stop destination for Skiing.

We continued from Geraldine to Ashburton, which is quite an industrial & commercial town. Ashburton even has an industrial railway line that connects to Christchurch. I can see more houses here probably this town offers many job opportunities to Kiwis.

Before reaching Christchurch we arrive at Lincoln, on State Highway 75, driving through  a place call Halswell which I didnt even know I past it coz there are so many small road turnings and before I knew it we saw the sign to Lake Elllesmere. No stop at Lake Ellesmere, its already getting late.

The guide book says we should stop at a place call Little River Bakery located at Little River for beautiful baked goods and excellent coffee. Unfortunately its already past 5PM and all shops are close. After Little river  driving further, we saw small hills turn to big hills or mountains and we have to negotiate quite an interesting drive  about 7km distance of winding road heading to the top.   It is a single lane each direction hillside drive, pretty scary at some part but it offers beautiful charming cottage houses scenery which I enjoy nevertheless. If only I could have more time, I would have made a stop and have a romantic picnic .

You can’t miss this Hilltop Cafe & Pub when you reached the top.

You can either, get in and have a good meal at this Hilltop Cafe & Pub or you can just park your car at the side of the restaurant, plenty of space. Dont forget to enjoy the best panaromic view of the Akaroa Harbour town from the hilltop. You dont want to skip this, another Must Stop.

Akaroa is a popular town for Christchurch cityfolks as it is only 90 minutes drive away. It is a convenient weekend getaway that offers charming french influence harbour town or to be correct, a french settlement.

A snapshot of Hilltop Cafe interior. If you arrive here late like me, dine in or be prepared to stay hungry or cook your own dinner.

We ordered Whitebait omelette with salad on its side. I never tasted whitebait before so this is my first Whitebait meal. Taste like baby fish without bones.

To have a taste of NZ, you have to taste their Apple Cider. I can’t remember how many brand’s apple cider I tasted but I do prefer Isaac’s as its sweeter and has more apple flavour compare to the Wild Cider.

Also ordered Pizza, coz they have a nice oven!! Turn out the pizza taste really appetizing.

Bean soup if not mistaken, surprisingly flavourful and my favourite.

They have an outdoor deck, but weather’s getting chilly optioned to stay only indoor.

Genius idea, so simple and practical that I have to take a photo of the toilet door.

Can you recognise this brand? Its Walls!!

We have not reach Akaroa yet!! We have to drive approximately 40kms along the ridgeline of the volcanic crater rim, then to Barry’s Bay about 69kms, to Duvauchelle (French name appear dy) 72kms before reaching Akaroa, another 82kms. Here we are, arrive at the border of Akaroa town centre, we stop for a while to enjoy the sunset scene. Open the car window, OMG!! Smells like Port Klang! Smells fishy, smells like sulphur, smells like ocean, smells like mud, undeniably smells like a fishing town.

We had our room booked by YHA Mt Cook, but unfortunately the reception at Chez La Mer Backpackers made a mistake by booking us a day later for our check in. So we literally has no place to stay at Akaroa as everywhere in Akaroa is fully booked. The owner frantically helped us to find an accommodation for about an hour calling every hotel and inns, and backpackers and at last she found 2 separate rooms at 2 different place for us to stay. The last 2 rooms in Akaroa. Thank God!!!

 The small hiccups didnt dampen our holiday mood but we were too tired to explore the town at night. The owner of Chez La Mer paid for our accommodation one at a hotel and another one at a B&B which charges much higher rate than what we have already paid. We dont mind paying the extra actually, just a place to stay but the owner insisted that we should not worry about it. We thanked her the arrangement, small hiccups but lovely arrangement.

This is Kiwi’s Hospitality!!

Start the post with bossy-tired face.

Then beautiful wild flowers photo that surrounded the turquoise blue colour Lake Tekapo.

You can see more tourist here at Lake Tekapo as its another major stopover town and lots of cafe for you to hang out.

Lake Tekapo Dam.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, another famous attraction here at Lake Tekapo.

Beautiful Clouds look like Giant Butterfly!!

There’s a very small and private wedding ceremony going on and we were not allowed to enter the Church at first. Many tourist took their photo including us. Like an additional attractions like that.

How much more romantic could this be?

The Sheep Dog Monument, we didn’t make a stop,  just drove past.

Still a long long drive ahead!

Here we are at the top and overlooking the Tasman Glacier Terminal lake. The lake filled with meltdown glacier ice water from the mountain and in greyish blue colour due to high composition of glacier rock flours.

The steep and tiring climb was so worth it!!

Beautiful!!  S P E E C H L E S S

M Y   P R E C I O U S Moment here!!  (Lord of the Ring tone)

Everything looks so huge and vast here. You can see the huge rock of iceberg floating.

We spend more than an hour here. Mount Cook, I’ll be back!! I told Hubby I’m coming back here one day to hike, have more hikes!! Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier and here!

For our memories, smile!!!

We head down to the Tasman Valley and walk towards the Tasman river but there’s nothing much there. So we left the place and drove out of Mt Cook Aoraki.

G L O R I O U S    G L O R I O U S    L A K E  P U K A K I   &   M O U N T   C O O K   A O R A K I

You’ll live longer if you stay here. See how beautiful and calming this place is.

Hubby stop the car near to the lake so that I can get down and touch the water. I wish I had more time and a bathing suit and a place to change and not in a hurry and not leaving and bitchy.

See the different tones of the water and sky?

We are going for lunch and we knew exactly where we are going!! Ngek Ngek Ngek

We are going to yet another Salmon Farm that sits just above the Stilling Basin, on Pukaki-Tekapo Hydro Canal. Beautiful view of Mt Cook still can be seen.

Quite a number of people spending time fishing here, with a beer on one hand and the fishing rod on the other. Kiwi’s does know how to enjoy life and spend their time!

We are at Mount Cook Alphine Salmon Farm and look!! So many packs of fresh salmon sashimi and smoke salmon for you to choose.

I did not buy this, but its a KIWI treat! Cadbury’s Chocolate Fish!! (Sorry blurry photo)

FOUR PACKS PLS!!!!!

We’re buying 1 pack each as our lunch.

Yummmeh!! This Salmon spells  L O V E L O V E

We’re Happy!!  Salmon makes us Happy! Who says money can’t buy Happy? You buy Fresh Salmon you’re HAPPY!!

Due to the GALE FORCE winds at the top of the mountain we shorten our stay at Mount Cook. Instead of staying for 2 nights, we only stayed for one night and got back a refund from YHA Mt Cook cashier, hassle free. So efficient and friendly, if it were here in Malaysia we would have to pay penalty or can’t get a refund. The friendly guy (I forgot his name) apparently he has been to Malaysia wut wut!! He helped us to book our stay at Akaroa, where we will be going to stay on Day 12.

So we woke up early and prepared our breakfast, the egg breakfast in previous post and plan to go to Hooker Valley for a short hike before driving out of Mt Cook Village, as its going to be another long long day.

We met a Taiwanese lady in her 50′s  the night before and she was travelling alone at her own time, how cool is that. She don’t even have her own transport relying on public transport and hitch ride with other tourist who travels the same route along the way. She suppose to travel with another friend but due to some differences in preference and places to visit they split their travel going separately and will meet at Christchurch later before going back to Taiwan.

I admire her braveness for solo travel and would absolutely try doing that one day  as I think travelling solo gives you the independence and the luxury of your own travel pace, freedom and it would be a bliss!! She show it to us that, she did not give up her holiday to accommodate her friend and there’s nothing wrong if you decide to voice out and enjoy your holiday the way you wanted it to.

Before we left YHA, the Taiwanese lady are so kind enough to ask us to visit one of the best attractions in Mt Cook. She got this Aoraki Mount Cook Walks flyer from The Hermitage hotel and told us that the Tasman Valley is not to be missed. We took a photo of this flyer as its not available at YHA

Due to the hostile weather in Mt Cook you can find several location has this Shelter house in case the weather turns bad and you need a place to keep you safe and warm, especially important for campers too!!

We park our car and start  walking along the Tasman Valley 4WD track, and only notice we’re on the wrong path when we dont see other tourist after a far far walk, aiyoh!! Our energy drained the egg breakfast that I had earlier also gone liao

See.. nobody (halooooo!!! echo echo echo)

But we still enjoy the view nevertheless. We head back to where we started and its getting hot.

Back to the start. We missed this sign at the beginning. That’s why loh!!

Okey, posie posie for a model shot!!

My photo not as good as this one heh?? From far, strong winds at the valley!!

Magnified abit. Strong wind! Dusty right?

We have to hike for about 20 minutes  to reach Blue Lakes, that’s the name for this lake but it aint blue now. I wondered if anyone swim here before looks like a good place to swim if the water’s not too chilly, and there’s no sign for NO SWIMMING. So should be alright I guess.

Have to continue our hike to the top, its quite a challenge and I am so glad I was wearing a hiking shoe and it protects my feet from the rocky-laden path. It could be painful if you are wearing sneakers or flats.

The sight of Blue lakes from the top, all the way rocky path, God bless if you have twisted ankle.

View from the top!!

T H E   T A S M A N   V A L L E Y .

A S T O U N D I N G L Y     B E A U T I F U L ! !

 I was asked to continued my NZ post, eventhough I said many times I want to abandon it. Okay, I promise I shall finish what I started. I must speed up my writing.

 You must drive-through Homer Tunnel to get to Milford Sound in Fiordland Region, New Zealand’s first  UNESCO World Heritage Site. No way you can walk in and cross it and coming out from there without getting yourself hurt as you can see from the photo its pitch black inside. No lights at all except from the headlamps. Still it is pretty dark.

Sorry- bad photo!

It is do-able if you option for a self-drive tour to Milford Sound. The only tricky part is the mountanous snaky road and Homer Tunnel. Make sure drive with full caution. There’s a traffic light in front of the entryway of the tunnel, follow it and you’ll be fine.

Driving to this region during Winter is dangerous due to possible snowslips or snowslides.

Snowflakes nevermind! You’ll love it right?

Also you need to use snowchain to drive through snow and ice , so its better to follow tour as they know every nooks and corner of this touristy but dangerous route.

We reach the Milford Sound launch jetty close to 3 – 3.5 hours in the coach, Mitre Peak Cruise Boat is already waiting for us.

Already on the boat, magnificent Milford Sound in the background. Some says Doubtful Sound  is better. I can’t comment

Basically the Milford Sound Cruise brings you to see many waterfalls and wild marine life in the Fiordland region.

Huge waterfalls!! It gets really cold – freezing actually!

Please bring really thick clothing and keep yourself warm. There are more rainfalls here compare to other places so raincoats are essential or waterproof jackets.

Melting snow from the peak form this small thin waterfalls tumbling down from the cliffs, however strong winds blows these waters away and turn it to mist that it hardly hits the water below.

Marvellous!!

 The cruise gets near to one of the huge waterfalls and I quickly ran inside before the water hits me! It was a close call as I almost wanted to walk to the front of the deck, and I’ll be soaked with icy cold waters!!

 Have to keep myself warm, the winds too strong I made another cup of coffee!! Minum dulu… at the same time wanted to get a phone number of a lengchai angmoh for Jynn but abandon the idea coz he look gay-ish.

 Saw a club of seals resting on this huge rock.

 The cruise gets really near to the seals, its amazing.

 Spotted the ‘lost’ penguin. Thats the only penguin we saw. 

Bringing my cup of coffee out and about the cruise deck and spilling everywhere. Its not that I’m clumsy, balancing is a challenge here.

 Milford Sound cruise ended. I think this place is overrated, or maybe I didn’t see the best of Fiordland yet. Maybe winter looks better.

 On the way back to Te Anau, the coach stop by at this beautiful Mirror Lake also known as Lake Matheson,  one of the must-stop destination. The lake reflects its beautiful surrounding like a mirror, thus the name.

 Really like mirror right? 

 We reach back at Te Anau town at about 5PM, that’s the end of the 1 day tour.