(Long post ahead!)
Kia Ora everyone!
I am sad to say that I’m back in hot and sunny Singapore. You know when you are so excited for your trip to happen, and when it’s here you don’t feel the excitement anymore, it is really here. Then slowly day by day it went by…. And it’s time to head home again. Every moment of the trip was really good, a lot of thing happened along the way but I have to agreed with my dad that despite all of that, the trip was certainly very smooth sailing.
Soooo I might have said in earlier post that I am going to NZ with the family this year. This is in fact our first trip together as a family to somewhere that requires a flight? In fact, we need at least 2 flights to reach there. As a family, the last time we actually went overseas together (minus JB) was in 2011? This trip was very much anticipated, my mum promised my little bro that it is gonna happen. Since we are all working adults now, it has actually lighten a lot of load off my parents’ shoulders. One, we paid our own expenses, we are the ones planning the itinerary. We ran everything, so all they had to do was trust us and follow along.
People closer to me should know that we tried very hard to cut our travel cost as much as possible, saving it on spending or enjoying on more worthy things there. So, when we were booking for flight tickets, me and my sis was left to travel there by ourselves. My parents couldn’t get on the same flight itinerary so they went via other flights/airline. Theirs cost more and of cus they went on SQ and virgin, quite good combi. While me and my sis went on British Airways and Jetstar. Our air tickets cost us about 1.1k, which is considered relatively low. My parents’ was about 1.3k.
The flight itself caused a lot of unhappiness to my mum because she didn’t like the idea that we were separated but it wasn’t so bad come to think about it. She doesn’t trust my dad and bro enough to go along with them. I spent free time in the office to plan the itinerary, and I am very proud of what I planned? This trip was entirely F&E and I really spent plenty of time doing my research, suggesting to my family on the places to visit. My only worry was that they will be unhappy with it after? Which will make me pissed because nobody actually wanted to help when I was planning it.
We took a night flight, with only a difference in flight time of about an hour, our plane actually got cancelled upon check in. We went into panic state while the customer service personnel was busy typing into the system to get us transferred to the next earliest flight to Sydney. The new assigned flight takes off earlier hence we had to rush to our gate. The flight was really good, we arrived in Sydney via priority landing because someone on board needed emergency medical help, lol srsly I couldn’t believe all the drama that happened. So upon landing, all the ground airport crew and paramedics actually came onboard, it was quite an experience! We transited at Sydney before our next flight to Queenstown.
Day 1: On arrival, we were greeted which such scenic view, greeneries all the way!!! We hanged at the airport while waiting for my parents to reach. Because we arrived at Queenstown around the late afternoon, we got on transport and headed to our motel which was conveniently located almost at the heart of the city. We stayed at Creeksyde Holiday Park and Motel for 3 nights. We stayed in the holiday motel but they have other room types available, they are really popular, even camper van units are available too.
We spent the day we arrived heading to the city center to look around and took pictures at Lake Wakatipu. And also trying the legendary Fergburger which we queue for about 30 minutes? It was really da bomb, but my dad doesn’t eat beef sooooo he didn’t get to taste how good it was. He had some chicken burger pfft.
We went to the supermarket to get supplies to prepare breakfast because we will be going on a full day tour the following day and they do not provide meals (unless we fork out more of cus).
Day 2: Oh ya, I forgot to mention, Singapore and NZ have a time difference of 5 hours, they are of cuts ahead of us. So most of the time during the trip, while I am welcoming the night, it is only the beginning of the day for ma friends in Singapore. We woke up really early for the Milford Sound Tour via Intercity, apparently this tour is a MUST GO! Well, here’s our experience…
To get to Milford, is a total of 4 hours, and all tours go via coach buses, or you could get there via helicopters but they cost a bomb. So we chose coach bus, we headed to Te Anau, about a 2 hours journey, it was freaking cold that day!!!
And on our first night, the weather was really bad, cold and extremely windy, a lot go trees got shook down. Sooooo we couldn’t continue our tour journey because there were trees that have fallen from Te Anau to Milford, it blocked off the entire road and it can’t be cleared before the time we head to take the ferry so we heading back to Queenstown. Wasted a whole morning travelling for nothing, but my sis managed to book the same tour for the following day, we also got upgraded, hehe 😉
So we went back to Queenstown and had a change of plans, it was too late to in fact go for other tours or do something thrilling? So we first went to Skyline Gondola to take the luge! Skyline Gondola is a cable car ride up to the top, so you will get a fantastic view of Queenstown.
And the luge ride in NZ…. IS SO SO MUCH BETTER + THRILLING than in Singapore!!! I was sibei haolian to the luge operators saying I took it in SG too and this is hands down the best I had to date!
We went to the city to chill after, partly because my sis have arranged to meet up with her friends from SG in Queenstown. Sorry but I had to post this cause the plants here are so green and healthy! I did not even put any filter or edited the photos.
Another must try in South Island would be Patagonia, they can only be found at major towns in the Southern Island and they are quite a good place to chill!
We went to the supermarket again to prepare to cook dinner at our cozy home. Yes, half of the time, we had our dinners home cooked with whatever ingredients we want. This is the best way to save cost, because restaurants in NZ are rather pricey.
Day 3: We woke up early again, and I still remember vividly that it was a really wet day, it rained the WHOLE day. Due to the failure to proceed with the tour the previous day, and they were running full, so they gave us free upgrade to some 5 star tour, apparently the coach was supposed to be more comfortable? But it didn’t felt like it, the only obvious difference was that we were given time to alight off the bus to take pictures, because instead of going to Milford alone, our tour was a scenic ones which allows such opportunity hehe.
Really loved the scenic part of the tour because I got to alight from the bus so many times to get better photos instead of taking with the bus glass and lots of rain drops spoiling my photos. The only person who missed out all of these would be my sis who was labelled as the Sleeping Beauty onboard. Also, the tour gave me a good understanding of the history of Te Anau and Milford. There was this tunnel that we had to go thru, it took them over decades to get it thru to the other side of the mountain, so many dynamites were used to blow up the tunnel. Milford Cruise was bad, I got so sea sick, when we were around open sea that I slept almost half the time.
Milford Sound is just waterfall after waterfall. Sorry, I don’t really know how to appreciate this, though it was a great sight but, it was really just alright to me.
Journey back to Queenstown – A tour bus broke down during the journey and it really warmed my heart that kiwis are such kind hearted people? My bus driver stopped by and helped out and even got their passengers onboard our bus to Te Anau. Another tour bus also helped! Can you imagine how they will be left stranded if nobody offered help??? Somemore that bus was filled with elderly. Ok, can’t remember what happen after the tour but it was the last night before we start our road trip.
This post is getting rather lengthy, so I shall continue on the road trip on the next post!
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