New Zealand
The journey to the Land of the Long White Cloud was an eye-opener trip for me. I have never tried backpacking before. You need to set your own itinerary, book your own hostels, transportation and so on. Need to do a lot of homework prior to the trip. I must say thank you to the organizer of this trip. She really taught me a lot and I learnt a lot from her. And I believe there are more to learn from her!
We were lucky to be able to get cheap air tickets in February, during MAS promotion. Hence, budget could be kept within RM 5,000 or even less! I’m still waiting for the final “budget report” from the financial controller. Only then I would be able to tell you my total cost for the trip.
Prior to the trip, Peggy has delegated job to the 7 of us, i.e. drivers, financial controller, administrator, guide, cook & co-pilot. As I was given the co-pilot seat, I was worried. Would I be able to do it? Few weeks before the trip, I started looking at the maps that were printed by Peggy. I searched for more “detail” maps, so that I would know roughly where we would be heading and staying. The more I searched, the more worried I got. How detailed should I print? Everything? By then my map would be as thick as the dictionary. I told myself, STOP. I only need to find the detail maps to our hostels. Other than that, just use the map or just go with the flow.
We flew on 17th April. 10 hours to reach our destination. We reached Auckland around 11 am local time. But one of our friends was held back at the immigration. “Why are you here? How long would you be staying? Who are you with?” And after 45 minutes, we left the airport to get our Toyota Privia, 8-seaters MPV.
And off we went to start our journey! And at the first roundabout, I was lost. Where should we turn? Ops! We made a wrong turn. Instead of heading to south, we were heading to north of Auckland. Damn. U-turn! That really got me on the toes. Stress started to build up. But Peggy told me to stay cool. While we stopped to do our grocery shopping, she told me to study the map again. And luckily I managed to figure out our position at that time, and managed to lead the driver to the highway. But it was not straight to the highway of course. There was a minor hiccup.
I relied too much on the map that Peggy printed. I tried to look out for every name of the roads that were given in the map. I could not find some of them and hence, we missed the turning to the highway. Damn! Would I survive the remaining of the days? Stay cool, bee, cool!
Along the way, we stopped and discussed among each other, just to confirm that we were on the right track. And I was so relieved that I managed to lead them to our first destination Raglan. I must say the road signs in New Zealand were very clear, hence helped me a lot in giving directions.
Throughout the journey, I got the best view because I got the best seat in the MPV. While the rest dozed off along the way, I enjoyed the scenery while making sure we were on the right track. Sometimes I would be lost, but I have Peggy and Sook Man to help out. Team work!
New Zealand is very tourist friendly. Every hostel that we went has ample of brouchers of interesting places. One place that one can ask for direction would be the i-centre. Every town has one centre, usually open 24 hours to assist tourist like us. We just need to tell them where we wanted to go, and they would draw on the map to show us the way. So, it was not really that tough driving there.
Some friends asked, why didn’t we rent a GPS? Why want to read the map? I told them I wanted to experience the “traditional” way of traveling. “Wasting time”, “GPS wont cost you much”, those were some of the replies from them. I just kept quiet. No point explaining further.
I enjoyed reading map very much. Knowing that I was at the right place and that we have reached our destination, was very satisfying. I don’t mind being the co-pilot again in my next backpack trip. I enjoyed staying in hostels too. We were in YHA hostels & backpacker hostels. We shared the common bathroom, kitchen, dining area and bedrooms with other guest. I have no problem with this. Reminded me of my uni days, staying in hostel.
Throughout the trip, our menu varied from bread with spam, rice with kurma chicken, udon laksa johor, mashed potatoes with burger patties, noodles with soy sauce, and so on. Bread was the main “dish”. We ate for breakfasts and lunches. They had varieties of bread, from soy lin-seed to multi grain. Jane loved the breads so much that she bought 4 loaves back home on the last day. We also tried their McDonald & Subway for lunches, so that the cooks could rest.
When would be my next backpack trip? Probably we will go south island, NZ next. 2 years time? Only time will tell.
ps : places of interest in the next entry. watch out for it.
We were lucky to be able to get cheap air tickets in February, during MAS promotion. Hence, budget could be kept within RM 5,000 or even less! I’m still waiting for the final “budget report” from the financial controller. Only then I would be able to tell you my total cost for the trip.
Prior to the trip, Peggy has delegated job to the 7 of us, i.e. drivers, financial controller, administrator, guide, cook & co-pilot. As I was given the co-pilot seat, I was worried. Would I be able to do it? Few weeks before the trip, I started looking at the maps that were printed by Peggy. I searched for more “detail” maps, so that I would know roughly where we would be heading and staying. The more I searched, the more worried I got. How detailed should I print? Everything? By then my map would be as thick as the dictionary. I told myself, STOP. I only need to find the detail maps to our hostels. Other than that, just use the map or just go with the flow.
We flew on 17th April. 10 hours to reach our destination. We reached Auckland around 11 am local time. But one of our friends was held back at the immigration. “Why are you here? How long would you be staying? Who are you with?” And after 45 minutes, we left the airport to get our Toyota Privia, 8-seaters MPV.
And off we went to start our journey! And at the first roundabout, I was lost. Where should we turn? Ops! We made a wrong turn. Instead of heading to south, we were heading to north of Auckland. Damn. U-turn! That really got me on the toes. Stress started to build up. But Peggy told me to stay cool. While we stopped to do our grocery shopping, she told me to study the map again. And luckily I managed to figure out our position at that time, and managed to lead the driver to the highway. But it was not straight to the highway of course. There was a minor hiccup.
I relied too much on the map that Peggy printed. I tried to look out for every name of the roads that were given in the map. I could not find some of them and hence, we missed the turning to the highway. Damn! Would I survive the remaining of the days? Stay cool, bee, cool!
Along the way, we stopped and discussed among each other, just to confirm that we were on the right track. And I was so relieved that I managed to lead them to our first destination Raglan. I must say the road signs in New Zealand were very clear, hence helped me a lot in giving directions.
Throughout the journey, I got the best view because I got the best seat in the MPV. While the rest dozed off along the way, I enjoyed the scenery while making sure we were on the right track. Sometimes I would be lost, but I have Peggy and Sook Man to help out. Team work!
New Zealand is very tourist friendly. Every hostel that we went has ample of brouchers of interesting places. One place that one can ask for direction would be the i-centre. Every town has one centre, usually open 24 hours to assist tourist like us. We just need to tell them where we wanted to go, and they would draw on the map to show us the way. So, it was not really that tough driving there.
Some friends asked, why didn’t we rent a GPS? Why want to read the map? I told them I wanted to experience the “traditional” way of traveling. “Wasting time”, “GPS wont cost you much”, those were some of the replies from them. I just kept quiet. No point explaining further.
I enjoyed reading map very much. Knowing that I was at the right place and that we have reached our destination, was very satisfying. I don’t mind being the co-pilot again in my next backpack trip. I enjoyed staying in hostels too. We were in YHA hostels & backpacker hostels. We shared the common bathroom, kitchen, dining area and bedrooms with other guest. I have no problem with this. Reminded me of my uni days, staying in hostel.
Throughout the trip, our menu varied from bread with spam, rice with kurma chicken, udon laksa johor, mashed potatoes with burger patties, noodles with soy sauce, and so on. Bread was the main “dish”. We ate for breakfasts and lunches. They had varieties of bread, from soy lin-seed to multi grain. Jane loved the breads so much that she bought 4 loaves back home on the last day. We also tried their McDonald & Subway for lunches, so that the cooks could rest.
When would be my next backpack trip? Probably we will go south island, NZ next. 2 years time? Only time will tell.
ps : places of interest in the next entry. watch out for it.
Comments