Queen Of Bee

in summary, i have covered the centre part of North Island, NZ. i have coloured the route in blue, and indicated the stops that we have made. ( map source ) i have done my home work before we left msia. my "bible" throughout the journey. the maps. we have difficulties in pronouncing the name of places in NZ. for example, the picture below. i pronounced Kow-Hai . NZealander pronounced Ko-whai . everyday, we ate these. EVERYDAY . kesimpulannya, i enjoyed myself very much. i was introduced to the world of "backpacking", staying in hostels, finding our own ways in a strange land... awesome! where am i going next? as in next year lah... land of the rising sun ??

we left the lodge early. i was afraid that i might get lost when reading the map. the plane wont wait for us. hence, better be early than late. we dropped the rest at the airport before driving the car back to the car rental office. final mileage, we have travelled about 1500km throught the 8 days. at the airport, there was a BIG group of young boys. many families were there to send them off. we didnt pay attention to them. 6 of us stood in front of this "made in new zealand shop" to take pictures. and then we noticed the boys started to group behind us. we turned around and we saw the whole big group behind us, smiling and jumping around, trying to be IN our picture! and the family members started to group in front of us. we were trapped in between the boys & their families! cameras started clicking. and then we realised that they wanted to take group photo and we were in their way! faster moved out.. and we have to squeeze out from the circle of families. #1 : the youn...

the small house only has 2 toilets. we had to take turn to wash up. and we stood at the door, to make sure that we were in 'queue'. prayed hard that 'big business' wont happen when both the toilets were occupied. after checked out, we went back to the hamilton garden. just wanted to take a picture with the name "hamilton" there. started to drizzle again. sigh. it was still early, only the 7 of us were at the garden. there were 7 different theme of gardens. i love the renaissance garden most. #1 : list of gardens in hamilton garden #2 : top to bottom; renaissance, marilyn monroe in American Modernist, and back to renaissance there was a chrysanthemum exihibition in one of the halls in hamilton garden. we didnt go in because; 1) it was not ready to open to public, too early lah 2) nz 4 per entry. just to look at kekwa? nvm. 3) we wanted to shop in auckland. time not enough! we just took a peep. we were impressed though! the kekwa was so HUGE! #3 : yellow kekwa ...

tauranga > hamilton.. that's our destination for day 7. averagely, we travelled 200km a day. we would leave around 9am in the morning, and reach around 4pm. #1 : diy in the morning (all still in Pj's) we tracked to mclaren falls , wearing ponchos. it was drizzling that morning. cold. wet. that didnt dampen our spirit. it was very quiet when we reached there. kind of scary if travelling in a small group. we walked the easy track, and greeted by this view. #2 : mclaren falls (another bridal's veil fall look-alike) the roads inside this park was quite confusing. we had trouble looking for our way out. we made one big round, and ended up back at the place where we parked our car earlier. still no sign of exit. and we turned one more round again, and finally, exit. #3 : mary had a little lamb.. little lamb... without wasting time, we continued our journey to te aroha hot spring. we made a stop at matamata for lunch at subway. #4 : smoked turkey we had no idea that this town...

breakfast was leftover spaghetti. we were trying to finish the food as much as possible and didnt want to waste leftover. others had bread as usual. i love spaghetti, especially with tomato sauce! #1 : bread, spaghetti, milk, fruit and we checked out from the colourful room in rotorua and headed towards whakarewarewa thermal village . we have booked for a guided tour online before we flew there for a better discount. this is where the Maori people lives. #2 : try pronouncing the name on the white background in 1 breathe! Set amidst a landscape of erupting geothermal activity, hot thermal springs and hot bubbling mud pools is the Living Maori village of Whakarewarewa. we were there to discover the unique lifestyle and traditions of the Maoris. highlight of the visit was to prepare the hangi lunch, all by ourselves! Hangi simply means “food cooked in the ground or an earth oven”. Using the gift of the geothermal activity when the ground gives way, a box is made above the newly created ve...

how fast can you shop? i bought the above in less than 1 hour, in Parkson Kajang. intention was looking for swimsuit, but ended up buying other stuff. swimsuit? whatever you planned, sure wont get wan..

#1 : want to join? it's the 8th Hospis Treasure Hunt this year. i have participated in some of their earlier hunts. lost count how many already. whenever time permits, we will go! last year, we missed it because there was no announcement. and when i got to know about it, i was in cameron highland , cuti-cuti with family & uncle simon's family. this year route is KL - Royale Bintang Resort & Spa, Seremban . this evening will attend their briefing at Hospis Centre, Cheras. and we were informed that our team number is #2. huh? #2? we registered so early???? we submitted our form 1 week after we received the email from them. i dont remember getting a single digit as team number. hahahaha.... this show how "kancheong" or desprate we are to go treasure hunting. team name : JERM, a combination of jane, elaine, regine & mimi. hahahahha.... briefing & details of our hunt.... next post.. some old photos from hospis hunt. this was the 3rd hunt to Cherating. there...

~~~day 5 was packed. we left taupo & headed to rotorua. we always wanted to leave the hostel by 8am sharp, but would be delayed by 1/2 hour. last minute packing lah, toilet lah, pangsai lah... ~~~first stop was at Waiotapu Thermal Village . we wanted to leave early today because we didnt want to miss the eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser at 10.15am. we reached earlier than we expected. we headed straight to the geyser before we walked around the thermal village. ~~~the man who was standing at the entrance of the geyser informed us that lady knox wont erupt until 10.15. since there were still 20 minutes more, he asked us to proceed to the mud pool & came back later. we obeyed, and didnt pay much attention at the mud pool. eyes were on the watch, making sure that we would be back to lady knox 10 minutes before eruption. #1 : Lady Knox Geyser ~~~erupt it did at 10.15am. (there is more story behind this lady. if you plan to go, i shall not explain further). after lady knox, we took ...