NZ : Day 3

day 3 started with rain! drizzling all the way. along the way, it was cold. inside the car, we turned on the heater. from tokaanu, we headed to turangi, then taupo. the whole journey took about 2 hours.

it was foggy along the way. i salute those who travelled by big bikes. we met 3 malaysians when we stopped for pee-break. they were riding BMW bikes. HUGE bikes! & they said they were very COLD!! the rain!! & their fingers were numb!

and we reached arataki honey at havelock north. spent an hour there, choosing honeys. there were so many type of honeys, but we sticked to manuka. famous mah.

#1 : shopping time

lunch was inside the car because it was still drizzling. the wind was strong. spam & bread with hot coffee. oh, we brought along a termos each, so that we had hot water/drink along the way.
after lunch, we were torn between heading straight to our hostel, or temata peak.

sook man suggested to proceed to te mata peak, since we were already there. and so we proceeded. the drive up the peak was scary. the road was narrow, kind of a one-way street up. no barriers along the road. we kept asking the driver to drive slowly. SLOWLY! no rush! no rush! luckily for us, no car from the opposite direction. it was a smooth drive up.

#2 : te mata peak

the wind was even stronger at the peak. we had to put on our ponchos because it was raining. and our ponchos flew up "marilyn monroe" style. i could only hold the video camera for a short period. my hands were freezing! brrrrr...... we would have missed the view if not for sook man. i bet the view would be prettier if it's sunny. and a good spot for picnic, i must say.

#3 : the view at te mata peak

once done with all camwhoring at the peak, we continued with our drive to our hostel in st.napier took about 30minutes. archie's bunker for a night. when we checked in, the manager suggested a few places of interest to us. temata peak was one of them. we told her we just came back from there. she was suprised! good choice we have made, she said. haha! thanks to peggy for a brilliant arrangement.

#4 : archie's bunker for a night

from a comfy lodge last night, we were in a room of 8 beds. double decker. so hard to climb up! we were hoping that the additional bed would not be occupied so that we could have the room all by ourselves. peggy reminded us not to sit on extra bed, in case the number 8 guest checked in late at night.

#5 : our beds

time to shop again for our dinner. the kitchen here was a bit "smelly". no option, but have to use it to cook our "kon lor mee". so hard to find shallots here. saw alot of big onions. the taste of shallots could not be replaced with big onions. hai.. no choice but stick to big onions lor.

we went out for a walk after dinner. it was so quiet. only some asian restaurants were open. others were closed. and it was only 8pm. we stopped at munchies takeaways. eat what?


#6 : out for a munchies!

what else, but chips! hot chips! our first chips in NZ! hahaha...although we had our dinner, and yet we still had rooms for tidbits. we found out that in NZ, we have to pay for ketchup. not FREE leh. have to pay!

#7 : chips, anymore?

we walked around the square before we headed back to our hostel. only us were out there. still raining! hai.. wet wet day 3!

#8 : us with brollies, a new word that i learnt. um-be-rela-ela-ela...