this post is abt my new zealand trip...
nearli forgotten abt it...
get abit hazzi over the details, juz some of the more memorable stuff but lotsa pics.
overall, the trip was awesome!!
i think the worst part is saying bye to nozomi before leaving for the trip...
cos' when we came back from the trip, nozomi will be back in japan...
we both cried and seriousli, sad start to a great holiday...
i miss her... :(
took some pics but will post next time...
nozomi i miss u!!!
(hmm, how come i have that deja vu feeling that i've posted abt the NZ trip before??!!! hmm... but cannot find the post... hmmmmm)
anyway, there were several eventful stuffs that happened during the trip...
we reached christchurch at nite and after checking in a lodge, i think its called the airport lodge or something, we decided to walk to the nearest petrol station to buy food.
the distance on the map seems realli short BUT when we walked there, its took us like an hour plus 2 hours to reach!!
can u imagine!! we juz kept walking and walking and walking!!
can faint lah!!
finalli reached the petrol station and stocked up our food, we took a cab back... less than 15 mins... see my face!!
well, next day, we rent a van to drive to queenstown and the ride was realli fun!!
tok and laughed and sang and SLEPT!!
(once again, i swear that i've written abt the NZ trip before... maybe deleted already?? shit what happened to it??)
anyway, we reached queenstown at night and it was freezing man!!
have to wear alot of thick woolly clothes!!
queenstown was realli pretty!!
the view in front of our hotel is awesome!!
a lake directly in front of our hotel and mountains all around...
wow.......
and queenstown itself was pretty amazing..
a small little town which is veri townish (modern townish) and most of the people there were there for skiing.
cool sia... such a ski culture.
actualli its something like cairns execpt that, of cos', cairns a beach culture place and hot like mad when we went there and queenstowns' like freezingly freezing!!
we went to hire our skis the next day at like 7am in the morning cos' we wanna an earli start to skiing!! yeah!!!
got skis, drive to the ski place.
SHIT!! cannot remember which ski place we went to cos' there r 3...
well, the nearest one anyway..
hahaaa
reached ski place, we put on our ski boots on the van and walked up a steep flight of stairs to get the skiing area.
not surprisly,it reminds me of how tiring it was to walk in ski boots and how much i hate it the previous time.
and to walk up the steep slippery stairs was horrible!!
so scared that i'll fall and roll down the metal stairway!!
and have to climb AND carry the skis... made me exhausted juz thinking abt it!!
after the long stair ways, we reached the skiing place.
we went to sign up for lessons.
one lesson and ski passes included lah.
went for intermediate wif ulric, emily and alex.
finding the lesson too easy for them (they skied damm well lah), ulric and emily went off to join another lesson: the advanced class!!
then, alex went to another class to and i was left alone in the intermediate class...
went down the beginner slope: some pretty gentle slopes and steep slopes, was quite fun...
heee
then after the lesson and lunch, i decided to challenge myself and went to the intermediate slope which is next to the beginner slope...
took the ski lift up (oh did i mention i FALL down 3 times when i tried to exit the ski lift? explanation: cos' when we get down the ski lift, we have to SKI down instead of walking off it. so in the 3 times that i tried to ski down, i fell on my face, on my bum and my skis flew off my boots. yes, u get the picture)
well anyway, went to the intermediate slope.
was quite steep at some places and i fell a few times but it was fun lah!!
so much better than the slope i tried in mount buller. (well, maybe becos' the slope in tried in buller is a baby slope for beginners... hee)
i remembered i was skiing down the intermediate slope once when i missed the gentle-er slope i wanna exit and ended up skiing down a realli short but extremely steep slope and ended gliding down the slope on my bum all the way to the ground and even then, i couldn't stop and ended up stopping becos' i crashed into a woman.
and when i looked back, i can see my glide marks and my personal belongings, aka gloves, ski poles, beanie along the glide marks... :(
damm pai seh lah but i couldn't stop laughing and my bum hurts cos' "bua teo" (hokkien) wif snow.
grgggggg scary incident.
ANYWAY, skied till 4pm when the ski pad close.
met up wif the rest, went for dinner.
then we went back to the hotel.
after a rest for like 2 3 hours, we decided to go this bar; minus 5 bar.
ulric din go cos' he was kinda of sick.
apparently it was minus 5 degree in the bar becos' eevrything's made of ice, even the glasses.
and we were taught special way to hold the ice (aka hold the ice glaaes wif BOTH hands instead of one cos' they may slip and fall)
and we can onli stay there for like 30mins...
and have to wear thick thick jackets and not allow to take it off.
quite fun and the cocktails were realli nice.
veri fruity girlie drinks...
hahaaa
after minus 5, we decided to chill at other pubs for a while before going back.
however, we saw this shop (there r other similar shops around, tons of them) which sold legal versions of speed, pot...
and as i've mentioned, these r LEGAL!!
cool huh!!!
it legal in nz lah but i'm not sure if legal in brissy or not and definitly not singapore lah.
so, being the curious tourists, we bought this pills called the big grin.
supposed to make u laugh and laugh and laugh.
cost 15 bucks per person man!!
and there's a recovery pill too which is included.
so, we went back to the hotel, all gathered in our room, and popped the pills.
after half an hour, nothing happend and we thot we were taken for a trip.
so everybody returned to their rooms and sunny, ulric and me (ulric din take the pills cos' he's sick) juz watched tv and chill.
THEN, sunny felt sick and soon after, while i was eating instant noodles, i had a massive headache and it realli occured sudenli like out of no where!!
and it was so bad that i had to hold my head with both hands tight!!
after struggling for like 10 mins, sunny and i popped the recovery pills and soon after we were fine.
THEN, 2 hours later when we were watching tv, the shoulder pads on meg ryan tiggered sunny's laughing thingy and she started laughing at everything!!
sudenli, there's a knock on our door and charu and anjali came in laughing!!
according to them, they started laughing 2 hours ago not long after they went back to their room!
and they had been hiding in the laundry room becos' they dun wanna disturb our other friend who was sleeping.
we asked if the pills made them sick as well and they told us that they felt sick AND yet can't control their laughter at the same time.
and another side effect of the pill is that it makes one paranoid.
thus, when someone knocked on our door a while after charu and anjali came in, both of them quickly hid behind the bed in panic, laughing at the same time.
it was alex.
she said that christian wasn't feeling well and we quickly brought him over to our room, aka the laughing/sick room.
he came over, realli paranoid and sick as well due to the pill, but not laughing.
worried that emily would haev the same syptoms as well, we quickly called her room and told her to come over.
she came and apparently, she's feeling the way as the rest.
everyone who took the pills were in our room and they decided to take the recovery pills.
however, ANOTHER side effect of the pills was insomia!!
so, in order to let ulric rest as he was sick, we went out to the corridor and sat there for ages!!
finalli when its abt 4ish, we decided to go back to our rooms and try to sleep.
well, took a while before we could fall asleep.
sigh and the next day, we were all too tired to wake up in the morning, let alone skiing.
thus we decided to go to the deer park!!
THE deer park.
THE LOTR DEER PARK!!
we swapped our ski passes for passes to the deer park and a buffet on mountain top later.
alex drove us to the deer park as christian wasn't feeling too well.
THE DEER PARK WAS AWESOME!!!
deers and lamas and donkeys and goats all wander around freely and when we drove to the top, we could see the surrounding mountain ranges!!
WOW!!
damm nice!!
felt veri new zealanish!! hahaaaa
(half hoping that i can see a hobbit or elf pop out somewhere... hee)
after that we went back to the hotel to fetch the rest and went for buffet on the mountain top.
the food was okay but the VIEW, as usual, was AWESOME!!
so pretty!!!!!!!!!
(i ate lotsa prawns wif thousand island sauce!!)
after that we went back to the hotel for some pre-party drinks then we went clubbing at a few pubs there.
the next day, we went skiing again.
and i was getting the hang of skiing on the intermediate slope.
at around 3.15pm, before the ski pad closed, anjali and i decided to brave the advance slope!!
in order to go up on the advanced slope, we had to take another lift up the mountain and anjali and i thot that the end of the lift was at the place where the clouds blocked our views.
BUT, the lift went ALL THE WAY up the mountain!!!
TO THE VERY TOP!!!
THE VERY TOP!!!
we nearli fainted!!
we could hardly see the base camp from the top!! and we could see for zilions miles away!!!
having no choice execept to ski down, we went on our way and tried to use the easiest paths.
anjali went down first and i was behind her cos' i dun dare to ski veri fast.
we arranged to meet at the bottom of the mountain.
(note: there were no fences at the edges of the paths so if we went too fast, we might juz topple over the side of the mountain!!
FREAKY!!!
so i went down slowly, choosing the easiest paths.
anjali was good.
she disappeared after a while.
i struggled down but fell at tricky areas.
THEN, the steepest slope of all!!
it started from the middle of the mountain till the bottom.
its a steep, slope all the way to the bottom.
veri steep and the snow is powdery so its hard to ski.
i braced myself, skied down... and fell after few seconds.
and kept on felling... on my BUTT!!
i couldn't stop becos' of the steep-ness of the slope and finalli, after digging the heels of my skis into the snow, managed to stop.
to add insult to my terrible ski-on-the-butt, the lift is right NEXT to the slope and EVERYONE can see me CLEARLY when i fall.
see my face?
well, seeing my big fall, this kind couple came over to help me.
they helped me up, and held me to prevent me from falling, so that i could wear my skis back.
(to get up when wearing skis, must first take one of the ski off so that we can stand up and regain balance. if not once we stand up on skis we will start slipping over again. well that is if we can get up on our feet WHEN wearing skis. and seriousli, to wear the ski back on a steep slope is realli HARD HARD and HARD for a not-veri-good-skier like me...)
wif their help, i managed to wear my skis, get my ski poles and ready to move on. the kind couple actualli stood there to watch over me so that i wouldn't fall again.
then i went.
and fell again...
this time, i fell on my butt (as usual) and REALLI couldn't stop myself, even when i dug the heels into the snow, i juz kept going down.
and it is gaining speed as i went...
i remembered thinking; will i go all the way down to the bottom of the mountain? shit! how pai seh will that be??!!!
then, i think my butt hit a hard lump of snow and i shifted.
my butt started turning and i was suddenli upside down, head at bottom, butt in the air...
and i managed to stop becos' of the turn.
ok pai seh till dunno what to say.
think can burn a hole in the snow.
the kind couple quickly skied down to help me AGAIN and the usual.
they even asked if i wanna them to carry my skis down for me while i WALKED down the slope!!
as i was near the bottom of the mountain, i declined, determined to complete my route IN skis.
so i went down but this time, i heed their advice and skied zipzap and thus, managed to reach the bottom of the mountain in one piece.
SO EXCITING!!!
after the long journey down, my blood was filled wif adreline and all i wanna do was to go up again!!
but alas, the ski pad is closing so i need to go.
bye mountain watever-the-name-is, hope i can come back again someday.
(afternote: actualli, come to think abt it. i think i couldn't ski veri well becos' of my ski boots. as least 50%. serious, i am not pushing my incompetence to the boots. serious. if i can't, i will admit that i can't. becos' u see, ski boots r supposed to be fitting, as in JUST NICE. like uncomfortably tight but not tight till no circulation. my ski boots r juz nice in the normal-wear-shoes-nice, which means they r kinda of too loose to ski on. thats why i avoided doing turns when skiing cos' my feet will slide around in my boots and i will fall. and to get down the steep mountain slope, i HAVE to do turnings to reduce my speed. thus, i kept falling cos' i kept going down the slope in a straight line which made me go like realli fast and not stable. hmm, must wear tight tight boots next time. like in melbourne. but veri painful lah tight tight boots. dunno lah. miss skiing.)
k ANYWAY, the next day, we needa go back to christchurch.
we drove back again and on the way, anjali went for bugee jumping!!
cool huh!!
and it was an awesome place to bugee jump!!
a bridge between mountains and a river at the bottom!! coolios!!
wanna try but i scared something may fly out...
and somemore quite x.
nvm tried sky diving already so should be abt the same.
yes, abit showing off. here. hahaaaa
continued our journey back.
stayed at airport lodge again for a nite and the day, flew back to brissy.
hmmmmmmm such a good trip.
nz was awesome.
i wanna go back again. so pretty and fun.
miss skiing...
WELL, anyway, these r the pics. from that trip...
too mani pics so i juz posted a few (which is still alot)!! all the pictures r in a mess cos' i'm too lazi to arrange them...
but there will be a short descrption below abt it lah...

we were at the christchurch airport.waiting for our transport to go to airport lodge to spend the nite before driving off to queenstown!!
view from the top of deer park.
alex driving.
after deer park. anjali and christian sleeping while i tried to sleep feed them gummy snakes.
ulric and charu in charu's room.
going down the mountain on our last day. trying to figure out how to put the chain thingy round the wheels so that we won't slide off the road.
view from our hotel, rydges.
at the buffet place.
buffet place pic 2.
view from deer park. legolas where r u?
deer park. from left: emily, sulo, sunny and me.
at queenstown. group pic.
minus 5 bar. from left: me, anjali, charu and sunny. extra bartender at the back.
charu and anjali.
me. yes i juz woke up.
charu and sunny.
from left: sunny, me, anjali, charu and alex.


view from ski pad. near the lift.
skiers.

along the road on the way to queenstown from christchurch.
yes, we kept stopping to take pictures. so pretty.
rydges.
in the van before departure.
away we go... LOTR adventures!! RIGHT!
nice group pic.
trying to get up a big lump of snow.
but...

charu and me. a good road trip pic.
yes, thats what we always do during the journey. cranky necks.
the trusty driver, mr christian.
we dun always sleep. we talked, laughed and ate too.
before departure to queenstown.
the first nite in christchurch. we were looking for the petrol kiosk 2 hours away.
at the airport. still not too cold.
i think this is the advanced slope. see how far away is the base camp. aiyo.
taken when i fell on the intermediate slope.
the intermediate slope entrance behind me. pose nice nice first.
ski lift.



views from deer park.
goat looking for food.


deer.
my subway lunch.
taken while waiting for the rest. along wif the one below.
"stoned" me. see my pupils dilating. seriousli, ppl bought the pills to laugh, i bought the pills to make me sick. CB.
our room!!


dunno what. like snow flowers.
the door on the right leads to the toilet. cool roots huh?
christchurch to queenstown.






beeautiful views during the trip.
me. bored.
the long road ahead.
most of the pictures are views and scenery. so prettyyyyyyyyyyy!! (quote b.)
actualli have moe pics of lamas and donkeys and deers and other stuff but they r all in my laptop so... hee lazi to transfer...
hmm... realli wanna go back again...
and the guys there r so cute!!
look realli good in ski clothings and beanies and skis/ snowboard... hee
wenn lusting for new zealand
wenn
6:57 PM