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NZ 2015: The end
posted : Sunday, February 28, 2016
Reached Christchurch at about 6 in the evening and headed straight to our accommodation of the night - Colonial Inn Motel at Papanui Road (had to mention that coz the road name is still stuck in head despite it being almost 3 months since we got back). Kind of like an apartment with a queen bed in the bedroom, and a single bed in the living room. And a pantry with most amenities present so no complains there.
Entrance hall
The bedroom
Extra bed in the living room
Random (I think) clock tower
Posing outside the casino!
The Asian within us was like, OMG this has rice, let's order this.
Ordered two portions of the carvery selection
And dessert!
Leaving empty handed :(
And Christchurch being a ghost town at night meant we just head back to the motel after that. To pack hahaha.
Blockhedz Collection!
Goodbye trusty little red car
Hopped on the shuttle bus to airport, checked in without incidents, and basically just waited for the flight. Uneventful haha. Unless you count the fact that Chris and I were trying very hard to finish spending the remaining NZD we had. I managed to spend the last coin I had wheeee. Kept one note for souvenir lah.
Memories!
Journey back was even more restless IMO. This time I wasn't trying to sleep and hence have trouble finding things to do on flight. Even spent an hour staring at the flight route -.- Guess I can't wait to be back. To be honest I was craving for local food at this point. Reached SG at about 5pm..and went our separate ways. 
Menu for the return trip!
Had the kung pao chicken
And a light dinner before touching down
Went for the fish
And with that....the trip came to an end! A very different experience for me - new group of traveling buddies, road trip element, the environment are all contributing factors. But definitely enjoyable and eye opening.
Can't wait for my next trip! Which I duno where and when yet. Hahaha.
Don't dream it's over.
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NZ 2015: Seals and wine
posted : Saturday, February 27, 2016
Had lots planned for the day so once again, woke up early, had breakfast and bid our hosts goodbye before they left for work. Off we go again in our trusty little red car.
Journey up to Kaikoura isn't a long one, taking about 2 hours. There actually isn't much to see, though parts of the drive reminds me of the drive along the west coast during our first couple of days in NZ. Lol I think novelty wore off already too.
Looking extremely burnt from the day before. Actually the point of this photo is the absolute lack of space at the passenger seat at this stage of the trip.
Reached Kaikoura at about noon, and popped by the iSite first to check out the tracks available..then strolled in town looking for a lunch place. Chris wanted to try crayfish at first - Kaikoura is famous for its seafood - but we decided it's too expensive in the end. Eventually settled for fish and chips (again lol). Initially we wanted to check out the weekend market in an open green next to a kindergarten, but by the time we finished lunch and headed over most of the stalls are packing up already. Oh well.
Kaikoura town.
Salmon and chips lunch.
Gorgeous scenery as always
Rocky beach area
One of the popular activities in Kaikoura is whale watching but we didn't have time for that - and we did catch a bit of whale already when we were in Milford heh. Headed off to the southern (I think?) end of the town where the tracks were. Picked the shortest one lol due to time constraints...even then we didn't really finish it and headed back to sea level to visit the seals!
Wefie while trekkinf
Oh hi!
About 4pm by the time we left Kaikoura at the end of the very short visit - and drove another 2 hours up north towards Picton. This part of the drive was even more...boring, for the lack of a better word, with mostly barren landscape and no road kills even lol.
Checked in at Sequoia Backpackers Lodge Picton. Reminds me of the Te Anau one in the sense that we got a cabin, though this one comes with attached bathroom. I also remember this day being one of the colder days in NZ and we literally sat around the heater trying to keep warm. Dropped our stuff and headed over to the kitchen to cook dinner. At this point in time it's more about finishing up whatever supplies we have so we repeated the pasta dinner though this time with Alfredo sauce. And the hostel's specialty is warm chocolate pudding served at 7.30pm. Wheee.
The room
Warm chocolate pudding with ice cream yums!
Up early the next morning and attempted to have breakfast at a bakery but turns out it's closed on Sundays. No matter, we settled down for breakfast at one of the cafes in the town centre. Then popped by the picturesque lakeside looking out to Marlborough Sound. 
Loving these jetty pictures
Picton town
Looking out to Marlborough Sound
Next is an obligatory trip to the iSite, spotted a souvenir shop nearby and decided to check that out too, coz by this time we are in a last minute shopping frenzy hahahah. And kind of got conned into visiting an aquarium next to it which isn't much to shout about. 
Overlooking Picton
and Marlborough Sound
That's how windy the road is....
Stopped by Makana Chocolate Factory on our way to Wairau River Winery for lunch. Actually even though we had a lunch reservation but we are still pretty much undecided at this point in time and are looking for other options at the wide variety of wineries along this stretch of road. But got lazy and just headed to Wairau River in the end heh. 
Popped by another winery first, before deciding to just head to Wairau.
Lunch was pretty good actually. Though I am pretty sure I would enjoy it more if it wasn't for the diarrhea I had (which had lasted for a good day and a half at this point and had me visiting the toilet at every opportunity) and the fact that I am pretty sick of western food by this time. And I was hoping the acidity in wine would actually kill off whatever virus I had in my tummy hahahah not sure if that was supposed to work.
Lunch
Now that I look at it again, looks pretty yummy..
Cheers!
And that was actually the last activity proper in the Marlborough region. Pumped petrol, and drove back to Christchurch with a quick stopover at Kaikoura. And discovering that we left behind way more things than we intended at Sequoia - had intended to leave behind extra groceries like garlic, butter and what not but somehow each of us got sloppy - Sam left behind a pair of jeans, Chris a jacket and me a bag of cookies which I wanted to bring back to SG (okay least damage hahaha).
Last leg of the trip!
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NZ 2015: Christchurch tales
posted : Sunday, February 21, 2016
Plan was to drop by Lake Tekapo on our way to Christchurch, which is about an hour drive from Mount Cook. Another small township built on the strength of the lake, which also has amazing night scenery and one of the places where the southern lights can be observed. But it wasn't really on our itinerary to do so - too much luck required and we don't have that much time..
With our little red car by the lake
Church of Good Shepherd, by Lake Tekapo. One of the must-see attractions at Lake Tekapo.
Off to Christchurch proper! Accommodation for this leg was AirBnB. It's kind of hard to find Airbnb places at all the locations we have visited so far, but Christchurch being the biggest city in South Island didn't pose these problems. The place was owned by a Chinese couple, both were out for work when we arrived so they left the key behind for us to check in on our own. 
Double bed in the bedroom
The third person had to sleep in the living room. Which turned out to be Sam.
The kitchen. Which had a walk-in pantry oooh
Rustic Lane.
Anyway after checking in we went out in hunt for a cafe for late lunch. And took in the various sightseeing attractions Christchurch have to offer - ruins of the original Christchurch cathedral, the cardboard cathedral, and of course Re:Start mall. And Pak n Save which we have been looking forward to since day one ahahahaha. 
Lunch/tea at a cafe
Still lots of reconstruction everywhere
Ruins of the original Christchurch Cathedral.
Chalice structure outside the cathedral. Which survived the quake i think.
Trams!
Re:Start Mall. A very interesting concept which came about after the quake, signifying the resourcefulness and resilience of NZ ppl.
Christchurch Transitional Cathedral. Also made up of recyclable materials like cardboard tubes.
Cant remember where this is. Hahaha.
Went back and cooked quick dinner. Which is basically getting a canned soup ready and toast garlic bread to go with the whole roasted chicken and seafood salad from Pak N Save. Oh and meeting our hosts for the first time, who huddled together to watch a movie in the living room while we cooked and ate. 
By some luck, we were in Christchurch during their annual Cup And Show Week ("horse and cup" "no horse!!!" lol). And the showpiece of the week, the A&P (Agriculture and Pastoral) Show happened to be have its concluding day on the second day of our time at Christchurch so activity for the day was really a no brainer.
Driving to the event reminds me of...Quidditch World Cup ahahahah. They have set aside this massive field for parking so there were marshals guiding people to fill up the parking spaces in an orderly fashion. Then walked over to the main site.
The parking site
Entrance
Lots to do and see. Kind of eye opening to see things like wood chopping competition, sheep shearing competition, and most compelling of all, animal judging. Still had no idea what the judges were looking for. At the end of the day awards were given out for the best sheep, cow, llama etc and the best overall animal which was won by the champion horse in the end I think.
Wood chopping competition
Lots of meh-mehs and moo-moos.
Carnival food like churros
Games!
Chris and I went on this.
Motorcross
The various parades and races!
Pony racing
Left at about 4 at the conclusion of the prize presentations. Headed off towards Pak n Save in Westfields again in hunt of souvenir biscuits and chocolates, but couldn't find them. Another trip to Re:Start mall to find those were also in vain since most shops there were closed for some reason. Ended up just heading to Christchurch cathedral area to get dinner from the food trucks that operate there every Friday, and called it a day.
We did go all the way out to find this though, as we missed it the day before. A memorial for victims of the Christchurch earthquake, comprising of various forms of chairs painted in white.
That's actually the end of our Christchurch adventure actually! Heading north towards Picton for a day, and we were supposed to spend one final night at Christchurch before flying back to SG so left Christchurch Casino for that. Christchurch is strangely quiet for a city that calls itself the largest in South Island, but for most part I enjoyed it. Most enjoyable part for me was the stroll in town hopping from one sightseeing spot to another. :)
To Kaikoura and Picton next!
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