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Day 8: Last day, last glimpse

well in the wee hours of the morning, i had to wake up to take the hired transportation to the Auckland International Airport. On my way there, the driver was giving me commentaries of certain towns. Like in Huntly, it's a mining area and another place was where he used to stay. It was quite an odd way to find out about someone but well i tried to entertain him as much as i could because i was so beat.

Finally I reached the airport, checked in and waaas pleasantly surprised that the shops were opened at an ungodly hour (trust me, 6am IS quite an ungodly hour). I refrained from buyin too much. I ended up with two bottles of wine and I was done for shopping.

Walked around some more before I waited at the gate to board the plane. Fell in and out of sleep again until we were allowed to board the plane.

As I walked in, I was well aware that it was the end of my holiday. Stressful it may be, it was still holiday nonetheless. I peered out of the window, catching the last glimpse of New Zealand. Well I want to come back, especially to visit the south islands.

TIme to work hard and earn money to come back (to visit the south islands and BUY MORE UNDIES!!!!)

hehehehehe to summarise what i bought..hehe

Day 7: Second proper day in Hamilton

We got up, took a 45 minute stroll to Hamilton City.

on our way there, i took a couple of shots.

We ventured into the museum which had a free entry. Yes as practical as it may sound, we were on a tight budget. Then we pampered ourselves with a hearty meal at a café opposite the museum.

now u see my breakfast...

now u dont!

After brunch, we just walked around before we ended up at K-mart again. Bah! That place is evil I tell you. Bought underwear again before we had to go back to the bus interchange to wait for the 1.15 bus (Karen had to go for class). While waiting for the bus, we succumbed into buying this huge serving of ice cream. I tell you the double serving (which only cost 3 bucks btw) of ice cream is HUGE! It’s larger than the size of a palm. That’s how big the serving was. Well the kids in us just happily gobbled away the ice cream while we waited patiently for transportation.

I got home and watched Desperate Housewives while Karen went for class. We spent the rest of the day chilling before I took a short nap that prepared myself for the very next day- My departure for Melbourne.

(click here for more photos)

Day 6: First proper day in town

We didn't do much (or I can't remember this detail) in the morning. We visited the town in the Hamilton City. We had a buffet before browsing the stores. In my opinion, the city is a warm place filled with humble shops, and cafes juxtaposed with some dilapidated or run down shops that were screaming for attention.

my first serving for the buffet. wasn't tat fantastic but it was worth the cost. =)

i like this

as i walked past this shop, i was perplexed for just a few seconds. turned to karen and said "they don't sell no panties" hahah i actually read the shop name as "panty shop" hehhee tink i was too tired then

hahaha first time seeing such a sign/notice.

after lunch, we went to the balcony to take some shots. i tried to take a photo of my reflection with the bright blue sky behind me and interior of the restaurant.

just playing around with me cammie

I bought another candle. Lately I’ve been attracted to candles and well that very day was no exception. Other buys included underwear, lots and lots of them, and a pair of boots. Hehe Yes I indulged in retail therapy but that was all I could do because I couldn’t sign up for any more tours because the tours were either not in service on that day (I had to book in advance) or too expensive and way beyond my budget. Reality hit me that I was merely a student with a really tight budget! =(

while waiting for a bus to milee's place, we bought ICE CREAM. believe me this is the biggest double scoop ice cream i've ever had. and it was only 3 bucks!!!!

After relieving myself from disappointment, we proceeded to a Singaporean Mother’s house for dinner. We had a nice chat with Milee and had the opportunity to actually speak to a mature lady’s point of view as to why she wanted to further her studies in New Zealand. She has 3 kids whom she brought over and they are actually schooling in nearby schools. I couldn’t help but admire her for dropping everything in Singapore, and even sacrificing time with her husband and almost everything for this degree and her kids’ future. Talking to her made me consider that maybe Singapore’s education system is shit and useless.

I got really tired so we left the house, went back to the hall and promptly invited ourselves into dreamland.

(click here for more photos)

Day 5: Another tiring 3-hour ride back to Hamilton

That wasn't the highlight of the day but it constituted quite a considerable amt of time. Anyway we left Amos' place

ahhh the two peeps who came to pick me up from the airport. really have to thank them. =) Amos and Hsu Lynn

and went to have breakfast at Wendy's. The latter is, I presume, an american fast food chain and we saw a couple of outlets in NZ so well we thought it woulnd't hurt to actually try out the burgers. Seriously, there's nothing fantastic about the burgers, trust me.

wendy's anyone?

We trekked along Queens Street. It was prob the only street that was busy. We window shopped as well as checked out the Skycity, which stuck out from the main city. Skycity actually offered something like a bungee jump service BUT i had not enough money to actually try out this novelty. It was about 110 dollars. On second thought I may actually back out if I were up there looking down many feet below me. Ulgh *shudder* oh well!

the much raved-about sky city. hmm imagine that bungee jump from the height.

Bought my first items for this trip- 2 keychains. HAHA... Up till that point in time, I had been spending all my money on food and transport. So that started me off to spending on shopping.

We had to catch the bus back to Hamilton (which cost us another 17 each). Along the way, as Karen nodded off beside me, I couldn’t help but notice the ominous clouds which followed us to Hamilton. It reminded me of the Tsunami that struck and killed innocent lives again. Ken-boy had informed me about it the night before. Well my prayers go out to them.

Anyway we came home after a little grocery shopping experience at Pak'n Save again (this time at a diff outlet *excited*), I went for a run before we decided to cook dinner. Initially I was supposed to cook but Karen got excited and she insisted that she cooked so……. I took a nice warm shower before indulging in Karen’s concoction of cooked noodles.

That was pretty much our day. I had a good rest that night.

(for more photos, click here)

Day 4: An adventurous scary day driving

We woke up with the rain mocking us. Justin suggested preparing breakfast for us so we had scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon. Finally the rain subsided so we sent Justin to work in the University of Hamilton before we headed for an adventurous expedition.

The ride there was pretty bumpy. I’m not talking literal terms here but well it was my first time driving...
a) for such a long period
b) in New Zealand
c) an acquaintance’s car
d) through a pretty mountainous area
e) in foggy conditions for a short period of time
f) at about 90-100kph for the ride…
g) with Karen giving me directions like gesturing while saying “turn here” (note that my eyes are on the road)
h) without planning ahead. We purely used road signs. How scary is tat?
i) With many cars whizzing past me at any given opportunity. Wellllll…need I say more?

this was the destination- the place karen was raving about.

We reached Mt Maunganui in one piece, with all our organs intact. Thank God! We headed for food before anything else.

yeap food brings us together. oops dun mind the big mouth!

We then proceeded to walk around the area after it stopped raining. Like a typical tourist, I took tons of photos before making another 3-hour ride back.

there was a line-up of many cafes catered for people like us. hur hur hur.

the mountain/hill (see right) that i wanted to climb. pity time wasn't on my side. Pity I couldn’t trek up the hilly region due to time constraints. OH WELL. Will do that next time *mental note*

note how blue the sky is. hmm this is paradise. heh... and please also note that i didn't use photoshop for any of the photos featured here... =)

just one of the many who was picking oysters. nah! not my kinda thing but interesting nonetheless. apparantly some of them pick them up and eat the oysters fresh.

The ride back was smoother even though the traffic was horrible. I managed to relax and enjoy the company as well as immerse in the wonder of Nature. The herds of cows, and sheep which were grazing happily…the green, the hills.

We met Justin, washed up before we headed to Auckland again. I was just happy to sit behind as a passenger while Justin was behind the wheel. I took a short nap before I woke up because the car was stuck in a huge jam. We ended up late to meet Joel, Justin’s friend from New Zealand. He's my first kiwi friend, believe it or not =)

We had dinner at Burgerfuel along Ponsonby. We had a HUGE (and when I say huge I mean it) burger each before we took quite a long stroll to a café in Queen’s street.

well couldn't take a proper shot of the sky city at night. ulgh i need a better camera!

Initially Karen suggested staying over at the 24-hr café but Amos offered his place so we stayed over at his place.

It was a fun-filled yet tiring day. That almost drained me from almost all of my energy.

(for more photos of Day 4, click here)

Day 3: It takes at least 3 hours to get from Auckland to Hamilton

We woke up to go to church. It was a great time spending it with Him before we set off to Hamilton from Auckland after lunch at Michael’s. We had delicious home-made porridge made by Michael’s mum. It was a little too salty but other than that i'm not complaining!

yummy porridge, in fact one of the best i've eaten so far

The ride back to Hamilton was an uncomfortable 3-hour ride. Upon arriving at Hamilton, I met Justin for the first time. He sent us back home before I went to run. I was feeling slightly guilty for eating like a glutton so I ran a few rounds round the school before I met Karen to go back to her hall. We happened to pass by this area where some international students were having a BBQ so we joined them for a while (had a bit of food) before we met up with Justin and Lynn for dinner at the Hamilton city centre.

well well..the food was good and it was worth the cost. imagine, we just had to pay 10 bucks each for that!

Justin let me test drive his car to one of the McCafes where we had dessert.

my staple source for the trip- desserts and fluffy. (fluffy's actually steamed milk with chocolate powder and those colourful choco bits, but i'd rather jus drink plain milk without all the fancy jazz)

doesn't justin look like dick lee. he refused to let me take a proper photo. hahah

mucking around in maccas

Heh we had a really heated argument about the Singapore Government before Justin and myself relented and gave up. The rest of the two continued disputing. Finally, we changed the subject and talked about miscellaneous issues before we decided to head home. We sent Lynn home before we decided to stay over at Justin’s because we were going to borrow Justin’s car early in the morning.

At Justin’s, the three of us chatted aimlessly and each of us had two shots of sweet alcohol before turning in.

yeap cheers to everything!

(for more photos of the third day, click here)

Day 2: Second day and I'm beat already

We set off at about 10am from the house after a YUMMY breakfast prepared by Michael’s mum. She prepared bee hoon. Karen and myself had two helpings because it was just delicious! I did notice that the family didn't eat, maybe they ate before us *shrug*

here's michael's mum preparing the bee hoon. pity we didn't take a proper photo with the family

being the trigger-happy person that i am, i thought we had to take some photos after breakkie =)

After less than 5 minutes later, we were at Pak’N Save. Let me say this first, IT’S MY PLAYGROUND!!! It’s because it’s HUGE. It’s almost like at least 3 times bigger than the supermarkets in Melbourne (Notice I didn’t even mention about Singapore). Just try to visualize a warehouse of groceries. Yeap. That’s heaven for me (for now). I was in awe for a while. Karen was amused that I was so amazed. I was practically squealing. If only supermarkets were that big in Melbourne or Singapore.

YEAP YEAP this is pak'in safe. hehe i love this place. more photos of PNS later

After that brief diversion, we met one of Michael’s mum’s good friend and then we set off to Coromandel Beach to Kayak.

the three of us squashed behind in michael's car

a few photos on our way there.

Michael behind the wheel. i was pretty uncomfortable because drivers drove at crazy speeds in the mountains.

interesting...a one-way bridge

we stopped to take some photos before continuin with our journey

We kept passing by towns alternating mountains and/or large fields with lazy grazing cows. When we went by the nature-scape, the cows, sheep were so still- it felt like they were posing for the passers-by to gawk. After close to 3.5 hours of winding roads and praying, we finally reached the Beach at Port Colville.

I had a good time kayaking with Karen. Occasionally we would rest and chat while we drifted in the seas. Ah if only we could do this everyday.

karen's cut from somewhere. =p

Well we had a good meal before heading off back to Auckland city.
heheh a great meal prepared by the lovely aunties

It took us almost 4.5 hours to get to the city because we were lost for a while. Anyway when we reached the city, we met up with Lynn’s friend, Chris. Karen and myself left them to talk, while we sat at another table to stone.

i must say, chris can't take photos. hehe

karen's almost eatable hot chocolate. looks almost orgasmic

We finally got home at about 1am before we all took quick showers and rested in a good slumber.

(for more photos, click here)