New Zealand April 2018

New Zealand 9 to 20 April

This was our first major trip since Buddy came to our house! We were super excited to go on the trip after we have managed to find a great pet sitter and after so much planning for the trip. It turned out to be a great trip and with the year ending already, the best trip of the year! In fact, I would rate it one of the best trips (behind Japan becos we love Japan) that we had. We were blown over by the scenery of the place, how beautiful and how livable it is.

But one thing almost coloured the trip before we left. Buddy suddenly had very bad back pains and we had bring him to the vet the day before he was supposed to go to the bed sitter. He would be walking and then flop to the ground suddenly while screaming in pain. We have not seen him having so much pain before. Cries. We rushed Buddy to the vet after this happened a few times.

The vet said it was spinal arthritis and gave him medicine for two weeks. Buddy also could not go for walks or move around cos he has to literally rest. We were very blessed that we have a very good pet sitter who took great care of Buddy and Buddy was much better after a few days. It gave us great peace of mind to finally enjoy the trip. And hallelujah, Buddy's pain did not come back and we are not helping him to maintain healthy bones by feeding him glucosamine supplements everyday. :)

So back to the trip ^_^

We took Qantas this time as they had a promo and landed in Christchurch. Actually really nothing much in Christchurch, and our first impression of NZ was meh. But the highlight was the self-drive and Dear loves to self drive (anything also want to self drive). So after one night in Christchurch, we were off exploring!

In Christchurch city. The landscape was flatter than we thot; not much high rise buildings even for the shopping centres. 

Off on the road! We were supposed to go to Arthur's pass but there was freak weather and too much ice on the road, so we were made to wait for two hours at the side of the roads with other cars as only those with snow chains could go up. Hello, it was autumn when we went! Why would we have snow chains?!

Finally reached Arthurs' pass after the wait. Dear almost wanted to buy snow chains at a petrol kiosk heng we decided not to in the end because it was quite expensive and by that time that we wanted to get a snow chain, the road was declared safe and about to open already.

Initially, we were also like the scenery very nice meh but as we drive further south, the scenery grew even more breath taking and we left our hearts behind in NZ in the end.

Most of our time outdoors was spent going on hikes, see this glacier lah, see that lake lah. Very healthy leh. And I didn't know I can hike for three hours and think quite fun leh (minus the up slope parts which really tired me out :p) Hahaha

 

Photo don't do the scenery justice. 

One of our fav towns was Lake Wanaka. The place is nice with great scenary, restaurants and shops. We spotted this grouchy looking dog outside one of the cafes haha. 

And another highlight of the trip here in Wanaka: flying aeroplane! This is the only place in the world that you can fly a plane without a license, of cos I have to sign Dear up.

An instructor will be in the plane with you, and guide you through it. Besides flying the plane in the air, Dear got to do the take off and landing too!

I sat at the back and held on to our seat belt for dear life. Kidding. Haha. The instructor was very nice, and will help to take videos and photos of us in the plane. Service very good haha.

 

The iconic tree in the Wanaka Lake called the Wanaka Tree. A lot of ppl came here to take photos. 

Another view of Lake Wanaka.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Lake Wanaka. Living like the locals yo! Look how pretty the place is! Wouldn't it be nice to stay in this setting when we retired?

The interior of our Airbnb. We checked out the property prices of the diff towns whenever we see realtor shops in the towns, very serious wondering if we could stay in NZ when we retire. Haha.

We took a day trip to Arrowtown to take a look at the retro gold town which has very beautiful autumn foliage. Then we went to Queenstown. Love the burger here!

The next major activity of the trip was the Milford Sound cruise. We stayed one night in Te Anau from Queenstown as the drive from Te Anau to the cruise was much shorter.

One of the meals we cooked ourselves because it was expensive to eat out and in some of the smaller towns, nothing much to eat also. So, it was cooking night in our stay in Te Anau! Cooked steak, mushroms with ready-to-cook rice.

 One thing we ate quite a bit, esp for breafast, were pies. Not bad and kinda considered a cheap breakfast by NZ standards.

 We started our day to the Milford Sound cruise so early that we caught the sun rise! See the colours so stunning, this is only like 20 percent of grand it looked like in real life.

On the cruise!

The waterfalls are the famous part of the Milford Sound. It is a two hour cruise around the lake, not bad lah, but we were not like bowed over by it.

 Next stop was Mount Cook! Another of my fav part of the trip. The town around Mount Cook don't have much facilities but the scenary was superb and the 3hr hike we took was great even though we had to hike in the rain.

Ya we were quite unlucky in the sense that we had to do two long hikes in the rain during the trip cos #badweather

 That's Mount Cook! 

 After Mount Cook, we drove to Lake Tekapo. First stop was the observatory where we had a light lunch and took many photos. There were quite a few Asians and a lot used the blue coffee cups as props in their photos haha. Very funny-Asians and their obsession with photos.

Actually, we saw quite a lot of Chinese during this trip and we were surprised that we actually saw more of them than the locals! Turns out a lot of them actually buy properties in NZ because rich and need a place to invest or they think NZ is great for living so bought a home here. So actually if stay here, will not feel odd one out cos really a lot of Asians. In fact, the airbnb that we stayed in at Lake Takepo was owned by a Chinese lady who married here! We chit chatted with her and she really doing well lor, owned a houses and rents them out as Airbnb. #idea

 One of the landmarks at Lake Tekapo where ppl also like to stay here to take night shots of the stars. Our camera not good enough to capture the stars, but really abundant of stars in the sky at night! We didn't get to see any Southern Lights but we saw the milky way! So I guess also not bad!

 Best meal of the trip (also becos super touching to eat good Asian food at the end of almost two weeks of ang moh food) at this Kohan Jap restaurant in Lake Takepo. Opened by a Japanese family who is staying in Lake Tekapo. Tastes very good and very reasonable price! Eat liao almost want to cry. Ok a bit exaggerated haha.

 Breakfast of instant noodles and kiwi before we set off toward Christchurch to return home. Love the indulgence of the instant noodles haha.

 Stopped at this nice retro town by accident on the way back, kinda cool.

 Finally reached Christchurch and we stayed in this Airbnb in the outskirts of Chirstchurch, because Dear said why stay in the city centre again. Might as well explore other parts of the Christchurch.

 The family has two dogs and one of them was very friendly, came over to play ball with Dear and also sent us off when we were checking out of the house and leaving for the airport.

A very nice breakfast place near our Airbnb that Dear liked, he was really pleased with his find haha. We spent some time of the last two days in the local malls, look for toys for Buddy! Mummy had to drag Daddy along cos Daddy said too many toys liao :p

So it was an awesome trip and we were even talking about going back to NZ a second time soon! This time the Northern part! :)