Overdued post for my final trip as a student!!!
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| Solo travel |
This trip was planned pretty last minute and tight, right after SIA accepted me as a Customer Affairs Manager, slotted in between ST Run in the Park and Army Half Marathon (which I was a pacer). I was scheduled to leave at 7pm on 25 August right after my competitive race and back 10pm Saturday night, which left me 5h to get home and get ready for AHM. Pretty rushed for Leon too as he had to drive 6h from Dunedin to Christchurch to pick me up and drive me to Dunedin and this holiday was in his midterm break.
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| Cute memory tree at T2! |
This was actually my first time travelling ALONE, despite being a 23 year-old. It was quite exciting, I had no travelling companion and I was truly left to my own devices on the way to Christchurch. Whatever happened I had no one to blame except myself..Thank God nothing actually screwed up :) It was an expensive but quite comfortable flight - British Airways transit at Sydney and then a Quantas flight overnight on the 25 August. The flight was really comfortable, food was good and I actually watched a movie on the IFE - Nicholas Spark's Safe Haven, which was sweet.
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| Morning sky in Sydney |
I was having mixed feelings seeing Leon - after not seeing him for almost 2 months and before that, our relationship was rather unstable as well. Nevertheless, I was excited to be in a foreign land on holiday (as usual!) and I was happy that I would not be alone on this trip.
Upon arrival, Leon was waiting for me with a bouquet of flowers, I could sense that he was really overjoyed to see me. It was a little awkward at first but it faded away and we were comfortably talking to each other. Then we embarked on our 6h drive back to Dunedin. Boy, it was really cold and I realised I was pretty much unprepared for the temperature because I packed light :O
The drive back was pretty scenic, the sun was setting, sun rays reflected on the rolling meadows and blue skies. Spotted cows, sheep and horses on the way as well. A reflection of a slow way of life totally different from the cities we Asians/Singaporeans are so used to. No wonder, people enjoy retiring in such a country.
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| Sunset at an isolated (freezing cold) coast |
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| Cargo of sheep! |
After a supermarket trip and a stop on an isolated coast on the way, we finally reached Dunedin, approximately 400km away from Christchurch, on the southern tip of South Island. The place he was staying at was 37A Leith Street, a stone's throw away from the Otago University that he was studying in.
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| Cosy huh? |
That night after settling down in his quaint cosy house, we walked out to a nearby famous pizza joint Poppa's Pizza for dinner. He recommended that it was cheap so I was like ok, let's go then. It was quite old school, popular with students of the university and were also run by them (most shops were). We shared a seafood pizza, yummy and warm from the oven. It was pretty good, just a little overpriced (what isn't in NZ). The decor of the shop was quite interesting actually, with old posters of events organised by the university.
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| yumms.. |
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| Posters that decorated the wall |
After dinner, we took a stroll around the neighbourhood and visited the supermarket (one of my favourite store because of all the yummy stuff). Some of the buildings at night were hauntingly beautiful. I wonder what lurks beneath... (One of the attractions in Dunedin was the
ghost tours, which I was too frightened to go but I heard were pretty good)
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| Only doesn't look as scary with filter |
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| See what I mean? |
The next day, we woke up at 5.30am to try to catch sunrise at
Mt Cargill (676m). What I did not realised that the drive up was pretty long, and I actually wanted to bike there (quite impossible). It was spectacular watching the dark sky become bright on top on a vantage point, and as if an invisible painter slowly streaks the skies pink, orange and blue, something you can only imagine in postcards. Spectacular. What is also different is that it is actually VERY COLD atop the mountain, and with the strong winds in Dunedin, the coldness seems magnified. I was FREEZING and I must say it wasn't easy taking photos because my hands were shaking and numbed.
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| Slowly rising |
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| Love the effects! |
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| Rolling down the slopes |
After a magnificent sunrise, we drove back to take our bikes out for breakfast at the
Good Earth Cafe near our place for a quaint special breakfast. He ordered blueberry bagel and latte (as per normal) and I got a cheese scone and espresso shot. YUM. It was hot and delicious although quite an expensive breakfast ($9 NZ) but it was worth the price. We left satiated and all ready for a bike ride to the beaches of Dunedin - St Clair's and St Kilda.
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| Cheese scone! |
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| "still haven't woke up" |
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| Store facade |
We cycled past the Otago Railway Station, which was quite quaint and headed to
St Clair's. It wasn't exactly a proper beach per say, more of seaside and pier. There were many gulls and pretty windy too, in fact, it was fun watching how the seagulls try to fly! St Clair's had a sign which pointed the distance and direction to the South Pole, which I found rather interesting. Next we cycled to St Kilda's, a distance away but also another beach, which was less 'visited'. We took off our shoes to walk on the smooth soft sand. Gosh, the water made the sand icy cold!
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| the railway station - design looks familiar to tokyo too! |
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| St Clair's |
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| still at St Clair's |
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| St Kilda's - a bit on the wild side |
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| captured a flying gull! |
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| the sign i mentioned |
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| empty beach! |
After the beaches, we cycled back home and Leon drove us down to Otago Peninsula for afternoon's activities. It was rather scenic and we had a picnic lunch by the peninsula - sandwiches and fruits, made by me :)
Larnach Castle was next on our list. Although it was kind of costly ($28) for both the castle interior and grounds, it was worth it. We spent the afternoon exploring the only castle in New Zealand and despite it being small, I've never been to one before so I was pretty intrigued by even the idea of visiting one! It was built in 1871 by William Larnach of Scottish descent and I would think that it had certain features of Scottish castles. However, the family was embroiled in dispute after tragedy struck and the castle was privately sold off. The castle is rather well-maintained and the view of the sea was pretty :)
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| our picnic area |
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| testing my camera |
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| a gaggle of geese |
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| #selca by the garden |
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| Entrance of the castle |
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| Rooftop view atop Larnach Castle |
There was still some time after meeting a friendly Aussie man at the castle, whom we talked to for quite a while (beauty of travel to be able to form aquaintances), so we headed to
Sandfly Bay to catch some sealion and maybe penguins aka hoihoi in Maori language (sadly we didn't). We met a huge flock of grazing sheep as well and they were quite amusing to chase. The sand dunes were HUGEEEE. I had to conquer my fear of heights to tread carefully down the sinking soft sand (and back up again>.<) in order to go down onto the beach but it was cool that I was rewarded with up-close-and-personal sessions with the sealions.
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| look at how low we went (the beach!) |
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| having fun with capturing sheep |
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| sealion! (only less than 5m away) |
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| terribly high sand dunes :/ |
We concluded the day by heading over to Velvet Burger for 2-for-1 Tuesday deals (warning: huge burgers) and a stroll around the city centre. We also walked around the Otago University campus which was beautiful. Wished NUS was as scenic.
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| pink blossoms!and old architecture |
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| doesn't look like a campus huh? |
The next day, we got up early at about 5am to drive to Queenstown for our short ski vacation. It was a pretty cold drive..I was freezing in the car. So was Leon. I fell asleep most of the ride but at the later part, was awake to watch the sunrise :) And I must say, every sunrise and sunset in NZ is awesomeee and surreal!!Unfortunately, when we arrived at 9am, it starting drizzling and since we arrived too late for our skiing trip, (my quick thinking) we decided to shift skiing to the next day and luckily all our current plans had coupons that were flexible. Queenstown was nothing like what I imagined.It's practically in a valley (at least it feels like it..hahas) and all the buildings seems very flattened. Being a town for ski tourism, I didn't expect it to be so laidback and small.
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| Snapshot of queenstown |
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| School kids having games |
Our first attraction of Queenstown was the
Skyline Gondola & Luge at
Bob's Peak overlooking Lake Wakatipu. The attraction has various passes of different prices for the gondola and luge options. We took a gondola ticket and 4x luge. The view was stunning, by far the best and the luge was fun..a little scary and irritating because my eyes were so dry from the wind but nevertheless, good experience. There were 2 paths, basic and intermediate, so it's pretty friendly to scaredy-cats like me..hehes.
Thank goodness we reached the inn in time before the heavy downpour which carried on till dusk. Despite the wet weather, we decided to drop by
Arrowtown, a small goldmining town near Queenstown. I wished it wasn't raining so I could explore the pretty and quaint place but the downpour didn't stop :( It's quite similar to Handoorf in Adelaide, and Kamakura in Tokyo, just much smaller, but I think more could be done to improve it.
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| Dreary weather..zzzz |
After a walk around the town and visiting the old Chinese settlement, we returned to Queenstown and went to Steamers' Wharf with the intention for dinner. But too expensive so we headed to Fergburger, a must-try according to Baldwin :) I must say that the burgers are HUGE! But good choices they offer. We had the morning glory and it was quite delicious, especially in the cold weather.
Other interesting places to visit (and shop) would be CookieTime (a Famous-Amos-like shop) and The Remarkable Sweet Shop, which sells all kinds of sweets around the world that you can ever imagine, including rabbit candy!
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| Steamers' wharf |
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| THe Remarkable Sweet Shop!! |
We headed to the
Icebar (paid about $13 for admission & drink) after dinner. It was an ice chamber where everything was made of ice, even our cups! Strangely, there isn't many people there and those who were there only stayed about 10min. We spent time playing table hockey and camwhoring at the photobooth..lols
We had some drinks coupon given by our hostel staff but I think we were too tired to barhop and after visiting the first bar for a free apple-cinnamon whisky, we headed back to sleep.
I must say, the dorm at
Flaming Kiwi Backpackers was clean, neat and the beds were super comfortable :) It was indeed worth every cent, the bathroom was super duper clean and the lamp even provided some warmth when I was freezing my butt off. The dorm also had free entertainment, coffee/tea for the guests.
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| Ferburgers are HUGEEE |
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| Icebar #everythingcool |
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| making drinks |
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| some great apple-cinnamon whisky |
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| Drinks pass..sadly we were too tired to drink |
We spent the second day of Queenstown practically skiing. But since that was much later in the day, we decided to go for a walk and headed to the lake. The morning chilly breeze was really refreshing and the sun rising view was really great. Thank God the weather was perfect for skiing, the sun prevented the mountains from being too chilly.
Next, we headed to the ski centre where the bus would pick us and send us to the Remarkables for a day of skiing! #exciteddd Anyways I felt that the skiing was well-organised in Queenstown because it is a skiing town and we only paid NZ120+ from the Queenstown ski website for 3hours of lessons for a basic skier. Skiing is NOT EASY but it totally tones all your muscle groups. At the end of the day I returned with a sore butt and quads. After much tumbling, crashing and screaming, my skiing improved and I daresay I can go down a kid's slope :) hahhahas..going down a slope is SCARYY..plus all the headwind..goshh..My worst accident was when I went down too fast and flew over a woman who had already have problems stopping..LOLS. but it has given me a badge of honour, a lump on my left leg which stayed till now -__-
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| Selca by the pretty lake.. |
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| sunrays reflecting off the mountain |
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| never seen such snowcapped beauty - The Remarkables |
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| Ski boots! |
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| ski resort |
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| one day..maybe.. |
We were pretty much exhausted from skiing but no choice, we had to return back home to Dunedin. Poor Leon had to drive us back in the evening and I actually slept most of the way. However, I must say that the evening scenery was really pretty :)
The last day spent was in Dunedin exploring what's left of the city. We woke up for a 8-10k hike up Signal Hill & run down
Signal Hill to Dunedin Botanic Gardens and passed the cemetery. Pretty tiring run I must say..After the run, we spent some time making pancakes for breakfast! Cheap, hot and yummy :D After breakfast, we cycled down to Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street (and boy, was it terribly steep!).
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| Rewarding homemade pancake breakfast!! |
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| Peak of Signal Hill |
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| Hiking up Signal Hill is NO JOKE! |
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| #actcute |
After cycling back from
Baldwin Street, we went to walk around the city centre, did some shopping and went to the
Otago Museum. Like Adelaide, the museum was free and awfully cool! It has a living science/taxonomy gallery, maritime museum, ethnographic display, history...etc
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| Many fossils! |
Then we headed to the
Otago Art Gallery, which was pretty cool (and FOC)! The gallery had a mix of contemporary art, Asian art (Japanese, Buddhist) and many acquired paintings.
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| Hokusai's famous collection of the many images of Mt Fuji |
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| Train Station |
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| Pretty silhouette |
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| Chinese gardens (not recommended because of high price) |
We also wanted to head to the
Settlers' Museum but too bad it closed :/ So we walked around the area near it.
Lastly we popped by the
Cadbury Chocolate Factory just before it closed to get a peek at what was inside. The whole place was chocolate haven..Too bad we didn't have the time (and budget to go in for a visit) :/
Finally (and sadly), it was time to leave for Christchurch. We left at 1130pm from Dunedin for the long dark drive to the Christchurch airport. Leon was really sad to watch me go. I could see that in every way but I guess time really flies when you're having fun and everything has an end. My trip too..
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| yummy seafood meal onboard! |
Back to reality and warm sunny Singapore..
