NZ : Entering the South Island

Posted on March 15, 2017 by jipp

Taupo that I found out was more than just the lake. Taupo was our first stop after spending the day before driving from Auckland to the Hobbiton Movie Set. We started the day in Taupo by driving over to the Huka Falls. I wouldn’t say I was really amazed by the falls – but the fact that the water was so blue made me wonder if it really was natural or man-made (but of course it is natural). The sight of foamy blue waters galloping down against the black riverbanks was something that I would probably not see anywhere else but in Taupo. Huka Falls is said to contribute 18% of electricity in New Zealand so it is not all about the beauty but also very much significant to the livelihood of New Zealand people.

Huka Falls

From Huka Falls we drove back out to the main road and our curiosity led us to Craters of the Moon whose signboard we found by accident. After paying the entrance fee, we were led to a long wooden walkway that took us across beautiful bushes with steaming vents and bubbling craters here and there – except that I did not see any bubbles. May be because it was summer and all the craters were dry. I could hear the sound of boiling activities coming from beneath the soils though, and the sight of steams rising up from under there was just other-worldly. One of the locals who happened to be there told me how she once witnessed a guy slip and fall right into the boiling mud but that was before all the walk-board was built.

Craters of the Moon in Taupo

Pulling out from that little unplanned detour, we drove further south towards Wellington – the capital of New Zealand. That part of the road trip took us near to Tongariro National Park which is famous for its near-perfect cone-shaped volcano. This volcano was featured in LOTR too, as the Mount Doom or Mordor where Prodo has to bring the cursed ring to be destroyed before it falls into the hands of Saruman. Climbing up the mountain known as Tongariro Aphine Crossing is one of the great walks in New Zealand – together with Milford Track among others. I really wish I had at least another extra day so that I could do the day-climb. Unfortunately we had a tight schedule to keep up with so I had to spare it probably for another visit – if ever. Uhuks.

Mount of Doom

Well, after driving across plains of bushes and vast areas of planted alpines, we finally reached Wellington. It was not the best evening to be in Wellington though. It was so windy and cold so we had to brave through the unwelcoming weather to take a brisk stroll along the waterfront walk. Otherwise we would miss the only evening we had in Wellington. I was not particularly impressed by Wellington. It looked so empty and most of the shops closed early. The only place that was quite lively was Courtenay Street and that was all. After helping ourselves to a simple dinner at the Burger King’s there, we returned to our hostel and be prepared for one of the most anticipated parts of the whole journey – the inter-island ferry cruise across the Cook Strait.

Spending an evening at the waterfront of Wellington

We booked the inter-island ferry cruise through the same company that we rented our car from. It did not come cheap – thanks to the depreciation of Malaysian ringgit – but we really wanted to do it. Booking for a place and doing the crossing was much easier that I had thought. I paid the tickets for 2 persons and one car through Jucy Rentals without specifying the date and made a phone call to confirm the date and time later. They later sent me an email of date and time confirmation and a print-out of this email was all I needed to carry to the inter-islander ferry.

We took the one at 9am and moved from our hostel as early as 7am. It was a long quite of cars so it was safe to go early. We drove in, passed the print out to the officer at the gate (I think they only wanted the reference number) and he returned it later with a pair of boarding passes. The crew members were all there to arrange everything and we only needed to follow their instructions. It was an easy drive-in drive-out business. We didn’t even need to move our luggage out of the car.

After parking the car as instructed, we pulled up the hand-brake, walked out of the car and joined hundreds of others towards one of the biggest cabins that I had ever been to. It was more like a mini-shopping mall, complete with high-end restaurants, lounges, cafes and children’s play area. We picked a seat on the outer lounge so that we could see the view right from our seats. Unfortunately, the weather was not really on our side and the view was shrouded by thick clouds so there really was nothing much to see.

I briefly fell asleep but was woken up by a full-blast honk and jeez, the clouds had opened up, giving way to one of the most breath-taking sceneries that I had ever seen in my entire life! I could see the multi-layered hilly farms beyond the seashore with dots of goats grazing hungrily all over. Some of them were so near to the seaside cliffs for a moment I got worried and wondered if they’d ever slip and fall to the unforgiving ocean. It was so beautiful a sight I almost cried in excitement.

After 3 hours of cruising, the beautiful town of Picton finally came into sight. It looked so welcoming and so ready to usher us in to the South Island – which is known for its breath-taking places that make New Zealand one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Going out of the ferry was so easy I did not even have time to record it on camera. I could not believe that we were already driving on the South Island.

Under normal circumstances, we would have made our way to Christchurch using the coastal road on the East coast. Unfortunately it was still closed due to an earthquake so we had to use the alternative road via Murchison. The road took us across inland districts where some of the roads were still being repaired probably due to the sudden surge of traffic. We stopped to take in the beauty of Nelson Lakes – and it was there that I had my first encounter with the sandflies – probably New Zealand’s version of mosquitoes but much more ferocious and unforgiving in nature.

Nelson Lakes

We pushed further to the south, to a beautiful small town called Murchison where we would be spending the night. It was more like a village with a few rows of shops and a gas station, a chapel, a town hall and even a museum! Surrounded by beautiful farms and nestled in a beautiful valley, it really is so easy to fall in love with Murchison.

We stayed at a hotel called Lazy Cows Backpackers – which turned out to be one of my favorite accommodations in New Zealand. It has a little garden in the backyard, and it was there that I had my first encounter with an apple tree. I mean, seriously, I have been to several 4-season countries before but I had never encountered an apple tree. New Zealand apples have always been my favorite among all the apples available back in KL so seeing an apple tree in New Zealand certainly made me jump in excitement.

Lazy Cow Backpackers in Murchison

The room that we were placed in was partially underground but it was so cozy and comfortable and I was especially impressed by the toilet. The toilet itself sits on an elevated floor and it has a beautiful rack right on the side wall.

After spending quite a bit of money on food for the first few days in New Zealand, it was good to finally be able to do some cooking and saved a few bucks in Murchison.  Everything went well so far so we celebrated our little feast by opening a bottle of wine that we bought back in Auckland. We were hardly halfway through the journey but everything seemed to be quite so clear and real for us now.

Little by little the worries that plagued our heads before began to drift away and we were beginning to really enjoy the trip. There beginning is always the hardest part but we might be well over it now. We could not wait to explore further into this blessed country.

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My Journey to The Middle Earth

Posted on March 11, 2017 by jipp

Back at those times when Air Asia was not even anywhere in the picture of our aviation industry (in my country Malaysia), New Zealand felt like far far away and beyond reach. I remember somebody told me how he had to fork out some MYR7000 (around USD1500 by current exchange rate, probably around USD2000 back then) when he went to New Zealand and that was on the flight tickets alone. I couldn’t imagine myself coming to this country because well – I wouldn’t spend such a big amount of money to go to a country. It was just too much for me.

When Air Asia X announced that it was going to start flying to New Zealand – at that time to Christchurch on the South Island, I went ecstatic. New Zealand was suddenly within reach and a trip to what is considered one of the most beautiful countries on earth suddenly felt quite realistic. I was so ready to buy a ticket and spend some money over what I liked to believe a trip of a lifetime.

I gotta admit that the excitement in me was further spurred when I watched the Lord of The Ring trilogy and later the Hobbit. I had never been so driven to do a trip to a foreign country due to a movie that I watched.

But then, somewhere along the way I missed the flight to New Zealand when Air Asia announced that it would stop flying to Christchurch. I began to look at other options, probably flying to Australia before taking another non-Air Asia flight to New Zealand. I waited for the right time to do just that. An announcement by Air Asia that it was going to start flying to New Zealand again – this time to Auckland – came as good news. I knew I gotta grab the opportunity before it drifted away from me again.

To tell the truth, I did not plan to go all over New Zealand on a single trip. I already put Mildford Track in my bucketlist so it was going to be my top priority. But then booking a slot for that world-renowned hike was not an easy task, as I had come to find out. I had to book a year or so in advance so I only bought the flight tickets and all after I managed to get a slot (for Milford Track). Only then plans for other things followed.

Since the flight would take us to Auckland, we decided to drive from Auckland on the North Island all the way to Milford Sound in the far south of South Island before flying back to Auckland on a domestic flight from Christchurch. From Christchurch we’d catch a flight back to Malaysia. The trip would take us on a very long drive, covering some 2572 km (but of course it is much more than this) with a ferry cruise across the Cook channel. I knew it was going to be the adventure of a life time.

Planning for a trip to New Zealand had proved to be not an easy task. Being a first timer to this foreign country, I was overwhelmed by a lot of worries and uncertainties. I had first wanted to rent a motorhome (a fully self-sufficient vehicle with kitchen, sleeping facilities etc.) – but then changed my mind when I looked at the rental rate. Motorhome seems to be made for at least a bunch of people where you can share the rental cost among the group members. In my case, there were only two of us so it did not seem economical to rent a motor-home.

I did look at the possibility of renting a campervan (a car with sleeping accommodation, more compact compared to a motorhome)  but then again the cost of renting a (proper) campervan where you can sleep in the car still exceeds the cost of renting a car and staying at budget hotels along the way (or at least about the same). Besides, it’s not like you can just park your campervan anywhere you like for the night – let alone set up your tent. New Zealand has a strict rule against camping or parking a campervan outside of the designated areas so I did not want to mess with the rule. After all, New Zealand is known for its hefty fines so I had to be really really careful.

So, after considering everything including the cost and convenience, I decided to rent a car and stay at budget hostels/hotels along the way. At least we would be assured of a comfortable bed and a decent night sleep which is very much needed after spending long hours on the road.

I think the most challenging part of planning a road trip to New Zealand is on the transportation. I mean, we already decided that we would drive but then choosing the right rental company needed a lot of considerations. It is especially harder when you go there during summer when tourists come to New Zealand in hordes, mostly to escape the cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

One thing that I instantly found out was the fact that the car-renting businesses in New Zealand are run by only a handful of rental companies so your choices actually circulate among these companies.

I did come upon quite a number of privately owned companies that rented out cars at much cheaper rates but then I had to consider the services that they had to offer. I wanted a company that provides round the clock services that can come to our rescue if anything happens. We surely did not want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken car and nobody would come to our rescue or we had to fork out a lot of money to get things done.

So, after considering a few options, we decided to take Jucy Rentals – which is one of the most renowned car rental companies that operate in New Zealand. It is also an international company that is known to operate in a few other countries including USA and Australia. Booking a car was not that difficult probably because they had a lot of cars in their store.

The confirmation of availability returned to me almost instantly and I secured the booking without any problem at all. Inquiring had proved to be a little bit of a problem because they would not return my emails. But then one single phone call settled everything and my worries were finally put to a rest. We were ready to march into New Zealand.

We started our journey in Auckland. We arrived there late in the afternoon and stayed at a budget hostel nearby the airport. We only went to pick up the car from the nearby Jucy Rentals office the next morning. I was not really impressed by the outlooks of the car at first. It looked quite old and I began to doubt if it would even bring us up to halfway through our journey.

But then, it turned out to be such a fantastic car and it did not give us any problem all throughout our journey at all. The only problem we encountered was probably when it would not start after we left it parked in Te Anau for 4 days while we went to trek the Milford Track. But that was all. The gardener at the hostel that we stayed came with a type of power bank and he started the car back to life again and everything went smoothly again from there on.

From Auckland we went to The Hobbiton Movie Set, famous for being one of the primary filming locations of LOTR and The Hobbit. We had come to find out that it was located in a private land and going to the Hobbiton requires visitors to buy a ticket and go on a 2-hour tour. It’s not a place that you can just drive in and take photos etc.

In fact, the place itself is quite a distance from the entrance so you don’t even see it from the entrance. Quite up to its reputation as one of the top tourist destinations in New Zealand, it was almost fully booked when we got there. In fact, we had to wait for 2 and half hours before we managed to get a slot.

Hobbiton Movie Set that I found out was quite up to my expectations. I was actually surprised when I was told that there are at least 43 Hobitton houses all built for filming purposes so it really was a village.

I would have been surprised if I didn’t know beforehand that the houses were not actually houses but more like facades of houses with no interiors. I was surprised though that most of the visitors did not even watch the movie and that they went there as part of a tour package. As a big fan of LOTR and The Hobbit, I enjoyed the sight-seeing at Hobbiton quite tremendously.

From Hobbiton we drove off further to the South and stayed overnight at Taupo. Taupo is known for the Lake of Taupo which is the largest lake in New Zealand. I had come to find out that it is quite a party town but the municipal is quite strict about the closing time so all went quite just before midnight. We did manage to take a little bit of walk on the lake side and watched the sunset before it got dark. But of course we only managed to check out more of Taupo the next day.

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Air Asia’s ‘NEW’ Hand Luggage Policy

Posted on March 8, 2017 by jipp

So I was in Sandakan on the East coast of Sabah to visit my relatives over the weekend. One of my uncles (elder brother of my late father) passed away while I was in New Zealand so I decided to visit the family after I returned to Kuala Lumpur despite having missed the funeral. But I’m not going to talk about the visit. It all went well. I did not get to tour Sandakan as much as I had wanted because time was very limited.

I am going to write about an announcement made by Air Asia – which I had first heard before boarding the flight back to KL and later mid-way through the flight. It was announced that starting on March 15 Air Asia will start weighing luggages carried by each passenger at the boarding gate. Only two bags are allowed – one is the main bag and another is small bag, small enough to be tucked under the front seat. I think there is a specific size limit for the main bag, but of course it should be small enough to be placed in the overhead compartment. The combination of weight between these two bags are not to exceed 7kg – and if it does, the passenger will be charged right there (as to how exactly they are going to implement it, I have no idea).

When I tweeted this announcement, it received a lot of mixed reactions from other twitterers. Some applaud the move, saying that it’s about time while most are not quite happy.

But then, that regulation has already been there for quite awhile actually. It’s only that people keep taking advantage of the loose enforcement. I did get turned away a few times, mostly because my bag looked bigger than it actually was, but most of the times I managed to get through without any problem at all. Some of the staff is quiet smart. They’d ask you to weigh your backpack at the check-in counter even though you are not checking your backpack in. But then passengers are smart too. They’d leave their backpack somewhere, probably with someone, so that the staff will not even see it.

I remember how my friend and I were approached by a Jet Star staff in the boarding hall at Christchurch airport while waiting to board a flight to Auckland. She pointed at my friend’s backpack, telling him that it might be too big to be carried on board. My bag was quite empty so she suggested that my friend transferred some of his luggage to my bag and we did as per suggested. We both boarded the flight without any problem.

All this while Air Asia has not been paying much attention to the weight of each luggage as long as it has the right size. Many of the passengers take advantage of that by bringing in more than 7 kg in their bags. But the problem comes when it comes to placing the bag in the overhead compartment. Many of the passengers struggle and quite so many times they expect the cabin crew to come and help them do it when it is actually not part of the cabin crew’s job. Of course others rely on the kindness of other passengers who are probably stronger to do it for them.

The size part can be quite tricky too. Some bags are designed to be able to accommodate probably up to 15 kg and yet it is fit-able in the overhead compartment because of their dimensions. This also causes problems. Quite more than not the overhead compartments can’t accommodate luggages by passengers because each luggage accommodates more space that it is supposed to. Some passengers are forced to put their bags away from their seats. Things can get quite chaotic and unnecessary argument among the passengers (and even with the cabin crew) can sometimes ensue.

I think Air Asia has had enough of those now. I mean, we all know that Air Asia is very much profit-oriented and there is no way this one is gonna get through without getting fierce backlashes from the public – but then Air Asia knows that things are gonna settle down eventually and people are gonna get used to it sooner or later.

Time to consider buying a smaller lap top.

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