When I heard that familiar sound, I knew I can sleep till a later time. The familiar plat on the roof couldn’t be mistaken. It is raining outside. Might as well – the sun and the heat is killing. I have all the excuses in the world to just snuggle in. Aily called us and asked us to gather in her office, and she started like telling us the various activities available. The fun yakking is quite appealing, canyoning to J and skydiving to K. We sort of made up our minds but wonder if the weather will hold up.
Drove to Arrowtown and tour around the Chinese gold mining settlement.
I have no idea how the miners survived the harsh winter in houses like these. Even summer is already so cold!
I went to a community pool and the lifeguard Peter has kindly let me in and take a look. I realize I need a dip to cure the aching body, a result of squeezing at the backseat for days. Told Peter that I might come back on Friday, then realize it is actually quite a distance between Queenstown and Arrowtown actually.
We went on to Wanaka via crown range and the 120km turned out to be a long drive but the view from the top is all worth it.
Bravo cyclists actually braced themselves and went up this winding steep road – we cheered them on. The cyclists waved back to acknowledge.
(Pictures courtesy of K)
Reached Wanaka lake and it is drizzling again. Sail boats actually available for rent at 55/hr. Paddle boat and canoe also available. Not many renters though cos it is drizzly. There are two angmo gals who swam to the floating platform – isn’t it cold?
(Picture courtesy of K)
M and K had some food and we are good to proceed to Puzzling World.
The toilet is quite cute. I went in the toilet thinking that it was the male toilet. The sign indicated male toilet anyway. When I walked in, I saw ladies walking around and I freaked out! I quickly went out again to check the sign. Correct, male toilet indeed. I was tricked! The male toilet sign is just to trick you. The actual male toilet is further in haha. This is the common space shared by both toilets. The murals on the wall is very deceiving as well haha. People likes to sit on the toilet bowls on both rows and take photos.
(Pictures courtesy of K)
The entrance fee stopped us from venture further. We just sat at the common area playing some games, aimlessly. They got sell very funny 3D moving bookmarks though, interesting. Can see horses racing, penguins tip-toeing, elephant scratching butt on rock and so on.
There is this challenge to Psychic power at Puzzling World, which was unclaimed since 2004. If you are interested, feel free to try, NZD10k awaits.
We drove back via the motorway to save some time. Ended up in another New World Supermarket at Queenstown (this one really open till 12 midnight, while the one at town centre opens till 930pm). Did the usual groceries/brekkie shopping and drove to Bombay Palace to have our 14-dollars curry. We love the food. K loved their Massala tea, a drink he love to drink ever since he first tasted it in Singapore.
J like this sweet shop very much and bought quite a few stuff from here.
(Picture courtesy of K)
Icebar:
(Picture courtesy of K)
Once we went back to the apartment, K started to show the movie 3 idiots that he kept telling us about. M and her daughter was very keen cos they already watched it twice but love the show. I wasn’t quite impressed at first but grew to love the show. It is a very meaningful show and everyone should watch it.
15 Dec 2011 Thu
Today gotto wake up real early, all except K as his skydiving only starts in the afternoon. Funyakking shuttle service will leave from Info Centre at 730am so we have to leave the apartment and walk down around 7am. We ended up at Info Centre at 715am and I asked the counter lady whether I could join last minute. J and M were surprised that I decided to join them last minute. On the way to Glenorchy, the bus stopped and let us take the reflection pictures. One could see as far as Mount Aspiring from where we stood (across Mount Aspiring will be Milford Sound). Those pictures taken turned out to be one of the most scenic shots I made in this trip, which was a surprise cos I didn’t feel very impressed at that point in time, perhaps due to waking up early.
The shuttle bus continue and before long we were already at the office. Briefing and then we all changed into wet suits and get onto the Jet Boat.
The driver drove us for some spins before letting us off at somewhere head stream. That’s where the ladies have to do their business in a makeshift toilet while the guys have to do it at the bush, after taking off the wetsuits and lifejacket and what have you. The thought of stripping everything made one hesitant to answer nature’s call, no matter how urgent. Knowing myself, I decided to do it nonetheless less I pee in the wetsuit (yuks).
Rosy explained the principle of fun-yakking to us and two-to-three in a team and off we went. The first challenge was the roller coaster ride, which we gasped in horror on how M and Rosy went through: up and down and up and down! And then when we went through it, it wasn’t as rocky as we thought. So we remember the rules: if you see are merging into streams or see rocks, flash ur bums. Front person row, behind person is the captain and is supposed to control direction. After some fun yakking, Rosy asked us to stop at the shore, get down, drag the kayak up to a small little stream whose water is clearer in colour and rest the kayak at the shore of this smaller, clearer stream.
(This picture was taken by J)
That’s where we are going to have lunch. Wading in the cold stream water is a numbling experience, I couldn’t imagine people who actually thrust their bodies down in the water flat to take picture. According to J, it is f**king cold inside the water. Duh!?
The crew lay down a few tables and put the buffet spread on the tables and we helped ourselves to the food. Hungry but in good spirit. The sun shone down generously, gone were the gloomy days. I took out my wet-boots and let it dry under the sun.
One of the guide explain the significance of the rock Pounamu to us. One is supposed to buy pounamu and give it to someone they love dearly and not for oneself.
After the lunch, the crew inflate the kayak and we went upstream to see the chasm. The colour of the water is so pristine.
We sang the birthday girl Hazel a happy birthday song. She was from Wellington/Auckland(?) and the hubby decided to celebrate her birthday in the South Island by treating both of them to the fun-yakking. So sweet of them, the flame never grow old =)
(This picture was taken by J)
(This picture was taken by J)
Our excited guide Rosy:
(This picture was taken by J)
After we came out of the chasm, we tied our kayak with Rosy’s and row for a short distance downstream and had a few more scary moments intended for thrill effect before we finally landed on Paradise.
(This picture was taken by J)
Yes, Paradise.
That’s the place where they shot Lord of the Ring. And many other films like Wolverine. For a fee like 10k a day. Remember the shot where the trees started to walk and helped the hobbits to fight a losing battle? It was filmed there.
We washed up the kayaks and deflate it and move them to the trucks. We went up to the bus. After 30 minutes or so, we reach the adventure office and returned all our gear. We managed to get some drinks to hydrate ourselves before our next part journey back to Queenstown.
We texted K and he happened to be at home, said he will join us. It turned out that he didn’t get to dive today due to strong wind condition. He already all dressed up but the instructor just stopped the flying.
(Pictures courtesy of K)
Managed to find a Chinese restaurant to pack my fried rice for dinner. Bought a pair of sandals at Kathmandu (not because it is cheap but a pair of sandals is convenient during the trip). J and M went down to town to buy fish and chip at PJ's and so coincident that someone tapped M shoulder and asked if she remembered her. M's mmory buffer doesnt allow storage more than 1 day, so she gave this lady a panda do-i-know-u look. This lady apparently was M's schoolmate back in NUS and she affectionally refer M as Caroline (another classmate of M is Caroline TML, same first name as M, God saves all MLs!!!), while M trying very hard to recall her name but failed. This lady was also buying fish and chip with her family at the same outlet. J watched the whole scene in disbelieve and thoroughly amused. At the name Caroline as well as at M's inability to recall the name even after she got back to Heritage. I guess half of Singapore have flocked to NZ.
Walked back to the apartment, this time we discovered a shorter route to the apartment, but still need to walk up to the same height, pant pant.
At night, a damn funny and crude and lewd commercial came up while K, me and M’s daughter were watching TV. At first we didn’t know how to react cos the commercial is about push up bra and the plaster that reduce fats near the thigh area but the graphics is damn lewd and in very bad taste. After the whole commercial was over, we all laughed uncontrollably, to the amazement of J and M, who now came to see what happened in the living room. We couldn’t quite explain ourselves and the damn commercial never really came on again. But I still laugh whenever I thought of that commercial and recall the expressions of K as he tried to explain the commercial details to J and M.
16 Dec 2011 Fri
Today is back to gloomy drizzly day again. J went for his canyoning. We were sitting in front of the Tv and saw people hanging to the tree branches that was washed by torrents. The headline said: Nelson devastated by flood. Isnt Nelson where we supposed to go after fox Glacier? Now that it is flooded heavily…
The few of us decided to go to Frankton pool today. A fully heated indoor pool is all that we need at the moment. Before going into the pool, I went to try out their gym instead. An additional $8 needed on top of the pool entrance of $8. Had a good workout before I went for the pool and hot water soak. It was a very good experience I must say. Their pool allowed pad and flippers and I got to try on those thanks to a friendly chap who let me try his. They are supposed to increase the resistance, not lessen it, so that you have a good workout.
We went back to town. K and I had a walk in the rose garden and the botanical garden. Ice skating rink is closed for good till next winter. We met up wit J at the Info Centre and he told us his canyoning was cut down to half day cos of drizzly weather.
We went back to the apartment and started cooking dinner again. Watched Slumpdog Millionaire.
Before we leave this page, I will put together the view of Queenstown as seen from our apartment balcony at different times as a wrap up for this piece:
First day when we just arrived in the evening, when the sun is about to set:
Drizzly morning on a second day:
At 7am on the third day before we went out for Fun-yakking:
After dark (around 1030pm) on the last night:
Just before we set off on the very last day, with some clouds to don the sky:
K’s video to show the lovely town from day to dawn, from his window:
Anyone interested to own a piece of property in Queenstown?? They published a whole tabloid of real estate ads, and the view of Heritage is lovely isnt it??
You have probably reached the end of the page. But thats not the end of our adventure. Please click the Older Posts link below on right hand side to continue reading.
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