Kenny's Cafe
A brand new day! yesterday my portugist roommate warmed me about his snoring, i thought he was jsut saying it out of courtesy, but it turns out that he snored bloody loud~ the good thing is, i was pretty tired, so i still managed to sleep without any problem. Just as i was on the edge of seeing Catherine Zeta Jones in my dream, a Californian came in and occupied the final empty bed. He has to rush for a morning bus on the next day, thus we didnt d omuch talking. Apparently he's been to dunedin and regret that he only spent 2 days there...if i am not wrong, so ar he is the only tourist that i met did not choose to skip dunedin town due to time constriction....
Enjoying my breakfast now.....yum~
Anyway, after the breakfast i am planning to walk on a 'Southern Walkway' which will take about 4-5 hours to finish the whole walkway. i will be taking bus from city center to Island Bay, then climb over Mt victoria and reach Oriental Bay and have some fun on the beah~ Hopefully then i would still have time to check out Embassy Theatre, the premier site of Lord of the Ring.
10.35 AM 16/11/05
6.44pm 15/11/05
YHA WELLINGTON
finally got to meet my roommate. He's from Manchester and he owns a season ticket at OLD TRAFFORD!! how cool is that~ had a bit of chat with him. Apparentlly he just got back from America. He will continue his journey in New Zealand for another couple of weeks before heading to Melbourne and stay there for another half a year. It's amazing that how many people actually had travel the world. I'm starting to feel inferior now for seeing the only tiny bits of the world. Another roommate came in at a while later. He's from Portugal. Although i've been stayin in Dunedin for 2 years, but never in my live manage to meet up with so many people, with so many different backgrounds, this is getting exciting,woohoo~
anyway i shall start planning schedule for tommorow now......
so hard to plan your schedule when you have such a nice view from your bed5.52pm 15/11/05
YHA Bagpackers, Wellington
it took me at least an hour to arrive the goddamn YHA Bagpacker.
Didn't expect that the harbour is so far away from the town. To be more specific, i didnt expect wellington tp be that BIG. finally i've come to a REAL city.
open cafe/pubarrived Wellington for almost 2 hours now, but i've already heard ambulance siren twice. This city defintely have a faster pace than Dunedin (DUH!). My room has rather wide flat window that i can easily enjoy the view from my bed, Right in front of me is the New World supermarket and slightly further away its the harbour.
well, i guess Gong recommended me a right place! (i was cursing him 2 hours ago for choosing a bagpakcers that is so far away from harbour, SORRY MATE~).BIG city with a panoramic view of sea and mountain, I'M LOVIN' IT~
1.29pm 15/11/05
On the Cruise from Picton ---> Wellington
this is such a huge cruise! i wasnt expecthing something like this at all, there's bar, restaurant, huge family area, 'reclining area' ( area for you to relax and read some books).
the actual size is at least 10000x bigger than this picture
this giant ship is so stable that it actual manage to decieve that i am on a land transport. Well, i guess that's because it is cruising REALLY slow.
i think they agreed with me too..
i didnt manage to catch the canadian name, but it took me a while to realise why his accent sound so familar to me. OH yes, one of my favourite lecturer Sheila is from Canada too!back to this giant cruise. there is this 'i-station' machine that give information of NZ famous tourism spots, and the coolest part is that the machine can actually print out voucher! in order to make myself looks more like an Asian tourist (hehe..just finding an excuse to get discount voucher) , i printed out a couple of voucher which includes cheaper deal for skydiving, bungy jumping plus a numbeof x-game. i'm still dwelling whether i should try all this extreme game or not,so i shall keep all the vouchers,hehe.....Oopss, i've totally forgotten t check on the map on how should i walk to the YHA bagpackers. Maybe i should go try and check it on the i-station again,haha.....
11.30am 15/11/05
Grassmere
The wind is getting warmer, maybe because the train is running between the mountain, not too sure about the geographical thingy. We just passed
i'm sure girls would prefer the sea is this colur....
this is our salt........untreated ofcoz...The passengers are starting to fall asleep. Some of them are reading newspaper and playing card though. The train currently is going through a wine yard (I wasn’t sure what was that during that time) Then I saw a black sheep sucking milk from the milk. The funny thing is the mother is white in colour. Perhaps that blacky is cow. Wait a minute, that would be even weirder!
I am getting hungry. Tried to buy a pie but failed. Why? Because the handle to open the rear door is broken (the kitchen is at the back).sigh…hungry~~
10.30am 15/11/05
Kaikoura
I was so indulged by the scenery and currently I’m kind of ‘hangover’ by the view. For the first time in my life that I actually wish that I am an Alien with four eyes so that I could look the view of the both side simultaneously. On my right there is this amazing sew view. The wave slapped the rock heartlessly like a girl slapping the cheated boyfriend. The seawater splash out and hang in the air like the bubble on top of the yummy ‘teh-tarik’ (hm….maybe it’s not such a nice way to describe it, but for a student who has been away for a year, a cup of teh-tarik is compatibly as beautiful as this!)
Then on y left site there is this magnificent mountain where the tip of the mountain is covered with snow. I was so torn apart as both sides are equally attractive to me. Then I have no choice but to be like an idiot keep on going left and right. I hate to think in this way but I do feel like I’m being a housefly flying left and right in search of my yummy food- rubbish and shit.
My camera battery is running real low now and I’m actually hoping that the scenery stop being so great, but I know it’s impossible. Wait! I’m reaching Picton, I must take some photo there. I must resist the temptation of taking more photos!
9.20 15/11/05
Kaikoura
If I’m not wrong, we are now located along the Kaikoura coast. Kaikoura is one of the world renowned whale-watching tourism spot. It has the reputation of being the most likely place to see a whale in the world. (But it would cost you NZD$180). The view is just so breathtaking. My camera is already running low on battery, but there is no way I will stop taking photo. Damn! The view is so great, why am I sitting here and writing this shit?
8.42AM 15/11/05
STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHERE AM I
Talked to the lady that was sitting in front of me. She told me that she is from
I replied with the lame reason of wish to taking this opportunity to see the world. Later I begin to wonder, why do I feel so ashamed when she asked me the question? Then I start to believe that every single Malaysian will be or should be ashamed of the question, since most of us have the feeling/believe that there is no university in
my mind is as blank as this
8.15AM 15/11/05
Transcenic Train, unknown area
The guy I mentioned previously is talking about
Later he starts talking about the major city in
He’s been talking for quite a while, and everyone just seems to be happy listening to him. He is a good story teller, great entertainer. Wondering whether it was his great experience that makes him a great speaker or maybe being outspoken is just a gene in the American.
a small fraction of the famous WHAT?3 MILLION!
7.58am 15/11/05
Transcenic train, unknown area
A few passengers were shouting “finally!” It took me a while to realize that they were actually means that they finally got to see a shepherd shepherded the sheep to another area. The shepherd was quite far away by the time I realized that. Come to think of it, it was my first time seeing it too.
There’s this talkative and good-humoured guy talked about
7.06AM 15/11/05
Transcenic Train, Christchurch train station
The journey has finally begun. It’s kind of hard to write in the train. I am sitting in a position where the train is running backward. I do felt slight discomfort. Overall, the train itself its quite cool, relatively new, and each set of seats is attached to a table. Some people sitting the way where 2 of them face the opposite two passengers. I was so happened to be sitting on the last sit, so I was only facing the back of the front guy through out the journey. (Note: the sit next to me was empty through out the whole journey too, which is kind of sad. Thought that I might met up with some hot chick, hahaha~~).
I am sitting with a tour group; among them there is a few Asian that I find it quite impressive for them to tour the world in such age. They speak only English and were joking around with the other European. I just couldn’t figure out which country they are from.
The scenery is beginning to look great, thus I went to the open viewing deck to snap some photo. MY GOODNESS, it was so cold~! I ran back to get my jacket. I will go out soon again.
(Few minutes later)
Had a few snap again, but it’s certainly too cold for me to stand outside anymore for the time being. I’m actually shivering. The sun finally gets out of his bed and radiant in clear blue sky. The sunlight shine directly on to my face and warmed up my chilled face. The comforting warmness gave me the courage to go out and brave the coldness again just to have a good photo for memory. I actually wanted to play with the fog that developed while I breathe out as well. (Still remember how amazed I was with the fog on my first few weeks in
The train is actually small enough to hear other passengers’ conversation. I was quite surprised to hear there’s a guy in the train actually has travelled around the world 4 times!! And currently he is on the 5th! But he hasn’t been to the
10.42pm 14/11/05
My' bed' Foley Tower, Christchurch
Had a dinner in a Chinese restaurant. It's more of like a family business type of restaurant. Owner's kids running around the shop, and the shop its kind of small n aging, and its not exactly that clean. But the interesting about this shop is that everyone in the restaurant speaking in foreign language with their friend(s)! There's a Japanese old couple, a korean couple that looks like in their late 30,a German guy that is eating stir-fry beef with fried rice and another 2 guys that i believe is Russian. Why am i so sure about the nationality?i'm not, its just how i felt.
Looking at the owner working hard in the kitchen, i got the feelingg that its not that easy to migrate to oversea after all, especially when you cant even speak people's language. Their kids certainly will grow up in such less healthy environment. Yeah, growing up in Christchurch might help them to speak fluent English and become a true Kiwi one day, but i'm still worry that they might not turn out to be all right. I wonder who to be blamed when it happened.
Finished dinner, i walked to the cathedral square (sorry for not posting up the photo of the cathedral square, its really beautiful and magnificant, but i kept the photo in the laptop that currently resting peacefully in NZ without my disturbance). I was looking for bread for tommorrow's journey, but soon i was attracted by a music that played softly in the air. it was like a fantasia that attracts kids to walk towards the candy house. i followed the music like how the woof in the Road Runner lured by food smell and fly uncontrollably towards the roasted chicken. i saw a guy standing at the front door of the cathedral playing clarinet. He was wearing a red colour jacket and standing at the back of a black briefcase. He was playing Romeo& Juliet when i was walking towards him. I tried and look for small change, but $2 coin is what i got, so i decided to walk pass him quickly without stopping.
He was taking a break and puff out some smoke from the cigaratte when i walked pass. He said hi to me, and i had to stop. He doesnt have much hair, in fact some of it had turn white, and have a face certainly looks older than his actual age. We had a chat for a while. When i told him that i'm from Malaysia, he played a song that is supposed to be from Malaysia. too bad, i can't tell what song is that at all. Then he played a taiwanese song that i believe is called 'pillow for two'. I was quite impressed by the song, then i saw a CD that has photo of him standing in front of the cadethral. My heart told me that i must buy this down, because i believe it tooks a lot of 'convergence of event' or fate you call it to bring me here. He later told me that usually he 'work' here 4-6 days a week if the weather is not too bad ( was thinking that he definitely can only work once a day if he is in Dunedin). "that's life," he told me with a tone that i believe that i will know it in the near future. I requested for Romeo n Juliet again, but he played another song from the play and told me it was his first time to play the song. I guess he doesnt know that the music he was playing actually its the Romeo and Juliet.
click here if you wish to listen to one of the song he played
Oh well, its okey then, I hold out my hand to say goodbye to him. Then we had goodbye handshake. He told me that i got a warm hand. I know i dont, because it was him who had a really cold hand. I can still feel the chill on my hand after i left him for quite a while. When i left the square, he was actually playing the Romeo and Juliet song that i've requested previously, and the clocktower simultaneously knock the bell ten times. i'm suppose to walk pass him again in order to go back to my room, but i choose not to. I believe we should only meet once.
When i reached my room, realised that my roommates are 2 German girls that will leave New Zealand tommorrow. It is really interesting to have people that speak foreign language around you. The German girl gave me a laundry product because he cant fit anything more into her bag. They have not been to Duendin, but they were tempted by Dunedin's Cadbury Factory when i told them about it.Hoewer, their schedule doenst allow them to do so.
They are still packing now, i dont think its nice for met o sleep now. They had been asking me whether it was okey for them to pack so late a couple a time, and i felt so bad to so its not okey. OH well, maybe i should just keep on writing.Nah.....i've been writing too much. i actually havea sore hand now. Wondering i should have a photo with them. Damn!nothing is 'malaysia' enough for me to give it to them. sigh, i'm a bagpacker....
random street in Christchurch
random light on a random building
8.39pm 14/11/2005
Foley Tower Bagpackers, Christchurch
this is the first day of my travel. i was spending the whole day in Andy's place. i jsut jsut dropped off by. currently waiting for the receptionist to finish his dinner so that i could claimed back my key deposit. Tomorrow i will take a 5.55am shuttle to Christchurch Train Station, guess i should sleep early tonight. People here seems friendly but awkward, maybe because we are all stranger, and yet we stayed in a flat together. the wind is rather chilling, not as cold as Dunedin though. I'm leaving dunedin for 3 months starting from today, Goodbye Dunedin! Its getting late, i should go and get some noodle to cook for my dinner