Step by Step: August 2009

Pitstop - Five Rivers Station

After the overnight cruise, we continued our journey on the road. The next destination is about 2 and half hours drive, so after driving for about an hour, we stopped over at a rest house that seems pretty well build, and had some typical western fastfood. We sat at the outdoor, over viewing the scenic background, and the small farmyard which consist of 1 llama, 1 pony and a sheep. How sad is that. But, i think my family enjoy the meal quite well, as the setup is actually quite new to us.

"its nice to sit here, but can we just go inside afterward? its kinda cold~" my mum said it after sitting outside for 20mins :)

the metal cows

look how straight they stand! :)

llama. Yes it spells with double L

meat pie

seafood platter

pony and the sheep

Doubtful Sound

So after a night in Te anau, we headed off to the world famous doubtful sound cruise, to view the spectacular wilderness beauty of South Island. Perhaps is due to the fact that i have stayed in NZ long enough to experience all the natural beauty, the cruise actually came off to be an overrated tourism attraction. The waterfall is great, but not spectacular. The wilderness is really beautiful, but not enough to make me go wow. And on top of everything, it is just far too expensive to experience it. On the good note, we do see dolphine jumping next to our cruise, making it a short but memorable highlight of the cruise.

sibllings

kayaking

tiny waterfall

dolphine is just way too fast for my camera

some part around here appeared in LOTR

wasnt aware that we snapped such a nice photo :)

Te Anau

Our first destination was Te Anau. Most people come to this town for the same reason as we do, to take the Doubtful Sound cruise on the next day. We went to the cave to check out the grow worms too, and all my sister was saying Kuala Selangor Fireflies looks kinda cooler actually...well, its 2 different species, but i guess yeah, it is more or less the same through our naked eye. ANYWAY....Te anau is quite a typical lake side town in NZ, with modern motel, few stretch of shops, and pedestrian friendly walkway across the town. We hire a four-wheel-cycle just to go around the town for fun while mum was busy preparing food (but i was told later mum and dad was enjoying jacuzzi while we were away, how sneaky is that..). if u asked me how i remember about te anau, i would said is the yummy Tapas that my mum and sister made for us :)

dad is so willing to do anything in front of camera this round :)

sunset, by my sister

the pedestrian walkway

the four-wheel thingy

Gore

so our journey begun on the 14th December 2006. I was the driver for the next 10 days. Driving an Estima going around with family is quite fun indeed. The first hour is pretty good, lots of chit chat and hooha in the car. But soon, my sister and parent beginning to doze off, and i know its about time to stop for lunch. The beauty of traveling with mum is, she will always prepare food, and there is no better place to picnic than in NZ, so after just merely 2 hours drive, we stopped over at Gore and had our first picnic of the trip.

being a tourist, any random bridge also looking cool :)

quite hard not to know where you are

sister was pretty excited with the green, but after seeing it for hours, they just dozed off

trying to be like the trout..

Graduation

Well, it's my graduation trip, of course it started off with my graduation ceremony. The beauty of my graduation is that, all the graduate actually parade through the main street, leads by the group of band that blowing the traditional bagpipes. My town is actually a Scottish town, hence many Scottish traditions are being followed here. I love this type of graduation, as this could only happen in small town, as in regardless the main street is being blocked for parade or not, it would not cause a single jam at all. Can you imagine Jalan University is closed for Graduation Parade for UM? i guess you will receive more curse than greeting from the public, ha. Here's the proud moment, my graduation parade.

parading

the sound of bagpipe just fits so perfectly for graduation ceremony

posing at library

pretending 1

pretending 2

The parade begun

University of Otago

As much as i doubt the necessity of me going abroad for tertiary education, Otago indeed broaden up my thinking in many ways. Of all the things i learned, cultural enrichment and the method to acquire knowledge benefited me very much. The European lifestyle in one way or another altered my perspective jobs and career. I have yet to discover how much it actually enlighten me, but the Otago will always be closed to my heart.