25/04 : The journey started from Christchurch. From airport we went to Ace Rental to get our rented car. Then find our way to Ashleigh Motel. By the time we settled down, it's already 5:00pm. We visited the famous cathedral and beautiful Hagley Park and botanical garden. After Maghrib, we went up to a hill (not sure what the name of the hill) after we enjoyed the night view of Christchurch City :) Something funny happened. Saadan left his shoes here.... kelakar giler mamat nih! :D
Christchurch botanical garden is so beautiful and romantic... hehee.. :D26/04 : After breakfast (we took turn cooking in our motels during the whole journey), we left Christchurch and headed to Fox Glacier via the beautiful nature of Authur Pass National Park. The scenery throughout the journey was breathtakingly beautiful!! We reached Fox Glacier quite late and mistakenly drove our car into the motel's beautiful lawn... (the owner was quite irritated but since we were their customers they tried their best to be nice to us... haha! Quite funny at that time.. :))
27/04 : The 5 of us did some walking and climbing to reach the Fox Glacier. It was quite challenging and tiring... but alhamdulillah, we reached the glacier safely and it was worth every single steps!! That was our first experience stepping our feet on glaciers and what an AMAAAAZING experience!! Saadan didn't make it up to the glacier which was too bad as the scenery up there is something that could not be found at many places in the world! In the evening, we enjoyed the scenery at the beautiful Matheson Lake... breathtakingly beautiful!
An unforgettable Fox Glacier Climbing experience!
Beautiful scenery and Fox Glacier
Beautiful scenery at Matheson Lake28/04 : Left Fox Glacier for Queenstown. On the way, we stopped by at Cromwell for apple picking... mmmm... lotsss of apples of different species.. YUMMY!!! We reached Queenstown Sherwood Manor's Motel by Maghrib. Later, we explored the beautiful city on our own and booked for our next day adventure activity with one of the agent.
Apple picking activity at Cromwell :)29/04 : Queenstown adventure! We began our day by taking a morning walk at the scenic Arrowtown... such a beautiful town! Had to be back to the motel by 9:30am as we had arranged a van to pick us up at the motel and brought us to the Coronet Peak where Razak & Abang Yusof experienced doing paragliding (how about the rest of us?? Errr... takuuttt...hehe). After that, we tried the Shotover Jet experience (AMAZING!!!! I love it!! hehe) and then joined the Lord of the Ring's location tour to explore the locations of the famous film in Queenstown. Queenstown is an adventure town... I love it!! Don't mind coming again one day... :) and ohhhh... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DARLING SISTER NA!!! Seronoknya dapat celebrate birthday at this beautiful Queenstown!! Jealous tau :P
At Arrowtown
Dear Hubby and Abang Yusof doing para-gliding.
The 5 of us before the Shotover Jet adventure experience.
At Mount Aspiring National Park - one of the LOTR's location.30/04 : We headed to Milford Sounds and joined the famous cruise.. again, everything was sooo breathtakingly beeeauuuutifuuuul!! MasyaAllah... It was so amazing! Later, spent a night at a motel in Te Anau.
01/05 : To Dunedin! It was really a cold and windy day. We performed our solah at the Dunedin mosque where we got to know a few Malaysian students. Bought some halal meat there too!! :) Later, we explored the big city. Visited the yellow-eyed-penguin... such cute characters... comel giler!! :)
02/05 : Left Dunedin for Tekapo Lake where we enjoyed the beautiful scenary for a few hours and later decided to go back to Christchurch.
Tekapo Lake :)
In front of a very small church at the Tekapo Lake.03/05 : Visited the Christchurch aquarium before heading to Kaikoura. On the way.. I was driving when I saw a "Fresh Salmon" sign and make a stop to buy one medium sized fresh salmon fish at the price of NZ15. Kaikoura is really beautiful.. but as we reached there quite late in the afternoon, we were not able to join the Wheel watching trip.. which was quite frustrating to me. But we managed to see the albatrose birds quite freely by the beach. Bought some mussels and oyster for dinner.. not to forget cooking our fresh salmon!! Yumm! yummm!!!
Beautiful Kaikoura!!04/05 : Left Kaikoura to Picton to catch our ferry to Wellington....All of us got seasick during this ferry trip.. lol! Anyway, we reached Wellington late in the evening. Wellington is a busy city. Got our new rented car and by the time we settled down at the motel it was already dark. Later, we had dinner with Kazidah and her beautiful family at their beautiful home in Wellington :) Kazi happened to be a sister-in-law of my colleague, Masrul Nizam. Masrul's wife, Jija is also a colleague from IT department in Menara Maybank :) Such a small, small world :) Anyway, dinner at Kazi's was excellent!!! Very, very delicious!!! Thank you so much Kazi!!! Rasa menyusahkan awak je... siap tapau balik some food and blueberry muffin lagi... yum yum!! super delicious!!! Thanks again dear! I wish we could spend more time with Kazi and her family....
Kenangan with Kazi and her husband, Thomas and their daughters - Shazia & Jasmina. Such a beautiful family!! :)05/05 : Visited Wellington town.. climbed the Vitoria Hill and took some pictures. The wind was really strong up there... brrr!!! We visited the famous Wellington museum, Te Papa museum and later was caught in the Maori's demonstration on our way out of town . What an experience!! Left Wellington to go straight up to Rotorua. Stopped by at Lindle to buy Manuka Honey, and bought some halal marinated chickens at Turk's Poultry. It was raining most of the time so we didn't got the chance to enjoy the view especially at the Dessert Road. It was quite dark by the time we reached Rotorua.
06/05 : Rotorua experience began!! Waitapu Thermal wonderland, Whakarewarewa Thermal Village and Agrodome Leisure Park were among our unforgetable experience! Rotorua is such a unique city!
At Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Pergh... tempat ni bau telor busuk!! Huhu... actually bau sulfer laa.. hehe.07/05 : Left Rotorua for Auckland but stopped at Mata-mata we got the chance to visit the location of Lord of the Ring's Hobbiton city :) It was quite an interesting place to visit :) It was already dark by the time we reached Auckland. Nothing much to do in Auckland as it was already dark. So we just walked around the city... had dinner at Nando's (it's halal!! yeayyy!! and we met a few Malaysian students having dinner there) and shopped at the Auckland Tower.
At the hobbiton city08/05 : Catched the flight back at around 11:30am.
Good Bye New Zealand.. it was such an awesome experience!
