I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane..

17th of December 2009...

Yatta!!... after been a few years we've saved on our expenses, finally we had enough money 4 our family trip to New Zealands, the Land of Kiwis n d land of no-foreign-food-n-fruit-on-d-cargo-please!!!(just kiddin', you Maoris)

Anyway, we chartered our flight in about 8.30 pm Malaysian hour,n arrived there @ 12.30 NZ time, after a grueling 9-hour plane ride. It wasn't really that excruciating; free movies, top Tv shows, good food; it's just the seat that a tad crumpy (economy class,:( ) I had trouble sleeping, since next 2 me was a Zealander that has been living and married in m'sia 4 a couple o' years, n i cant move or cuddlin around freely, too shy..so, wats d relation?

Upon arriving, their custom were very d very strict. Man, she asked what's our family name (sigh we dont have any), what youre doin in NZ (2x sigh, whatdoya think, terrorists?), and 4 good reason name any place u want to visit here in Auckland. Ugh.

Don't want 2 remember dat, my dad went 2 d info counter n asked 4 hotel listings. This is when it shows, when the receptionist calls d hotel we wanted (yes, she actually did that!) , and sadly tell us that d hotel is full, but, she shows us another reasonable hotel (Oaks Residencies, remember dat when u go there!) and she even helps made a reservation for us at the airport, before even we arrived at d hotel! How convenient n straightforward these people are!
I thought ive a feeling that i'm gonna have a good tyme here..

Okay, here we are, Oaks Residencies.

It's more kinda apartment than a hotel, because it has 2 bedrooms an a kitchen. We've got a room at d 14th floor, and it's cold enough, they don't even an aircond! (FYI we arrived in d summertyme, and it's 21 celcius in d afternoon). A lot of nice views from d top of our room, including the skyscrapers n d Skytower, a tall tower. For $160 a night, it's a good spending
(1 NZ dollar = Rm 2 ).

Our 1st destination was the Skytower, the tallest tower in d southern hemisphere at 328 meters high. It offers at most 70 km of breathtaking view from anywhere. Among the attractive view I could see from above is Devonport harbor which is filled with yachts, and many of dormant volcanoes on everywhere on d island. The other main attractions here is the Skyjump, and d name said it, u'll bungee jumpin' from d breathtaking height of 198 m; and at d same height there's Skywalk, where u n ur family could have d chance to walk on a platform outside the tower itself! (didn't went either of em).

D next day, we went 4 a trip 2 the National Museum of NZ. To get there, we took a ride on a shuttle which goes 4 $15 for d whole day. It stops on several eye-catching scenery and hotspots, and some good pre-recorded tourist guide announces d information relating to d tourist spot on d area. After d 20 min ride, we arrived to d museum. It was very historical (duh!), n divided into several parts. 1st level consists of vintage collection of d past, old artifacts, Pacific n sailing history, and not 2 4get, the Maori collections of weaponry, houses and their enormous boats.
2nd level is primarily filled with animals from all eras n live showcase of a real dinosaur named "Sally". While, level 3 is all about WW1-2 stuffs, real audio records of old warfare radio commands, and memorials + Holocausts things. But the most memorable things is the cultural show by Maori peoples. They show us their dances, fighting stances and of course, the Haka!!! Our digital camera runs out of battery here (took a lot of useless pics on d tower), but luckily we still had my dad's trusty k800i, a pretty nifty camera phone.

Dat evening, we all got on board on a ferry from the Auckland Harbor. It was a great 45-min ride, as it shows us the view we can't see from the land, closely such as the the floating lighthouse, the yachts, and we went under d harbor bridge of Auckland where people bungee-jumps from d bridge (yeah, everyone here obsessed with bungee-jumpin). It was very breezy and fun ride though. We'd stay there until d nite.

About eating here, we didn't had outside food very much. We had some dinner from an arabian whom runs a halal food court in d downtown of Auckland (just once!). For d rest, we bought some bread and fresh fruits from a local store (Cold Storage lookalike). It's a good point 2 bring ur own food from home ( dont bring meats n fruits!).

We're plannin 2 stay 4 another day, but there was no flight on d 4th day, and we didn't had enough cash to stay for 5 days, so we had to went back home earlier =(. Although it was a tad short trip, it was enough 4 me. So, thats it! Another excruciating 9 n a half hour trip back home...