My 19th birthday.
Picnic at Monavale

note to self. Don't squint so much when smiling!
Being 19. It hits you right in the face really. When you were 18, there were perks such as alcohol rahrahrah, so it wasn't that bad really. But once you turn 19, the number totally owns you. I'm old! Yikes. Don't look that old but still it really does suck especially when most of your friends turn 19 later on in the year. 1 more year b4 adulthood strikes. Goodbye teen years! I totally understand how old people feel when they reminisce their youth. Okay, maybe I'm exaagerating a little but you'll understand me once you turn 19. To all you youth out there. Haha. To be honest, I didn't want to celebrate my birthday. I totally wanted it to pass by and forget that it even happened. But I eventually decided to have a little something to celebrate the " official ageing" of me. Nice sweet picnic by the avon in monavale with friends, enjoying each other's company and the food. Lovely. Tabitha's little penang kite was awesum! Was totally obsessed with it as you will see in the pictures.

New obsession. LONG BOARDING! And no. I did not skate on grass!

Rachael mesmerized by the amazingness of the litle kite. Haha

LOOK MA! I BLOGGED! Getting more consistent aye. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Milford continued

I know that I've been dragging out this whole "holiday post" thing but as I've explained in the earlier post, I'm finding it hard finding the time in my holiday to do so. I guess enjoying lazing around and chillaxing are my sole priority and blogging has taken a back seat. Uni is starting soon and I'm starting to feel the excitement as my mates are getting really excited about O week and such. It must have rubbed off me somehow. Toga! Toga! Toga! Scull! Scull! Scull!

My car tyre went flat the other day. An interesting experience I must say. And thanks to Xin for coming to my rescue!! Thank U AA man for being soo damn efficient! Haha!

Anyway back to Milford. One word. Enchanting. Everything was just so mythical maybe because you can't help but wonder that such a place even exist! Milford was discovered by accident by English sailors way back and thank God for them! Holidays wouldn't be holidays without random spontaneous events that make a holiday special. And one such random and spontaneous event that certainly cheered everyone on the bus up was the sheep roadblock. Ruth found it so amusing as she has never seen such a sight before. NZ is awesum! Haha! And I just can't stand foreigners who spend a year here and totally diss the country and proclaim to the world(facebook) that they can't wait to flee to austalia. My answer is, GO AHEAD MATE ! We are better off without you! Egotastical Mofo! Where did that ungrateful douche come from? Singapore. What a shame. His huge head probably couldn't handle NZ. Kiwi's would soooo have him for breakfast.

Milford Sounds Day Trip

Milford Sounds was described as the 8th wonder of the world by Sir Ernest Kipling. A must see place in the Fiordlands. And it was not difficult to see why.It was a 12 hour coach ride from Queenstown where we traveled via Te Anau. Just to give you a rough idea of how long the journey was, it was a whopping 550km one way ride. Though by that time we were sick of coach rides, the journey from Te Anau onwards was such a spectacular one. The young coach driver/ commentor gave an in depth commentary of the area and I must say that I've learned so much from that trip.

The last time I visited Milford Sounds was when I was 7 and I could still remember the long and arduous trip there as well as the birch trees that grew at that altitude. Homers tunnel was enchanting.Not forgetting those cheeky Keas (native alpine parrots) that we saw up in the mountains. In the pictures, you would notice some kind of mossy-like substance growing on the birch trees. That's because of the high humidity levels up in the Fiord mountains. The Fiordlands have an annual rainfall of almost 182 days a year which explains the high humidty levels that is experienced in that area. We were there on a rainy day and a spectacle awaited us as we travelled along the sounds! There were many rain-fed waterfalls cascading down the sea-risen mountains apart from the 3 permanent glacier fed waterfalls usually seen in the sounds. We also saw walruses and a bottlenose dolphin. We didn't take pictures in the sounds though because the camera was left on the coach but do not fret! I took videos of our cruise along the Sounds.

5 degrees outside homers tunnel you can still see snow.
I was wearing sandals! Hardy chch girl aye? lol

ka kite !

More pictures! The mountain in the background from the above picture is called the Remarkables. Its easy to see why it was given that name! And if you think the mountain looked familiar, you are probably right! The Remarkables was filmed in LOTR as the Misty mountains! Go back and watch the film again because I have! Haha. The Queenstown region is down right Lord of the rings territory baby! Ruth and I sat on the skippers canyon jet ride high up in the shotover river as well and it was fantastic! We got such an adrenaline rush from that ride! The ride to the site was breathtaking as the driver took us to the cliffs edge throughout the journey. Some parts of the ride were so scary that the Yanks that came along even talked about death. Morbid bunch of people. We even went past the rivers bed where Arwen rode across with Frodo and said " if you want him. Come and Claim him!" How epic was that?! Picture below was where the scene was shot at.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tim.widmann/NewZealand06Queenstown#5157338062460465266

We even had the best burger ever at FERGBURGER. I can honestly say, I will never look at burgers the same way again. All the other burgers out there are no match at all for the Fergburger. You can only get this in NZ. No where else. Extremely Scrummy and the portions were huge as!

We splurged on the buffet up on the skyline where we had the best views in town.
Loved it!

Desert wine

Queenstown

This was my second trip to Queenstown, it was the first time holidaying without parents for the both of us. Let me just say this, holidaying without your parents is certainly an experience and a very fun one at that! We had to settle our own accommodation, meals, itinerary, budget, transport, the list was endless but I guess it taught us how much we can take care of ourselves. The journey to Queenstown was a very long one and we swear by the end of trip, we became seasoned coach riders. Imagine 12 hours to queenstown and another 12 back to christchurch. Thank God for the scenery though. We passed by the southern alps, went to mt. cook villiage, Lake tekapo, Lake pukaki, cromwell, Geraldine, Ashvegas, Oamaru, Twizel....A wee bit tiring for us but it was well worth the trip. We went to the skyline by the gondolas, took the luge (invented by kiwi's just to put it out there and a hell lot better than the SG luge. The scenery was magnificent!) , met so many people from all over the world...Including the hot luge guys, brazillians, hot blonde singer and the cute fergburger dude. Guys galore! Haha. Will show you more about what we did in the next post!

Not forgetting our awesum accomodoation. I scoured the internet and I came across Mecure Resorts, Queenstown. The hotel was along Lake Wakatipu and we even got Lake side views and Alipine mountain views! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who is heading to Queenstown. Great bar staff as well! Haha.