Vudu Larder and Aggy's Shack

This post has been sitting in my drafts for over a year now, but I guess it's time to start clearing out my draft folder.

Went to Queenstown, New Zealand in last year's winter break as a spontaneous trip overseas. Made the most of our last day there by doing more site seeing and looking around the local shops.

Visited Vudu Larder for drinks in the morning. From memory, it was quite packed even in the morning. Food looked great but I had another place in mind for food, price probably a bit more towards the higher end of an average brunch. I guess there's a positive to taking photos of everything since if you asked me how much/what I had, I wouldn't have remembered (unless it's like desserts I know my prices pretty well)

Remarkable Berry: blueberry, mint, apple, raspberry-$8NZ

cappuccino: $4NZ (from memory)

Now that the Aussie dollar is lower, these stuff isn't that cheap. The smoothie was really refreshing, and could taste the fresh ingredients :)

Before going overseas for holidays, I normally do my research which also includes food. Heard that Aggy's shack was a locals favourite even though it is kind of like a shack, small, and limited outdoor seating, but it was so, so delicious!

Fish and chips: 1 fillet, fries, lemon, cream tartare-$12NZ

1/2 Mutton Bird, fries, tomato sauce-$15

They prefer to call it fries here...The fish was nice and soft inside with a crispy batter. It was nice, but not amazing. The mutton bird is amazing! It kind of tastes like fish but in chicken form. Apparently Mutton birds are only harvested in April/May by Maori people and is quite traditional in Maori culture/heritage. You would think deep frying a bird would dry it out, but this bird has some fat, so it retained the moistness and juiciness. The tomato sauce help cut out some of that 'fishy' taste. I don't mind that fishy taste, just some people may dislike it so there is sauce there in case. Heaps of chips and quite a large serving in general even though they look small. There are extra condiments on the tables. Loved eating this with a super amazing backdrop of mountains. Too bad it's closed now to make way for residential apartments ):

 

 

America Pt2

didn't realise i took over 4000 photos whilst on holidays. going through them is taking forever.

after over one week, i've finally finished unpacking! when i unpack, i have to take photos of what i bought, then put them where they would reside, and cut all tags etc. finding places to put "crap" as my parents would say, but stuff i like to keep like tickets and business cards if sometimes hard to find when your previous place is already full. still need to order all the food we bought, or else we probably won't even realise we have expired food until a year later...

the most annoying thing about america is their money. the first country i've been to which still uses paper money. what's worse, they are you typical greenish, creamish bills. all amounts are the same sized notes. they have notes for $1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, so to differentiate between a 1 and 100, you have to look at the number. no time to pay attention to the detail/picture on it, so you have to make sure you look at the number correctly. the bills also stick together, and you have to rub them a bit at times to make sure they aren't stuck. i love our currency, it's the most colourful (brighter than NZ notes) and different sized, plus it's plastic. hk have a base colour of white, then add different colours. i remember china thailand also have different colours but were dullish. also, americans still have dimes and quarters. dimes are 10c, quarters are 25c, and they also have 5c and 1c which are completely useless. actually, the only time i remember using a 1c was in DisneyWorld where you pay 51c and use those pennies to press into a memorabilia coin. a lot cheaper than HK Disneyland, where you pay and equivalent of $2.50 aussie dollars, and you only press a button instead of turning the handle yourself and the coins you put in don't turn out to be your printed coin (hence it's shinier and 5 times more expensive but not as cool). america disneyworld is actually not too expensive, but that's a post for another time.

on the rare occasions we have dinner at home, my brother's first thing to do is to turn on the tv. in our apartment we had "cheap" cable tv, but there were so many channels! in my uncle's apartment, he has normal cable tv, and wow, there's over 100 channels and it takes over 10mins just to flick through it and quickly glance at the title of what's showing. there's a million news channels, sports, and other channels which only america would have, like channels which screen simpsons 24/7. i love american tv.

canadian tv isn't that great, but still more channels compared to our 7,9,10,abc and abs main channels.

coming back home, we realised how slow australian internet is. maybe our internet isn't that fast, but still overseas is a lot faster. i'm pretty sure we had "cheap" internet at the apartment, as if you would rent out a house with the best internet speed, but even with supposedly "cheap" internet, it was super fast! hk internet was super fast as well even though we stayed at the edge of HK. this definitely reminds me that i need to upgrade and switch internet companies since our internet is just way too slow. brother was all sad since all his video games lag slightly due to out slow internet. i guess he has enjoyed 5 weeks of super good internet.

wifi could sometimes be found in shops, but i mainly relied on my 3g since i had unlimited. phone plans are something which aren't cheap in america, about the same as your standard phone plan in aus, around $70 a month. on the first day, it was a public holiday, so the main mobile provider was closed everywhere, hence i couldn't experience american 4g, and had to go with another provider which only had 3g. they don't even have many 7/11 there, so it took almost half the day trying to walk past a place which sold sim cards. their 3g is pretty good, when you're not in the subway.

America Nov-Dec 2014

american stuff isn't that cheap. food is only slightly cheaper when you add in taxes and tips. most stuff is  cheaper than aus, and outlets are definitely cheaper, but a lot of stuff aren't really necessary to have. tipping is annoying since you actually have to grab out your calculator/phone and add in 15%. some more popular touristy place include a gratuity since some people don't know how to tip. we tip min 15% since there have been many cases where they may chase you down if you don't tip and ask you what they did wrong when serving you. there were other times when at the end they ask you to write down how much you want to tip, but they don't take back your card. i figured out that they still have you credit card details and then they add the tips amount onto it without using the physical card.

you know how austrlia has changed to pins? well i was surprised to see america still signing off their cards. they don't even have pay wave facilities, hence i don't understand why america needs an iPhone which you can tap to pay if hardly any places even have that function. signing does take time and unnecessary paper...

i do love america! everyone has iPhones! i only saw one samsung my whole entire trip, and that was on a subway away from chinatown.

NYC is super convenient if you know how to use the subway. they have plastic cards which you insert when you go through the gates. NYC is one of the older subway systems, so it's definitely not clean, and most trains aren't that new. down there, no one touches their phone. why? because there's no reception for internet, even if you have the best carrier, no gets data down there as they haven't installed any fibres stuff down there. on newer trains they have an electric panel which tells you how many stops till the stop you need to go to, but older ones don't even have any maps, so you do need to know where you're going, or look out the windows to see where you are. also, since their subways are super old, most of them don't have any elevators or lifts. only about every third stop have access for wheelchair/disabled, so for the elderly, i really don't understand how they can get around with just stairs going down to the subway. even mothers with prams have to lag it up the stairs whilst holding onto their baby. no one to help you there.

their trains are either letters or numbers, and you have to know which ones are express since some take you out of Manhattan into the other boroughs. trains aren't super frequent in places further away, once we waited 15mins for a train, but that was on a sunday...transport is cheap, $23 unlimited train and bus for a week for adult. they don't have concession, only adult and child. here, it's around $27 for a concession my multi. $23US is still pretty cheap.

trains only go up and down town, only about 2 trains go across the city. mainly you either walk/bus it to go across town, so i planned in the itinerary to minimise the across town walking. ended up only taking a taxi once, i.e. going from JFK airport to our apartment. the only bad thing about NYC is that the main airport is about a 45min drive. there's another two, which are mainly domestic flights which is around 20ish min drive.

NYC is filled with police and police cars and police stations, so you actually feel quite safe there, and during events, there are actually police everyday you look.

we stayed in an old style NYC apartment to experience the NYC lifestyle rather than expensive hotels. if you go to a new country, you always want to try immerse yourself into their culture. the apartment was on the first floor, but the stairs to get their were super narrow and small, coming with tall ceilings, the first floor was more like 2 floors. the apartment was very narrow, but there were enough beds for all of us to sleep comfortably. since it's an old style apartment, the heating using some sort of gas was on continuously, so not once did we wear a long sleeve inside, just t-shirts since it was that warm. housing in NYC is expensive, so no one has a place to do laundry inside. ended up wearing the same thing for a few days then washing it in HK. when i go on holidays, i actually wear non-decent photo taking clothing, but clothing which i can run in and is weather proof.

outside of the main city, and into the country, houses are big, mainly 3 levels, but they don't have fencing which i find weird. in florida, all the houses look them same, but most of them are super big as well.

we spent about a week in NYC and that was still not enough. so many things to do! half the time we woke up before 6am and came back at 10pm. everyday you get back so exhausted, but so worth it. didn't actually gain too much weight in america, so you mainly walked everywhere, and basically walked off all that you consumed. unlike super small HK, where the next suburb is a 5min walk away..

it actually is a city which never sleeps. things feel like they're all open when i wake up in the morning  until past midnight. i think since our street was a main street, we would tend to hear quite a lot of ambulances/firetrucks/police throughout the night. if we stayed in a more touristy place, it would be even noisier.

NYC streets are surprisingly not that clean, and kind of remind me of HK. many streets are only way, so each alternating street goes one way, and the other ones go the other way. but it's super easy to navigate yourself! all of them above the financial district (the bottom of NYC where the Europeans colonised the land and gave the street names) use numbers, well most of them. going down you have the "avenues" and going across you have the "streets". occasionally you have tiny streets with names, but as a tourist you can easily calculate how much time you need to get from one place to another just by looking at the intersections of the roads.

customs when boarding a plane in america is stricter than australia. even for american domestic flights, they treat it like an international flights where you have to take off jackets/laptops/creams etc. also, america has the money and they installed a fully body scanner at every customs counter/desk for body screening. unlike australia we don't have this type of funding, so they only randomly select a few people to conduct the test (well in sydney they only have one full body scanner on each side of the airport). surprisingly leaving sydney, i didn't go through the body scanner, because for the past however many times i've been to the airport, they always select me to do it. they did end up selecting me randomly for the bomb check though....i guess all these are for the safety of everyone.

i still love flying, despite what has happened to the aviation industry last year. tbh, i would rather pay that extra hundred, or even few hundred if it meant the safety of your life. how much is a few hundred more for a plane ticket than the cost of your life? normally budget airlines cut out regular/proper maintenance checks on their planes, according to one of my uncles who work with planes. even though they do have checks in place, it's not that thorough, and then some of their equipment is quite old. i think as i grow older and travel more often, i'll still stick with the most trusted and non-budget airlines.

lastly for this post-the weather. i could still survive new york with just a t-shirt and a thickish jacket. -2 degrees is very nice, but nyc tends to have unpredictable weather like sydney. so if there's wind, then makes it a few degrees colder, and snow showers are kind of annoying (yet pretty at the same time). it rained  twice while were were there, and snow showers for part of a day, but i guess you can say we were blessed with good weather. rainy weather prevents you from going out, since new york city is a city made for walking. i remember checking the weather during finals and it was raining continuously. the has actually arrived late for once since it didn't snow during christmas so we didn't have to leave that early to avoid the snow (again, snow is annoying, especially like NZ if it melts/turns to half water), but i guess i was lucky enough to even go there in the first place.

have yet to sort out photos...

congrats if you made it this far about my general thoughts on America. i guess it's some holiday reading for you if you have nothing to do (: going to be quite busy from next week onwards...

Roaring Megs Restaurant

we really wanted to have NZ lamb, which we did at the buffet, but we wanted to have lamb cutlets. after another google search, this restaurant won an award last year for the best lamb in this region. we already had the burgers and drinks beforehand, so we asked the person is it ok to share a dish between 2, since this place is considered 'fine dining' for Queenstown. the person then gave us the option of combining two of their lamb dishes for $60. i guess business at these places are hard to come by, since it's on the 2nd level, and i think any opportunity for business, well they'll try to accommodate their customers to get business. we were still full from the burgers, and just wanted to try stuff, so even though this is the most expensive meal in terms of quantities, it's really just the experience of trying stuff here.

Confit of Lamb Shoulder with Lamb Jus & Herb Crusted 

Canterbury Lamb Cutlets, roasted and served with Gratin Potato 

and Seasonal Vegetables -$38 2013 winning dish

Herb Crusted Rack of Canterbury Lamb, roasted & served with 

Orange & Mint Sauce, Gratin Potato and Seasonal Vegetables-$48

for $60, we got both the shoulder and an extra rack of lamb, normally it's 3 but we got 6 since we were sharing, and one set of sides.

i guess it's good they only gave us one set of sides and replaced it with 3 more cutlets since we weren't really hungry but wanted to have this lamb. nz lamb is generally small, as we saw on the bus tour. loved the mint sauce as it had a slight sweetness. orange sauce balanced it out nicely. the itself was medium rare and cooked to perfection. there is a difference to australian lamb, it's just hard to describe. i have had nz lamb at home/restaurants in aus before, but it's obviously imported and not as fresh. here, the lamb farms are just about an hour or two away. the shoulders was so tender, but i would have liked more jew with it. sides were alright, but both the lamb were the highlight.

the service was really good, and it was dinner by candlelight. there weren't many people that night, but everyone ordered the lamb. we were in and out in 45mins, from discussing the ordering options, waiting for it to cook, then eating. probably the most rushed customers they've had. we shopped for too long in between the bar experience and this dinner, and then had to make it back to the  free shuttle bus, so had to rush eating, but it was still enjoyable.

Below Zero Ice Bar

bought cheaper tickets through the Book Me NZ website. came here after the burgers. first ice bar experience! now this place is cold: -5degrees. it's apparently the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere but it wasn't as big as i was hoping it to be. it has an ice fireplace, but they didn't turn it on. i think melb has one, but sydney doesn't, so i guess this was worth the money. discounted to $15 entrance, with a cocktail drink. i asked the person if i could get 2 mocktails instead of 1 cocktail, but she said no, so i whipped out my phone and showed her the email from another staff saying they could give 2 mocktails, hence that mobile data is worth the money! one drink isn't cheap, from memory, a cocktail is $10, a mocktail is $7.50

i asked how long you could stay in for, the person said "as long as you want' shortly after i understood why

it's really pretty inside. there's a few animals, ice tables/seat, Photo Booth and even air hockey!

(:

gondola

bear friend

drinks w/ glasses made of ice

so i got a cocktail, and my mum got 2 mocktails, but we shared them between us. pro tip: drink your drinks asap. i wanted to make it last longer by having a few sips and taking photos, but you know how things freeze at 0 degrees? well, our drinks started to freeze, and so we couldn't drink the last bit/bottom of it...no wonder why the other people in there chugged down their drinks. the person who made you the drinks left the room after, so we had the room to ourselves-more photo taking opportunities! more photos on fb, but even then, i selected only a few.

they gave you special gloves so you would also get a grip on your ice cups. at the end you could smash them (: i quite liked their jackets. it came past your butt, so when you lean against the ice, it protects your clothing. then again, the ice is solid and not melting, so you didn't have to worry about your clothes getting wet.

the room

chandelier

i managed to stay in for 1 hour before it was wayyy too cold-even for my standards. my mum left a bit earlier than me, but the other people in there who were quite big/tall, they only lasted in their for 20mins. the record is 5 hours, not sure how they survived that in -5 degrees...

really fun and relaxing experience (:

Fergburger

it's always worth researching places you are visiting, especially for food. so when i did a quick google search, everyone said to go to Fergburger. this place is amazingly packed 24/7. it's opened 8.30am to 5am! i don't know any place in sydney opened in that long, and even in HK, night markets and snack-type food places aren't opened to 5am, 2am yes, but not for this long. every time i passed this place, it always has a massive line. since it's on the main street, i walked past here 9am, 3pm, 10pm and it still has a line. we came here after hiking at about 4pm, and sure enough there was a line, and waited about 15minutes for the order, which was alright. finding a seat was hard since there's not much seating inside or out.

Southern Swine: Prime New Zealand beef, American streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, aioli & tomato relish-$12.50

Little Lamby: Prime New Zealand lamb, mint jelly, lettuce, tomato, red onion, aioli & tomato relish-$12.50

these burgers are massive! the bun itself a a lot bigger than grilled. a lot of people didn't finish the burger, but we did after a massive hike...the meat inside isn't every thick, but the area is as big as the bun. the photo makes it not as big since i took it from afar...chose a basic beef burger, and there was only one lamb option (have to have lamb whilst in NZ imo). both of them were really lean, and so delicious. loved the mint in the lamb burger, not too overpowering. did i mention when i was younger i used to hate mint? nothing much to add apart from it's worth the money. the burger itself is also very heavy, and this definitely filled us up! looking back to these burgers make me (:

Queenstown Hill Walkway

hiking is an activity which allows you to save money whilst enjoying sights, and exercising of course. this walk is considered 'easy' and normally it takes 1.5-2.5 hours return, but we took about 5 hours, since it's winter, so the mountains and its tracks are covered with snow. the snow isn't the nice powdery 'soft' snow you would normally get at a ski field, but this snow is like ice, and once it starts melting, it's very slippery and watery, hence you don't have any grip to walk on the snow properly. also walking through clouds which was a new experience, but luckily it didn't rain.

not even the bottom of the hill....just trying to show the super, super steep streets. how to people even dive up those streets? probably can't see, but that's the town down there

right near the beginning of the track we were faced with our first obstacle-snow. we were actually thinking of turning back around. even though my boots were snow boots, it was still a bit slippery. so we pondered for a while. then a guy came walking up by himself in canvas shoes! i asked him if it was slippery and then he realised, 'oh yeah, it is slippery' but hiking in canvas shoes? so we were determined to make it to the top.

people have too much time stacking rocks

into the forest

first half is going through forest. past quite a lot of people. some by themselves, families, couples. my mum was worried that we were going to be the only ones hiking. but this mountain isn't a hole since it still has reception (:

so steep

this part to the very top normally takes 15mins, but we took half an hour. most people make it to the "Bastket of Dream," so the first major view point, and then walk back down, but i was determined to make that extra effort to go all the way up there. also say this girl w/ her bf, and all she had on was a tank top and hiking with a broken arm in a sling! well they looked like seasonal hikers, but when she was coming down this slope, she kind of has to slide down...

you see the foot prints in the snow, but that was earlier in the morning when it was still cold and the snow was a lot thicker. my mum and i decided to walk on the sides of the path where there is some vegetation, so more grip. but the problem is that you can't see any dips/holes on the ground. my mum found a stick here (surprisingly almost every pair has a really good branch to hike with..), so she poked in front of me to see if it was a ditch. at some parts, i was crawling on all fours because it was THAT STEEP. so glad i brought my snow gloves with me.

i actually didn't wear a lot, only two layers: jacket and thermals. it's a relatively colder at the bottom of the mountain, where there is also wind.

but after a looong time, we made it! :') 360 degree views. could see the lake for miles, and mountains a allll around. photos doesn't do the views any justice (some people actually brought along their dslr to hike). only my mother would do these crazy things with me. my dad would be ceebs, and my brother would be like hiking is boring, and would go do more adrenaline things, even if it costs a lot.

in the middle of the colds!

the guy in canvas shoes was waiting up here for us, obviously waiting for his photo to be taken. he probably waited over 15mins for us to reach him at the top...turns out he is a fellow aussie, but from melb and travelling alone. the we got photos taken by him, but not on my phone, hence no pics here...his shoes were starting to get soaked when we first saw him, but at the top he was soaked ankle deep.

clouds covering mountains behind, but they were spectacular!

sun's out-photo time!

scarf to add some colour to the photo, hehe

the snow here wasn't very "playable," not powdery, but i did try to attempt to build a snowman...

yaayyy. 

started from the bottom and now we're here

the last which part of the track is from the photo before. can't even see the forest beyond that since it's a long way from this point, and it's too steep to see.

missing these breathtaking views already

it's ok, when i'm older and have money to spend, there will be equally spectacular views in other parts of the world

view behind me

walking back down is harder than going up

going back down

new zealand trees are nothing like Australia's. they're more pine-ish like trees, similar to america. the leaves aren't slippery if they were like our gum tree leaves, we would be slipping constantly due to the leaves.

trees are so dense.

hiking to the top of a mountain-been there, done that (:

Skyline Gondola and Buffet

dinner on the first night was up at a fancy restaurant. the gondola or cable car is the steepest in the southern hemisphere. we couldn't make it to any of the lunch times in our trip, so booked a dinner sitting. originally it was $88, but i booked through an online discount site, and payed around $60ishpp including the gondola and dinner. lunch is a lot cheaper, but there's less variety of food, and strictly limited to 2 hour sittings. then again, in the daylight you have a clearer view. a gondola ride itself is $30, so i guess the buffet is worth it. there's also a Luge during the day time, but i've been on one of those before.

restaurant is the tiny thing on the top left. walking up to building here, we had to walk up a lot of steps and a very steep hill.

going up

its pretty steep.

snow

snowww. don't even have to go to the mountains/snow fields for snow (: this snow up here was the nice powdery snow

yay

later did i realise that i took off my right glove to take a photo, and realised going back to the hotel that i must have dropped it ): it was a touchscreen glove, so you could still use your phone with the glove on, but i took it off since i wanted a better grip of my touchscreen camera.

that night view <3

buffet!

we originally had an 8.30pm sitting, but got there at 7pm to take photos and luckily there weren't many people that night, so they let us in at 7.30pm, and could stay until whenever we wanted. food was really good. i now understand what my dad says about RSL buffets being 'rubbish.' i haven't had a good buffet in ages, and this was filled with fresh salmon, mussels, scallops. i didn't have too much meat since i wanted to save space for desserts, heaps of salads and cold meats as well. loved the pumpkin and ginger soup of the day. loved the window seating, and the waiters were very efficient in collecting dirty plates (:

dessert!

finally had a creme brûlée! it didn't have the really loud crack, but it did have some crack which is commendable for food which has been mass produced. New Zealand ice cream is a lot creamier and less milky than Aus, and also not as sweet. all these dessert were definitely not as sweet as here in Aus. like the pavlova has a lovely crunch on the outside, and usually the inside is just a bite of sugar after sugar, but this one was soft and not too sugary. only disappointment was the fondant which didn't ooze out, so i didn't finish that. didn't bother trying all the cheeses and desserts since i was that full.

last to leave (: they have tiered seating so everyone can have a good view outside

coming back down

so full that we didn't have breakfast the next day, and a little bit of lunch. a really good place to chill if sightseeing is on your things to do list.

Wakatipu Grill-Hilton Hotel

one of the essentials you need when travelling is a sim card with internet, phone calls and text are more of an aside. i bought a $19 prepaid card which charged a $5 sim from vodafone, with 500mb data which was plenty for a few days overseas. it could also make phone calls back to aus with the included minutes. the 4G didn't work very well though. anyways, i easily made up that money through showing an email to get my mum and i a free meal at the most expensive restaurant in the hotel. in our hotel booking, it said "meal plan:room only" and i emailed a person before and she said it included 2 courses at any restaurant, but once checking in, the person said it meant that only the room is paid, and no meals are included. so i then whip out my phone and show the guy the email. half an hour later after "talking with management," the guy gave me a voucher foe free dinner! moral of the story, never hurts to email people, and make sure you have easy internet access whist travelling. there was free wifi in the hotel lobby, but in the rooms its $15 per day, so its more worth to get a sim card.

walking down to the restaurant.

decided to have dinner here after our cruise at Milford Sound on our 2nd day. it's by the lake, so in summer/daylight it's quite pretty, but even at night, there's a gas fireplace outside for drinks and looking at the view. i love restaurants with open kitchens (:

entree: Duck parfait, smoked cherry sphere, olive crostini 19

the last time i had a duck parfait was at The Little Snail, and it was a big slab of parfait and had super grainy texture which made it really hard to finish the whole dish. this dish had a decently sized portion and the parfait was super smooth and you could easily swallow it. loved the crunchiness of the crostini and the slightly smoked cherry sphere to accompany it.

5 hour braised beef short rib, parmesan polenta, ratatouille jus  32

Market fish of the day, caramelised onion mash, tomato buerre blanc, cavolo nero 37

i started off having the beef. they gave you a sharper knife (not a steak knife), but i only used my fork since once you touched the beef, it just fell apart. so tender, hence no knife was used. it looked like a lot of jus at first, but it was the right amount and had the right amount of saltiness. the parmesan polenta reminded me of a slightly healthier potato mash.

then i tried the salmon-yay for crispy skin! cooked perfectly, with the inside still slightly pink. the sauce was nice and buttery but not too heavy

Warm chocolate and beetroot cake, hazelnut praline, sage ice cream 16

even though i'm not a chocolate fan, when i saw sage ice cream, i knew i had to try this dessert. the other dessert option was the chef's selection of ice cream, but it didn't have sage ice cream as a flavour. it did taste like sage, without it being too overpowering. the texture was amazing like any ice cream at restaurants. i think the beetroot was dehydrated, then scattered across th whole dish. i normally don't eat beetroot, but here it was some acidity to cut through the chocolate cake, and added some texture to the dessert. the quenelle on the left side is cream. generally, NZ desserts are no where as sweet compared to australia.

also ordered Mac's green apple and ginger beer drinks ($7 each). these drinks are more flavourful without being too sweet like Australia's soft drinks.

lovely free dinner (:

Milford Sound

milford sound is a fjord, so a deep long inlet from the sea created by glacial erosion. it's the biggest in NZ and most popular tourist attraction. its part of the Fiordland national park, which bigger than all the other national parks in NZ. its a 4 hour drive there, but there are many attractions along the way, and the bus driver says the law requires him to take a half hour break, and there are many photo opportunities along the way. tbh, i think going there is just as magnificent as the sights you see at milford sound.

the cruise is about $90pp (paid with frequent flyer points), we went with Real Journeys on their Nature Cruise. i think they're a super good company, since the bus has wifi! and also the coach has really large windows and a sky roof along the whole bus, and you can eat on the bus. passed some other coaches at other pit stops, and i heard they couldn't eat on the bus. since Hilton hotel is away from everyone else, a taxi came to pick us up to go to the bus station where we met up with the coach. oh, this was the morning my mum got lost in our hotel...i guess this hotel is different since its built on a hill, and the lobby is on level 4, but we stayed on level 2. there are only 7 levels, but my mum thought lobby was level 1 and obviously didn't read the labels next to the lift buttons so...

NZ sunrise in winter is after 8am, and we had to leave at 7am so it was super dark. also, this part of NZ doesn't have spectacular sunrise/sunsets since there are huge mountain everywhere

so many beautiful snow capped mountains. our bus driver gave really good commentary. a reason people shouldn't drive down there is because there's a lot of black ice along the way, so the bus driver actually has to make the effort to avoid inexperienced drivers along the way. super lucky to have sunny weather since it rains here 200 days a year, although they said when it rains its still as beautiful since the waterfalls gush more, but imo, it would be harder to take photos...

a bit after 8am

passed some little towns which were remnants of the gold rush. some towns had as little as 15 houses, and were really far from the coast. also saw a lot of sheep. nz sheep are so tiny. there were also cows and alpacas (according to the bus driver a hybrid of camels and sheep...), and also deer. deers in nz are a pest, so people can kill them if they wish.

Lake Te Anau-first pit stop, halfway there.

so peaceful and beautiful here. no reception from here to Milford Sound...but that didn't matter since wifi was mostly when the bus was dark and no scenery could be seen

1 degree weather. not that cold, i'm actually only wearing 2 layers.

there was this one cafe there and you think how they make business, but when at least 3 coach buses stop there and on the way back, then that's quite a lot of people...their toilets are so clean, actually generally NZ public toilets are cleaner than Syd. there were these other toilets where you had to pay $1 so i think those would be super super clean since no one would use them, but i think everyone just goes to the cafe, as long as you buy something. i forgot to mention, Sydney airport toilets once you past security have been upgraded! they can now compare to other international airports. everything i automatic, modern and super clean.

the bus roof

Mirror lakes, pit stop number 3. a 10 minute boardwalk

pit stop number 2 was a vast expanse of land with super tall mountains close to you on the sides.

here i had the most amazing water from the river. i now know what all those packaged bottled water mean when they saw "spring water". bottled/filtered/tap/mineral/boiled or any other type of water does not compare with fresh New Zealand water. it just has such a refreshing, cooling taste to it, and just makes you so happy. many people emptied there bottles here to fill up with pure nz water.

emerging from a tunnel which was built in the 1950s only by hand. probs can't tell, but it's really high up here. a van was parked here the day before and whilst the people were taking photos, the van rolled down the hill...so they had to wait for other cars to come by to pick them up, hence don't come here by yourselves. also the day before had blizzard like conditions. the tunnel is mainly to go through the high avalanche area. don't come here in September, you'll be buried in snow and no one will save you. they do some special snow bombings to make the avalanches a tad bit less dangerous...

Milford Sound!

the water is so emeraldy clear

saw dolphins and the weather was nice enough to see some seals. 

tasman sea. apparently the boat we were on could go to Aus in 3.5 days, and has enough fuel to go to Hawaii

much beauty

waterfall (:

Titre Peak 

its hard to take a photo from the beginning of the cruise since you have to go further back...hence no good typical shots"

the cruise was 2 hours (2.5hours in summer). i thought it would be super cold, but it wasn't really, probs because this day was unbelievably good weather. most of you would probs think going on a boat to look at mountains is boring, but there's just something to it that words and photos can't describe. the mountains are just so majestic <3

Lake Te Anau on the way back, only stop

got back at about 7.30pm. its surprising how a lovely coach affects the travel journey (: