North Island Adventure Part 4

Alex brought me to this pub call Margarita - Disco. Everybody inside are all chinese, but the thing is, the music sucks, but there are still so many people. Maybe it is a good "fishing" spot, but definitely the amount of Chinese there is at least 50 times more than those that I see in Otago.

Then Alex's mum brought us to "yum char" which means drink tea in cantonese. The food is not too bad, and I'm quite surprise that I'm actually doing lotsa chinese stuff in NZ. I want to say a big thank you to Alex and family for being such marvellous hosts. The hospitality is greatly appreciated.

Monday, we took Alex car with the aim to drive it back to Dunedin. His car is a sports car, with only two doors, so naturally Jason have to squeeze at the back, because Alex drive and I have very long legs, so I get to sit in the front. Our luck ran out even b4 we reached our first stop, Alex got caught by a traffic police with a summon of $90 for driving at 113km/h, 13km above limit. What terrible luck man.

Our first stop is Rotorua. Saw some natural geysers and thermal steam. It is really nice, will post more pics on it. The ultimate part is when we went for a night hot bathe in one of the world's top 10 spas. We got our own locker, towel, lounge, and private pools which is just beside the lake. Hot bath under the blanket of stars facing the sea, how cool can that be man...

The next day, we are suppose to head to Taupo and Tongariro, however due to the rain, we did not stop and move on ahead towards wellington. But on the way, we saw lotsa snow, snow, snow and snow. We can't help but to stop and take some photos. It was freezing, but it is really worth it.

And finally, we reached Wellington so well ahead of time that we are so early for our ferry which is suppose to be in the wee hours. So we decided to catch Superman returns, and Jason keep wanting to be Superman after that. I also met up with Anisa(from my home university), who is starting her exchange semester in Victoria University in Wellington in the next few weeks. Finally get to meet some Singaporeans and people from the my home university, the feeling is kinda good.

Then after the movie we went to catch check in our ferry, but it apparently got cancelled due to bad weather. Then, it was pushed back from 1.55am to 4am. We slept in the car, and when we woke up, we realized that all the car around us are gone, we thought they all left without us, but to only find out that they have cancelled the ferry again. So it was pushed to 8.30am then pushed to 1pm then finally to 6.15pm which we eventually got to board, even though the condition is still the same, heavy pouring rain and big waves. During this period of time, we just went to YHA to cook our meals and sleep in the TV room. Did i mention that YHA Wellington is like the best hostel I ever seen. And we obviously did all these for free, and I think it is really good. Thank you once again YHA Wellington.

Alex vomitted 4 times on board the ferry, which I can totally understand why. Imagine the ferry which is like so hugh, we were at the 6 and the 7th storey, the waves still came crushing onto our windows. And we literally feel the feeling of going up and down the waves, I'm lucky enough to sleep it through. Poor Alex...

We reached Picton at 10pm, and we decide to drive down to Dunedin, through the night. Eventually we made it. Alex and myself took turns to drive. I must say that I actually fell asleep a few times and it was so crazy because I was going at 140km/h. I was swaying on the road, I think the vehicle behind me is thinking what am I trying to do. But eventually once Alex took over, we are in good hands, though travelling at 160km/h, we are absolutely in safe hands. We reached Dunedin at 7.30am. 9 hours of driving from Picton to Dunedin is pretty impressive, and esp so when it is at night.

Came back just in time to watch how France defeat Portugal. :)