Adventures in NZ (Part 2)

The next day, I bought some groceries and drove on down to Invercargill via the Catlins, aka the southern scenic route. Karel wanted to stay on in Dunedin for a few more days while I did not. So ended up we both went our seperate ways and I was travelling alone again.

There was a State Highway running through that place, but to actually go to most of the sights, you have to drive through graveled road. And after my last breakdown, I was kinda worried and didn't dare to drive too fast. So ended up taking a long time to cover a very short distance.

Nevertheless, it was still beautiful!! My first stop was Surat Bay, where the winds were strong, with beautiful beaches and great backdrop. Its also a resting bay for fur seals. And I was lucky enough to see one asleep and get really close to it! Though it was kinda ugly I felt. Haha, and it kept flipping sand over its body to avoid the sunlight.

Me with the fur seal behind me

Up close and personal with the sleeping fur seal

After that I drove on down towards a small town called Owaka. Shortly after that I came upon this old bus at the roadside called the Lost Gypsy Gallery. There are really very amazing devices big and small which this guy did by himself using old and recycled materials. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of it. Only took videos, which I'm too lazy to post. haha it will take far too long to upload it.

But the most amazing one is this room with a home made piano, where every key will cause something on behind the piano to create a noise. So there are things like radio static sound, bells ringing, telephones ringing, rattling of some containers etc etc. Total I think got like 30 different sounds in all.

And all this was done with things people don't want.

On my way to the next point, I also took some pictures of the views while I was driving. Cannot remember where these were already though, but the entire route is really damn beautiful. No wonder its called the southern scenic route.

There were really many stop overs around here, including a blowhole, various waterfalls etc. But due to the lack of time, I decided to stop over at one last place: Curio Bay. Didn't really plan to go there till this Israeli guy told me that there were dolphins there and you can actually go swim with them for free!!!

So I headed on down to Curio Bay and was rewarded with another beautiful beach. They were renting out wet suits there at $10/hour to go swimming in the ocean. I decided to save money and brave the cold, which I of cos regretted after that! Haha but on hindsight it was probably a good decision.

As I was going down, I saw this ang moh coming out of the water shivering like mad and you can even see all the goosebumps sticking out of his skin. Wah I was super scared la, if this european guy who experience winters every year is so cold, what more a tropical guy like me la!

As I was contemplating whether to go in or not, I suddenly saw this dolphin jumping out of the water! That made the decision for me man. I started taking off my clothes, picked up 2 stones and walked into the water. Turned out the water was freaking cold la!!!! But then actually after a while your body get used to it and it wasn't that bad. Especially when I went even deeper into the water and had to tread water. Furthermore the water conditions were kinda rough too with super big waves.

When I was inside, I started knocking the 2 stones together. Apparently this was to attract the dolphins as they are very curious creatures by nature. None responded at first and I was about to give up when suddenly FIVE of them came charging at me!!! Wah I was suddenly scared for a while man. Though you know that they will not hurt you, but to have 5 dolphins charging at you suddenly is darn freaky. But I got used to them after a while.

So anyways the dolphins were circling around me for some time and jumped out of the water a couple of times too! Really want to thank the SMUX people for getting me the Olympus camera man. Haha I took it in with me into the water and took lots of videos of the dolphins. Photos were a bit hard though cos the dolphins were photo shy and did not want to stay still and smile for me. I did manage to get a photo of one of them though.

The beach of Curio Bay


A dolphin fin while it went past me


The dusky dolphin. A full adult is only abou 1.2-1.4m

After a while, the dolphins got bored of us and rarely appeared. I was also starting to get cold and decided to get out of the water. Took a shower there (for $2) and drove on down to Invercargill.

Adventures in NZ (Part 1)

So to continue where I left off, Oamaru has 2 places where you can see the penguins. One is the yellow eyed penguins which you can view for free, and the other is the blue eyed penguins. So off I went to view the yellow eyed penguins first. Turned out they were all super far away, and I could barely see anything, even when this kind lady offered her binoculars to us to see. Really waste of time man.

Yeah and this was basically what we saw, the white speck right in the middle of the beach is a penguin coming in right now

After that was kinda sian diao already and also feeling quite tired. So Karel and I decided to just go back to the hostel and skip the other penguins ba. And guess what, forgetful me actually forgot to switch off the headlights!!!! So batteries were flat and I could not start the car.

Wah thank goodness a whole bunch of friendly people all over suddenly came over to help me push the car to start. Haha damn lucky, and I also learnt how to jump start a manual car too!! Well good lesson learnt I guess.

So the next day was a short drive down Dunedin, where my bad luck struck again!!!! I suddenly heard lots of funny noises coming out of my engine. After I stopped the car by the roadside, the sounds were still going on. I tried switching off the engine and start again but hey, it would not start man!! Bloody hell there was the whirring but it just won't start. Damn suay la, only less than a week and it broke down already.

I tried seeing what was wrong with the engine but being a car idiot, didnt know what to do at all man. Again, a helpful kiwi saw me with problems and stopped his car and came out to help. Apparently my starter engine has some problems, which he cannot help. But he offered to drive me to the nearest town to get help cos there is no freaking reception on the highway.

Oh well so wasted the entire afternoon on the repairs and by the time I reached Dunedin, it was evening already and everything was closed and I could not do anything. Anyways, here are some pictures of the views I get along they way on the way to Dunedin.

A whole meadow of sheep. And Lynn, last I heard they were still going baa baa

Home Sweet Home in Wellington

Woo hoo after a long long time, I'm finally back in Wellington again. Finally got my own room and internet and laptop ready. And after 2 tiring days of enrolment, I have finally confirmed all my courses.

However, due to the highly inefficient system and slow pace of life here, I am only about 90% enrolled. Technically speaking, I am not even a student here yet till about 2 weeks later. And sch starts on Monday. Amazing at how they work man!

Anyways I will try and update the blog with all my travel adventures again over the course of the next week ba. Will put lotsa pics up k, otherwise wu hui will be complaining again.

Alrighty, till then.

Karel, Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook!!!

Woo hoo....had a very hectic 3 days in Christchurch man. So didnt really take much pictures or anything. Anyways Christchurch was just like any normal city to me. Well but during that time there, I met this Czech Republic guy called Karel (pronwho was going the same way as me. So well we just travelled together then!

That's us together.

AND......I also bought a car there!! It's a 1989 Ford Laser. Comes with new tyres, wof till May and everything else working fine. It also has a 1.3 litre engine which means that it is fuel conservative.

A picture of my car and Karel

Anyways, we left Christchurch on Sunday (late cos Karel overslept and spent 30 frigging minutes eating breakfast when he was already 45 min late!!!). We finally left at 930am when we were supposed to leave at 8am. My initial plan was supposed to go down to Oamaru to see the penguins, but in the end, we changed my plans and went to Lake Tekapo instead. It is listed also listed as one of 501 must go places in the world from the book Ryan brought back from USA.

Talking about the drive there, we covered the distance much faster than what the map Desmond lent me indicated. And no I did not speed at all (haha must put this hear otherwise my mum will be making noise already). Max speed I went was 110km/hr when the speed limit is 100km/hr. Haha tons of cars were overtaking me like nobody's business.

Typical view you get when driving with the mountains right in front of you

We finally reached Lake Tekapo at around 1pm and visited the visitor centre. It's quite cool how every entrance to a town has a visitor or information centre. Haha shows how touristy NZ is. Anyways we checked out the various tramps around the area and finally decided to climb Mt Hutt and walk down via the lake.

It was a 1.5 - 2 hour tramp to the summit which surprisingly, we completed in 1 hours. Haha I think its cos of Karel pushing me all the way. I was really panting by the time I got there man. I tell you, the wind at the top was so strong, it would make the wind at Datuk seem like a breeze. I could even see white caps in the lake, which I think mean the wind was at least 10 knots, aka 30km/hr.

View at the top of the mountain of Lake Tekapo

View of the lake with a mountain behind

The view was so good on the way down we decided to just lie and relax for 15 min

After the tramp, it was still early and nothing much to do at the lake. So we decided to drive up to Mt Cook village itself. Mt Cook is the tallest mountain in NZ, but unfortunately we could not summit it cos it was too technical.

We stayed at the Department of Conservation (DOC) Camping grounds for the night and decided to do another the tramp in the morning which could take us real close to Mt Cook itself. Unfortunately, we were told not to walk up in the morning due to bad weather coming.

The sun just before it sets behind the mountains

Oh well safetly first, so we had to abandon the tramp and drove on down to Oamaru after this short detour. After about 3 hours drive, we finally reached Oamaru, where hey and presto they provide FREE internet, FREE pool table and FREE laundry!!!! Too bad I have already washed all my clothes and have almost nothing to wash now. Haha that also explains why I have so much time to write in the blog. Will be going to watch the penguins again later in the evening.

My iteneary for the next couple of days will be to Dunedin fora day for another break, before heading to Invarcargill via the Catlins to stay. Whether I go for the Stewart Island Tramp I will decide again over the next couple of days I guess.

Last but not least, I would like to thank the people who come down to send me off on Wednesday! Haha and of cos various other people like Desmond, Hui Fen, Jimmy, Gee Yong etc etc for all the advice and help given. Haha not forgetting of cos is my mum!! haha.

Its really great to be able to be here and seeing all these beautiful things (tho Jimmy says I will feel homesick after 2 weeks). Haha we shall see.