NZ Road Trip: Queenstown

In the name of Allah. The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Assalamu'alaikum, peeps!

" You know that feeling you get sometimes when you're standing in a high place... Sudden urge to jump...

I don't have it. "

~ Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) ~

Alright, here's the Queenstown post of my NZ trip. Of all the places that we went, from north to south, our accommodation in Queenstown is the only place where I took shots of the house that we stayed in. I'm not gonna lie. It was quite a posh place. Nothing big like a mansion or bungalow. Just a one-storey house but the appliances and stuff that the host has were more than what my family is used to. Haha!!

The house has that modern touch to it.

DISCLAIMER: Those are our stuff. Rachel, our host, prepared her place in top condition. We were packing at this time

The living room is pretty simple too. And..It's right next to the kitchen.

That cabinet on the left actually has the washing machine and dryer inside.

The bedroom has like a walk-in closet. Pretty nice.

I took these shots just before we were off to Christchurch. And to be honest, I think I wanna make my house like this. Haha!!

Alright, let's get right down to it. In Queenstown, you HAVE to go to the town center. In the town center, you have the shops, you have the view you have the buskers and did I mention the view?

Btw, if you rent a car, don't be surprised if you have a hard time finding a spot to park. The Queenstown town center is what I think THE place where tourists go. But hey, I'm sure you will eventually.

In my opinion, you guys can start by going to the Queenstown Mall. It's not you usual mall as it is open air. I guess you can say dia lebih macam blok-blok kedai. 

Those buildings at the sides there are actually shops. Lots of shops ranging from small restaurants to cosmetic stores. And I'll let you in on a secret.

If you wanna buy souvenirs -- especially to those who keep asking you to buy something for them -- there are A LOT of shops you can choose from here. Trust me. Rambang mata wei. Haha!

And I know some of you play rugby and are huge fans. So guess what...

They have a store where they sell the All Blacks' OFFICIAL LICENSED PRODUCTS! My brother walked in and he was like a 5 year-old kid in a candy store. Haha!!

Although, if you wanna buy some t-shirts or rugby jerseys, prepare some cash. Like..lots of it.

Alright. Still at the mall area, if you keep going straight, you'll see something like a small harbour. And maybe it was the weather that day but it was B-E-A-utiful.

It's a good place to take a photo of yourself too. Hehe...

My Instagram profile pic ;-)

If you're worried about food, don' worry. There's a place called Turkish Kebab and it is halal. Obviously, it has kebabs where you can choose lamb/chicken/mixed. You can also get burgers and falafels. Shakes and juices to drown them down and finish with some ice-cream...

We happen to stumble on Goldfields, the Lord of the Rings' official jeweler.

Near the town center is also another attraction that I mentioned in Rotorua: The gondola and luge. Basically, you go up a hill on a gondola, you go downhill by luge. No idea? Check out this post and see no. 2. You can Google the prices if you're interested.

Just so you know, we did this all in the morning till about 1 p.m. We have another attraction that NZ's famous for:

BUNGEE JUMPING

The place we went was the Kawarau bridge where AJ Hackett Bungy runs the operation. Sadly though, the 4 of us didn't jump because it was too damn expensive. 205 NZD! Right now, that's about RM 500+. We went to NZ when the rate was 1 NZD : RM 3.00+. And this is not including the video footage that the bungy centre can make for you. Nak dekat RM 1000 jugak la.

We still went to the centre though.

Lifeguards just waiting for another jumper

It may not seem like it, but the water is so blue! I think being there is quite worth it but if you have the moo-lah to bungy jump, have at it! Jump and scream your lungs out.

That was the last thing that we did on our 2nd day in Queenstown. That night we all just watch some Netflix on Rachel's Smart TV, had dinner and went right to bed. The next day was a 7-hour drive to Christchurch, our last place before going back to Auckland for a flight back to Malaysia.

I'll write that one ASAP In Sya-Allah.

Btw, if you haven't been following my posts on my NZ road trip, have no fear, you can click on these links. All you need to know from the airport to the attractions. In order:

• Arrival
• Auckland
• Rotorua (Hobbiton)
• Wellington and Interisland Ferry
• Taylorville
• Hokitika nd Franz Josef
• Lake Matheson and Arrival at Queenstown

See you guys on the flip side!!

P.S: My research is going very slow but at least I have some progress!

NZ Road Trip: Lake Matheson and Arrival at Queenstown

In the name of Allah. The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Assalamu'alaikum, everybody!!

" No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach."

~ Master Oogway (Kung fu Panda) ~

Alrighty then. After Hobbiton, this is probably my favourite place to go in NZ.....

QUEENSTOWN

HOWEVER

One of the MANY attractions that you can go is Lake Matheson. From Franz Josef, it's about 30-40 minutes by car. Some call it the reflection (or is it reflective?) lake. Reason being if you come to the lake at around JUST before/after sunrise and JUST before/after sunset, you'd get a perfect reflection of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman on the lake.

Unfortunately for us, we arrived there at around 10 or 11 am. From the parking lot, you can see the souvenir shop and see a path you can take to go to the lake. At the beginning, you can see a sign that offers you routes that you can take and how long and how far it is from that position. Convenient.

The photos that we got weren't actually perfect reflections but it was still really pretty. It was amazing. It was pretty amazing.

The views were amazing. They're the ones that people can use to make postcards! But I think my favourite picture is this one.....

This is as close to a reflection that we could get because at the time, the wind was picking up so it made ripples in the lake. Still pretty though.

From Lake Matheson, it was 5+ hours to Queenstown. We were about 30 minutes to an hour to Queenstown when we went pass a fruit store. Ibu suggested we go back. You know what? I'm glad we did. We got a good stock of stuff. There were LOTS of fruits. Apple, pears, bananas, berries. Fresh fruits, dried fruits, fruit juices and even chocolates. And we also got a bunch of apples. I got this for myself. And it. Was. Good.

Photocred: Tudor Rose Gifts

It was so good, I forgot to take a photo of the one I bought. Haha! We reached that shop quite late and we got some free dried fruits! And apparently, some of the staff are actually foreigners and one of them was from Klang. Haha! You can apply for a working visa to work in New Zealand but it's pretty limited. I actually Googled how to apply for one when I got back to Malaysia. Who wouldn't want to work at a place like this?

We had so much apples, it lasted till Christchurch, which is after Queenstown.

Guys, I got quite a number of pictures from Queenstown. So I think my next post will be all about the place. And I'm actually a bit tired from today. Research was crazy. I'll post the next one ASAP.

See you guys on the flip side!

P.S: Gonna get some new gear!

NZ Road Trip: Hokitika and Franz Josef

In the name of Allah. The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Assalamu'alaikum, y'all!!

"Nature! It's all over me!"

~ Melman (Madagascar) ~

Alright, people. Taylorville was cool. Our next destination is even cooler...Literally...

FRANZ JOSEF!

BUT FIRST...

We made a pit stop at Hokitika. We thought there was an Islamic center there. Turns out, our intel was wrong. Still though, it didn't hurt to check out the town.

There was this glass studio where they made cool stuff by shaping glass.

They either want you to eat there until you have a fat pipi or IF you have a fat pipi, they bagi discount.

Haha!! JK

It's a good place to find some souvenirs too. Rambang mata wei. Haha! Alhough, I don't actually recommend you to splurge cash on souvenirs yet. Just trust me.

But it didn't stop Ibu though...

Hokitika is a small town near the beach about 40 km from Greymouth. Considering it was just the start of spring, it was a bit nippy so nobody actually went to the beach aside from tourists like us taking photos.

We were walking by this bicycle shop when Ayah met this guy, all geared up...

He's cycled all over the world even in Malaysia. He knew some places where cycling enthusiasts like to go which was pretty cool.

Hokitika was great but it felt like the fuzz were on our tail. So we had to bounce...

Next stop: Franz Josef

We reached Franz Josef and our place was at a trailer park which is not really unusual since some tourists travel around using caravans and motorhomes.  The place we stayed was like an old container you see on ships. To be honest, it wasn't that bad for a one-night stay.

Here are some photos....

Here at Franz Josef, that are some awesome things you can do but the favourites are skiing and checking out the glaciers. These activities are best done in winter for obvious reasons.

For skiing, you can go to the i-site and ask for info for not just skiing and the glaciers but also other activities you can do. At the place we stayed, there were a few shops that provide services like helicopter rides over the mountains and they can help you by dropping you off at the mountain slopes to ski.

Of course, we didn't actually thought about skiing so it was not really in our budget.

Anyway, got some nice photos early next morning....

Then we found this tricked out van that was a bit nostalgic....

Alright, guys. I'm actually nearing the end of the trip. Maybe a post or two. 3 at most. I'll make those posts ASAP In Sya-Allah.

See yo guys on the flip side!

P.S: My next post is the best place to go in south island. You wouldn't wanna miss it!