NZ Road Trip: Auckland Part 2 and Homecoming

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

Assalamu'alaikum, everyone!

"Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory."

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Alright, you guys. This is the last post of the NZ trip and it's basically the trip back home.

Our road back home actually took us one whole day. Our flight was from Auckland and if you've been following my posts, we were in Christchurch. Our flight to Auckland was really early in the morning. Like.. SUBUH early. We had to pray at the airport. So waking up at 4 a.m, we caught a cab to the airport, waited for about an hour and flew back to Auckland.

Got a few pics from the plane and in these ones, I have one of my favourites....

Love this picture!

It was good to be back....in Auckland. Hehe..

We gave our rental car that we used earlier in this roadtrip back the Apex car rental branch in Christchurch. You see, we arrived at Auckland at around 8 a.m. Our flight to Malaysia was 8.30 p.m. So we had 12 hours to kill and we need a way to get around. So we had to rent another car. And that we did.

I'm not gonna lie. I didn't take that many pictures on our last day. I just wanted to soak in the surroundings, the views, the weather...NZ basically.

We took a drive through the town center and after a while we got hungry. Sure enough, there was a kebab place nearby and we got 4 kebabs and went back to Cornwall Park, one of the first places that we went after we arrived in New Zealand. As I mentioned before, I just soaked everything in. Even at Christchurch airport, I started doing that. Just standing outside with my brother outside the airport, basking in the cold while waiting for Subuh. Looking at all the Mat Saleh and Maori people.

I loved New Zealand but Malaysia was calling.

New Zealand, to me, is one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you're a city boy or city slicker like me, this country will make you fall in love with the great outdoors. Regardless of the season that you go which in my case was spring, you'll just love it. Trust me. Between the buildings and busy streets of Auckland and Christchurch and the countless number of scenic views all over the country, you'll have plenty of things to see. Not to mention the things that I wasn't able to do that is both amazing and so much fun. Like taking the Milford Sound Cruise, bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge, going downhill by luge. I was very fortunate to go to NZ with my family with the limited budget that we had. So if you have many to splurge and you wanna travel overseas and have an adventure, I recommend you some to New Zealand.

I don't know about other people but I never had the chance to feel cold weather when I was little like my parents and brothers did before I was born. So whenever I get the chance, I just jump on it. Know what I mean? Rezeki jangan ditolak eh?

Anyway, this is my last post for this thread of my NZ roadtrip last year. You can read my whole roadtrip from the start by clicking THIS.

See you guys on the flip side!!

P.S: It just dawned on me that I need to bulk up to have a little bit more freedom.

NZ Road Trip: Christchurch

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

Assalamu'alaikum, everyone!

"And it is He who spread the Earth and made in it firm mountains and rivers, and of all fruits, He has made it in two kinds; He makes the night cover the day; most surely there are signs in this for people who reflect"

~ Surah ar-Ra'd from the Quran, 13:3 ~

Sorry for the hold up. I had a progress meeting today and I was extremely behind schedule so I've been busy the past few days. Now let's get right down to it. Our last stop in our road trip was......

CHRISTCHURCH.

On our way from Queenstown, we did a quick picnic at Lake Tekapo. The lake is about 3- 4 hours drive from Queenstown, halfway to Christchurch. There are actually some other cool stuff and places. But first, I'll tell you what we did first, aites?

  

We arrived at Christchurch at late afternoon and it was quite a big size for a guest house. Chris really knows how to make his guests feel welcome though. When Ibu was praying, Chris came by and tell us what we can do and where we can go. He told us that there were a few bars and pubs that we can go if we wanted to drink.

Haha!!

I think if he saw my tudung-wearing mom, he'd suggested other places

After settling in for a bit, the 4 of us got a little peckish. So we after doing our Solat, we headed back out to find some grub. Again we found a place that made good kebabs. We took 'em home and just chilled for the night.

The following day was more eventful though. We went to a few places. First place, we visited Re:START a.k.a the container mall. It's a temporary mall set up after the earthquake that happened there in February 2011. The shops and stores are literally containers turned into little shops. There are also some food trucks and stalls that sell little trinkets.

Sorry for the lack of pictures though. It was sort of our last day so we wanted to really take in the sights.

Later we went to the International Antarctic Centre. The tickets for the tour and shows were off the cards since we were going to meet Ayah's friend at Canterbury University.

Here's a few photos at the centre.

Gotta love the penguins. Haha!

Then we went to the Air Force Museum. Ibu and I didn't do much though because we were beat. But I think Ayah geeked out. Haha! He loves these old fighter planes.

Actually, sort regret not going with him. Oh well.

Last stop before going back to our place, we met up with Ayah's old friend at Canterbury university.

 

Turmeric latte

Ayah's friend suggested us to have turmeric latte. Ibu didn't like it that much but I think it was good. It has that flavour and tinge with a weird after taste that tickles your taste buds.

Don't ask why I took that last picture. Because I don't know either. Hehe..

At night, we rested up and slept early because the next day was our flight back to Malaysia. But we had to fly from Christchurch to Auckland, then from there to KLIA2. I have a few other photos from that too but maybe next post.

I mentioned earlier about the other stuff to do at south island.

1. Te Anau

Te Anau is a town in south island that has Lake Te Anau, the largest lake in the south island and 2nd largest in NZ after Lake Taupo. It's at the shore of Fiordland (a bit of wordplay from the word 'fjord'). Lying at the borders of Fiordland National Park, it is also one of the places where visitors can go which is no. 2 in this list.

2. Milford Sound

Milford Sound is actually the name of the cruise. If you wanna splash some cash on one of the most beautiful scenic views on EARTH, I highly suggest you take the cruise. If you happen to take the Interislander ferry and think the views from THAT ship is amazing, wait till you take this one.

3. Invercargill

Invercargill is the southern and western-most city in NZ and  one of the southern-most in the world. I heard from someone that in the winter there might even be snow if it was cold enough.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't actually know what's the best thing to do at these places but I heard it from many people enough to know that they're a big deal. Along with Dunedin.

I'll be posting our trip back to Malaysia soon In Sya-Allah.

See you guys on the flip side!!

P.S: I'm really lacking sleep and dare I say that this is due to me doing my post-grad