This is rather awesome

Queenstown

Miss the quaint, serene beauty of Queenstown.

With a bunch of spontaneous, fun-loving  friends.
With hot chocolate drink in hand.

365 days ago

Review of 2012....

OKAY OKAY I know, it's belated already! Been very busy!

Hehehee wells, just to buy some time - my first ever time touching snow:

Random pic

Fox Glacier, NZ.

I was browsing through my photos and I realised it's less than 2 months since I returned from the land of beautiful scenery and endless discoveries.

I miss sitting in a car and gazing into picturesque views like these, I would wind down and lean out of the window, the chilly winter winds drowning my screams of sheer emancipation.

Yeah I know my posts been very emo and keep bringing up about New Zealand yada yada, but it is really THAT supercalifragilisticexpealidocious-ly awesome.

When I signed myself up for skydiving, I thought that it would be a once in a lifetime experience. Bucket list and that's it, I believed.

16,000 ft into the clouds and 60 seconds of free fall made me think otherwise.

I think I want to do it again. I love skydiving, for the extreme ecstacy, adrenaline pumping and unbelievable feel of freedom and exhilaration confirm that you're very much alive and kicking. And this feeling, which invigorates your every senses and every nerve, is the best feeling in the world.

Sweet as.

 

Our own BBQ skewer

Carved from a tree branch!

So as Dave our dear farmer host educated, you got to find fresh and young branches. How do you tell that they are? Find those that look green and alive. Their bark should be soft and thin and when sliced off, a pale green branch should reveal.

The greedy ducks thought the cravings were food scraps! Haaa so cute.

And you can even achieve twice the result with half the effort haha, with a forked branch! 

So proud of our own skewers! BBQ will never taste the same again!



First time eating hare meat! Dave took out his stash and fried them on a pan. He kept the meat in 3 separate containers - of different parts of the hare! We tried the back, leg and the miscellaneous. Hare meat actually tastes like deer, but more gamey and tougher.

A beautiful holiday you may be

I hate beautiful holidays - wonderful and unforgettable they may be, they merely succeed in making me detest the realities of life.

When will we be so happy and free, again?

Without facebook, mobile network, blackberry, worries and troubles? The only thing we had to worry about was whether we had too little to cover ourselves from the cold.

NZ - The planning

I second that.

It was, and still is, an unbelievable experience. Like 14 days of heaven. On cloud nine. Over the moon. They say winter's too cold to do anything in New Zealand? I say winter makes New Zealand prettier and unforgettable. GO THERE IN WINTER YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING THERE IS TO DO DURING SUMMER AND ALSO THINGS YOU CAN'T DO DURING SUMMER. Snow skiing. Ice skating on a frozen pond. Puff out warm air and see the condensation. Accessorise with beanie and scarf. Slide down snowy slopes. Build snowmans. Carve out snow angels. Throw snowballs at one another. You have no idea the joy, ecstacy, delight and excitement we had, the first time we touched fluffy snow.

Back to as early as Feb, when we first planned, all of us have never been to this part of the world. We had zero idea of the weather, the landscape, the road conditions, the culture, the food etc. We started out with a map:

Having no idea of where to start planning from, we headed down to Natas Fair. Chan Brothers travel fair. Kop-ed brochures. Asked for quotations. Sourced for air ticket sales and deals. Asked friends and relatives for sample itinerary. Searched online for activities, accomodation, car rental and guided tours. We planned everything on just a map. Things fell in place and before we knew it, our homework bore fruit - our 14 day travel route was visualized.

Time flew. Our tickets were bought in Feb in a fluster, racing against time to catch the last minute SQ sales fares. We counted down to July. We met several times to discuss, plan and confirm. We booked, paid deposits and made online reservations. We were so detailed and paranoid, we had a Plan A, B and C for skydiving (lest the weather turns bad). We had an imba itinerary with information meticulously researched and noted down.

Before we knew it, our holiday was round the corner - just weeks to go! We stocked up on winter clothing, fleece jackets, beanies and scarves, and lotsa heat packs. The irony was that we were so eager and looking forward to the trip, but when the departure was days away, we felt like, "Am I really going already?"

1 July came. Terminal 3. And the rest, is beautiful history. =)

Packing to NZ!

Am unusually cool and efficient at packing for my 2 weeks holiday.

It's kinda strange, considering it is my virgin visit to a foreign land and not during the best of seasons - winter with temperature reaching sub degree. This could be due to various reasons, such as:

• Numbness due to work - anxiety and excitement have not kicked in yet! My travel mates have expressed the same haha
• Am bringing an ultra large luggage - I just dump everything in!
• 80% is winter clothing and I inherited them from my bro who just returned from Europe. Basically the stack of long john's, fleece jackets, pullovers etc are folded nicely and so I (refer to point 2).
• Seasoned traveller (no way haha)

Seriously I have minimal visualizations of how it is going to be there. I mean, the pictures on google images are picturesque and enchanting, but I have never seen nor touched snow, and neither have I found myself amidst gorgeous mountains ringed with untouched, flawless lands that stretch as far as the horizon, and to be driving, too! To add on, it's going to be the most freezing my low-fat body will experience. So it's gonna be a really fun trip with much excitement, exhilaration and vigour to wake up to everyday!

Gratification begins in 3, 2, 1 days...

___


5 months since the air ticket was purchased and still quite can't believe I.AM.REALLY.GOING !!

Snow angels in Hobbitland

They say IT SNOWS IN NEW ZEALAND!!!


I've never seen real snow before, let alone feel the snow flakes land on my skin/face! OMGOSH SO ENTHRALLED!!



HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR - 13 days!!!