Good bye NZ

These pictures were taken from the airplane window. It was pretty much straight from that to work the next day. Geez.

Kaikoura - last day

We hung around Kaikoura for another half day waiting for a spa appointment. Gary and I thought it'll be great to have a relaxing time at the spa with a massage before we headed back to workland in Melbourne. It was raining all the time the last day, so our plans to watch the sunrise and take some pictures of the fabulous scenery was ruined. However we did walk a little around the bay and took these pictures.

Picture from our bed & breakfast room window. Look at that snow capped mountains!

The view from the lookout from the walk.



It was a very wet day, we went to the beach and looked at puddles of seaweed washed ashore, little mussels and corals. We were so glad when midday came around, and we could go off to our massage appointment and be pampered.

Kaikoura - Day 2

Gary and I went out to town today for the biggest event, and also the costliest at NZD140 pp in our trip - whale watching! We were booked in on a charter boat out to the sea for 2 and a half hours to watch whales. Kaikoura, as the guide explained, is lucky to have deep waters close to its shores thanks to a natural sea landscape of a deep canyon about 15 minutes out. This place is also where many whales swim around, we may also see dolphins, seals, and other animals such as the albatross which is a very large sea bird. We were not disappointed! We saw TWO sperm whales, a pod of dusky dolphins that swam sooo close to my side of the ship, and a whole lot of albatross walking on water. The video I've put in this blog shows a sperm whale diving into the sea. It was fascinating and awesome to be able to witness this event.



Dolphins underwater We found this seal by the roadside on the way back from the boat. After the trip, we were feeling a little peckish so decided to make another stop by the roadside stall selling seafood for some more. This time, we did not order the crayfish but tried something else. We had scallops, whitebait fritter (the one in an omelet) and grilled fish on a bed of rice and toast with a side salad.

Kaikoura

We left for Kaikoura, a seaside resort 2 and a half hours drive away from Christchurch today. Kai in Maori means food, while Koura means crayfish. It sounds like my kinda place alright!

The suburbs away from Christchurch are bustling little towns themselves. I actually spotted more restaurants and cafes that I wanted to dine in than in the city itself!

 

The New Zealand landscape is truly beautiful.

 

There were large expanse of green fields dotted with white sheep. This picture reminds me of a milk advertisement I saw while I was young in Malaysia.

 

There are more sheep in NZ than human beings.

 

I love these mountaintops so high up they're partly covered by clouds.

I thought these hills are very unique as they're wholly covered with bushes with yellow flowers.

Kaikoura at last! The town has the best of both worlds - located where the mountains are on one side and the sea on the other. The town centre has only one major road running through it, tightly packed with various shops and accommodation.

We checked into our hotel, a boutique place owned by an elderly couple Lilla and Frank. Lilla greeted us at the door and proceeded to give us a rundown of the fave spots around town. She gave high recommendations to try a roadside restaurant (equivalent to mamak stall) selling fresh crayfish/lobster as well as other spots she thought was worthwhile our time.

We wasted no time in driving down to the stall. When we reached the place, there were about 5 lobsters left, price ranging from $44 to $60. We got the $48 lobster.

Up close and personal shot of the fresh catch. Just off the ocean behind that afternoon.

Our lobster snack, served on a bed of rice, buttered bread and a side salad. Delicious! It was so so so fresh, firm and sweet!

Christchurch - 2nd Day

We went browsing around the Arts Centre precinct in the city this morning. Visited the art gallery and took a guided tour with a group of strangers. It turns out that they weren't just ordinary lay people with no knowledge of art; they were painters, and they sure know their stuff! They asked questions, they looked and peered into each piece of art as though there are hidden symbols written in invisible ink on the canvas, they knew about art history, they tracked the painters' histories! Oh wow.....

A typical scene of Christchurch with the tram running through it

We also went to the Botanical Gardens. It's located in the fringe of the city, with the River of Avon running through it.

It's spring!

Christchurch

The wedding is over, much regretably. The year of planning, rushing around is finally over. It is one of the most memorable day in my life, up there with flying for the first time alone abroad, starting Uni in a foreign country, meeting Gary and hitting it off at a friend's wedding.

We're now spending some time off by ourselves in New Zealand. We landed here today at 3pm, and spent the day roaming round the city. One of the first places we visited was the famous Christ Church Cathedral. It boasted of high ceilings, fabulous acoustics, a famous choir and just beautiful works of art. It is indeed a beautiful place. We sat in on the evening service and listened to the choir sing the psalms. They had voices of angels! The sun streamed into the cathedral through the stained glass windows showing Jesus and his disciples, and the various saints. I felt quite spiritual after that.

The cathedral
The pulpit
Christhurch International Airport

Like a Frog

I felt a bit like a 'katak di bawah tempurung' the other day (Malay sentence - literally translated to frog under a coconut shell; meaning a a person without much exposure to things in the world). I went to Westfield Doncaster, a shopping mall recently expanded and renovated in Doncaster and as I turned into the carpark I saw this:

Notice the small red lights above the cars - I'm told that this ingenious idea has already been operating in Singapore for many years, and even Sunway Pyramid in Malaysia is using this. But, as I turned into the new car park, my eyes were as big as saucers, rivalling my wide open mouth. Drivers can see the exact number of parking bays available in each aisle via an automated screen and the sensors above each parking bay turns from red to green once a bay has been vacated. So, finding parking will soon be a breeze in a crowded area. I had no problems finding parking that day, but not so much reliance on the new system - I just spotted someone putting groceries into her car so I waited for her to return the trolley and took her spot.

All you can eat Hotpot

Australians like to call steamboat as hotpot. Once, I told my boss my plans for steamboat with friends during the weekend, he looked very confused. He replied with something about being on the Yarra (a river that runs through Melbourne city) etc. I quickly clarified that steamboat is a food related activity, so he does not continue to think about the method of transportation whenever I mentioned steamboat.

Tonight, my friends and I went for an all you can eat hotpot/steamboat dinner in the city for $23 per person. We were given a slip of paper and when we've marked the number of dishes we wanted to order, they sent the dishes to our table. This establishment being a mainland chinese place, the dishes and soup base were quite different to my tastes. We ordered the yin yang hotpot, which was a fancy name for one side of spicy soup and the other side of traditional clear soup. The clear soup had 'yong sam so' ginseng, unpeeled longans, and some other unidentified herbs. It was tasty and flavoursome though laden with msg. I became quite thirsty midway through the meal. The chilli side of the soup contained a layer of chilli oil on top of the soup, black beans and more herbs. I didn't really venture to that side of the pot so I couldn't describe accurately its contents.

We ordered dishes such as sliced lamb and beef (mainland Chinese does not prefer chicken in their steamboats), prawn, straw mushrooms (both of which can only be ordered once), vegetables, fish noodles, fresh tofu, calamari (no fish fillets), green mussels, crab sticks, black fungus and assorted fish, cuttlefish, prawn balls. I kept waiting for the clear soup to boil but somehow the chilli soup beat the clear soup to the boil most times because the thick layer of oil on top retained heat better.

We also ordered small cooked dishes such as braised peanuts, pigs ears (quite crunchy and tasty), shredded seaweed, chicken feet and chicken gizzard. The restaurant also has quite a good array of desserts. We ordered taro pancake, tong yuen (peanut and sesame), red bean 'tzim tui' to share. Overall, I enjoyed the time that we had together, especially since it's been a while since I last saw these friends and the food was good too.

Hako

Gary and I went to a Japanese place at Flinders Lane in the city after work yesterday. The restaurant was a rather quaint place, smack in the middle of the city, next to two Chinese dumpling places. The entrance is quiet in style and I had to look twice before I realised I'd arrived at the place. Hako has been reviewed by the Australian daily, The Age and has been given raving reviews. So I expected great things from this place. Plus I was so hungry! We ordered the following:

 

Gyoza with vinegar dressing topped with finely chopped spring onions

 

Grilled eel atop a bed of creamy scrambled eggs - I love eel!

 

Deep fried eggplant topped with miso sauce

 

Tuna steak

soba noodles with prawn tempura - my fried food fix
The best dish was the eel - it combined both my favourite foods; eel and eggs!

Bestest Service

Gary and I went to the photographer's yesterday night after work. We found ourselves unprepared for our photo shoot in Malaysia so we wanted to be as prepared as possible for this one in Australia. We discussed dress changes, the general mood of the photos, props to be used, angles that we like, logistics, our likes and dislikes etc etc. We ended up staying for about 1 1/2 hours having a casual discussion on the work to be done on the wedding day.

After the appointment, we had dinner at a small Malaysian restaurant in the middle of a dark shopping strip. Being Monday, all the other shops and restaurants were closed (restaurants normally took Mondays off in Australia, while other shops close at 5pm). Only Rasa Inn, the Malaysian restaurant I had spotted on the way to the photographer's place was open. As we pulled up in front of the restaurant, the proprietess got out of the kitchen and opened the door for us. She actually stepped outside of the restaurant and welcomed us into her shop. No one else was in the restaurant. I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

We ordered the mock vegetarian fish (Winner Dish of the Asian Food Festival 2001) and Home Favourite Ginger Flower Chicken. The lady quickly served us tea, and left a large basket of prawn crackers. I love prawn crackers, or anything crispy so I pretty much devoured 2/3 of the basket. It was good quality, not greasy and was fried with fresh oil (one can tell). The food came in due course, brought to our table by the ever smiling proprietess. The chicken was delicious, with a tangy taste that I couldn't quite identify. I can only think it being from the ginger flower (I've never tasted ginger flower). The mock fish was yam, cellophane noodles and beancurd wrapped in beancurd skin and seaweed then fried. It was very fragrant and filling.

We couldn't finish the dishes so we asked the lady to wrap them up for us. She placed everything separately in plastic containers (including the sauce for the fish) and guess what... included a tiny slip of paper containing instructions on how long to reheat the food, and the date when the food was packed! This is to avoid potential food poisoning due to inadequate heating of the food! We were quite impressed with the attention and care she took.

The best part of the evening was when we took the time to chat and got to know her a little better. She adored Gary because like him, she was originally from Hong Kong and have been living in Australia for a long time. She was also smitten with him because although he has been here since young, his Cantonese was so good, unlike her son's! She was particularly impressed with his choice of profession, commenting how smart he must be etc etc. I could see the glint in her eyes, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was checking him out for an unmarried daughter or niece.

Gary returned the compliments by leaving a largish tip, then we drove home. The restaurant is rather out of the way for us, so unfortunately for the auntie, it is unlikely that her unmarried daughter or niece shall see Gary anytime soon.

My Weight in Pigs

I haven't posted up any wedding pictures on this blog as I will be having another one in Melbourne with the same dresses so I don't want to spoil the surprise for the people here. However, what I can do is post up a similarly important event which took place in M'sia - giving of the dowry! In chinese, the ceremony is called 'goh tai lai'. This is where the groom's family presents sets of 'grand gifts' to the bride's family. The gifts consists of double sets of everything (one of which is expected to be returned) - fruits, dried seafood, coconut, wine or liquor, money, chinese wedding cakes etc. These were more or less the items involved in my gtl as well, except the coconuts.

We also did the 'three day homecoming' at the same time where traditionally when the bride returns home to her parent's house after 3 days in her new home, the groom would provide a whole roast pig and some gifts to the family (presumably in appreciation of the new bride). To a lover of roast pork like me, the pig was a dream come true! We gave all the best parts away to family, neighbours and friends, but still had loads to devour. Till the day we left for Melbourne, there were still pork bits and pieces stashed away in our fridge, which had ran out of space so there were some in a neighbour's freezer as well!

I wonder if there are no one who have thought about giving something of the same value other than a roast pig? How about giving something that the bride really likes? As much as I like roast pork, I had to face the fact that not all parts of the pig is suitable for roasting. So how about a couple of whole cod fish? You can betcha there won't be any leftovers!

Butcher in action

The groom's family got to take back: a pair of pants, head and tail of the pig, and single set of the gifts they presented.

Back to Work

Phew! I'm back at work after 2 1/2 weeks' wed-hol. Touched down at around 8:30pm and was stuck in the customs queque for about an hour. It was unbeliveably busy at the customs, and if it wasn't for the large picture frame (potentially bug infested wood piece), we wouldn't have needed to queque in the slowest moving line ever. The frame was waved off and we proceeded to the taxi stand. When we finally reached home, it was 10pm. We went out for a bite of late dinner at good ol' Maccas, and bam straight into bed. I was out like a light.

Next morning, I struggled to wake up for work, struggling even more trying to remember my regular train time, directions to work, floor number, passwords to the work systems... I can't say I didn't have a relaxing holiday; so relaxing I forgot all work related matter.

I'm glad it's the weekend now (but I'll be going back to work on Sunday to get all my work done before Monday morning - I have a performance review discussion on Tuesday) and I can relax from the hard work I've done over the past two days at work.

And the good thing is... I get to do another wedding and holiday in two week's time. Looking forward to that!