Mini Road-Trip Day 2

Woke up at 6.30am for the sunrise in Lake Matheson. This time we aren't that disappointed as the view are ok, but there are seriously too many people there. The whole viewpoint deck are all occupied with tripod and DSLRs. With my D3300 and kit lens, I felt kinda inferior there haha. We went to search for the blue mushrooms growing along the track after some photos. Surprisingly we actually managed to find two of them, they are not big, but we are satisfied.

After that we continued our journey all the way to Arrowtown for the legendary autumn view. Witnessed the stunning view of Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka, the hills here are so green and the water is so clear and blue that I couldn't believe my own eyes, it's like the view had been photoshoped. Lol. We weren't that satisfied with this Arrowtown trip. The autumn view are nice, but it's not as nice as we expected though. Some of the leaves on the trees were still green at the moment. As the Autumn Festival is ongoing in Arrowtown from 21-25 April, there were a really big crowd around the town centre. Tomorrow is ANZAC day, which is public holiday, that's why. But still, we enjoyed this trip a lot. This is the main destination of our whole road-trip honestly haha.

Our next destination was Queenstown, which is around 30 minutes drive from Arrowtown. People always told me how nice this city is. Today I finally had the chance to witness the beauty of this city by myself. It was by far the prettiest city I've ever been to. Plus it's autumn now, the maple leaves were red in colour, which made the whole street alive. People are taking pictures everywhere. There were so many Chinese here you can see them everywhere. In Queenstown, you can't save money on food. The most famous attractions here for many people are the food. The burgers, ice-cream and hot chocolate. I didn't had the chance to taste the hot chocolate but we managed to get the Fergburger and the Mrs. Ferg gelato ice-cream. Spent around $20 but it's worth it. It's a small city with a large number of population, so crowded.

At 6.45pm we started our journey to our backpackers hostel in Omarama since we were not able to book the accommodations in Lake Tekapo and Geraldine. Damn public holiday! It's $30 here but the facilities are OK, except that there are no telephone service here and we have to buy Wi-Fi from the office for $1 per 100MB. It's freaking windy here that if you didn't stand still you could be moved by the wind, Freaking exciting haha.

Glacier hills at the back!

Fully-occupied deck..

After 10 minutes, finally found it.

Bradrona at Cardrona.

Arrowtown, leaves weren't as yellow as expeted.

First picture in Queenstown.

Mrs. Ferg Gelato ice-cream, nice!

The legendary Fergburger.

Personally I love Queenstown autumn more than Arrowtown.

Mini Road-Trip Day 1

We planned this road-trip like 3 days ago in Motueka. Planning to go to Arrowtown for the stunning autumn views. There are five of us going on this three-days road-trip around South Island. 

For the first day, of course we are not going straight to Arrowtown. We had a night stay in Fox Glacier after driving down from the West Coast. Arrived here at around 3pm, a little longer than we expected. Checked in to Ivory Towers BBH hostel before we go to Lake Matheson for the epic reflective lake view, which disappointed us because there are little waves after rain here, there are little breeze here too. 

We decided not to go any further so we went to have a look at the Fox Glacier instead. But we don't have time to explore the entire track so we just stopped our car at the carpark and have a very far view of the glacier. There are too much mist so we couldn't have a clear look at the glacier, but still, we could see a small part of it. Well, I'm definitely coming back for the lake and this glacier after I finish my work and got a car since now that I got an idea where to go if I were to go on a road-trip at July. 

At night, we went to the short walkway track to have a look at the glowworms. We were not that disappointed as we are able to see quite a lot of them at the big rocks. But of course there were not as much as those in Waitomo of North Island. 

Arrowtown tomorrow, hope the weather are good!

Probably the main tourist attraction in Hokitika, a lot of people who pass by this town will come here for a photo. The wind is too big and it was raining so I just took a quick shot and rushed back to car.

We stopped at this Jetty Viewpoint and decided not to go any further because there were no reflections at the lake, probably because of the aftereffects of the rain, water are flowing fast.

Took a glimpse at the glacier. Just a small part of it since the mist was too thick. Better luck next time. 

Close view of the glowworms.

These are the glowworms I took at the walkway, not much of them actually. But at least I know what they looked like.

When it's night and there were no cars at the street at all. The road was ours. Hahaha.

Our tight budget dinner haha. $4 pizza, some pasta with tomato paste and fried eggs with sausages.

Steamboat Sunday

Sunday is never boring here. We had a steamboat party yesterday night using two rice-cookers. One with tomyam soup and another one with plain soup. Pretty awesome haha. The kitchen and dining hall are small so some of us had to stand and eat but still, we all enjoyed it very much.

We used the leftover meats and vegetables from yesterday to make three big plates of fried noodles tonight! Party again hahaha.

First Day as a Packhouse Worker

It was supposed to be a day-off for me today, but a phone call woke me up at 8.30am, asking me to reach the packhouse at 9am. I was happy at that time to be honest even though I have to climb out of my bed and finish my breakfast in 10 minutes before rushing to the packhouse.

I was the only one who never work yesterday in the packhouse because I arrived in Motueka later than everyone else and I missed the initial induction. But since I listened to the boss' complete induction in the morning yesterday, I was able to work straight away after reporting myself to the office, luckily. I was registered as a grader but I ended up working in the packing department. It was a really busy day, my hands never stop for a second other than during smoko (break time) or lunch time.

But frankly. I am happy to work in this packhouse. The people here are friendly and the environment is great. Free milk tea for break times and lunch time. They even helped you to heat up your lunch in the microwave oven before lunch. Pretty cool. But still I hope that there will be more people assigned to my department because I was totally exhausted from going full-day turbo mode haha.

When I was shopping for some food today in Countdown supermarket, two girls suddenly say hi loudly beside me and I was shocked because I don't remember seeing them at all. Lol. They told me that they worked in the same packhouse with me. It was really awkward when people can recognise you and you did not recognise them, somehow it seems impolite, a little.

I am still not sure whether I am happy with my decision of moving from picking to packing or not.  For now, I am happy with my decision. We'll see.

Leaving Temuka and back to Motueka

It's been a great weeks living here in the Temuka Holiday Park. It's not a very fancy holiday park but I still feel this is a great place to be in even though sometimes I hear people complaining about it. There are no Wi-Fi there but every facilities are good, toilets and showers are well-maintained and enough for us to use, so I never face problem like waiting for my turn to take a shower when it's full.

I left this morning at around 9am in Terry's car. And we had subway for our lunch, foot long, my first time eating this big portion and I actually finished it. Impressed by my own appetite. Lol. We used a different highway, which is via Lewis Pass. The views from this highway are epic all along the way! It's like a valley all the way, so mountains are surrounding the road and sometimes rivers run near the highway. When the sun goes down at 5pm, the views are just stunning. Somehow it made me feel peaceful, wishing that I get to see them every day.

Arrived here at 6pm when both of my legs went numb. Checked into this house owned by a Chinese, for $90 per week. The environment here are OK, but there are seriously too many people. Really too many. And guess what, there is only ONE toilet and ONE shower. Like seriously? I am already looking for another hostel now, because for seasonal workers, we finish work at almost same time so everyone will be going for shower at almost the same time. But the Wi-Fi here are very good, probably the best one I've got in hostel so far. So I'm still making up my mind haha.

I've switched from kiwifruit picking to kiwifruit packing now, since there's one empty slot. I would prefer picking more than packing but I'm really not that good with cold weather. Especially when the weather is getting colder and colder since we are entering mid-Autumn now. This will definitely be a very boring job, I guess I have to stay strong for 2 months until the job ends, probably around early June. Then after that I will plan whether to continue work until end of the month or go travelling. I will probably buy a wagon car to save all the accommodation fees as I can sleep inside there. Hopefully everything works out well. Now all I have to do is save as much money as possible.

All the photos above are taken in Temuka Holiday Park. Very spacious place haha.

Stopped down here in Lewis Pass for a photo. Unfortunately my camera lens are not wide enough to capture the entire scene haha.

On the way to the Mot.