A Long Expected Party

Last week, I took a few days off to travel to New Zealand to visit my family. My sister has been studying at the University of Auckland for the past semester, and my parents were flying out to visit her before they all head back home. In my imagination, New Zealand is reasonably close to Malaysia, so I decided to join them. New Zealand is not especially close to Malaysia, because Australia exists, but it was a great week anyway.

On Saturday I woke up early to head down out of the village at 8:30. I caught the bus to Tapah (which was on time, and nearly empty, which is bizarre for a Saturday) and then waited for the bus to KL (which was not on time). I reached the city around 1:30, had some lunch, and then headed to the airport. The airport train had randomly changed its schedule for the day, so I ended up waiting another forty minutes, but I arrived at the (almost deserted) airport around 3:00. My flight wasn’t until 6:00, but with nothing else to do, I checked in, and was told I could take an earlier flight to Singapore. Figuring I might as well, as it would give me a little more time to get through the airport there before my connecting flight, I was boarding the plane less than an hour after I arrived at KLIA. After a short hop to Singapore and a brief wait in the airport there, I was on my way to Auckland.

I arrived late Sunday morning and met my family, and we headed on a short tour of the city. We’d be flying to the South Island the following day, so we tried to fit in as many sights as we could. At our first stop, the Mt. Eden Crater, I was shocked by how cold and windy it was. As I own only clothes suitable for the Malaysian jungle, it turned out to be a chilly week. Still, the view from the top of the hill was beautiful – we walked around the crater, soaking in the view of the city and the water.

View of the city from the edge of the crater

Auckland sprawling out toward the mountains and the sea

When we’d circled the crater and come back to our car, we headed for One Tree Hill, a rather inappropriate name for the hill which no longer hosts the famous tree. The hill does have a monument, and not a little bit of wind. It also looks out over green, green landscape, and sheep. When we couldn’t take the cold anymore, we returned to the car and drove to Mission Beach, where we had a small Mexican lunch and a walk along the beach. (Let’s acknowledge that I live in Southeast Asia and this was the first time I’ve seen the ocean since June.) The water was beautiful – so incredibly blue – and the view of islands and mountains in the distance was gorgeous. If it had only been a little warmer, it would have been a great place to spend a few hours. As it was, we had to keep walking to keep warm. We returned to the hotel, my sister packed up her things for the trip to the South Island, and then we headed out for a dinner of Italian food, which I’d been craving for a long time. After dinner we went to sleep, and it was so strange to sleep in a bed, in a room by myself.

The beautiful ocean at Mission Beach

 Monday morning, we got up and had breakfast, then walked around the vicinity of the hotel for a while, before heading back to the airport. We flew to Christchurch, were dropped at our hotel in the early afternoon, and then, at my sister’s request, headed to the Antarctic Center, a museum housing injured penguins, a simulation of an Antarctic windstorm, and information on the continent and its wildlife, exploration, and conservation. We then caught a bus back to the city center, where we had a fabulous South American small-plate style dinner, and then made our way back to the hotel. In the dark, the city was completely deserted. Although the hotel was pretty centrally located – just behind the Cathedral – there was no one around. The entire city was more or less a construction site. It was a little eerie walking back in the dark.

Christchurch Clock Tower

Early Tuesday morning we got up and checked out of the hotel, headed for the train station. We were taking the train westward across the mountains, to a town on the coast called Greymouth. It was a long trip – nearly five hours – but such a beautiful ride, with incredible views of the mountains, amazing blue lakes, and green fields (with sheep, of course).

Hillsides and yellow blooms, view from the train

Even the weather held up, for a while. When we reached Greymouth, we drove north, through more picturesque mountains and winding roads, to the “Pancake Rocks”, stacked layers of rocks along the coast and even rising out of the sea. From the town we followed a trail through the rainforest (though colder than what I think of as rainforest), which eventually led out to the edge of the cliff, over the ocean, with great views of the rocks. In some places the cliff almost entirely enclosed the water in pools, so that the waves crashed tremendously against the sides of the walls.

Pancake stacks, peeking over the side of the cliff

When the trail eventually circled back and returned us to the road, we got back in our car and retraced our steps south, past Greymouth and toward the town of Franz Josef. We reached the hotel in the evening (after a long drive, and a few photo stops), just as the rain started. We headed out to have dinner (under umbrellas lent to us by the hotel staff) and lost power twice during the meal (although the servers were quick to hand out lanterns to all the tables, and it seemed like that was probably not a rare occurrence). It was just like having dinner in Ampangan Woh in the rain. Back a the hotel, we jumped into bed, warming up under thick comforters and getting as close as possible to the radiator.

The following morning, Wednesday, we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and then headed out into the town. We had planned a hike to the glacier (though not actually on the glacier) so we met our group and were given waterproof pants, boots, and raincoat (which apparently was worth $600, and did keep us dry, although not especially warm, and I was glad for the five layers I had on underneath it). Almost immediately after we entered the forest it started to rain, and hardly let up for the rest of the hike. After a short walk through the trees, the trail led out into the glacier valley, a rocky and muddy path that traces the glacier’s movement backwards. It was hard to see anything through the rain and clouds, but a few waterfalls on either side of us and a couple of small and silty streams. We reached the top of the trail, from where we could see the glacier, and where the rain abated briefly, and then headed back down and out.

Franz Josef, as seen from the lookout point on the trail

Waterfalls from the glacier valley

Finally getting some sunlight in the valley!

Back at the car, we began a long drive south along the coast, to Queenstown. More mountainous roads and beautiful views, and a great many photo stops, so that we reached the town late in the evening. After a late dinner at the hotel restaurant, we went immediately to sleep.

Valley along the road to Queenstown

Thursday, we had a great breakfast of a huge stack of delicious pancakes, layered with caramelized bananas, at a chilly outdoor café on the edge of the water. We were overwhelmed by the view of the Remarkables (a silly name for a mountain range, in my opinion) rising out of the water, and more mountains in all directions. We took a gondola up the mountains behind Queenstown, and were simply enjoying the view from there, until bungee jumping was suggested, so my dad, sister, and I each jumped while my photographer mother watched with her feet planted firmly on the ground. While the jump itself wasn’t as exhilarating as I’d anticipated – it was over far too quickly – as I waited for the team above to hoist me back up, I looked out at the mountains from a rather bizarre perspective and was again blown away. The mountains and lakes reminded me of Switzerland, which I've long considered beauty unmatchable.

The city of Queenstown, the lakes surround it, and the Remarkables

Once we’d returned to the base of the mountain, we returned to our car and drove to the nearby town of Glenorchy, a miniscule town with more mountain views, and, according to the owner of the café we stopped in for coffee and a cupcake, some Middle Earth scenes. From there we continued along the road, heading to “Paradise,” despite the warning in the guidebook to “keep your expectations low.” “Paradise” turned out to be farmland, with many a flock of sheep and cows, but the drive was truly Tolkien-esque and beautiful. Back in Queenstown, we inexplicably ate dinner in a Texan restaurant, before turning in.

On Friday, we got up extremely early, as we had planned to take a bus to Milford Sound. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into the drive, we were informed that an avalanche Thursday night had blocked the road, and the trip was cancelled. Not wanting to waste our last day, we fumbled around the tourism office for something to do, and finally decided on Glowworm Caves in Te Anau. We drove to the town, but upon reaching Te Anau, we learned that that caves were flooded, and that trip would also need to be cancelled. The best they could do was put us on a boat trip around the lake there, so we boarded the boat, but the weather was so cloudy and rainy that it was hard to see anything. Defeated, we returned to Queenstown in the early evening. We had one last Italian dinner, and then spent some time walking around the city gardens, which were filled with huge and strange trees and enormous and beautiful flowers. Then we turned back toward the city and spent some time walking through the streets, until it was clear that we had exhausted all of Queenstown, and seen all that there was to see. We returned to the hotel and packed up, and slept one last comfy night in a bed.

The rain did let up long enough for a brief roadside photoshoot on the way to Te Anau

Saturday morning, one week after leaving Ampangan Woh, we headed to the Queenstown airport. We had a quick flight to Auckland, then said goodbye as I went to catch my flight to Singapore and my family headed out for a last few days on the North Island. The flight back was easy, but long, and at 11 pm I finally reached the KL Headquarters, where I’d spend two nights before going back to the jungle on Monday morning. I’m excited to get back into the swing of things – although with the whole country on school vacation, I’m not sure exactly how the swing of things is going to go – for another month, before heading to Sri Lanka for the Christmas holiday!