Huynher's Adventure: Green Rolling Hills

Right now, we are sitting in a double decker bus at the Malaysia and Singapore border, waiting for a few more people to clear customs before we embark on our 4 hour journey to Kuala Lumpur (KL). So I figure I would catch up on my writing and tell you a bit of our adventure in New Zealand.

One of the things that immediately struck us as we arrived in New Zealand was how remarkably familiar it seemed. Due to our time and cost constraints, we only visited the North Island of New Zealand. The scenery of the North Island was strikingly similar to Vancouver. If it wasn’t for the occasional palm tree or giant ferns popping out in front of you, you could be forgiven for thinking that after traveling half way around the world, you had arrived in the western side of Canada. With its mountains, clear blue sky, and greenery everywhere, it was much like Canada. The only striking difference was the enormous amount of green rolling hills with sheep everywhere. From far, it looked like white fluffy flowers growing on the green hills.

We arrived in Auckland and took a 2.5 hour bus ride out to a stinky town called Rotorua. We have been warned from travelers that Rotorua was a stinky town, however, when we arrived, we didn’t think it was too stinky. We thought Banff was a lot stinkier. But why is Rotorua so stinky? Well, because it is the site of substantial volcanic activity – bubbling mud pools and steaming geysers, all of which creates a pungent stench of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide). Despite the stink, Rotorua is still New Zealand’s #1 tourist attraction.

The Artists' Palette - a mixture of different minerals mixed together to create the different colours.

The Lady Geyser that shoots up when soap is poured into the volcano hole.

A bubbling mud pool

When we heard of bubbling mud pools, we instantly wanted to indulge in a real mud bath. So we headed out to a cheerful place called “Hell’s Gate”. It is here that is the hottest point on earth, hence its name. It is the closest to the Earth’s Core. We must admit, it STANK a lot here. There were a few points on the walking trail where it stank so much, that you couldn’t even breathe and stop to take a photo. So like two hippos, we wallowed in the mud before rinsing off with ICE cold water and then dipping in the hot spa until we wrinkled like prunes. They say that one should only bathe in the mud pool for no more than 20 minutes to allow the pores to open up. Then you must rinse off with ice cold water to close up the pores and then relax in the spa. I have to say, I never would have imagined bathing in mud would get you feeling so clean with such baby smooth skin. (Too bad it only lasts for a few days). Perhaps hippos are onto something.

Soaking in the Spa!

From Rotorua, we joined a one day tour out to Hobbiton town. This is where the Lord of the Rings movie was shot. When Peter Jackson was looking for a location to shoot the movie, he needed to find a place that had a very large tree with a lake beside it. He flew around New Zealand, spotted a sheep and cattle farm that had what he wanted. He knocked on the door of the farm and said that he wanted to use their farm to shoot the movie. The farmer of course, didn’t know who Peter Jackson was and even asked him to come back in 2 hours because he was watching a cricket game. Now, the farmer is retired with a huge tourist business that has been running for over 2 years. Not bad! We really enjoyed this tour because it goes into detail of how the movie was shot and the extent of money that was spent on producing this movie. Here in the pictures you can see the few remaining hobbit holes, and the strings on the tree from the party scene in the first movie of the LOTR. Guess what this was? (Hint, it was found everywhere on the farm. Answer at the bottom)

Do you see the party strings on the tree?!

The remaining 17 hobbit holes

The tree with the lake

My Favourite sheep on the farm. Meet Snowy!

We decided to bus it back to Auckland from Rotorua with a stop at Waitomo. Waitomo was a small town outside of Rotorua that had caves which were full of an array of stalactites and stalagmites, with millions of glowworms. Being in a pitch black cave full of glowworms, it was a fascinating sight because they light up the ceiling of the caves like the Milky Way of tiny blue lights. Too bad they are sensitive to bright light and couldn’t take any pictures of it. Can you believe glowworms are just maggots?!

After a sleepy 3 hour bus ride, we finally arrived in the City of Sails – Auckland. It was amazing. It was so beautiful with its harbour, the sailboats sailing across the water, and the mix of old and new buildings. The air was clean and crisp. We definitely were able to picture ourselves living here. Imagine, jogging by the harbour every morning, watching the sunset on your own sailboat, or going out fishing on the weekends. Too bad, Auckland just doesn’t have too much job opportunities there. The total population in New Zealand is 4 million and 1.3 million lives in Auckland. Most of the New Zealanders leave Auckland and migrate to Australia for better job opportunities. I know this because most of the people that I have worked with at Shell when I was in Melbourne came from Auckland and told me how they lived there for a few years and had to leave for better jobs. The city was just lively by day and night. There are two dormant volcanoes that we climbed up on to get a better view of the city. Breathtaking!!!

One of the dormant volcano in Auckland - Mount Eden

Sunset by the harbour in Auckland

Ok while walking on Queen street in Auckland, we found this huge hawker place. Various food stalls selling a variety of Thai, Indian, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisines. As we sat in the food court, we realized that in Asia, we would mainly be eating at hawker stands like this. It was practice for our stomachs. (Just to let you know that while eating at a hawker place in Singapore, and there are hawker stands at every corner in Singapore, I found a fly in my bowl of soup..yummy) Can’t expect quality clean food for cheap prices. And when I say its cheap, its dirt cheap.

Hawker place in Auckland

Me choosing which hawker stand to eat from in Singapore

The dinner you see in the picture above, was for only $5 SGD. Sweet!!!

Well we spent Chinese New Year in Singapore and it was amazing. There were fireworks, fire crackers, red lanterns and millions of people all walking along the streets buying flowers, candies, and food. There was not one street that was empty. At one point, it got so crowded, I think I stood in one spot for 5 minutes, before we could move forward again. Colours of red and gold were everywhere. The noise of people and music was just overwhelming. We even saw people standing on ladders using megaphones selling whatever they were selling. We saw vendors selling ointments of all kind that can cure all. For example, there was this one guy that was selling this ointment that can cure headaches, arthritis, back and shoulder pain, and migraines. And guess what, people go for it. He almost sold out on his ointment. Haa haaa!!!
And I can never forget, the smell of Durian. It was everywhere. Trust me, if you don’t like the smell of durian, like me, it takes a bit of time to getting use to. But, hey the Singaporeans here LOVE it.

Well battery on laptop is running out soon, so going to sign off now and write more on SP and KL later…..More to come!!!! At this point of our trip, we are totally enjoying it a lot more than our first part. I think its mainly because being Asian, we don’t feel so out of place. On our first part of the trip, we always felt like “who does not belong?”