Day 1: Te Puke-> Gisborne-> Napier

Such a long time I never update my blog. I’m not missing during this period but I travelled from North Island to South Island. After 3 months hard work in Kiwi packhouse, finally we able to collect some money for our trip. So, the following blogs are all about my 14 days trip.

Day 1, Te Puke -> Gisborne -> Napier

Finally we left Te Puke, the small town that we stayed for 4 months. This little town gave us a lot of wonderful memories. We had our first job here, we have our first kiwi friend here (Yes, Garth, I'm talking about you!) and also our first home stay in New Zealand. Every story has their start and end, an ending for life in Te Puke and now we start new chapter of life - South Island trip.

During our first day, there were not much interesting story  because we were having 8 hours driving throughout the day. Driving definitely was hectic but we were lucky enough because there were 5 of us and we could take turn to drive.

The road from Gisborne to Napier was real tough as it surrounded the hill turn here and there for a long distance. However, there were some nice view along the way.

We went Tolaga Bay for photo taking. I should post some photos regarding this Tolaga Bay but I found that I lost them!!!! *sob sob* Anyway, it is a nice place to go.

The photos below was taken in Napier on the next morning. There is a nice beach behind the i site.

 I know it is kind of weird to wear like this and stand at the beach side. No choice, cause the weather still cold.

Lovely beach.

After that, we followed the guide in Lonely planet and had our historical walk around the town.

We found that the street was well decorated. 

So nice

The picture indicated four seasons in New Zealand.

I like what it stated for Winter. During winter time, it was really hard to get your clothes dry. Sometimes we hang there for few days yet they were still wet like taken out from washing machine. At last, we hanged our clothes near the fire place in living room. Whole house was full with clothes!! Feel sorry for my house owner. :P

That's my Day 1 trip. More interesting stories behind

Accomodation : Criterion Art Backpacker

Cost: $20/ person

Description: A good place to stay as the building itself was a historical building. It just doesn't look like a backpacker before you step in your dorm. Free breakfast is included

Day 2 Napier-> Hasting-> Wellington

Day 2

After the morning walk around the town, we went to Classic sheep Skin to see the process of the sheep skin. Free tour was held everyday on 11am. The assistant of the shop was good because she still brief us the process even though we were the only people joining the tour. 

After Napier, it’s time to move again, and now we reached Hasting. We went to the famous Te Mata Peak. 

It’s a place to have the panorama view of Hasting. The view up there is beautiful. 

A must place to go in Hasting After some photo sesson, we moved to wellington. Finally, we arrived the capital of the country. Of course, when we reached there it was almost night time. 

Accomodation: Down Town Backpacker

Cost: $24/person

Description: A typical backpacker hostel in city. Nothing special. But location is just in the town area.

Day 3 Wellington ->Picton -> Nelson

Wellington is a windy town. I was just able to spend a night and also one whole morning in Wellington because we need to take ferry on 12.00pm. Since we had limited time, we choose the most significant place to go - the Te Papa Museum which was highly recommended by most of the travel guide.

The entry is free and it consists a lot of information in the Museum. Almost all important information was available inside including history, the tumbuhan and fauna, the culture in New Zealand and etc. But, the only essential item that we lack of was time. The time we had was too limited and we can’t really digest all the information published in Museum. It was such a wastage that we can't spend more time in it. If you come to Te Papa Museum, please allocate one whole day for this and I'm sure it is worth to spend your time in.

Finally, we took ferry to South Island, from Wellington to Picton. Yeah our REAL south island trip gonna started There were two different companies of ferry and we chose Blue Bridge because it is cheaper. 

After our car parked in the designated area of the ferry, we took all our food into the ferry. 

Yeah, for those of you taking ferry with your car, remember to prepare your food and take it together with you! Once the ferry departs, you can’t go back to your car and take your food anymore. Of course, you may choose to buy it in the ferry. Small little tip, if you stayed in X base, remember to take the voucher inside the booklet and you can get a cup of free coffee in ferry. :P

The view Along the ferry. 

The wind was so strong on the ferry that day. It was really hard for us to stand at the platform for a longer time as it was freezing out there.

Some people said we might able to see dolphin while the ferry travelling. Sadly I can't even see a single of them but my friend was lucky enough to see three after she wait for more than 1 hour. I know, I was not determined enough to wait for the dolphin just because I do not want to turn myself into ice cube.

The ferry took us around 3 hours to arrive at Picton. After we reached South Island, we straight away go to Nelson, our first station in South Island.

Accomodation: Tasman Bay Backpacker

Cost: $22/person

Description: Free hot chocolate pudding with ice cream every night, Free wifi, Free bike Lovely backpacker, clean and comfortable Like it

Day 4 Nelson-> Blenheim-> Kaikoura

Nelson is a lovely place and it is the most sunniest place in New Zealand. We purposely drove to Nelson simply because our house owner highly recommended this is a must place to go. We just have one whole morning in Nelson and we just choose to walk around the city, to go to the famous Christchurch Catheral and also the Queen’s Garden.

Here is the town area of Nelson. This place is quite beautiful as it has its own unique compared to other cities.

After that, we went for the Christchurch Cathedral,  Due to this cathedral, Nelson is the second town in New Zealand to be granted as city.

The inner of the church.

The glass window.

Queen’s Garden. I suppose this is a pretty garden. But, I think winter was not really a good time to walk in a garden. The garden only left sticks and a few leaves. That’s all.

After Nelson, we went to Blenheim, the city for wine. There was nothing much in Blenheim except heaps of vineyard (Of course at the moment we went there, it just left sticks, so it should be stickyard). 

We went around a few vineyard and do some wine testing. Some of the vineyard provide free wine testing and some just cost you about $5 for that. Marlborough region (Blenheim fall in this region) is famous with Sauvignon Blanc. Of course, they produce Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling as well. This is the first time I tried Sauvignon Blanc and it tasted like gassy wine for me. I’m not really good in tasting the wine but the taste is still acceptable for me. Among the few vineyard that we went, I like ‘Framingham’ the most. I like the Sauvignon Blanc here and also the classic Riesling.

Lastly, we stopped at Kaikoura to overnight.

Accomodation: Fish Tank Lodge

Cost: $25/person

Description: Non BBH but is a lovely place. Whole hostel is well decorated with marine life painting on the ceiling and wall. The place is clean and comfortable. Snow mountain and pacific ocean is just right in front of the hostel. Highly recommended for this place. Oh ya, there are free tea and coffee.

Day 5 Kaikoura Part I

Kaikoura, in Maori word, ‘Kai’ means eat and ‘Koura’ means crayfish. The name itself showed how famous the crayfish is. Crayfish, or called as ‘rock lobster’ is a must food to eat in Kaikoura. In order to taste the local fresh crayfish, we rushed to the shop ‘cods & crayfish’ at the moment we reached Kaikoura yesterday which was recommended by the receptionist of the hostel

Here was the fresh cray fish. 

 Yes, they just cooked it by using boiling water, that’s all. No added ingredient for it so that we can taste on the original fresh crayfish. This crayfish is just cost around $65 (of course we share it among four of us).

The shop assistance just wrap it with a paper like nasi lemak and we took this little creature to the seaside. The taste is enak and delight simply because the crayfish is fresh! You must try this if u come to Kaikoura or else don’t ever tell others you have been here!!

After the long long story for the crayfish, we actually went for whale watch for the whole morning. This was definitely an interesting trip. Before we went for this whale watching, I imagined that the boat will take us out the sea and we should able to watch a group of whale. Then, after all the photo sessions and we’ll return to the land. However, the fact do not happen same like what I think. There was a briefing session before the tour and we was told that we will able to see ONE whale for the whole trip. What? ONE???? I expect to see a group? Why only one? They even told us that if we able to see more than one and it was considered a bonus. At that moment, I felt disappointed because ONE whale cost me $145. So we just proceed to our tour and here we departed to the sea.

The boat that took us for the whale watching.

The teeth for the whale!!! Big?

After the boat departed, except for the crew that doing explanation for the guest, the rest of the crew were busy prepare to chase for the whale. Yes, CHASE!! I never expect that the boat actually need to chase the whale! They use microphone to detect the location of the whale and they actually run after the whale. They drove the boat here and there and when the whale was nearby they stopped the boat and informed us to go up to the platform and prepare our camera. Everyone rushed out to get the best view of the whale BUT the crew told us that the whale did not swim up to the surface and everyone have to got back to their seat. This happened few times and all of us felt so tension because we scare we can’t see the whale!!! All the crews were so busy detecting the whale and contact with other crews in other boat. All of this hard work makes me felt that it’s actually worth to pay the money. I never think that so much work need to be done in order to see the whale. Of course, luck is always at our side. We able to see the whale, not one, not two, but we saw THREE whales. Yeah We got two bonus

The sperm whale!!

The whale was a bit ugly as it had a square head. Hmm, I must get a chance to see blue whale.

The scene that we always watched in cartoon.

The photo that I like the most!! Good shot! :P

Oh ya, there were complimentary coffee, tea chocolate and some cookies on the boat. You can enjoyed it while the crews chasing the whale. Of course, remember to bring your lunch up the boat.

Stay tune for part 2 Kaikoura. There are too much stories to tell for this little town

Coffee that we had in Whale Watch Kaikoura Cafe.

Day 5 Kaikoura Part Ii -> Christchurch

There were always a lot of nice view while driving in New Zealand. 'Wao, What a beautiful scenery' This kind of compliment became a norm throughout the trip. But during our way to Kaikoura, one of my friend said 'I saw a fur seal on the road side!!' Huh?? Fur Seal on road side? Ridiculous!! How can a fur seal just lying on the road side? My friend of mine who was driving start complaining and she said that she wanted to have a look on fur seal as well. At that time, we saw a lookout point just right in front of us and we drove our car there.

 At the moment we walked in the lookout point, we knew we reached 'Ohau Point Seal Colony'. We accidentally walked in a seal colony!!

 There was a platform for us to stand and viewed the fur seal playing at the shore.

 I always like the way how kiwis set up the tourism attraction places. Here is a very good example, they found the fur seal colony and they set up a sign board, a proper platform so that tourists can come forward and have a look. They even set up an information board so that tourists can know more about fur seal.

So, if you are travelling to Kaikoura, when you are able to reach, pay attention to the left hand side, there is a sign board written 'Ohau Point' and u may just grab a chance to look at teh seal colony for FREE

In Kaikoura, there was another place for fur seal viewing, that was Keen Point Car Park. Car Park? Yes! The cute fur seal came and conquered the car park after it was built. 

There are slight differences between two attraction points. Of course, there are more fur seals at Ohau Point compared here. But you can just see the fur seal from far at Ohau Point but over here, the fur seals just lie on the road a few meters away.

Be careful of the fur seal! Don't ever think that they are harmless, fat and hard to move. If you stand too near to them or you have some sudden movement in front of them, they might thought you want to attack them and they will attack you! Never doubt of this. My friend of mine tried to stand near to one of the fur seal to take a photo, but the seal suddenly roared at her!! It was really scary.

After the photo session, of course, it was time for us to proceed to the next destination again - Christchurch. This night we stayed in Christchurch.

Accomodation: Kiwi House

Cost: $25/person

Description: The room of the hostel is too small, we were arranged in a room for 6 but you can hardly move around even there are shelf for you to put your luggage. The duvet is surprisingly heavy and I can hardly breath if I cover it. Honestly I don’t like this hostel but we book it because other hostels are fully booked/ expensive.