Stop, photos, drive, stop,photos, drive,eat,drive.....

Hrm I think I'll skip the Kaikoura section. Making long story short, went and saw the dolphins in the Delphinidae boat, some swam with the dolphins and others just watched. Remy and I just watched and it was good. A pity I was feeling rather sea sick, as it was rather rough sea to get to the dusky dolphins. They are pretty cool close up...I slept most of the way back to the wharf.


So Hanmer Springs after Kaikoura, searched round for a place to stay, with thanks to Remy he found a place called Hanmer Backpacker. A very comfortable alpine style place, that was like your own home, and what backpacker doesn't give you FREE ICE CREAM!!??? Lol. Yes they owner gave out free ice cream, yes 10 different kinds of flavours too! That's the first. Our room was small but cosy.
The next day got up just before lunch time, ate Mi Goreng Noodles then headed to the Thermal Spa and Pools.
It was wonderful. Of course it was cool and the breeze was even colder, but it didn't matter, because the thermal pools were wonderful. Temperatures ranging from 35degrees celsius to 41degree celsius, hot but wonderful. Later we booked 30mins in a steam room then 30mins in a private pool. It was nice...then back in the 40degree pool. Great view of the moutains, tree tops and the sound of birds chrip and the lovely kiwi accent.
Afterwards, went and had the great ol' tucker of fish and chips @ a place called Captain Mike's Fish and Chips. The shop keeper was cool, because she gave us a pen and we wrote on the store's window, yes we vandalised the window, but don't worry because plenty more people did the same thing :).
Then back to our temporary place for free ice cream then sleep.

Left Hanmer Springs round 10am for our trip to Fox Glacier. Stopped over at Greymouth for lunch before embarking for more driving, stopping for photos, more driving, photos for the beautiful scenery of Arthur's Pass, more scenic road sides then finally at Fox Glacier. Cold but nice.

Next...Fox Glacier walkin.

Until then

Adios

V x

From Yestersday's Post

From yesterday (27 April 2010) Obviously didn't get up from the alarm, which was set at 930am; instead lazed round the bed til about 1045am, got ready before having a brunch at the What Restaurant downstairs. Again a NZ$12 brunch of *Fush end Chups* yes beloved fish and chips, which was really good! Instead of wondering round the town centre, we headed straight to our hired Toyota car on the way to Akaroa. About a 3hr drive from Christchurch. Driving up and down the paddocked landscapes, zig-zagging through more paddocks, past cows and of course sheeps. HA! Remy and I spotted some on the road; as we were approaching them, Remy honked the horn and boy oh boy can they run so fast! ZOOM! Zooming to the hill and then gwaking at us as if we were so rude to them.

Finally reaching Akaroa, it is a small habour-side town. It is a cute place and the places there reminds me of movie sets. English and French Settlement in the heydays (talking about 1800s!) and nowadays, Akaroa still has its French influence, from 'Rue Jolie'; the French Flag, buildings and the 'Boulangerie du village.' Had a delicious hot chocolate, while Remy had his cappuccino and a yummy caramel biscuit. Chatted for a while then off to another 2hour drive (someone tell me why its faster driving back than driving to the place?) back to Christchurch to our hotel.

Went back to our room then watched some TV (I was watching Angels and Demons, unfortunately didn't get to finish the whole movie..) before heading to the sauna, yes trying out the hotel amenities.Stayed and chatted for about 20mins before heading back upstairs for a shower then out to the town for dinner. HRM for dinner didn't know what to have so we wondered about saying ..."how about this? how about that?" And then later ended up having Chinese food. Then back to the Hotel So lobby for our fix of free wi-fi then back up to the room for sleep. -__-

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Travelling again

Hello my fellow friends,

Another up-date to my travelling bug er bug!?!?! Bahahaha. It should have been yesterday, but after all the travel, checking out the stuff in Christchurch, was too tired to blog about yesterdays events! So here it goes....

MONDAY 26th APRIL

..Off goes my Daft Punk alarm to 6:00am. I turn my head to the left and reach for my iPhone alarm, "right snooze" 9mins later Daft Punk's "harder, better, faster, stronger" goes back on, snooze, then repeat, then 6:30ish I go to Remy "aight get up and get ready" We get ready and get all our gear packed and finalised. Mum seems to be excited more than Remy and I, (guess its just because we're still tired). So off we all go, yes my whole family - Mum, Dad and Ray come with us to the Brisbane International Airport. Once we reached the 'departures' section, dropped our bags off, "Have a safe trip, enjoy (in between with hugs and kisses)" Remy and I go to the check-in section to well check -in our luggage as well as our flight stuff, then off to the custom/secturity section before having some breakfast of Red Rooster goodness.

9:40am is our flight to Christchurch, flying Pacific Blue. We get in and the cabin crew make a mickey of their names; when they are introducing themselves to us "So welcome to flight DJ80 and taking care of you are Sandy, Mandy and Candy...." Most of the trip I was catching up on snooze, awkwardly sleeping on the side, giving my left side a very good stretch! (ouch!) Woke up in between, listening to music, my frenchPod and then chomping some Burger Ring chips. Our flight was about 2hrs and 30mins, as we were 20mins early than the expected arrival time...not too bad.

Arrived in Christchurch Airport, yet again through customs to get my passport scanned (unfortunately not stamped :() and bags off the conveyor belt then back to security to check no food etc, (cause you know NZ is angst if bringing something that ain't legal!) so I just checked in my Chips! Yes my Doritos chips because I didnt want to dis 'em. Later Remy went to check out the car hires. Went to Budget but they wanted like $1000 something for hiring a car for 16 days so we went to the Britz section, Remy negotiated with the guy and got it for about $542NZ for 16days, so then got a free shuttle to the place where we go and hired a car. After that finally got our car, small/medium white car and with my Dad's trusty GPRS (Thanks Dad for lending it to us) we headed off to Christchurch city to our hotel - Hotel So. It's such a small and trendy hotel with free gym, sauna and of course Wi-Fi! So I recommend you all check out this hotel when staying in Christchurch; not a bad area, as its close to city centre.

After settling down in our hotel room, Remy and I ventured downstairs for Dinner, very cheap from 5pm its $NZ12 Dinner, it was cheap and had steak with chips and salad, YUM! Then we headed out to Oxford Tce and took some tourist photos before heading to another restaurant/bar to have a beer. A bummer I had a throbbing headache, I didn't get to finish having it (:() then after went to the 24hr store to buy some Neurofen (which funnily enough the Korean or Japanese Shop-keeper was suggesting to me 'it was very good to have') well er I'm a nurse lol but I just agreed with what she said. Then back to the hotel, watched a bit of tv before falling asleep. zzzzzzzz