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. -__-

*****************

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

WOW! First blog of the year!

A very belated HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Mind you, it's Janurary 28th...so quick it's going to be February and then again this year will go fast! Some exciting and boring bits have happened with me in the first month of 2010....

WORK
New graduate nurses are coming through the ward I work at....I welcome all of them who have joined our crew. It'd be a very busy year for all of them, yet I'm sure they'll enjoy their time. It's been such an overwhelming month so far at work. Won't say as its confidential, but just MUY LOCO!!!!! 3 days time it will be 4 years since I have worked! A few more digits before I get long service leave Hahaha!

TORTILLA de PATATAS

I have to give credit to my boyfriend Rémy as he made one for me on New Years Eve, since then I observed how he made it and then made my own. I have to admit the first time wasn't much of a success but still was good....so far I have made probably 5 tortillas. It's bloody addicting. Tortillas has potatoes and eggs as like an omellette but looks more like a frittata. Pretty easy to cook and tasty as well! Will make anyone of yous one..and I'm sure you'll be hooked with it.

FOLKS BACK FROM THEIR USA TRIP
So it's my brother Ray and my end of our 'little break from parents.' Our folks came back from their epic USA trip. From freezing temperatures to sweltering hot Brisbane weather. No matter how much fun Ray and I had while they were away, it was good to see them back. Yes Mum, it's back to reality...yet time to save more for another trip somewhere else.

UNIVERSITY
Funny story, sort of...anyway I got an OFFER letter from QUT for summer semester classes - pre-requiste for Psychology. Yes I (did) plan on studying psychology. So 'summer classes' started on January 18th, so here I go to uni, late though (class started at 930am, and I rock up @ Kelvin Grove campus at 1040am!) so I went to look for the class...it was another hot day and looking for the class was making me annoyed so I decided to go to the student service and ask about summer semester.

For some reason I just had this feeling I really wasn't enrolled. And indeed I was right..lol and I am such an idiot to go all the way to university; however driving back home I was having second thoughts of postgrad psychology. I guess it'd come in handy in my nursing, but then at the same time didn't want to spend more on HECS for it or moneywise....so I decided that I will learn a language. Spanish and French @ University of Queensland for a year. Since it was part of my resolution aim to become fluent or understand more of both languages by the end of the year.
So yes I have scrapped the Psychology part to do languages which I feel I am passionate about.

BLACK
Been to the beach with Rémy and his friends to Noosa; and the following weekend Rémy and I went to Byron Bay. It was a beautiful time but a pity we didn't swim much, because stupid bluebottles in the ocean and people got stung by them. Instead we just roasted under the sun, hence 'black' for me because I was friggen dark! Dark with bikini mark ha! Though we did have a bit of a dip in the water to cool off for a bit went straight back to our towels to sunbake

more....Later we went up to Byron Bay Lighthouse, seeing the beautiful view as well as being a photographer for Rémy =)

WHAT'S NEXT? more beach, work, dancing, tortillas and just chilling out with friends and family....and music festivals.....can't wait for that! Until then, Adios V x

The Last Day of December...Bring on 2010!

Hello everyone,

I have yet to continue typing about my November-December Trip in the USA! I haven't forgotten... Just been busy with the festive season with last-minute-shopping, celebrating Christmas at work, working and trying to sum up what my 2009 has been.

It has been a fabulous year. Apart from some slip ups it has been such an amazing year. Have met up with new and old friends and partied it up here and there. Two thousand and nine will be the year many have moved to new places, jobs, hair cuts, marriages, engagements, babies and vacations. The year will end in a huge bang (fireworks that is). I wait for what next year will hold for me.

Bring on 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year/ Bonne Annee/ Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Kisses/Bisous/Besos

V x

What's with Atlanta, Georgia Airport???

Early Wednesday morning, Uncle Sam and Lordgene took me to Jacksonville International Airport, my final good byes etc before departing to Los Angeles.....The plane was on time, driving through the tarmac, traffic and waiting for it's turn to fly off.....NOT....the pilot announced there was bad weather in Atlanta that we were on the Tarmac for 45mins..waiting for more announcements before we can jet off.

I panic inside...just quietly, however we finally set off....about an hour flight to Georgia and despite that there was a delay there, I obviously missed my 1135am flight to L.A. D'OH!

I had to go to the Delta Customer Service and the lady put me on Stand By. Now being on Stand by was rather frustrating and an anxious time, because you don't know if you can get on the next flight or not.

Inside my head I was like ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Felt like I was going to hyperventilate but no..I remained calm..while listening to Daddy Yankee, and my house/dance music...*breathe in....breathe out*........there relaxed.

It was close to boarding Delta 2058 so I had to keep looking at the screen making sure I was still on standby, what number and when I was on the 'cleared screen' to get onto the plan...I kept visualising myself getting on That plane....my luck I got on the Plane yay!

Got to LAX airport.....my oh my, my luggage got there first before me!

I heard similar story from my Mum, when she was here in the States in March...seriously what is wrong with Atlanta Airport???

On a good note...L.A I am here ^-^

Until then...

Adios

V x

Florida....the land of Food...no not really pt.2

(Continuing on...) And so I had a hangover, that I slept till 1030am. I woke up frm the smell of bacon and so I got up, and when I went to the kitchen to greet my Uncle Sam and Auntie Lani before I went to go and have a shower. Then all of us got up to get ready for the day. Uncle Sam cooked us a delicious breakfast of egg omellete and bacon. DELICIOUS!!!! Talk about restaurant style presentation and yes parsely for garnish!

After breakfast, Uncle Sam kindly showed me around the area where he and his family lives. He lives in an apartment resort with a gym, hot spa, pool, tennis court, small putt putt golf and a place to just go for your morning jog or walk. He has a nice small place which is good, because you really don't need to have an enormous place (even though Americans love everything HUGE!)

After our walk, we headed back home to get ready to head out to the Town Mall Square. First it was Wal-mart to get something (I can never get away from a WAL-MART!....) then headed to the Town Mall Square. It is like Santuary Cove place in the Gold Coast and big. So Uncle Sam and Auntie Lani let us go window shopping and shopping of course...and how I stumbled upon yet another Victoria Secrets (...another place I can never get away from!)

So we spent about 3hours or so then headed back to....Wal-mart..seriously I really can't deter away from that W store! Ha! Before heading back home where Uncle Sam cooked my favourite Filopino meal - Palabok...then enjoyed watching 30-Something with my cousins before heading to bed at 2am!

[Monday November 30th]

Got woken up by some piercing beeping alarm at 7am cause someone was cooking something to a point it hit the fire alarm! Geez!....I managed to get back to sleep, and then woke up at 10:30am again. The smell was amazing so I go to the kitchen to say hello to my Uncle, but he wasn't there, however spotted a rather large bamboo steamer! "Morning my Anak!" I hear from the bedroom.
Yet more food.....breakfast for BLT and Puto! Okay its also the Spanish slang for something but in the Philippines it is also a name of a snack (click on the word "puto" to find out) Its delicious made out of rice. Uncle has cooked another restaurant style sandwich!

In the middle is the Puto. I was full then after got ready to head to St. Augustine. The last time I was here was in 2002 with my family. This time its Uncle Sam and me. I love this place its old-fashioned, it's history and the little church there, which is one of America's oldest church. St. Augustine is about an hours drive from my Uncle's place. Between that took pictures at a beach on the way and then finally went to St. Augustine. The place has a European/Medditeranen feel to it, because the Spainsh came to this part of Florida. I love the way how its still has its old charms and the big fort at the front where there were I guess battles etc.....nice cathedrals and cute shopping alleys for us tourists and locals as well. I will definitely come back here again.

Headed back home were yet again had another wonderful snack of Uncle Sam's famous Hot Chicken Wings YUM and and good ol' Bud Light beer, which I beat my Uncle drinking. I drank 5 and 1/7th bottles..BORRACHA MUCH???? And happen to get on to Facebook..before I passed out on the bed at 130am.

[Tuesday Dec 1]

First day of winter in USA and 1st day of Summer in Australia! Thank you too everyone who greeted me via Facebook and text...made my day. So yes it was my 26th birthday...exaggerating that I'm getting older and need Botox..STAT! Kidding. Suprisingly I didn't get a hangover from the night before, which is good....and then yet again had more food of bacon, potato pieces and rice..Sarap! My cousin Lordgene 'wagged' school as we unoffically declared that today was a public holiday - Vivian Day! :P

Uncle Sam took us to his best friend's place to visit for a while, before heading to Jacksonville Downtown, saw the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium (friggen HUGE, however they Jaguars apparently weren't doing well this season or so I heard) and the Landing before having a lovely frappachino from Starbucks (it ain't Amercia if you don't have a Starbucks!) before heading to her sister's school to pick her up before heading back home....well not exactly home...one more stop to Wal-mart THEN home.

My final meal was Pork spare Ribs. YUMMMMMMMMMM! It was delicious of course. While having dinner their family friend Ronald came by to have dinner with us....
Ron - "Did you cook this?"
Uncle Sam - "Nah I brought it from TGI Fridays......[pauses]...."
Lordgene well all of us "nah he's kidding he cooked it"
Ron - "bull!"
Uncle Sam did cook the ribs, but since its like top quality and looks like something you've ordered from TGIFridays, Uncle did cook the ribs...if you tasted it..you wouldn't know the difference!

My trip to Florida was so full of yummy goodness and good memories....! Next and final stop is L.A...here I come!

Until then..

Adios

V x