Doreen's Endless Page 韻語: January 2009

Southland Otago road trip: Queenstown

It is my 3rd time in Queenstown, and this place has never failed to impress me in any season.

We are obviously not those adventurous bunch, so no bungy jumping, sky diving for us. We just strolled around town. Later, we hopped onto the Gondola for our dinner at the restaurant over looking the ever beautiful Queenstown.

In the cable car

See that big plate of food? Muahahaha

Trying to be a kiwi

Here is the video clip

Labels: food/drinks, leisure, New Zealand road trip, travel/adventure

Southland Otago road trip: Wanaka-Lake Hawea-Clyde-Cromwell-Queenstown

Click image for enlarged version

Leaving early morning, driving from Wanaka to Queenstown. Pies for quick brekkie.

with a detour to Lake Hawea,

then stopping over at Clyde to admire the hydro dam.....

Clyde little township

Scrumptious lunch at Cromwell

A stroll along Arrowtown, former gold mining town about 20 mins drive from Queenstown. The town is still well preserved with beautiful character buildings along the main street. You can still enjoy the fun of gold panning here, and who knows you might just get lucky! I would have gone for it if I had some spare time to kill.

Arrowtown

and reaching Queenstown at around 2pm. More about Queenstown next.

Meanwhile, here is a video clip from Clyde to Arrowtown. Enjoy!

Labels: food/drinks, leisure, New Zealand road trip, travel/adventure

Southland Otago road trip: Dunedin-Alexandra-Wanaka

UPDATE: more pics

Arrived into Dunedin at around 4pm, picked up the rental car and off we go.

Our first destination was Wanaka, famous for it's beautiful lake front scenery. A 43-km lake blessed with picturesque alpine panorama. It has been ranked in the top 10 of the world's most romantic getaway destinations (Published by Life Books, Dream Destinations: 100 of the World's Best Vacations).

I've been there once long time ago during autumn and it was stunningly charming. We were however, not very impressed this time round. The lake looked pretty ordinary and dull. Summer is obviously not the right time to visit Wanaka I suppose. The lake is only at it's best in autumn. To make matter worst, the time constraint we had is not at all helping in photo taking. We hope to make another visit this autumn if time permitted.

Saw these hay drums on the way......

A "pee" stop

We had a wee stop at Alexandra

Historic bridge

Alexandra township. This is it, pretty small isn't it?

But they have clock on the hill!

We arrived Wanaka in the late afternoon.

We were out till dusk (9.30pm) and could only have a subway takeaway for dinner. The lady was real nice to let us in. We were their last customers of the day! (^_~)V

Another attraction of Wanaka, Puzzle World which offers many fun illusion designs that will certainly amaze you. We didn't go in this time as been there done that previously.

Labels: leisure, New Zealand road trip, Photoshots, travel/adventure

Back from a road trip

Just came back from a 5 days 4 nights Southland Otago road trip. We (actually Rick was driving all the time lah) drove a total of 1050 kms.

Click image to enlarge

Details and pictures coming out soon!

Another road trip again this weekend.

Labels: New Zealand road trip, travel/adventure

Lost and found

I lost my earring. (-_-) One of my favourite. I even have a matching ring.

I looked, and looked in every corner at home....nothing found. (-_-)

Very depressed. It was the last pair in the shop when I chanced upon them.

The one left looks so lonely without the other half. Really sad.........both the earring and I (T_T)

This morning, I got to my office and found an earring stud sitting on my desk, between the phone and keyboard. (^_^)

I was excited and hopeful again. I looked around the floor, the kitchen and ladies room. To my disappointment, nothing found (again!). (-_-)

Very depressed (yet again!) (-_-)(-_-)

I told myself to let it go and moved on. So I did. I carried on working like a mad dog. (@_@)

Hours later, I reached to my IN tray, lo and behold, (0_0) the beautiful purple rose was staring right at me! \(^O^)/

My eyes sparkled like never before (*_*)! Poor thing has been stuck there for one whole night. I can't explain how it got there. Sometimes, strange thing happens for no reason.

After a night of separation, they are now happily reunited. (^_^)

Labels: notepad

Object of affection

Hydrangea, freshly picked from my garden.........

Labels: Photoshots

I am bored

Rick was asked to be one of the examiners to a PHD student, someone who has done a research in the same area as what Rick completed before. Fair enough.

He is now busy marking a giant monstrous thesis in his office. He said he really needs to concentrate as there is a due date to work towards to and he needs to get his head around what he did long long time ago so cannot stay at home loh. I am such a distraction to him. Let’s put it a nicer way lah, he cannot concentrate when I’m around. So it’s not my problem, his problem loh. Muahahahaha

I am so bored. No one to talk to, no one to play. SOOOOOOO BORED can die! I just can’t stand not talking.

May be I should go dig out all the charcoals and wash them till they're sparkling white. Muahahahahahha.

Bored till siao already....

Labels: notepad

2008 & 2009

No, I don't really like to set any resolution for the new year all because if I don't manage to achieve them I know I will be kicking myself hard in the butt. I would prefer to just let things go with the flow. If I end up achieving something, then it is a bonus, if not, I wouldn't feel too bad either.

So what have I completed in 2008?
1. New job in a complete new field for me
2. Trip back to Malaysia
3. Trip to Taiwan
4. Trip to Gold Coast
5. Ski trip at Mount Ruapehu
6. Wireless internet (finally!)
7. Sold quite a few 2nd-hand clothes and bits n pieces

I think that's all I could think of. Not bad lah I think especially on the travel achievement. Hahaha.

I hope to get a few more travelling this year. For a start, I have 3 road trips coming up. Two this month, around the beautiful south island. One in Feb touring the central north island. Emmm……where should I go next?

Labels: notepad

Lavender Creek revisit

Back dated post: 29/12/2008

2nd time! We were there a year ago, and we made another trip up this time not just to indulge in the beautiful sea or purple and taking picture, but also to get some lavenders for our garden.

The farm has since undergone some facelift. They've put made a nice garden with a beautiful gazebo! A perfect setting for a romantic wedding!

The new gazebo

Sea of purple

I love lavender. I love the sense, the colour and the look. Lavender relaxes me. We have about 30 lavender plants on our front yard, planted a good 2 years ago. They are Stoechas Major which is one of the species you could easily find in those garden shops in town. After our first trip to the lavender farm a year ago, we fall in love with those that have long stem, tiny leaves and beautiful purple flowers at the top of leafless stems. Simply elegant!

Stoechas Major in our garden

Lavender Creek sells at least 5 different species at a very reasonable price. After talking to the people there, we decided on Pacific Blue, which is also the species they planted in one of their farms. We snap up all four plants they've got left.

Pacific blue we bought

They look kinda hideous I know. They're still very very young. In a year or two, they will blossom into gorgeous lavender just like this:

Pacific Blue

Arhhhh~~~~~how beautiful.........

Labels: leisure, Photoshots

Dinner at Whitby

I mentioned I love buffet. I love the variety of food and most importantly I can eat freely without worrying about the bill. All I need to worry about is how much to put on my plate, what to try, when to stop. Muahahahahaha

Here is our big feast today, buffet at Whitby restaurant! Definitely the best way to kick start the year of 2009!

Believe it! All these are in my stomach right now....I feel so stuffed!

Rick's main target was prawnsssssssssssssssssssssss

My choice of desserts

What I wore today

You have no idea how full I am right now. Gosh, definitely going to have simple rice+vege dinner for the whole of next week!

Labels: food/drinks

Pencarrow lighthouse

We visited Pencarrow lighthouse last Saturday. It is one of our to-dos in this Christmas/New year break. Pencarrow lighthouse is the very first lighthouse in New Zealand opened in 1859. The keeper was Mary Jane Bennett, the only woman lighthouse keeper in the country. There are actually two lighthouses in the area. The 2nd one was built in 1906, which is halfway down the hillside. The building of the 2nd lighthouse was due to the heavy fog that sometimes hid the beam from the old lighthouse.

Anyway, the both lighthouses is about 8km coastal walk from the gate. We initially thought it was an easy 1 hour walk, but we were proved to be too optimistic. We ended up taking 1 hour and 45 mins ONE WAY! (O_O)!!

Arhh.......finally can see it!

So a total 3.5 hours walk return for a view like this.....you say worth it or not?

Reading the history of the lighthouse

Almost there.....

Then, here comes my million dollar sandwich dinner....

Muahahahaha, my humble homemade sandwich with the MILLION DOLLAR view!

I knew my stomach wouldn't be able to wait after a long walk, so decided to have our dinner there. The wind was soooooo strong that we had to hide in the corner under the light house.

After dinner, we took some time to enjoy the spectacular view......

Eee...why are there two horns on my head? My hands lah! Muahahaha. Notice the meeh meeh in the background....so cute right?