NZ Part 7 : Windy Welly & the InterIslander

Kata Kaia, we must get to Wellington early and go to Mount Victoria. Mount Victoria is where you can see the 360deg view of Wellington.

The road from Rotorua to Wellington is far. Memang jauh. But like everywhere else is NZ, sangat cantik. The state highway is rather quiet with few cars in between. Saya agak orang NZ terbang whenever they need to get to anywhere.

We got to Wellington rather late, with the last rays of the sun. Wellington looked lovely with houses on the hills facing the sea. In fact it was rainy in Wellington.

Dan kami terus ke Mount Victoria. And it was very windy too. The city wouldnt be called Windy Welly for nothing I suppose. And the view is really something. One you would you find in a magazine.

Nama je mount, tapi it is a very steep hill with small winding road and tight corners. The road hugged the edge of the hill (tanpa ada guard rail). Pretty houses sit on all space available on the hill. Saya agak sebab the view is outrageously cool.

My heart literally sank when we made our way down. Jalan teramat sempit dan curam. And here we are in a big vehicle like ours. Saya agak jalan sesuai untuk ala2 kereta cooper saja. Not even for a saloon. Let alone a 7m campervan!

Saya pesan pada Kaia, jangan buat mama takut macamni lagi. He laughed (budak muda).

We spent the night at the DOC's Evans Bay Marina camp site (read that as free! It only has toilet, dump station and fresh water) which is close to the Interislander ferry terminal. We didnt want to miss our ferry schedule (and please read that as because the ferry fare cost the earth! It goes by the length of your vehicle..)

Gelap lagi kami dah queue for the ferry. Things were efficient, but we waited for quite a while sebab banyak kereta (tengoklah ferry pun besar mana..)

It was a big ship. Ada movie theater, restaurants, gift shops, a place for children to play, tempat duduk bagai2, rooms if you prefer to sleep, etc etc. Anything and everything to make your 3-hour journey comfortable.

And before we knew it we were already in South Island, leaving the North and Cook Strait behind.


(ps - This travelogue is more taxing than I originally thought!)

~ xoxo

NZ Part 6 : Waitomo and Rotorua

We were not visiting Waitomo originally. That's is why if you look at the route it is like kami berpatah balik dari Matamata/Hobbiton. Memang pun. But our Methven/Christchurch plans changed so we had an extra day to spend in the North Island. Luqman said we must visit the glow worms and so we did.

We spent the night at the Top 10 Holiday Park in Waitomo Village (after the lonely lake the previous night I said we must try staying at a paid camping site). This holiday park can be found in most towns in NZ. So our plan throughout the journey was, if we fail to find any other camping sites we will look for this one!

 It is a full facilities camping site which means they have shower, toilet, kitchen, laundry and dump stations plus fresh water for re-fills. In fact this place has even got a swimming pool, a bbq area, trampoline, picnic tables dan entah apa lagi. Orang pun ramai jadi saya yang penakut ni tak lah ketakutan! It was a good place to stay. If you feel like sleeping in a chalet instead of the camper you can do that also here.

 We were given a very nice parking spot on the grass with a picnic table under the trees.

Dan kami berlakon duduk di atas (most comfy) camping chairs that come with the camper (memang tak pandai berlakon..)

Morning and breakfast. Terkejut mat salleh tengok Kaia pergi bilik air dengan kain pelikat. Home made; oops - campervan made pancakes for breakfast. With maple syrup, butter and manukka honey (of course). Kopi O Hang Tuah (!) dan milo.

The glow worm cave is like 10 minutes away from our camp site.

You have to ride on a boat in the dark cave to look at the glow worms (kalau ada lampu macamana pulak nak glow kan..)

You cant take any photos in the cave. Light is said to damage the worms (so you have to trust me that it looks like this in the cave. I pasted this from the internet.. haha).

I cant say if I enjoyed the glow worms cave tour; but it is definitely something different. It was beautiful on the cave ceiling sebenarnye; almost like you are looking at the stars in the skies on a very dark night. I think my excitement was deflated when Kaia said, ma I think they planted tiny lampu on the cave ceiling.. hmfhp..

We went to Rororua next. It is the place to learn the Maori culture. Travelling to Rotorua is wonderful. On-the-road scenery terlalu cantik. Wide blue skies. Long straight roads with very few cars and beautiful farms and green hills on both sides (dan saya teringat lagu Rotorua from the 70s).

Namun Rotorua tak dapat menambat hati saya. Maybe we were in a big rush and didnt take time to explore the place (saya rasa memang ini sebabnya dan dah memang plan di Rotorua nak tengok geyser saja and nothing else).

And you definitely cant miss the sulphur smell in Rotorua. We visited Te Puai, one of the more popular geysers.

Our tour guide was Darren, a Maori. He was super nice and told much of the Maori culture. He also did the face that Maoris do when they finish the haka (with bulging eyes dan lidah terjelir). Budak2 ni gelak sampai nak tersembur..  Unfortunately the Maori culture show in the evenings agak2 terlalu mahal and they serve dinner. So we skip that. It would have been nice if we can watch it.  

We spent the night at a camp site by the Lake Rotorua (di NZ ni lepas satu, satu, terjumpa lake. And they are all beautiful).

Rotorua Lake at dusk.

Our campsite for the night. Old. But still nice all the same. The sunset was beautiful. So was the night sky. We saw more stars here than in other skies.





~ xoxo

NZ Part 5 : Enchanting Hobbiton

On this post I think I will let the photos do the talking.

Hobbiton cost NZ$75 per person. Kali lah. Kata hubs dan Kaia, kami tak nak masuk (hubs thought it is going to be boring and Kaia said his friend said it is lemau). I said ok, but the tour is going to be 3 hours or so. So you have to wait that long. Lamanya kata hubs. In the end, they both decided to join us on the tour. Kata hubs later, nasib baik masuk juga. Amat cantik.

I cant say this often enough, I think. Mesti visit Hobbiton kalau dah sampai Auckland. Tak boleh tidak.

We booked our tickets on-line. You can change your tour schedule up to 2 hours before it starts. All info are available on their website.  You park your car and wait for the bus at the Shire's Rest (that's the main entrance). The bus will take you into the farm and Hobbiton. You cant drive yourself in.

The bus driver was very entertaining, telling a lot of details about the farm and how it was chosen for the movie.

The road to Hobbiton berbukit. Beralun cantik. Beautiful hills with green grass. You will see many sheeps on the farm. Sheeps pun cantik. Tak ada yang tak cantik. Itu yang hairan tu.

I call this the grand view of Hobbiton. Saya kata, macam scenery dalam teletubbies (sebab Sara suka teletubbies so we've been watching a lot of that). The colors seem to pop out of the photo. Atau mungkin dalam cerita kartun..

She is Grace. She was our guide and knows every little thing about hobbits, Hobbiton and The Ring Trilogy.

She said, give me a show of hands. How many have seen the trilogy. How many have seen The Hobbits. And how many have read the books. How many not done any of the above. Ada juga makcik-pakcik yang berumur angkat tangan to the last question. Kata Grace, selalunya orang macam ni datang sebab want to make the people at home jealous. haha (nasib baik saya made a point to watch War of The Five Armies and prequels of that; kalau tak kena own up to the last q).

All you do is walk, walk and walk at Hobbiton. And take (lots of) pretty photos. 

Isnt this gorgeous? This is almost like a fair ground.

And we pose and take (even more) pictures.

Fyi, make sure you walk close behind your guide during the tour. Otherwise you might not hear what she has to say.

And some more photos.

Sampai last, semua orang pun dah letih posing gambar untuk saya..


And this is the Green Dragon pub where the tour officially ends. You will be served with the drink of your choice here. We chose the non-alcoholic ginger beer (that was the only non-alcoholic drink served in fact). And fyi, we were informed the ginger-beer is specially brewed for Hobbiton and it is the best in NZ (katanya). We bought a bottle and then bought some other brand of ginger beer at the supermarket to compare. And yes, the one bought at Hobbiton tasted so much better..

Our last view of Hobbiton as we walked to the bus (I love how everything is reflected on the water).

As Grace said goodbye to us on the bus, she told us this was officially the first tour that she conducted on her own. She said I hope you have enjoyed it and thank you for making it easy for me. Awww. Everyone on the bus clapped for her. She was really sweet.

A mighty lone bull on top of a hill at Hobbiton.

Hobbiton is one of the places we visited that I was eager to write about. It was seriously wonderful.

Kata seorang kenalan, dia bukan peminat hobbit jadi dia tak visit Hobbiton. I think that is a mistake. Kena pergi sebab tempat itu terlalu cantik. Saya agak mungkin juga ikon untuk NZ.

We visited Matamata town center for a bit. It is a small and quaint place. I asked hubs, can we move here you think..?

We were in Rotorua next.





~ xoxo

NZ Part 4 : The North Island

This is our NZ trip route. On a whim I decided to chart this out..

Sangat letih buat route ni (there are moments I thought why do I bother. Tapi dah start, jadi I forged ahead). I could have been more productive elsewhere (sigh).

Nevertheless. You may want to use this route if you are going to NZ.. (walaupun saya agak 2 minggu agak cram. 3 weeks would be better for this I think. Lebih santai. And more time to explore). Depends on what you want to see and do actually.


In total we travelled more than 3,300km in two weeks. Fyi driving from JB to Arau is about 810 km. Hmm, tak jauh sangat pulak our NZ journey when putting it that way.

Apa2 pun tetap letih memandu (not that I drove that much) dan travel.

Namun tetap awesome. No question about this.

Semua orang kata tak ada apa sangat di North Island compared to the South. Sebenarnya cantik. I think the farms are more scenic than the south. Of course there are hundreds of miles of farms. And I am sure the beaches are more beautiful than here. Although kami tak pergi. Tak sempat.

In fact we didnt really do Auckland. We went to the mall to get food supplies. Then we were going to One Tree Hill but the road is so narrow dan mendaki (we were on our first day on the camper van after all). We decided to stop and have lunch at a park half way up the hill instead.

The park is shaded. We stopped at the end of a quiet street along the park where children walked home from school (if I were young again, I would love to go to school here).

Solat dan lunch under the cool trees. Auckland is lovely. Still in mild, beautiful summer weather.

That is our camper. It is a bit on the long side, I would say. We were at the mall and parked at the end of the parking lot sebab panjang sangat camper van tu.

After lunch we head out south. We had tickets to Hobbiton the next morning already booked for 10:00am. Jadi nak tak nak memang kena pergi ke Matamata where Hobbiton is; more or less 2 hours drive from AKL. The road was busy at Akl (a 3-lane highway) but then ease out and became smaller when we got out of the city limits.

The view was soothing and calming. Miles upon miles of green hills with sheep and cattle. And farms that welcome you selling fruits from their orchards, fresh veg and ice cream.

Sebenarnya we didnt do any camp site booking from Msia walaupun ada list yang kami dah prepare dan bawa. Kata anak2 we go there and call/walk-in. Which we did. And anyway the camper van came with an app called CamperMate that gives you all you need to know about travelling in NZ. Armed with these je lah kami cari camp sites throughout our holiday.

The first nite, confident with our self contained camper, we did freedom camping at a DOC site which is FOC. It was by the serene Lake Karapiro in Keeley's Reserve near Cambridge. Maghrib pun masih ada yang bermain bot. There was only toilet at the camp ground. No shower and no drinking water. Which was ok.

But the toilet was DARK at night. In fact the whole camp ground was very dark at night (save for the light from our camper). And there were only maybe 5 other vehicles on the camping ground. And later that evening our bathroom flooded. Hmmphf. We later figured out that happened because too much water was used.. We became smarter with the quirkiness of the camper van after that. More cautious. Kami terlupa tiada indahwater dalam camper van..

There was an owl that hooted that night (dan saya memang penakut!) haha.

Morning view. Kayaks on the lake first thing in the morning.

 The only other campers that night.

Breakfast was cereal and milk. Bread with peanut butter and jelly. And hot coffee and milo. Nothing tasted better.

We left the camp site after breakfast. Looking for a dump station (for our flooded bathroom) and to catch the 10am Hobbiton tour. Kata Waze, Hobbiton is only 15 mins away from our camp site and kata CampMate, there is a dump station in Matamata (relief!)

Hobbiton will be in the next post. Because it is too beautiful. Too cute. Enchanting.





~ xoxo