New Zealand: Northland Fieldtrip Part 1 - Auckland to Paihia via the East Coast!

This is going to be a pretty wordy post, but feel free to just skip past and look at the pictures!

This year, I took on two courses during summer school. One of which is Field Studies in Environment and Community, or more lovingly known as GEOG207. This course is only available during the summer semester at the University of Auckland and is by far my favourite course ever. It's in high demand as it only has 2.5 days of in class lectures and includes a compulsory 5 day road trip around Northland, New Zealand.

I'm getting into this habit of creating calendar events for trips.

The course covers New Zealand landscape, culture, communities, development, tourism... and probably a heap of other things I cannot think of at this moment. We visited many small towns (ok, so every destination in Northland is practically a small town), got lost in said small towns (may only have one main road, but trust me, it's STILL possible to get lost), visited awesome beaches (yes, my darlings, plural!), camped on an island (where you can potentially see kiwi birds!), stayed in a marae (Wikipedia explains it well), and much more.

Acknowledgements/Disclaimer/Whatever

Since it's such a condensed trip, I'm going to break it down into 5 posts, but before I begin, I should really give some acknowledgements. Firstly and most obviously, the University of Auckland for providing such an awesome course. In particular, Joe F., 2013's course co-ordinator, Nick L., our food source/food van driver and Toto, my van group's driver. Of course, also a big thanks to the tutors ("drivers") who also contributed a huge part to making this road trip possible! With that said and done, I would like to add that all pictures that will appear in all subsequent posts were taken by me/my camera unless specifically noted otherwise (like most of the other photos that appear on this blog). Obviously, this means that I'm not going to make an appearance in the photos. I don't watermark my photos, they are memories meant to be shared otherwise I wouldn't make them public. Also, I don't take good enough photos to warrant someone stealing them for commercial purposes. Should there be a watermark appearing on some photos, it would be due to concerns raised by affected individuals.

The notebook we were given to take notes in.

I feel like ever since the beginning of this course, it's been drilled into us that Northland suffers the most in terms of tourism in comparison to all the other regions of New Zealand. While that is true, Northland doesn't fall on the typical tourist's "blue ribbon path" which traditionally consists of Auckland - Rotorua - Wellington - Queenstown - Christchurch or some sort of variance with sprinkles of Taupo, Wellington, and other major touristy destinations in between (in particular, areas that have benefited from the Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's influence). Truth be told, it doesn't seem like there's much to do in Northland other than "posh" activities, or "boring" beaches and sightseeing. Well, it can't be boring if you love hanging at the beach or being surrounded by beauty... you could read ahead and decide for yourself. I've barely made it back to Auckland and I'm already itching to return! Currently planning a roadtrip up north with friends!

Part 1: Auckland to Paihia

The day started pretty early but I managed to drag myself out of bed in time. I had packed the night before but I still had to struggle to remember to do three things: pack the toothbrush, pack the electronics chargers and swap my earrings for the week. I feared I would forget one or all three so I set my alarm name to exactly that. During the last minutes before I left the house in a rush for uni, I managed to do one more thing: check the weather forecast for the week.

Not bad! We were expecting sun for Monday through Wednesday and then rain on Thursday and Friday.

My mother drove me to and dropped me off at university where I waited with my van group (7 others who I was going to spend the week with and participate in group activities with) for our van and the driver to arrive. Unfortunately for us all, the company didn't have a van ready for us so we had to wait for the company to find another van for us. Eventually, we were paired with a Ford and we set off for the north!

A mashup since these photos were taken from the back seat and are views out the windshield lol

Our first stop was Matakana, a small town in Rodney District - approximately 70kms from Auckland. To get here, take State Highway 1 (SH1) north bound, take the toll road (don't be stingy, it's only like three bucks) towards Warkworth. From there, take a right turn onto Matakana Road and keep going until you hit the town. Or you can ask Google. It's known for its vineyards, farmer's markets, boutiques, food shops, cinema and damn awesome public toilets. So awesome and worth seeing that Lonely Planet listed it as one of New Zealand's Top 5 alternative road trips! If Lonely Planet deemed it cool, it must be worth stopping by, surely!

We were welcomed by a Richard Didsbury, whom I assume to be a filthy rich man. He bought a ton of land and kick started development in Matakana. That town is basically his baby. He gave a talk and I'll give a brief introduction of the place based on my very poorly taken notes. If the information is incorrect, contact me and I'll correct it.

Matakana

Matakana is a small town with only about 500-800 people living there. There's constraints with the local population due to the rural zoning of the town and they just recently got sewers! Didsbury's project was a very high risk investment, with his visions for the town, it's easy to gauge just how high risk it was. Although there's a diversity of owners with very different viewpoints, leadership apparently rarely comes from locals. Matakana has taken a design path, the buildings look old but in reality, they are pretty new and you can see this if you look closely at the details!

Can you see the gargoyles if you squint?

There's one significant building that was built in 1840... the most important, some would say.

The Matakana Village Pub, est 1903

Ok so it says 1903, but the dude clearly said 1840. Perhaps it was something else for 60 odd years?

Most important thing? That would be the pub!

The Matakana Village and surrounding area is very young, only about 5-6 years old. Most of what you can see there was built recently. It was one of the original settlements and was more vibrant than Warkworth! There's a river that runs through Matakana, back in the day, no one knew there was a fantastic natural feature: a river with a nice waterfall which was hidden by industrial buildings like a sawmill. 

Said river, with ducks.

Isn't it so nice? Pretty cool view for a cafe.

Matakana is a place that attracts overseas visitors. The famous Farmer's Markets have very strict controls on who gets to set up stores for that one day a week event. There's a great focus on great food and drink, wine (there are vineyards there) with an emphasis on ethos and produce that's sustainable, natural, local and environmentally friendly. To keep it up during the night, shop windows are lit up at night to make it look appealing to night travelers and those who stop by for the night. Things that can be found in shopping malls (big brands, for example) are not really welcome and so are banks, instead, embracing small, local businesses with owners who love what they do. There are some exceptions though. Although, not quite an exception. There are some shops that started off local but they've done so well, they've expanded branches into bigger cities.

Other than that, the town plays quirky!!! You better watch out for killer eels!

That's not the only quirky thing. Public toilets are a major problem for many places. I was very impressed with the quality of the public toilets throughout Northland. Matakana's public toilets' design concept came from Kawakawa, another small town. The idea was to make public toilets attractive so the local public will appreciate it - turning something that's often a problem into something the community will value. If you tag it, you're gonna get jumped! There were no architects who participated in the design of these public loos, only sculptors. It took seven years to finish! The following picture is the winning design and the winner was a local lad, Setffan de Haan who apparently lived like 500m down the road! You know it's a big deal when the toilets are insured for $500,000.

By far, the coolest toilets I've ever used!

There's also the coolest local cinema! It's got loveseats with awesome leg room, an awesome chandelier and what's the hottest thing there? There's a cute cat that wanders around as he pleases.

I think he said it's 16 smaller chandeliers put together to make this big one. It hangs over the cinema.

Our second stop was Mangawhai, which is about 50km northwest (ish) of Matakana. You can take the backroad out of Matakana - not the typical tourist route, or if you're less adventurous, you can head back towards Warkworth and from there continue using SH1. The good thing about taking the back road is that after leaving Matakana, you catch the first glimpses of the east coast! There's obvious evidence of a change in landuse, from pasture to subdivision and development. There are by far, more "for sale" signs than road signs. It is said that pretty much, the entire east coast is up for sale. There's also a nice amount of "fake" trees when there weren't a lack of trees. They aren't actually fake. What I mean is that they aren't native and certainly weren't natural as they were intentionally planted there.

Mangawhai

We stopped by here for a quick talk from Nick and a looksee.

Can't remember what we learnt there except that that thing out there is called a barrier arm. It's like this makeshift refuge for animals.

Saw a helipad but no helicopter.

Langs Beach

Our third stop was Langs Beach where we did our first beach observation exercise followed by lunch and a swim for those who wanted to. Langs is about 15kms away and there's like only one road you can take from Mangawhai.

For our beach exercises we had to record various things like wind speed, width and length, wave height, wave type... you know, academic stuff. We finished up pretty quickly and broke apart for recreational activities.

Met this adorable dog called Missy!

Here's Nicole, an American from Boston University adoring the dog.

Here's me, looking so exhausted. Nicole took this photo.

My group took off for a walk after we were finished playing with the dog. We were looking for the beach sign to take a photo of and we found it eventually.

I hate my hair now. The lady cut it way too short but oh well. I'll survive.

I left the area with Nicole and on the way we saw cool bachs (kiwi holiday homes).

Look at those roots!

On the way back, Nicole climbed up the tree for a photo and then I tried. It was terrifying.

Final shot of Langs Beach.

Our next stop was Marsden Cove, 30kms away from Langs Beach. It was one hell of a journey! We first got lost because the van in front of us got lost. Then when we finally caught up with some other vans, we went on this little drive around Northland Port and Marsden Cove. At first, I thought it was stunning! There's this maze of roads with big, gorgeous houses situated on a rather generously sized piece of land... then when you get over how pretty the houses are, you notice that there's this canal running behind all the houses along these roads and every house has a jetty where you can anchor your boat there. I heard it's a joint venture between Northland Port and Hopper Developments Marsden Cove to develop a 700 section marine village, creating "THE WORLD'S BEST COASTAL LIFESTYLE".

It became my life goal right there and then to win the lotto and buy myself a property there. Unfortunately, the place hasn't taken up yet in terms of development. There are properties that have already been sold but there are also many left standing without owners and many empty lots waiting for someone to purchase and build something on. It's really quite sad. There are barely any shops nearby (unless they are just situated somewhere we didn't see, but that's doubtful). Unfortunately I didn't take any photos and I just did a Google image search for it but it's not quite turning up many pictures. So here's a picture of something else instead:

We were met by a guest speaker. They're trying to make the port into New Zealand's most important - drag away from Auckland's port to relieve it, and hoping more residents will move in and occupy as locals instead of bach owners.

Our last stop before Paihia was Ruapekapeka, 80kms away from Marsden. You head towards Whangarei on SH1. Whangarei is the largest urban area in the region. We didn't stop by, but it's bustling (as bustling as you can get with a town, or "small city") with cafes, boutiques and touristy things.

Ruapekapeka Pa - "The Bat's Nest" (of tunnels)

The reason we ventured to Ruapekapeka was because of the Pa site. It is a historical reserve with both national and international significance. Known for the sophisticated military techniques... it was technologically very advanced in terms of military tactics, you know with all those trenches for hiding and running away, bomb proof holes, bomb shelters, caves and passageways....

What made it so was really due to location, because it's so far from the sea, enemies had to trek in by foot. If you really wanted to kill someone at this site, you really had to work for it. The area was built by Nga Puhi Chief Te Ruki Kawhiti and was the site of the final battle in the Northern War, 1845-6.

Click to enlarge if you wanna read.

The entrance.

Holes.

The canon. 

There's this Totem pole at the top of the hill. As we walked towards it, Ger performed a call of greeting (at least I think it was). Everyone followed very respectfully and quietly behind him. I filmed some parts of it but I struggled with the decision to make that public. In the end, I decided not to share it.

Upon approach to the totem pole.

The Pouwhenua (totem pole) was erected by the Ngati Hau Tribe, 2010.

There's this inscription in Maori on a sign at the foot of the pole. I can't read it but Ger gave a rough translation, which I scribbled down quickly so perhaps it could be wrong. Basically, the whole thing is an acknowledgement of how important this place is; a move from a state of darkness to a state of enlightenment and peace.

To my cannon of anger
The gathering place of many
The Bats Nest

Paihia

Our final resting place for the day was Paihia, 35kms from Ruapekapeka. Take SH1 and veer off into SH11. That should take you straight there. Paihia is the main tourist center in the Bay of Islands. Early church societies were formed there to bring Christianity to locals. There are heaps of tourist facilities, it's basically a bunch of accommodation, a main street and a beach.

There's around 70 of us so we were split into three backpackers; my group stayed in Base. The room I stayed in had 6 people, 4 of whom were male and 3 of them were from another group. The room we were in had a small kitchen and a bathroom. I didn't see any equipment of use in the kitchen because the first thing we noticed was a spider. The bathroom on the other hand was a surprise to me because it was clean. Prior to this trip, I had very low expectations for toilet/shower facilities.

Base

Waiting for dinner...

The view as we waited for dinner.

The view we had while we ate our dinner!

We had dinner at a local restaurant; Hansen's Cafe & Pizzeria. They served us different pizzas, chips and salad in a buffet style. I was so happy with the salad, I love lettuce and cucumbers and this salad had heaps of both! The chips were amazing! I couldn't get over how delicious they were so I kept going up to get extra.

Best chips of my life.

Following dinner, we had a walk around town before stopping by for drinks at the bar near the backpackers. I chose a non alcoholic lemon, lime, bitters... only because I couldn't help myself. I love this drink. I did feel like a kid though when someone asked me what alcohol I put in. After our drinks, most of us retired to bed. The bed was comfortable but the pillows... oh god, the pillows were terrible. It was like a pillowcase... with a few feathers inside, which made falling asleep terribly difficult especially when the boys from the other group wouldn't stfu!

Australia 2012/2013 Christmas and New Years!

Figured I had to get this done before I forget to! That and next week, I'm going on a compulsory road trip with the university around Northland!!! I'm super excited about the trip - it's my first ever real road trip and the only places I've been to in Northland are Warkworth and the Bay of Islands. But for now, Melbourne! The last time I went to Melbourne was barely half a year ago. When I was there, my uncle convinced my father to come over for a visit over the Christmas/New Years.

YUP! Was worried I wouldn't wake up in time!

I went with my father to Australia on Monday, the 24th of December. The trip lasted 12 days (came back on the 4th of January) so this post is going to be a long one! My mother dropped us off at the airport. We checked in and made our way to the gate because it was already time. We caught the 6.30am flight out of Auckland, flying Virgin Australia. Unfortunately, something went wrong... the pilot told us over the intercom that "a problem has occurred and we can't find your luggage  We are currently in the process of locating and reloading them onto the correct plane". I'm not sure if I heard wrong, or if that's not the entire story... or if the pilot was trolling. In the end, everyone sat uncomfortably for the next hour before we finally started to taxi out of the airport. Considering how early the flight was, people quickly fell asleep after they got over being so grumpy. I fell asleep and had a much better sleep than last time I flew 6:30am. My father was very excited and I believe he didn't get any sleep, instead opting for looking over the shoulder of the dude next to him in order to see out the window.

What Australia looks like out the plane window. =_=

We had a very bumpy ride and touchdown in Melbourne. My heart actually jumped and I thought we were going to die. Upon landing, there was an audible collective sigh of relief throughout the cabin and the Cabin Manager joked "Welcome to Australia and I hope you all enjoyed that fantastic landing!" nervous laughter followed. I dragged my father out of the plane and through the airport in a rush. The last time I went through to customs, there were massive lines in the foreign passport queues so I was worried about being caught up. The plane was already an hour late, I noticed earlier there were multiple planes headed for Melbourne and I didn't have credit on my Aussie sim card to call my uncle (or anyone else, for that matter!). To my surprise, this time there were hardly anyone holding foreign passports. Almost everyone had Australian or New Zealand passports! We made it through customs pretty quick until we reached the area where they searched our bags. We weren't required to open them but they lined us up on the yellow line and set dogs upon us.


We were let past and we walked into the arrival hall, nearly losing each other! The hall is quite small in width but elongated so with the amount of people crowding around, it was very easy to get shuffled around. My some miracle, my aunt (uncle's wife) bumped into us and she led us outside where my uncle picked us up. Together we drove to the daycare centre and dropped off my baby cousin sister (she's very cute, if you saw my last post!) for a few hours. We went to Bunnings Warehouse to pick up pots of paint (uncle is painting his house and dad wants to help). I was starving by this point! Later in the day, we went to a cafe located near their house where we were served by A FANTASTIC LOOKING, YOUNG AUSTRALIAN. OH his blue eyes! I ordered a chicken risotto and since I'm a picky eater, I didn't eat the chicken breast (too dry). The taste was nice though. Delicate, creamy, and they didn't provide too much cheese so it was good. I couldn't finish it all so I pushed my plate at my uncle (dad is vegetarian) and my uncle rolled his eyes and started eating. He exclaimed in surprise at how much chicken the cafe gives with the risotto. Little did he know... but it did in fact have a surprising amount of chicken though! Afterwards, my uncle dropped me off at his sister's apartment in the CBD, where I intended to stay. My dad planned on staying with my uncle and work on the house.


Christmas Day wasn't very exciting. 
Both my aunt and I slept in and we spent the rest of the day lounging around. We were seriously too tired to be bothered. During dinner, we started talking about sake then we went out to a Chinese shop near Chinatown to buy sake. We had been talking about sake during dinner and we ended up wanting to have some so I recommended some and we decided on Mio. In New Zealand, we can get a bottle of Mio for $9.90 NZD so I assumed it wasn't going to be that approximately the same in Australia. Mistake!!! It was near $19 AUD!!! However, since I was already settled into that mindset, I gave in and purchased it anyway. One big reason is that we both agreed how beautiful the bottle is.

Mio! Much too expensive in Australia!

Boxing Day was the same. 
I intended on participating in the famous Boxing Day sales but once Boxing Day arrived, I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed. According to the news, shops were opening at 5am and people were planning on camping out overnight! Madness! In the afternoon, my aunt and I went to Myer as she needed to buy some presents. We did our shopping hurriedly and returned home. No way could we be bothered fighting through the crowds just to do window shopping! However in the afternoon, my uncle called and declared he was planning to come over with his family and my dad so we could go out for dinner. Being the lazy fucks we were, we protested - didn't need, they should stay home and eat or if they so insist, my aunt would cook and we'd just eat at the apartment. During the meal Flight Plan was on but I was really sleepy and my uncle shook his head disapprovingly. He asked me what I've been up to in Melbourne. I mumbled "nothing much really" but he didn't believe me, "really?! You didn't go out and explore?"

"No..."
"Why not?!"
"I'm too tired..."
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, we spent all day yesterday sleeping."
"How about today? You didn't go to the Boxing Day Sales?"
"We went for about two hours... then we came back."
"Tsk. *shakes head*"

Aesop - UGH 500ml COST ME $100 AUD!!!

I have eczema and it's only in one spot but it's pretty bad. My uncle recommended this brand to me because my cousin also has the same problem. I'm really sick of my skin problem so I'm pretty much willing to spend money on such things. I chose Aesop's Rind Concentrate Body Balm - pink grapefruit, orange rind and lemon rind. It's a pretty good moisturizer, probably not going to cure my problem but it smells divine and feels very nice when I use it. It doesn't feel thick or leave an oily feel behind like some others. So I wouldn't mind using it as a normal, everyday moisturizer.

I think I might go get a allergy test one day - I have reason to believe I'm allergic to something but have no idea. I know I'm slightly intolerant to milk, but it'd be nice to know if something I consume on a daily basis is actually not a good idea for me.

Thursday, 27th of December
My aunt went to work and I was left by myself. I lazed around in the morning, watched Charmed at midday and left the apartment at 1. At first, I walked through Melbourne Central towards David Jones and Myer. I wanted to look for Longchamp's Le Pliage bag and I saw people buying it during the Boxing Day sales. It took me a very long time, I didn't see it amongst the Burberry, Dior and Chanel so I left and followed directions on my phone to the actual Longchamp shop. I was faced with many colour choices and in the end a sales girl told me it's best to choose a size first. I was like bitch please, I know what size I want, I can't decide on the colour! (Ok I wasn't actually like that.) I left the Longchamp shop and returned to Melbourne Central where I walked around looking for things I'd like to buy. I didn't see anything so I went back to the burger joint my friend took me to back in June. Last time, I bought the Baa Baa Burger and I thought that was seriously the best burger I've ever had in my life so I had to get it again! This time wasn't as amazing as last time, but still, so fucking good.

Best lamb burger from Grill'd, covered in 

Did a quick check on their website, apparently the patty is 100% grain fed lean lamb along with avocado, onions, tomato, cheese, salad and together, slathered in honest to goodness relish and herbed mayo. It's seriously a delicious meal, and thank the food gods for that because it sits at 636 calories! I gobbled it down anyway because I hadn't eaten in nearly 20 hours anyway. It's not cheap though around $12 AUD, but I was already satisfied and full from it so definitely no need for fries and a soft drink. Afterwards, I continued window shopping, hoping to see something I wanted. Many shops had giant posters with "up to 70% off!" advertising so I was enticed to venture in but once I went in and saw the prices... still expensive at 70% off! But then I realised all the shops I walked into were branded goods. So I left and returned to my usual stingy self. I didn't have enough AUD and I couldn't be bothered going to the bank. Also, I didn't have baggage quota. I could only take with me 7kg carry on luggage (plus a handbag, which is kinda like cheating!).

When I was finished walking around, it was nearly time for my aunt to finish work so I went to her office and together we walked home. On the way, we stopped at Pacific and bought a box of Chinese, crispy skin roast pork. OH SO GOOD BUT SO BAD FOR YOU. I really let myself go in Australia. I got pretty chubby these two months - need to start working on my body. Failing tonight because it's already past 1am.

Friday 28th of December

What would have been a normal day, but I was convinced to go to work for the day. Which is a fine experience, except there were hardly any clients who came in. Whatever, I got paid in Aussie dollars. I spent the day editing translations for my friend when I wasn't deleting/responding/dealing with emails. A somewhat productive day! After work, we stopped by Pacific again and this time we bought an entire roast duck to enjoy at home. This was in anticipation of shops being closed over the New Year's. We weren't sure which ones would be open so we decided not to risk it. We went home and enjoyed some of the duck. Only after our early dinner, we got a call from my dad. He and my uncle were going to come over later and together we're going to visit a friend's house out west. He gave a time of 7:30 but I knew they weren't going to be on time so I took a nap - couldn't help it, I was unnaturally sleepy in Melbourne! Perhaps it was the heat or maybe it's because I had spent the past month and a half working almost every day at two jobs and before that, two jobs plus uni.

Omnomnom crispy skin duck and Hana Awaka sake.

Just before they arrived, my uncle called and he asked a question to which my aunt couldn't answer so she said "hold on, let me ask her. She's sleeping." she nudged me awake and handed me the phone. He was so shocked speechless that I was SLEEPING AGAIN (every time he's asked, I've always been sleepy even though I slept all day). Suffering from exhaustion sucks especially when people around you think you just spend all day doing nothing because you're the ultimate lazy person. So my dad took over and spoke to me. He gave me instructions to buy some fruit so we wouldn't go there empty handed.

So I dragged myself out of bed and went down to Coles in Melbourne Central and bought a tonne of fruit before getting picked up by my uncle. We drove the hour out east and at first, we went up to the wrong house. We apologized and walked down a few houses before trying out luck again. We spent a while there and the whole time I was sitting at the table, my father chatted with his old friend and my uncle. Eventually my uncle tired of it and since he was sitting opposite me, he stared at me for a while before slyly commenting, "still sleepy, aye." Yes uncle, I'm always sleepy.

Saturday 29th of December

My aunt and I dragged ourselves out of the house so I could go make an appointment at Specsavers (optometrist). Thankfully they had a spot for two hours later! I wouldn't have bothered going but I found frames I wanted but they didn't provide the testing. I didn't know my prescription for glasses since I've always worn contacts and they differ. We made the appointment and then we went for pancakes at the Pancake Parlour in Melbourne Central. I honestly wasn't expecting such good pancakes!

OH YES HONEY, two stack pancakes topped with vanilla ice cream and a bit of maple syrup!

I don't even want to know the amount of calories that holds! Afterwards, we went to Aldi, an Australian supermarket for some groceries. After this indulgence, I left my aunt with her groceries and walked back over, had my eye test and then returned home to wait for that night's activities. A family friend showed up and took us over to my uncle's house for a family dinner. I had packed an overnight bag as per my uncle's instructions - have dinner at his house, sleep over and on Sunday we were to go to Philip Island to see penguins!!! (And koalas!). Nothing particularly amazing happened at the family dinner. I got two Myer gift cards from my uncle and his wife.

Sunday 30th of December
My uncle's house is majorly cold at night. I couldn't fall asleep for a few hours and I woke up due to the cold draft. Around 4:30am my cousin sister started crying. It was very dramatic, perhaps due to a bad dream or something but I was shocked awake and had trouble falling asleep after she stopped crying. When morning came, we all got out of bed and started preparing for our day trip. I was all done but they weren't quite ready yet so we went out onto the front lawn to play with my cousin. At one point, we heard a car flying down the road, coming closer and my cousin heard it too. She gasped and started running towards the road. I nearly had a heart attack because I thought she would run onto the road and get hit so I ran after her. I didn't know 2.5 year olds can run that fast... but anyway, turns out I didn't actually have to worry because just before she reached the fence, she came to a halt, her shoulders tensed and her eyes wide as she looked out at the road in anticipation of a car... that never passed us.

Here, she willingly turned her head to me... because she knew the pictures won't see her eyes...

We finally got into the car and headed off towards Philip Island. Two hours later, we hit a massive traffic jam. No idea why, perhaps many people decided to go on that day as well? In the end, we took a detour and stopped at a park for a picnic. That park had a playground and my cousin went absolutely crazy and kept asking to go. We finally let her go (well, actually, my dad and I went with her because I think we both wanted to play on that thing more than she did) and once she got close to actually touching the equipment, she didn't. She was quite content standing two feet away from anything and just looking at things... my dad got impatient and made her get onto different things.

She watched in fascination as another kid went down the slide and my dad asked if she wanted to go. She shook her head and whispered: "no no! Scare scare!" and my dad laughed and made her go. She was absolutely terrified at the ledge so my dad put her on his lap and went down together. She went absolutely crazy and demanded a second time but she was still scared and wanted to go down with my dad. By the third time, she was trying to climb up to the ledge by herself so my dad helped her up but stayed on the ground. When she realised he wasn't following her, she turned around and asked for him to come up because she was still scared. After that time, she went down by herself.

After that, we went on the swings. These days, they have the special child's swing and the normal adult swing. She was fine on the adult one, but when my dad placed her in the child one she just about freaked out. Not sure why she preferred that one. Perhaps because that one was secured, my dad let go of her and kept pushing her higher (when I was a kid, I always asked to go higher and this was on a plank of wood with no protective bark on the ground). She has a really quite voice so when she was saying "scare!!!" My dad thought she was saying "higher!" and she started crying so we switched swings to the adult one (which meant my dad had to push with less oomph).

We finally managed to drag her screaming and crying away from the swings into the car - we wanted to see koalas!!!!!!!!!!!!! We drove to this koala sanctuary and I saw these adorable keychains:

Hello Kitty koala and wallaby?

It wasn't a big place but there were lots of tour buses!

KOALAS! Much fatter than the ones I saw last time! This time, I heard one make some noise. It was the most terrifying thing I've heard from such a cute animal...

Group pictures...

We left the island after we went to see penguins. Wasn't much to see really... they weren't due for a few hours and the ones we spotted hiding in their boxes were quite hard to see. We returned to the CBD and had dinner my aunt cooked.

Monday 31st of December

Final day of the year was spent shopping! I walked to Cal Eyewear, chose two pairs of frames and gave them the prescription I got on Saturday. Originally, I decided to buy Gok Wan's from Specsavers but when I passed by Cal's I found pairs I loved! They are actually the same frame just differnet colours. There was a thing going that 2 pairs would come to $280 instead of one pair at $180 each. I left my prescription with them and they told me to come back in about two hours.

Red and pink frames, also such cute business cards!

While I was in there picking my frames, this random guy walked into the store and started talking to me. At first I thought he was the owner but then he switched to Indonesian and I thought maybe he recognised the wrong person. I just kept smiling and nodding then he asked me to donate money and I was appalled. How dare he walk into a store he does not own and harass customers for "donations". Perhaps it was legitimate, but forgive me for being suspicious. I declined him and he went off to harass the shop assistants.

After leaving the shop, I walked to the bank and sorted out my bank account (opened a savings account in Australia with the Commonwealth Bank - ASB's Australian half). Because I went to the one that was situated near Chinatown, the European lady I went up to asked me to wait and when a counter became available, the guy greeted me in Chinese and asked how he could help. I was taken aback because I wasn't expecting it. I replied in English and did the entire transaction in English.

Once I left, I walked around CBD a bit more, I kept going back into JR Duty free as I was very tempted to buy a Longchamp bag. Especially so when I could get it tax free with my passport and proof of travel. I made up my mind and started looking through the sizes - they had what I wanted, unlike David Jones which only had the small ones with the short handles. It came down to two colours - black or blue. I couldn't decide between the two. I was leaning more to the black but my friend, Freak has that one so I was holding back. My decision was made for me when suddenly a swarm of Chinese tourists came in, all loud, bickering and pushy. Some were exclaiming about how maybe some products were fake and I rolled my eyes. But then I remembered that for Le Pliage, some genuine products were made in China. So I checked the inside of the bags and sure enough, all the black ones were made in China while all the blue ones were made in France. Thus, I decided on the blue one because GOD FORBID some obnoxious bitch comes along and tells me I've been ripped off because it's not made in France.

Got the large size with the long strap.

I've been using an Agnes B one for the past year but I've been wanting to get a less fancy one. The bag I use is quite shiny and I always worry the stuff I carry around is too heavy for the straps. I attached a Kiki cat bow bag accessory that I got in Japan.

Once I paid for and left, I stopped by McDonald's for a soft serve before going to my aunt's office. We left for home and had duck that night... again. We fell asleep (yes, bad habit!). We work up just after the 9pm fireworks so we took turns having showers. Around 11:30 my uncle called and said he was coming to pick us up to go out for the fireworks. I protested, there's way too many people! And he retorted "I know! Of course! But we should do this!" In the end, he was too late and we had a great apartment view of the city's fireworks!

Sorry about the blur, but I didn't even plan to take these photos -  my aunt prompted me to...

Tuesday 1st of January 2013!

First day of the near year started off quite silently. There were hardly any people on the streets and we decided to have pancakes at Pancake Parlour - my dad hadn't yet had. We took a look around Melbourne Central and although we expected it, we were a bit disappointed that nothing was open. Following our pancake breakfast (dad also had a flat white and but he said it was terrible), we headed off to Chinatown to have a look. At Chinatown, there's this Chinese museum so we went there but it was closed. Just before we left, we took a picture next to Dr Sun Yat Sen. 

My dad and I, with the honourable sir, Dr. Sun Yat Sen. Lol

After that, we did some grocery shopping, bought some veges and went home and cooked a tonne of vegetables to eat............. and that was pretty much our New Year's Day!

Wednesday 2nd of January 2013

Today, the original plan was to accompany my aunt to the office. Instead, I took my dad shopping. We walked through Melbourne Central where my dad walked into Typo and bought correction tape and a drink bottle. On our way out of Melbourne Central, he walked into Sunglass Hut and tried on some. We continued walking a bit longer and headed to the Chinese Museum where we spent the next few hours.

Chinese Opera? DRAMA? Good luck!

Fail pictures... of a lantern and ... something that I'm not too sure what.

Is this a "rickshaw"? A decorated one! 

After that, we walked back and looked around David Jones and Myer - in particular Myer. We kinda went through most of the levels. Of course, on the way there, we looked around the streets of Melbourne CBD. We stopped by another Sunglass and I bought a pair of Ray Bans for my dad.

We headed towards Flinder's Station and looked around that area before realising how hungry we were. I think it was around 3pm when we reached Victoria Market area. Unfortunately, the markets weren't open but we did take a look around before we headed back to my aunt's office. On our way back, we went to see if the vegetarian restaurant on Little Burke Street was open yet but it wasn't so we just continued to starve. At the office, we made a few calls to NZ and China and then left for home. As we walked back, I saw a red skirt I wanted... but I didn't get it. Instead, we walked into the various JB Hi Fi stores before reaching Melbourne Central where I bought QV lotion and cleanser - another product suggested by uncle. It's actually quite good!

We went home and cooked a veggie dinner and my aunt came home just in time to eat. After dinner, uncle came over and he said let's go out and have a walk around. But first, he had to eat so I accompanied him as he ate, I drank some grass jelly drink while my uncle ate something that I couldn't quite make out... after his dinner, we walked down towards Flinder's Station... walked past it actually, towards Skydeck - the tallest building in Melbourne. The following pictures are from the 88th floor!

Wasn't actually too sure what I was taking photos of... so here's a bunch of shots.

After we left, we headed to a cafe nearby and had a drink and bread dipped in olive oil. First time I've actually knowingly consumed raw olive oil. My dad and uncle talked and I just drank my iced mocha in near silence.

Thursday 3rd of January

Nothing exciting... I went to work with auntie. Before I got to work, I stopped by the office of an unfinished apartment block. Unfortunately they were still on holiday so I headed to the office. I sent a very detailed email asking various questions but didn't get a reply till I returned to NZ.

Like I said, nothing exciting. Oh I did buy a red skirt... as if that counts as exciting.

Friday 4th of January

My uncle dropped my dad off in the morning. Today was the hottest day in Melbourne during my time there. Hovering around 40 degrees Celsius! Even the wind that blew was hot. To be honest, it was kinda like being in a room with the heater turned up. We were both pretty horrified... but we dragged ourselves to Myer where I spent my gift cards on a present for Auntie L who's visiting NZ from China. We bought this make up mirror - normal one side, magnifying on the other and it lights up when plugged in! After that, we walked around looking for a Trilby hat made of velvet for my grandfather - he specifically said velvet. We made it all the way down to Flinder's Station but we didn't find one. So we just continued walking around. In the end, we headed to the vegetarian restaurant near my aunt's place and bought some stir fried rice noodles. We stopped by auntie's office to say good bye then headed home to cook lunch. I had to repack my dad's luggage to make everything fit. Uncle finished work around midday and came up for lunch before taking us to the airport.

My uncle dropped us off at the airport, we checked in and headed straight in to walk around the duty free area. Didn't find a single thing we wanted. I walked into Victoria's Secret in hopes I'd find something, but nothing caught my fancy enough for me to pull out my card, so we left and boarded the plane.

Final pictures taken in Melbourne... Jetstar, the airline I refuse to take.

Clouds mid flight!

I always enjoy flying Air New Zealand. All the attendants are so very nice and "kiwi". I fell asleep for an hour, my dad pulled out the box of noodles and we both ate it then I spent the rest of the flight watching Anger Management.

I think this time was the first time I've actually arrived in NZ when it's the middle of the night (dark out!) and I was caught surprised. I've always maintained that descending into Auckland is my favourite scene. I was surprised by how pretty Auckland is at night from above. I always assumed it wouldn't be very good because during the day, it's the beautiful greenery that catches my breath.

Very much a pity this photo does no justice to the sight I saw.

While walking through the airport towards customs, I saw the most amazing advertisement! There was a stretch of wall where New Zealand's South Island scenery was printed on. However, if you looked at it from the point of view of walking towards customs, you saw it as the characters from the Hobbit taking their journey. When you reached the end of the hall and looked back for a second look, it's completely different! The background is still the same - mountain alps of the South Island, but the people were different! They were just regular tourists hiking through. I kick myself every time I think about it for not walking back to the beginning of the hall to take a picture! I'm just hoping real hard that the advertisement will still be there the next time I fly - or something as equally cool.

We made it through customs with no problem, but this time I couldn't be bothered unpacking just before we got to the checkpoint - usually I unpack everything I declare into a bag and just hand it over. However, once we got to the examiner, he made us unpack anyway and looked through everything! It turned out fine in the end, he let us take everything and we headed home safely.