An Unexpected Briefing #airnzhobbit

Just a short one today, I thought this is funny and creative. The link was actually passed on via related work email. :)

Day 4 : the day I throw caution to the wind!!

From Wanaka, we head to Queenstown, only 1 hours away. 

The very sole reason I picked New Zealand was because of this!!! Bungee baby!!!! At first only me wanted to do this, but at the very last minute, Shaz joined. I'll let the pics do the talking ;)

One happy fuller about to make it!!

Oohhh... I am soo ready baby!!!

Weeeee......

You go girl!!!

Its 43m down!!

My fans taking my shot!! hahahahaha...

I'm like a bird~~~~~

Fuuhhh.......selamat....!!!

What's a jump without a video, you may suspect me of faking the pics...hahaha...but see this :P

Happy giler!!!!

If its not pricey, I would have done it again, seriously, I am an adrenalin junkie, especially when it comes to high places, and this one is definitely worth it!!

Day 4 : The day we were a-maze-ed and puzzled

7th Feb 2012 (You are one post away from the highlight of my trip :) !! )

We woke up and get ready for todays activity, but first we just need to spend some time on the lake (mesti!!)

Lake Wanaka



Local people's house I guess at the background :P

After a short photography session by the lake (I insisted 15 minutes only...hehehehe...) We make way to our next pitstop, the Puzzling World of Wanaka!!



The cafe area at the entrance. All tables are equipped with puzzles..



Kaleidoscope ceiling

 There was a room with all these faces on the wall, those faces are of some famous figure, such as Mother Theresa and Albert Einstein. They were made and mounted on different angle such that when we look using one eye and goes around the room, we will see as if the faces were following us.

U follow me or I follow you?

Next was the tilted room, the room was built at certain angle, such that when we stepped in, we will be leaning forward due to gravity but at the same time stepping on the tilted floor.

tilted..

The water flows upstream!!

Up next is the False Perspective Room,

Me the hobbit!!

Ija the hobbit!!

both humans ;)

After fooling around inside, we decided to head on outside, to the great maze !!

Me no cheat...hahahaha....

We made it to all the four corners, but took longer time than 1.5 hours, siap sesat-sesat lagi....hahahahaha....

Pukul berapa datuk harimau?

As if camwhoring inside the puzzling world is not enough, we have to take it outside ;) they have this leaning clock structure that invites people to take all kinds of deceptive shots

Macam kuat nak tahan ni...!!!

Us

That's a lot of weight carried on a shoulder :P

 Up next is my highlight of the adventure...stay tunnneeeddddd........ :D

Still on day 3 : lunch and next destination

Since I have given up the idea of making collage out of all the pictures, maybe I can finish the Middle Earth much faster....hehehehe...I wish!! So expect loads of pictures and less words (sama tema kita ye Cik Aida? :P)
After the hike, we got back to the guiding company and we were famished. Since Franz Josef is a small town, there were not a lot choice for lunch. We settle in Cafe Neve, and ordered some large serving of seafood pizza and salmon sandwich.

The whole town is just one main road, seriously. Opposite the cafe was the guiding company.

Of course we did not finished the meal.....tapau..!!

Malaysia's lowest RON is 95, we no longer have 92. Are we moving too fast? 

After fueling up, we head to our next destination, Wanaka. Estimated time to reach there was 4 hours, but as always, we got there much later :P

Going a bit south and to the middle now

There were quite a lot of look out point along the way. We just have to stop and take pictures. :D 

This one is at Knight's Point

The water...makes me wanna jump in!! Nasib baik tak pandai berenang :)

First glimpse of Lake Wanaka area

We thought we are getting there, but we were actually quite a fair bit further from the original destination. Little did we know that Lake Wanaka is the 4th largest lake in New Zealand. The area covered was 192 km2 (compared to KL, area covered 243 km2). The whole lake kecik sikit je dari KL..hahahaha... we almost did not see the end of the lake, it was as far as the eye could see.

 We did stopped at few points to take pictures of course!! My travel buddies were obsessed in getting the 100th perfect FB profile pictures that at times I was soooo irritated. But anyhoo...layan je la...this shot was taken by yours truly, it was windy and despite the fact that its messy, I like it ;)

gambar profile FB ke 125!!

 

Throughout the drive, Lake Wanaka was always on our right. Suddenly we were greeted with the same breath taking view on our left. At first we thought it was still Lake Wanaka, but it was actually Lake Hawea.

We finally reached Wanaka around 8pm. Check into the hotel, but this time around no cooking facilities, but no sweat, we still have loads of leftovers from lunch ;)

View from the room, that is the end of Lake Wanaka

The rest of the hotel

We crashed to a good night sleep, though Wanaka is a bit hotter (compared to Franz Josef)

Day 3 : the day we took the hike

I guess I have tormented you enough on the delay for the middle earth post. I realized the reason  I keep on putting it off was because there were too much photos to share and I was to ambitious to make collage out off all of it. So guess what, I decided to give up that ambition today..hehehe..

6th Feb 2012
So, after a good night sleep, we woke up to the fresh breeze of Frans Josef. The motel was just a single row, with pretty roomy compound. One thing I noticed, there are a lot of hydrangeas around.

View from kitchen, mechanics in action, hydrangea, the compound

 After packing things, we head on to the next destination, its only 30 minutes from where we stayed.

We had a booking for half day walk up to the glacier at Fox Glacier Guiding. We were given the hiking gear and windbreaker to prepare for the walk.

The bus took us to the starting point. There were 2 buses on the same trip, and later we were divided to 3 groups. We've decided to go with a senior guide, plus the group that comes with family. The other groups are all made of youngster, we were scared that we will slow them down :P Our guide's name was Grazer, that was his nick name, I forgot his real name though :D We have to wait a bit as the guides went up on a rescue mission. Apparently one lady that was on previous tour sprained her ankle and need some help to get back to the starting point.

There visitors can only walk up to certain points unsupervised. This is because the glacier itself is not stable, and can posed a significant threat to inexperienced hiker. We were glad that we took the tour, it may cost more but it was worth it.

The initial hiking trail was merely rocky roads, but after some 20 minutes, we finally reached the start of glacier. We were asked to don up the crampons to ensure that we can walk on ice. Now its time for Ice ice baby!!

All guides carry with them heaps of equipment. The road is paved everyday, as and when people are walking on it. There are ladies guides too, you know :D

Grazer hard at work, paving our way up..

Some melted glacier on the way

 

Grazer checking the ablation pole

The ablation pole was used to measure how much the glacier had melted. He did mentioned the melting rate, but I have forgotten by now :P

One slit that we saw

Grazer testing the glacier

Me inside one ;)

 Around the glacier, there was also abundance of mud that fit to be made as face mask. Those that have some plastic handy were allowed to take some back. Since we have a spare bottle, we decided to take some back too... :)

Free mud spa supply!!

kaki ku harus enterframe!!!

the melted glacier makes small streams all around

Cute kan?

After some 3 hours later, we started descending. The little hike up the glacier was tiring but definitely was worth it!!

By the time we got back to the guiding company, it was already 3 pm. I will continue the journey in the next post :) till then ciao!!!