Boring life, routine job, ignoring my dreams and life continues until my inner force decided to rebel. To resurrect my dream, I took a bold step; left my cluttered life and mind behind and decided to get a Working Holiday Visa and backpack solo to NZ. When I was in the plane flying to Christchurch, NZ I know it was a point of no turning back. In the plane full of people and voices, yet I felt the emptiness of being alone, it was frightening.
Solo backpacking is not common and widely acceptable in Malaysian culture. Traveling solo is to see how far you are willing to go. New Zealand has the most sheep per capita than any other place in the world. It has more sheep than people in this country.
My first destination in NZ was Christchurch, a place that I had spent 4 months working as no-pay-cleaner at a hostel. In return, I was given accommodation for free (a bunk bed with 5 persons in a small dorm). As a traveler who knows nothing much about NZ, this job was a good start to see NZ and to save accommodation money. The tasks include cleaning the mess people left in the bed, room, kitchen and toilet.
After a month, I wasn’t able to get a job yet but more than ½ of the money that I brought had gone on living expenses. I was panicked, there were only NZD 700 left in the bank. Sometimes, in order to survive longer there, I will have to rely on the food at the “Free Shelf”, the food left by the travelers because it was too heavy for them to carry along in their travel. “Come back to Australia to celebrate Christmas with me if you cant live in NZ”, my friend told me before I left for NZ. This echo had been playing in my ears. “What do I have to lose, if I choose to leave?” I asked myself… I did have doubts, questions flooded my mind. What the heck I was doing there?
Filled with fear, I decided to continue to stay on at Christchurch hoping to find luck in this town. After many long days of searching I finally got a job at the casino! The job was perfect for me because I can still worked for free accommodation in the morning till noon and the casino shift started from evening till the next morning. Well, life wasn’t that easy that I thought it will be. I never lived and worked this kind of labour life before.
Months passed, working life finally came to an end, and it was time to conquer New Zealand. I tried to save as much money as possible that I could to support my living expenses and for the coming travel.
~~Around New Zealand in 33 days ~~
10 April 08
Kaikoura
From Christchurch, I moved to Kaikoura. The name Kaikoura comes from a Maori language: Kai means food and koura means sea which combine means seafood. From the meaning of this town one can guess that this town is by the sea and it is famous for crayfish however I didn’t try one because it was still too expensive for me. There are a lot of activities, from swimming with dolphin, whale watching to wine tour. If you want to empty your pocket, this is the place. Personally, I don’t like this small town. I stayed in Adelphi Lodge and Dusky lodge. Adelphi Lodge, very cold dorm and dirty kitchen.
14 April 08
Nelson & Abel Tasman Sea and National Park
One should not leave NZ without going to this magnificent national park. There are few tracks in this national park. I took a coach from Nelson to Kaiteriteri, sailed along the peaceful and calm sea to Anchorage. Then, I walked through native bushes and captured the relaxing scenery from the coastal track from Anchorage to Marahau. I was amazed by the gleaming green blue sea and golden-sand beaches along the track. From Marahau, I took a coach back to Nelson.
16 April 08
Greymouth
After spending 5 nights in Nelson, I left for Greymouth. It was a gloomy day, luckily I was still able to stop at Cape Foulwind Walkway to check out for the seal colony. Only spend a night in Greymouth, small town and I didn’t manage to explore much about this town because I reached here quite late.
17 April 08
Hokitika, Franz Josef, Helicopter, Glaciers
It was a 30 minutes stop at Hokitika, a place that is famous greenstone and also commonly known as jade. Greenstone is a sacred stone for Maori people.
So many beautiful experiences happened in a day. Look, I made it to Franz Josef! Here, I took a scenic helicopter flight to view the two New Zealand famous glaciers; Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. It was the most stunning day for me, seeing the sparkling white snow mountain, touching the snow for the first time, and taking helicopter for the first time. This was the most amazing landscape I ever seen, it was absolutely amazing. Words were not able to describe the moment of satisfaction, camera was not able to capture the beauty of God’s creation, and I can only use my eyes and heart to admire its beauty.
Money worth spent.
18 April 08
Wanaka
Wanaka, has a very beautiful lake. Calm blue sky, cold breeze and golden autumn leaves dangling from the trees along the lake. The scenery is much more beautiful than I expected. It was freezing cold, 11 °C. This small lovely town is meant for tourist to spend a peaceful holiday. It has a lot of luxury bungalows, I think Wanaka is place for the rich people to buy the bungalow and spend their summer here.
20 April 08
Queenstown
Queenstown is a place for thrill seeker, the popular town of extreme sports. The heart-stopping activities include skydive, bungy jump at Karawau Bridge(the world’s original bungy site) , whitewater rafting and canyon swing. With all the attractive activities around, it will certainly cost me arms and legs. I was not ready to throw myself off the plane or from the bridge. Besides, I don’t want to burn a hole in my pocket too, therefore going up the Bob’s Peak by skyline gondola to view spectacular of Lake Wakatipu was perfect for me. I tried Skyline Luge, hurtle down the 800 meters track. Although Wanaka and Queentown are just 71 km away, Queenstown is absolutely different from Wanaka. It has a great vineyard too, I took the opportunity to visit Gibbston Valley Winery, 700 m from Kawarau Bridge. It is the largest wine producer in the region.
23 April 08
Milford Sound
The travel will not complete without visiting to Milford Sound. After visiting to few of the activity booking agencies, we found the cheapest deal to go to Milford Sound www.mitrepeak.com , a day trip from Queenstown. Perhaps, I had seen too many beautiful blue lakes and sea, snow capped mountains, green floras, and this day trip was not able to impress me any further. Mirror Lakes is one of the World Heritage Area. On a fine day, the crystal clear of the lakes can show a perfect reflection of the mountains. In future, if I have the opportunity to return to NZ, I will certainly visit this lake.
24 April 08
Dunedin
Time drifted away so fast, I have been hopping from town to town for 14 days, and I was getting exhausted. Dunedin, is a compact town with a lot of Victorian architecture buildings. Nothing much to highlight in this town. As usual, I visited couple of the landmarks such as First Church of Otago, Dunedin Art Gallery and some museums. We took a bus from the town centre to the World Steepest Street, the Baldwin Street. The bus system in Dunedin is not as good as in Christchurch. I had never agreed on hitch-hiking because it was too risky. We had waited for about 30 minutes but still unable to get a bus back to town. Thus, my friend tried her luck by showing her thumb up, and there was a guy who stopped and sent us back to the town area safely… Thank god!
27 April 08
Tekapo
I left my newly met friends in Dunedin and headed to Tekapo. Tekapo, it was a place that I always want to go. The cute little church, The Church of good Shepherd and the beautiful blue lake. I love the dawn scenery of the Lake Tekapo. My initial plan was to stay 2 nights here so that I can climb up the Mount Cook but I made a last minute change to stay only 1 night in Tekapo and go back to Christchurch the next day. I don’t know why I changed my mind .. maybe I missed Christchurch.
28 April 08
Christchurch
Finally, I was back to Christchurch, the place where I started. It was so good to see all the familiar faces, buildings and streets again. Spent 4 peaceful and relaxing night here. When came to the 5th day, I know I have to leave this place and I will certainly miss this place.
3 May 08
Wellington
Goodbye to South Island. At last, I left South Island and moved up to North Island, I took a ferry from Picton to Wellington, crossing the Cook Straits. The sea was rough, the Interislander ferry was delayed. By the time I reached Wellington, the capital of NZ, the sky was dark and it was cold night, the chilly wind caused my body quivered. Once I got off from the ferry I headed to claim my baggage and took a free ferry shuttle from the terminal to the railway station. Then, I caught a public bus to Cambrigde Tce. It was a challenging night, searching for the hostel in dark with a heavy backpack and a daypack. Luckily I did my homework, I printed out the map to my hostel, Wellywood Backpacker. After about 15 minutes wandering in the city, I saw the eye-catching building; the Wellywood Backpacker painted in black and white zebra stripes. So glad that I finally found it. It was a long journey and I spent whole day traveling on the road and by ferry.
4 May 08
Wellington City Tour
I got a cheap deal from Naked bus. NZD 1 to tour Wellington City and Coastline. Most importantly, this tour covered the entire well-known landmarks.
Highlights
1) Beehive Parliament building
2) Old St. Paul - Another church.. there are heap of churches here.
3) National library
4) Botanic garden
5) Mt. Victoria - has the best view of the city from the top of the mountain.
6) etc
5 May 08
Napier
Woke up early in the morning to get ready to leave Wellington. There were multiple stops from Wellington to Napier. It was a cold and wet day, I made a quick stop at Pukaha Mt. Bruce National Wildlife Centre to see kiwi birds at the nocturnal house. Didn’t manage to take photo of the kiwi birds because it was too dark in the nocturnal house and camera flash was not allowed.
Tui is the name of a bird, Tui beer is a famous beer in New Zealand.
I had been to winery and now I gone to the Tui Brewery for beer tasting, with NZD 2, I was given to taste 3 pints of tui beer, alcohol mission accomplished. ;-)
After few hours on the road, I reached Napier, city of Art in the evening. Once I checked in to the Archie’s Bunkers I quickly grabbed my NZ Lonely Planet and walked around the town before the sky gets dark. It was going to be winter soon, the sun set very early, the sky will turn dark at about 5.30 pm. By the time the clock hit 7 pm, the town turned into a ghost town, a very quiet town and hardly seen anyone in the town. Too cold and too quiet, certainly not my cup of tea. Staying at Archie’s bunker was not a good idea too, the room was fine but not the heater wasn’t ok, the heater was too small to keep the room warm! At night the temperature dropped, it was the coldest room I ever had in New Zealand, it was like staying at the fridge.
6 May 08
Taupo
It only took me about 2 hours to reach Taupo from Napier. I haven’t seen any volcano yet and I really looked forward to go for Tongariro Alpine Crossing but didn’t manage to make it because of the bad weather, all the trips up to tongariro were cancelled. I had no luck in doing the alpine crossing so I spent my peaceful days scrolling along the Lake Taupo, the size of the lake is as big as Singapore.
9 May 08
Mount Maunganui
From Taupo to Mount Maunganui, I stopped at Rotorua for 3 hours. Rotorua is a stinky town, with the rotten egg smell caused by the sulphur-rich air from the volcanoes. I was not able to explore much in this town because it was raining. Reached at mount maunganui in the late evening and the weather still didn’t turn better. And I decided to spend the rest of the day in the hostel.
10 May 08
Auckland
Auckland, the city of sail was my final stop before flying back to Melbourne. The bus driver drove so fast, I arrived at Auckland earlier than expected. Auckland, another city.. with a lot of Asians here.
11 May 08
Devonport
I must get out from the city, so I left the city for a smaller town, Devonport. Devonport is a lovely with a lot of old villas. Devonport was totally different from Auckland even though it was only 10 minutes away by ferry. I climbed up the Mt. Victoria and North Head, from the top I got the perfect view of the Auckland city.
12 May 08
Onehunga
Today is the final day for me to settle everything before leaving NZ. In the evening, I took a bus to Onehunga about an hour drive from Auckland city. Onehunga, a small town with many Chinese restaurants. I made my final shopping of souvenirs at Dress-smart.
13 May 2008
Goodbye NZ
At the dawn this morning, I packed my feeling and things and get ready to leave NZ.
Despite all the hard times in the beginning of my travel, there were sweet rewards in the end. The people that I met along the journey, the awesome things that I seen, things that I learnt, the pleasure of taking small chances; all these make my trip worthwhile. Perhaps, these are the joy of traveling alone.
I will miss the mountain, sea, wild places, and gorgeous landscape in New Zealand.
I am glad that I make it. New Zealand is a fascinating country, but it will never suit me, deep in me I am still a very ‘Malaysian’.
