My Ice Hoki Date

The next morning, we started our journey very early. We need to get to Fox Glacier. That’s like 260km away and we need to get there early for the registration for our glacier hike. It was dark and rainy. Just like the day before. Cold and strong wind burnt up all the heat generated from our warm breakfast we ate earlier on. Leftover sausages from yesterday dinner. Sighed. The journey was slow with sharp turnings and slippery road condition. Luckily, our car was up to the challenge. Thanks Nissan.

Soon, we reached the west coast. By that time, ray of sunlight trickled through the dark cloud. We arrived at a town called Hokitika. For the first time, we get to do some grocery from the supermarket there. It’s time to load up and go for some Jamie Oliver shopping. I like to shop at supermarket whenever I’m abroad. Firstly, it eliminate all the hassle of price haggling and also the sense of feeling of getting cheated. It’s funny. A buyer will be scared of getting cheated when the seller gain a couple of cents from the trading. But a person will not be scared of getting cheated even when the big name players (i.e. Jusco, Tesco, and Carrefour) gain a couple of bucks from trading with you.

The most important thing I guess is the quality of your product is guaranteed.

Anyhow, shopping in NZ is better as they offer petrol voucher you see. They will minus out a few cents per liter of petrol you pump at their own petrol station. Good deal huh? This time, I seized the opportunity to buy a few bottle of Manuka honey, one of the famous souvenir items here. Manuka honey is a type honey made by bees in New Zealand that frequent the manuka bush. Duh. Aren’t all honey are the same? Manuka honey is gathered in New Zealand from bees feeding on manuka, which grows uncultivated throughout the country.

Since we have free parking inside the supermarket, we went for a stroll and found this store owned by a South African guy called William Steyn. He is famous for his stone art. So famous that there is a traveler’s book which Han Ching purposely bought talk about this store when one is to visit Hokitika. What this guy do is actually collecting some stone from the beach nearby and paint some simple designs of kiwis, nikau trees and other images which resemble prehistoric day sketches you find on the wall inside a caves.

We grabbed ourselves a whitebait sandwich for takeaway so that we can picnic our way to Fox Glacier. Whitebaits are young fish. They are tender and edible. The entire fish is eaten including head, fins and gut. This fish is quite famous in NZ and especially at West Coast. Well, that’s according to Han Ching’s book. There are many tourist spots in NZ. So, finding a dining seat is not as tough as finding a place in the Malaysia coffee shop during lunch time. While driving our way, we stopped by this Lake Mahinapua, roughly 10km south of Hokitika. One of the reasons why we chose this place was partly due to the name of the road leading to the lake. It has some Asian feel on it. Guess what? Shanghai Road.

And the place we picnic beside the lake is named Shanghai Bay.

(Music: “Sheung Hoi Tan” (上海灘) by Frances Yip)

Suddenly I feel we are the Malaysia version of Hui Man Keong and Lui Ching Ching.

(Bubble burst!)

Our stay here wasn’t long as strong wind prevented us from enjoying a longer stay. Such a shame as another group of uncles and aunties on the other side of the table were just wearing quarter pants and polo shirt. Both Han Ching and I were wrapping ourselves like Chinese dumpling. Luckily our car had heater and we soon had to say goodbye to Shanghai Bay. After a few more hours drive we reached Franz Josef, another spot for watching glacier besides Fox Glacier. We were spoilt for choice as to choose between Fox and Franz at first. But after some research done, we noted that most of the tourists who had visited both opted for Fox Glacier with some good comments.

Fox Glacier is just half an hour away down south. When we reached there, first thing first was to find the cheapest deal around that can bring us to the peak of the glacier. There are many shops offering hike and tour. The most famous one is definitely Fox Glacier Guiding. Number 1 Google search when you type Fox Glacier. That was our first choice for hiking initially. But since I was not up to my fitness level when I arrived here in NZ due to my foolish decision to hike the Bako trail in Kuching prior to our trip here, I was having cough and flu.


Furthermore, there was rain the day before and hiking is not encouraged as it extremely dangerous. The only chance we had that time was helicopter ride to the top instead. The one that we opted for are Glacier Helicopters. Reason was because we have this discount coupon from the magazine which Han Ling told us to grab from the arrival hall inside the airport. We save quite a lot from this magazine!

Glacier Helicopters staff: Are you going to pay by cash or credit card?

Au Yong: I have ASB debit card.

Glacier Helicopters staff: Oh great… Both of you locals here?

Au Yong: Nope. We are tourist from Malaysia… (I sense an awkward reaction from our conversation. Now this guy must be thinking how on earth a Malaysian couple will have a local NZ debit card. Have they just robbed somebody?)

Au Yong: Her sister who is staying here gave this to us. (I pointed to Han Ching while trying to clarify the situation)

Glacier Helicopters staff: Wow… Give you ATM card. You must have the best sister in the world!

After securing our itinerary for tomorrow, we headed back to our accommodation. Of all the motels, hostels and hotels we stayed in NZ, this is by far the worst we ever stayed. First, our window can’t lock properly. Secondly, the toilet cum bathroom is located inside another block. Then our room is a double-decker bed. When I was a teen, staying the same room with my brother, I had this intimidating feeling of falling down from the top of the deck. Since Han Ching has the tendency to be drowsy after waking up, climbing up and down the ladder is definitely not advisable. Even all these shortcoming can’t beat the fact that our room is so small that I can even do this!

The only plus point here is having the sink inside the room. If it’s raining out there at night and you wanted to answer nature call…. Ahem…. The tap comes with hot water some more. And there’s even a small heater. Small enough to warm the room of this size.  Nevertheless, you get what you paid for. Actually, after staying in it, you will be glad that Tune Hotel can be treated as 4 stars hotel you see.