Bay Of Plenty Good View

If you thought smelly bean curd at Hong Kong is smelly, wait till you spend a night at Rotorua. It bring back memory of those chemistry classes I attended in the secondary school where you mixed two liquid and get the by product that emits rotten egg smell. And you thought the student besides you just farted.

Well, most of our closed friends and families are a bit concerned when we decided to go ahead with our trip in the wake of the aftermath of Christchurch earthquake. Worst still, when there was one guy who predicted that there may be another shock wave going to happen during our stay here. He was right but just a bit skew off track. It is in New Zealand this time but Japan! Han Ching and I were watching the CNN news from our hotel and the next day all the NZ newspapers are showing the picture like what we saw in the movie 2012. That really took the shine out from our day.

After a few sms to inform our families that nothing happened in NZ, we made our way to Lake Tikitapu. Lake Tikitapu or Blue Lake is the smallest of four small lakes in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The blue color of the lake is due to these minerals called rhyolite and pumice on the lake bed. Now that I come to think about it, aren’t lake blue in color like what we used to draw in the art class those day? Anyway, if blue lake is special wait till you hear about green lake.

Lake Rotokakahi or Green Lake, is located just a stone throw away. Famed for being the breeding place for Green Hornet Named for its abundance of kakahi (local language meaning freshwater mussels), the lake looks emerald green due to its shallow sandy bottom. Ok. What mineral this time? Jade? 

The last lake that we went is Lake Tarawera, the largest of a series of lakes which surround the North Island in New Zealand. The lake is filled primarily by water from the nearby Blue (Lake Tikitapu) and Green (Lake Rotokakahi) lakes. I was thinking to suggest to NZ tourism board that since they have two water color (blue+green) collides into one lake, why not name it Cyan Lake instead?

I’m sure those who watch football knows who Alan Shearer is. When I first came to know about Shearer, never had I thought there’s actually a word/job called shearer apart from it being associated with football. To those who never come across this word, shearer is actually a barber. Their jobs are not trimming human’s hair but sheep’s. And there’s no other place to have so many sheep like in New Zealand which is why we dropped by the Agrodome. Agrodome is one on New Zealand’s most loved tourist attractions. It is home to the multi award winning sheep show. This famous Rotorua attraction features live sheep shearing, showcasing 19 breeds of champion rams, as well as dog demonstrations. During our show, the performer was asking the crowd of their nationality.

“Anyone from Hong Kong raise your hand?”

The front row tourists corresponded.

“Now how many are from Korea”

Girls shouting loud as if Justin Beiber is on stage.

“Anyone from Japan?”

Same response like the Korean.

But this time the performer paused a while,

“Oh, uh… hello” he replied. His joyful face took a sudden change.

I’m sure in his mind, he must be saying to himself,

“Didn’t they read the news or newspaper today? Gee, they still have the mood?”

When the shearer asked the crowd which out of the 19 sheep on displayed to be the scapegoat “scapesheep”, everyone was pointing the top breed, Merino. For your info, Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any kind.

The shearer was a bit evasive on this and picked a poor not-so-famous breed instead. And within seconds, the sheep was down to its bare bone stripped naked in front of full audience with not even a single strand on its body. 

That was the last event we had in Rotorua before we headed back to Hamilton.

When we were near to Han Ling’s home, we decided to picnic in Hamilton Garden with the 1 foot long Subway sandwich bought for our tea time. Hamilton Gardens is a public gardens owned and managed by the city council. Entry to the gardens is free, with all the gardens open and that’s the most important thing in our trip. 

They are the region's most popular visitor attraction, attracting 600,000 people each year. What was then the city's waste disposal site, the gardens has its own theme of 'the story of gardens' and are divided into the Paradise, Productive, Fantasy, Cultivar and Landscape collections.

I've been living near Setapak Garden, strolled along Lake Garden, listen to Savage Garden, and even eat Gardenia bread, this is the only garden I found worth to mention. For some odd reason, the flowers and trees  abroad look greener and more colourful than those found in Malaysia.

And the grass they had is not the typically 'lalang' type we found behind our playground. Their grass are well trimmed as though you can play golf on it. And you can even perform those Bollywood rolling downhill act without getting your shirt dirtied with mud.

These few days in Hamilton and Rotorua experience has certainly taught us that life isn’t about working only. The Japan tsunami and earthquake signaled to us that life is indeed short and there are many things still for us to cherish in life. I saw one saying which was written on the blackboard and displayed in front of a furniture shop in Hamilton and decided to take a picture of it.

Agree?