Queenstown - No Kings Land

Finally, I reached the last day of my tour in South Island New Zealand. The town where we stayed, Queenstown sits on the edge of Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by the Southern Alps. The beautiful view is enough reason to spend time in Queenstown if you choose not to do anything else and since we still had hours before our flight back to Auckland, we took a stroll around.

The town centre itself is small enough to walk around. Even though it is quite a small area but the occupancy during the travelling season can swell a few folds of it original size. Many of the other people in town are mostly visitors. This place is so serene that retiring at this place is not a bad idea. Weather is cool. Air is fresh. Plenty of sunshine. It offers year round attractions too.

It happened to be Sunday on the last day of our stay there. We were walking near the wharf when we came across a weekend market there.

Like all market you get to see so many weird stuff.

Ever wonder how Chow Kit got its name?

After that, we took a short sightseeing inside the Queenstown Garden. The garden was surrounded with colorful flowers. It was truly a memorable and beautiful place that we will cherish forever. We sat on the bench at the croquet lawn reflecting all those memories we had over the years and what we encountered during this whole trip.

It was already noon by the time we reached back to our hotel. We packed all our staff and headed back to our car which we abandoned him for one day. Engine was revving up after surviving the cold and chilly weather there. Thank God. We made our last trip around Queenstown by car. Going up at one of the steepest road I ever encountered in my life apart from Jalan Ara for an overview of the town.

Awesome.

We made a last push to Glenorchy as the drive to that location which is 50 minutes north up Lake Wakatipu, is rated as one of the top scenic drives in the world. Though we didn’t reach all the way to Glenorchy, we stopped by the roadside and manage to have a view of Pig Island-Matau.

Queenstown suppose to be a tourist spot for those adventurous seeker. Things like bungy jump, skiing, jet boat ride, Mad Dog Riverboarding are aplenty here. But like I say before, I would be glad that we could come back in one piece rather than upsetting our old people.

After pumping the petrol to the original level, we drove our way to the Queenstown Airport. Apparently, the dropping off system is so convenient and professional that the airport authority itself reserves a car park area especially for car rental drop off. We took photos of the car before we leave (just in case) and dropped our key at the booth inside the terminal. We bid farewell to Queenstown and made our way to Auckland city. We stay overnight at a Korean opened motel nearby the Auckland International Airport. No kimchi but we ate at their one and only Nepalese opened Indian restaurant again. Yup. Malaysian Hot.

Queenstown - In Ferg We Trust

When I ordered my burger, the cashier was asked for my name. I was dumbfounded. Why would you need to tell your name when you purchase any food?

“Huh, why you need my name?,” I asked the cashier.

She was even more taken aback than me.

“Au Yong. A-U- Y-O-N-G,” I replied after being given the nudge from Han Ching signaling me to just do what she asked.

(Few hours before that)

“F**k burger, what is that?,” I asked Han Ching when she pointed to me the restaurant at Shotover Street.

“Fergburger la. It’s very famous in Queenstown,” she tried to clarify.

“Famous for being expensive?,” I asked cheekily.

To me burger is burger. Beef burger is just like Big Mac. How could it be so famous? When I finally got my seats after ordering my F**k Fergburger and yeah, also given my name to the cashier, I saw a framed up letter hung on the wall. The letter was from a doctor at the Medical Center NZ Ltd written to the Fergburger restaurant. It says:

To the Fergburger team,

I wish to confirm that during the winter of 2006, while working as a ski doctor I treated an overseas visitor to Queenstown who required his jaw relocated.

He presented to me with his jaw dislocated holding a Fergburger with one bite taken out of it. He claimed his injury was “BIG AL’s fault”

Dr. Glenn McKay
Queenstown

New Zealand is of no difference with other Europe country in terms of their diet. Sandwiches and burger make part of their life. When it comes to beef burger, nobody can argue that the best meat and steak comes mostly from New Zealand. Being the world largest dairy product producer, you can see cows grazing the grass in New Zealand almost everywhere along the highway. You just can’t give it a miss trying this beef burger in Queenstown.

People were seen thronging in and out of this small restaurant ever since we were sitting there for 30 minutes. Some were waiting for their orders; others were just trying to decide on the menu of what type of burger to choose. Burgers here in Fergburger restaurant generally are not as much variety as those you got in Malaysia with Ramly’s burgers. I’m sure we are the only people in the world that wrap our meat with egg aka “Burger Special”.

Last week, I drove Han Ching to meet her ex-colleague. After saying goodbye, I decided to order one Ramly’s burger from a stall. While waiting for our order, we watched the ‘chef’ skillfully strutting his stuff with one hand on a scrapper and another hand on a thing I called “presser”. He spread 2 eggs on the flat pan and stacked two piece of beef meat on top. Prior to that, he had sliced the beef meat into half horizontally and fried the inner and outer part while trying to maintain the shape. Some sliced onion and cabbages topped with mayonnaise and ketchup, the burger stood a proud 3.5 inches tall.

I was thinking, soon this stall owner will brandish a framed up newspaper article saying a patient has been reported dislocated his jaw while trying to eat a burger at a stall in Shah Alam. Ok, back to this Fergburger experience. I saw the ‘cook’ packed up two burgers and holding our order paper. I’m sure that’s my order as I’ve observed the cashier lady pasted my order on the rack. That guy has been shouting out the customers’ names; so that they will come forward and claim their orders. He was astonished when he looked at my order. His tongue somehow got twisted for a moment. I could see that he was trying hard to get the spelling and pronunciation right. In the end...

“Yo!!!” he shouted and looked at the crowd.

Ferg!

Milford Sound - Doesn't Sounds Right For My Tummy

That morning we woke up quite early. We were (well I was) afraid that we will miss the bus. We abandoned our car trip because the road leading to there was quite dangerous. We were warned by Han Ching’s uncle and aunt on the danger of driving to Milford Sound. Well, going to New Zealand in the wake of the earthquake disaster in Christchurch has been dealt with unwelcome dissuasion from our peers. In order not to let anyone down, I don’t dare to take any risk of endangering ourselves. Taking the blame for not heeding their advice should anything happened to anyone of us you see is not a good idea.

So, for the first time we deserted our trusted Nissan for a bus. The weather was very cold when we got on to the bus. A sign of not good weather ahead. The bus trip was just like those public buses we usually took. It stopped at certain pre-determined location to pick up some passengers from hotels who booked the tour from their respective hotel in Queenstown. After a short toilet cum shopping cum coffee break at Te Anau, we continued the second part of the road.

It is 119 kilometers from Te Anau to Milford Sound. The Milford Road is a unique journey into the heart of Fiordland National Park, part of New Zealand World Heritage area. Some of the most striking and significant features of the World Heritage area are located along its route. Our bus stopped at three locations. The first was the “Mirror Lake”. It is a small lake that provides outstanding reflective views of the surrounding. It is so crystal clean and clear that it will put Coway water filter into shame. You basically can do “snorkeling” and observe the “coral” inside the water without even wearing goggle and bikini.

The second was the “Chasm”. It required a short walk across the mossy forest before we reached the chasm. There are two foot bridges over the Cleddau River that offers breathtaking views of swirling water that have sculpted round shapes and basins in the rock for thousands of years. The last was this river where the bus driver told us to grab a bottle and try scoop up some refreshing natural mineral water. By then, Han Ching and I were too freezing in that chilly climate that we won’t want to move our butt. Furthermore, it was drizzling.

In next to no time, we reached the renowned Homer Tunnel. Named after William Homer Simpson who suggested to hack through the saddle. As Gamuda Berhad is still not established during the 30s, the only way I see this tunnel being built is by hand. This tunnel deserved the sayings of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ as it was very dark inside. Once a vehicle enters this tunnel alone, the only ray of light comes at the other side of the tunnel. Nope. No lighting. The tunnel walls remain unlined granite. Water could be seen seeping through the wall of the tunnel and landed on our front windows. Nope. Don’t get the idea of any SMART tunnel here.

After looking at the road leading to Milford Sound, I have to admit that it was rather a bit dodgy. But because you have a bumper to bumper crawl situation, it is quite out of harm's way to drive at a tortoise speed. After a few kilometers more from the tunnel, we reached the disembarkation point; got our tickets and were told to wait at our respective gate for our boat cruise. For those who opted to drive to Milford Sound, they can still buy the cruise tickets at this terminal.

The Maori name for Milford Sound is Piopiotahi, after the native bird called piopio, now probably extinct. I know what you are thinking. Piopio-tahi does not mean there is a lot of Piopio’s droppings here. On the other hand, Milford Sound was named by a Welsh sealing captain after his birth place, Milford Haven. Milford Sound/Piopiotahi stretches to the open sea. The very high rainfall creates a permanent freshwater layer on the sea surface. Looking at this place it makes you think of the movie King Kong and Jurassic Park. Last Friday, I went to Desa Park City. There this big billboard located beside LDP on your way up Desa Park City. It’s the New Zealand Natural ice cream billboard. Before I proceed, go buy an ice cream stick and put it near your computer screen with the picture below as the backdrop. Does this look familiar?

Milford Sound was supposed to be the climax of our whole New Zealand trip. However, it turned out to be the other way round. Honestly speaking, I found the cruise to be average. Perhaps, blames to be put on the raining weather we encountered throughout the cruise that does not allow us to venture outside the boat. In the end, we were just observing from inside the boat. To make thing worse, I was seasick. I made a mistake by overeat the sandwich given to us as part of the package. The choppy water due to strong wind was not helping either. Fortunately, I didn’t throw out and managed to survive the ordeal.

After reaching back the quay, the seasick somehow subsided. We got back to our bus and headed back to Queenstown. It was already evening by the time we reached Queenstown. I was fully recovered of the nausea by then. And it’s time to go for dinner. You couldn’t believe what we had for dinner while at abroad. Indian food! For God’s sake, including this one, this was the third time we had Indian cuisine in New Zealand. After surviving just bread and spaghetti for one week, the taste of rice mixed with spicy gravy in some way give life back to our insensible taste buds.

When the Nepalese cook asked us what type of “hot” do we take, either “Kiwi Hot” or “Indian Hot”, both of us replied,

“Indian Hot!

Initially, the guy was looking at us with disbelief thinking that this Hong Kong-Chinese-looking couple must be out of their minds. I leaned towards to him and with one hand patting on my chest,

“Don’t worry la braderrrr. Come from Malaysia”

Queenstown - Thanks Steve & Our "Jobs"

People tend to get bored nowadays in their jobs place. Jobs has become part and parcel of our live. No jobs, no money, no honey and no travel. We all should be blessed that we get to travel to other countries as such a young age. I look at all the generations before me that the furthest they may go when they were my age was just Singapore. And that’s too by bus and not by plane.

Air ticket was so expensive that day that we can afford to fly once in every 3-4 years. Now, we made it a vow to travel to overseas at least once a year. Tourism in my opinion has taken a big change here. My parents won’t go to overseas without engaging guided tour. To them, wandering around at other’s people land is seen as a risky act to follow. Furthermore, with limited information on that area, people tend not to take a risk of missing a turn on the road or being late to their destination and worst still, their flight home.

Even though technology has change the way we work, sometimes we still need to go the manual way. That’s why experience and in-depth knowledge is very important. I’ve been to one course recently where the speaker spoke about his teaching in accountancy where he emphasized on the importance of doing accounting calculation manually instead of relying on software. At least, we know where to trace the errors should there been any in the middle of the calculation. To this, my colleague who was attending the course with me added,

“Now there’s the difference between knowing and understanding”, he said in an agreed tone with the speaker.

I studied in an era where technology comes into play of our research and daily assignment. We have to embrace technology to stay competitive in our work place. I’ve seen person who is good at his work just by doing number crunching (expert in the use of software) but during theory exam, it was the other way round. I give you a scenario. Put yourself as an employer. There are two workers under you, A and B. The task given to them is to design one double storey building.

“A” works diligently on manual calculation. He knows and understands all the theory and formulas. He draws all the beam, slab, column and pile using just ruler and pencil. He calls the supplier and asks for the material that can be used on his building and also wait for the supplier’s pricing. He needs 1 month to come up with the final output.

“B” focuses on technology. He knows where to get the theory and formula but does not understand any single of it. He uses design software to come up the model. Using the software to calculate everything for him by just choosing which codes it is to design for. Beam, slab, column and pile are all drawn up for him by the software with altogether the title block and heading. He surfs the Internet to look for supplier and also browses through their catalogue and other projects experience to gauge their performance. A few clicks of email and a call in to follow up for the pricing. He finishes his work in 1 week times.

Now you as the employer. Who would you choose?

Thanks to technology, the world map is as though on our feet and finger. We might not be someone who lives in New Zealand in order to drive or survive in New Zealand. Thanks to Bill Gates and Steve Job. I learned of these two words which were used to describe Steve Job when he passed away recently after the launching IPhone 4S (which I was told the “S” stands for Steve). “Humanizing technology” is the words. It was such a perfect depiction on such an outstanding person. And because of him, it has “technologised humanity”.

All my bookings in New Zealand were done through the Internet without me lifting up even the phone. My hotels and my rooms are pre-booked before I even set foot on the ground. With diligent planning, we took our car in Christchurch and returned it on our final destination at Queenstown before getting on board back to Auckland. When we reached Queenstown, we were a bit afraid initially as this is the first time I drive into a city. All these while, I’ve been just driving the country road. On country road, I just have to beware of possum. In the city, I have to beware of other drivers as well. Just that I’m luckier that they don’t have Mat Rempit here.

Except for the Milford Sound tour that we had to book on the ground as there are many packages available. After looking around in a rather cold weather there, we decided to go for Southern Discoveries. The price offered initially was way cheaper than the others with free food, bus plus the cruise. After I paid for the ticket, Han Ching noted that the package is offered to international students. Worried that we might be denied access which we thought the bus driver will want us to show our student cards, we quickly approached the lady on the counter.

“Ma’am, I think we can’t have this ticket as we are not international student”, I politely admitted.

The lady looked rather taken aback and reassured us,

“Don’t worry, they won’t check”, she replied while giving a hint.

After we went out for the second time, only did we realize that they purposely branded the promotion for international student as a gimmick. All are applicable to this discounted rate. It does not matter if you are a 70 years old uncle, they will still think you are an international undergraduate you see. Now this is something that we will never encounter if we were to book through Internet as we would have thought that this deal is only for students and we wouldn’t have even clicked on the "student ticket" if we were to get our ticket online you see? Now, that’s the technological disadvantage. Sometimes we need that personal touch too.

Potong Glacier!

When I was six years old, I used to watch the drama series like Knight Rider, A-Team, Mission Impossible and the one that I would like to take mention here, Air Wolf. The opening theme of the Airwolf still stucked in my memory that I hummed the music when I was about taking my first helicopter ride. Flying between an airplane and helicopter is quite a bit different feeling. In a chopper, you need not to straighten up you seat. You are required to wear a hearing aid gear to listen to your pilot instruction. And there’s no toilet break. Since it early morning and there are not much cloud to protect us from the direct sunlight, we were instructed to wear sunglasses. Luckily I brought my clip-on sunglasses. As for Han Ching and those who didn’t prepare one, they received a loan Rayban sunglasses instead!

There was one couple inside the helicopter that are into their 70s. Boy, I am surprised by their will to thrill at their age. After seeing the world so much at their age, helicopter ride was just peanut to them. Why? They aren’t as thrill like the that couple sitting besides them (being us) and the old lady dozed off during that short ride.

The view from top was awesome. Simply amazing. The view is as though you are seeing a white colour Grand Canyon. The mountains were covered with glacier. A glance on it makes you think like sitting on top of Haagen Dazs ice cream bucket.

After some briefing by the pilot on all the peak’s name around that area, the pilot flew us to Mount Cook. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. The English name of Mount Cook was given to the mountain in honour of Captain James Cook who first surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand. Captain Cook himself did not sight the mountain during his exploration. Therefore, the next time if you want something to be named after you just do charity and hope one day out of the blue, people especially in JKR, when they ran out of idea on the naming of roads, instead of coming up with funny names like Jalan Manis, Jalan Masin or Jalan Besar they might name it after you.

Frankly speaking, when the pilot kept on pointing to different peaks and their names, I was not aware which peak he was referring. Just imagine he just pointed one finger on the west and shout out, “Oh there’s Mount Tasman on the far right”. I looked to my right.
 
….. (There’s even Mount Kinabalu on the far left corner, Mr Pilot)

Nevertheless, we soon descended on top of a mountain which is designated for safe landing by helicopter. We were given strict 10-15 minutes to walk around. This was our first experience on glacier. Well, we watch a lot of movie where the kids make snowball and throw at each others, but we can’t do it here. Snow is snow and glacier is glacier. Snow comes from the sky. Glacier formed on the surface. It is so hard that we can’t form one ball. If we managed to dig out one too, it is not a good idea to throw one on your friends. But I reckoned this place is a good idea for Ais Kacang. Come to think about it why New Zealand Natural Ice Cream does not want to set up a booth up there trying to sell Ais Batu Campur. Our Tourism Minister for sure wouldn’t mind that idea.

Han Ching was asking me the other day why all the nice shots do not have me in the picture. Ahem… Have you ever seen a professional photographer took pictures of the nice scenery with him inside the photos? The answer is “No”, right? The whole journey only lasted for 40 minutes. Talk about punctuality of time. How I wish the pilot was a Malaysian. We could easily delay and extended our journey up there by more than half an hour.

Since this journey is such a short one. It feels like P1 Wimax. Potong stim. We still had one full day on ourselves. As we didn’t opt for the glacier hike originally, we decided to go for Fox Glacier Valley Walk trail, the nearest and shortest way to see the glacier. As we went through the rocky and bumpy road leading to the glacier valley, we saw barricade leading to the glacier was blocked to tourists. Information regarding the hazard due to heavy rain the night before and also some accidents early of the year due to falling glacier were published on their notice board. With no qualified guide, visitors are not allowed to go in. In Malaysia, when they put a car park sign of “Full Parking”, we will still enter the parking compound. But here, the people heed the advice put on board. No means no. P1 Wimax again. Really potong stim! It is just like I’m in a stuck situation like Aron Ralston did in the movie 127 hours. Just that this time I wasted 127 minutes instead.

I looked at the map and was offered another trail where I can get a good lookout on the glacier. We made a U-turn and opt for Chalet Lookout Walk trail without thinking twice. Trekking at New Zealand rain forest was really cool and relaxing. First you don’t get creepy insects there. Some more they don’t have any snakes here which makes your journey really safe you see.

So we walked across the hanging bridge.

Passed the Fox River.

Reminded ourself on Fern Leaf Milk Powder.

This is by far the nearest we got. Really P1 Wimax “kau” “kau”. Potong stim! Potong air! Potong ais! Potong glacier!

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.