August Holiday

Skydiving at Taopo! Jumped out from the plane at the height of 15,000ft / 4.5km. Awesome!  

Mid Winter Break

Had a short but enjoyable mid winter getaway

A Month in North Island

Back in Christchurch after spending a month in North Island. It was supposed to be a formal attachment for the curriculum but i felt like i was on vacation most of the time. Maybe that's why i didn' realize time had passed me through so quickly.

GP attachment in Cambridge was enjoyable. All the staffs were very friendly and made me feel very comfortable working there. The town was lovely. Lots of small cafes along the main street with local business outlets. Perfect place for retirement if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of cities.

Almost every weekend Swarna and I would plan for short excursion to places around Hamilton, unless we were too worn out and wanting a sleep in. Road trips are always fun and I'm really glad that we've covered so many places.

Cambridge Medical Centre, a big practice in this small town. It has its own lab and radiology.

Sushi in Cambridge. It was freaking cheap, the whole set cost less than $10. Yummy...

Home of L&P, Paeroa. We purposely bought a bottle and posed in front of this landmark.


My socialite host for the past one month. Always busy talking on the phone or messaging people. And she is a closeted alcoholic, haha!





Hot water beach. Like its name suggested, if you go there at the right time and find the right spot, you could dig a hole at the beach and hot water would gush out from beneath. Not exactly understand how it works, but it did happened when we were there. We spent almost 4 hours dipping our body inside this natural hot spa. Great fun!


Thank you so much for your warmest hospitality, Swarna.

Auckland & Rotorua Trip

I had been planning for this trip few months ago before the final exam. Didn't really do a thorough and extensive research but i knew exactly what i wanted to do. Gladly everything went alright.

Spent 3 days 2 nights in Auckland and another 3 days 2 nights in Rotorua. Nothing much i could tell about Auckland since i had been there for numerous times. But Rotorua, gosh, it's the place you must visit. It's a quiet, self sufficient town with lots of pretty attractions like spa, thermal pools, zorbing, maori settlement and etc.

First stop was One Tree Hill. Thanks to Swarna who picked Jane and I up in the airport and spent half of the day with us.

Later, we went to Mission Bay. I still remembered the last time I was there when Caryn was here for elective. Flashing back good memories.... Oh, i just realized the island at the back was Rangitoto Island. Learn something new everyday, haha!

This is a snap shot of Polynesian Spa, Rotorua. It's a really nice place. We spent almost 4 hours dipping ourselves in those hot pools. However the admission was quite pricey. We paid $43 for the lake spa instead of $21 for the normal adult spa. Nonetheless, it's worth the price. Highly recommended if you want to have a relaxing time and smoothen up your skin.

Breath-taking scenary while having a nice time. Considering to bring my family here if they are visiting nz next year.

Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, the main attarction of Rotorua. It's a vast reserve park of hot pools and geysers. Lots of nice scenary apart from the smelly sulfur vapour and smoldering weather. Admission fee: $32

Lady Knox Geyser, that explodes everyday at 10.15am. Luckily I collaborated this trip with Swarna so we managed to witness the 'explosion' on time.

The highlight of my trip, ZORBING.... I was in the ball by the way, haha! We got cheap deals from GrabOne, only paid $22 for each zorb.

All of us including Swarna's cousins and niece waiting in the jeep before they brought us uphill. Super excited!

Finished my solo zorb on the zig-zag track. It was so fun! That was a Zydro, which mean before i squeezed myself into the 'ball', they put in a few buckets of warm water inside and let me rolled with the water. They described this as a combination of roller coaster and washing machine. Pretty dizzy at first when i stepped out but it was tolerable. FUN! Super duper highly recommended! Random fact of the day: Zorbing was invented here in Rotorua!

What an awesome and exciting post exam vacation!

Orana Wildlife Park

In another word, it is a free range zoo, which means all the animals do not live inside a cage. Instead they are given a reasonable amount of compound to walk around while the visitors can see them from a distance seperated by electrical fence. Animals include zebra, lion, tiger, rhino, monkey, kiwi bird, giraffe, lemur, otter and the list goes on and on.

Since we are having a week of holiday, Jane and I decided to visit the park which is approximately 30 mins away from city centre. We spent almost 6 hours plus inside the park visiting all the animals. It was tiring but totally worthwhile.

Rhinos in the Africa Plain



Jumping on a trampoline while all the small kids were away. Such fun!




Hand feeding the giraffe with some branches. Apparently they have really long and yellowish tongue. I wanted to touch the neck but too bad it always move away, sigh...




Jane and the Lion Encounter Poster. We paid extra $30 to enter the cage while the zoo keepers fed the lions. Only 20 people allowed inside the cage per day. Guess what, we were the first and only customer who went for it. Well, you gotta be at least 1.4m tall to enter and most of the visitors i saw that day were small children. Lucky!



Inside the truck. Gosh,it was really scary. The lions were surrouding the truck because they wanted food, some of them even climbed up to the roof of the cage. The scariest thing was when they were roaring and fought among themselves. An awesome experience!



Jane and her favourite animal, cheetah. It is the fastest animal on earth and surprisingly pretty harmless when they are not hunting or mating.

It was a nice day out! Highly recommended if you are visiting Christchurch.

Family Trip

Finally i get the chance to blog about my family trip which happened almost 4 months ago. It's been such a long time since i had so much fun with my family. In fact, i would consider this was my first overseas vacation with them. My parents had been to so many places across the globe but never brought us along, argh... Haha, not throwing my tantrum anymore because i truly enjoyed this trip. Miss you all!

Poor erjie and francis who missed out... we did think and talk about you two lots of time throughout the whole trip because we really missed you, haha! Now just to show off some of the highlights of this trip.

Minus 5 Bar in Queenstown. A small bar completely made of ice and served cocktail in an icy glass. Only allowed in the room for 30 minutes. Couples of sculptures scattered all over. Overall experience, freaking cold.

The most luxurious accommodation i ever had. It's a villa at the top of a hill overlooking the whole Queenstown. Would definitely not stay there if there wasn't discount from GrabOne.

Kawarau Bridge, the first bungy jump was invented here. Yeah, one thing ticked off from my bucket list, i jumped! Very expensive and very scary. My advice: think twice before you pay and don't think anything when you are standing at the platform.

Dajie and a big teddy bear at Toy Muzeum, Wanaka. Rows of toy display ranging from ancient time to modern time. More like a warehouse than a conventional muzeum. Not entirely gutted but didn't find it too fascinating. Probably because i didn't own too many toys when i was young, sob sob... childhood deprived...



My parents and san gu at the top of Franz Josef glacier. Instead of spending 8 hours hiking the glacier like we young people did, they decided to take the helicopter and flew up in less than half an hour. Of course there was a price to pay, huge monetary price to pay, haha! Not complaining since it came out from their pocket.


My dad trying to lift up a tilted clock tower at Puzzling World, Wanaka. It was a very interesting place that create visual illusion. The best part was a room that looked normal but made you feel dizzy and walk sideway as you walk across. Highly recommended. Bring along a scientist to explain the phenomenon would be awesome.


My mum trying to 'flirt' with cruise captain in Milford Sound, haha! It took us almost 5 hours to drive to Milford Sound from Queenstown, and another 5 hours to return on the same day. Breath-taking scenary but extremely tired after such a long journey.


Me and san gu at Mirror Lake, somewhere near Milford Sound. Don't get fooled by the name of the lake, it doesn't reflect your image when you look down, it only reflects the scenary above the surface.

My family at Skyline, Queenstown. We had over rated buffet, watched a haka performance by Maori people and took lots of picture since the scenary was so pretty.



Random shot at Akaroa. It was ANZAC day when we were there, so most of the shops were closed. Not to mention the weather that day was horrible. Cold and wet, worst combination. We went for a cruise and saw some rare dolphins that can only be found here.




Me and dajie having fried rice at Franz Josef. Fried rice that bought from Wanaka the night before. Probably the best fried rice we ever had because we were extremely hungry when we were taking the break. Imagine 8 hours of hiking on ice, probably shed off some kilos as i climbed, haha! Highly recommended and do it while the glacier is still here, remember global warming is taking over.

Memorable vacation. Shall do it again!

Missing All of You...

Somewhere near Milford Sound

Just sent away my family to the airport. The sense of sorrow is really overwhelming. It's been such a long time since we had so much fun together. Can't believe the road trip has over and it's time to say goodbye. Miss you all so much!

Earthquake Getaway

A spontaneous road trip turned out to be a blast! Me and the Elizabeth Street girls (sin mei, xiao li and jane) spent 3 days 2 nights exploring the northern region of South Island, eg Nelson, Malborough and North Canterbury. Actually it was pretty hectic to cover so many places within the short time frame. Nevertheless, we did it and proud of it!

First day: Left Christchurch in the late morning. Went straight to Hanmer Spring. Paid extra 10 bucks for the slides. Gosh, it was really fun! Spent 2 hours dipping inside the thermal pool. Felt my skin was smoother. Psychological? Haha! Hit the road after late lunch. Drove for approximately 6 hours to reach Nelson. Stayed in Mid-City Lodge rooftop apartment. Nice location, friendly owner, spa bath, what else do you want?

Second day: Went to Nelson i-Site to find out what to do. Wanted to do sea kayaking, but it needed booking one day prior. Sigh... Finally decided to do salmon fishing. So we drove all the way to the west side- Takaka. Spent half of the day there. Came back to Nelson and zzzz.....

Third day: Left Nelson and drove to Malborough. Stopped at Havelock for fresh mussels. Visited Picton and Blenheim with lightning speed. Went to Kaikoura for dinner later on. Ended the trip with Jane driving us back to Christchurch.

First dinner at Nelson, Stonegrill Restaurant. Unfortunately we were too frugal to order any stone grilled meal. This was my pork fillet with risotto. Quite Nice.

Me and Sin Mei standing at the end of Trafalgar Street, Nelson

Me and Xiao Li at Nelson Cathedral

Sin Mei and Xiao Li standing in front of Trafalgar Park (stadium)

Eating real fruit ice cream (banana plus mixed berries) at Motueka. $4.50 each. Can add in yogurt if you want (ew....)

Nelson's WOW Museum (World of Wearable Arts and Classic Cars). Normal student price: $16, but we got further discount to $10 because we are from Christchurch, yeah! Not allowed to take pictures in the Wearable Arts section, so we took a few from the cars section.

My mafia car (outside WOW Museum)

The girls and Austin Power's car



Salmon fishing at Lake Anatoki, Takaka

Managed to get one salmon after being helped by a group of friendly customers. It ain't easy to fish... Posing victoriously with our catch! It weighed approximately 1.8kg.

Fresh smoked salmon, yum yum!

Havelock's Mussel Pot. Nicest mussels i have ever taste.

Me and Jane at Queen's Garden, Nelson

Jane and Sin Mei at Queen's Garden, Nelson


At Picton. Interislander ship at the background.

Blenheim's chocolate factory

Tossing a stone at Queen Charlotte Sound

Somewhere near Kaikoura. Awesome scenary. Able to see wild seal at the sea side.

What a great road trip! Thanks peeps!