Day 2 (Sunday 3rd May 2009) – Countryside and beach

After a hearty breakfast, we – Ma Hen, AD, D, Aunt and I - traveled about 18 km out of the city to the village of Clevedon in the countryside. It was only 6.00 am but the sun was already up. And surprisingly so were the villagers. There were cars already parked along the country road.

Similar to Pasar Tani in Malaysia, the New Zealanders have farmers’ market. And this was our destination on that early morning, Clevedon Farmer’s Market. However, unlike Malaysian messy and otherwise boring Pasar Tani, the Clevedon Farmer’s Market was clean and had this festivity atmosphere.

There were people selling home made jams, mustard, muesli (mixture of cereals and dried fruits), cakes, buns, honey, freshly pluck fruits and vegetables – just to name a few. There were picnic tables, and blocks of hays under shady trees. People sat and enjoyed each other companies. Little kids ran around and played on the grass. There were even pony rides. If you ran out of cash but still want your kids to have fun, no problem, booths here accept credit cards!

We didn’t stay long, but long enough to stuff ourselves with freshly baked bread. AD needed new pair of shoes (the old ones conveniently gave up on Day 1). Aunt took us to a place called Botany. Contrary to its name, it was not a flora-fauna-kind of place. It was some sort of shopping centre. Having used to KL’s high-rise shopping malls, it took some time for me to realized that New Zealand malls, though not imposing-tall, was equally big, sprawling to form some sort of little town square. We went to Number1shoes and a few other shops there. I wanted to buy new boots for work, unfortunately none met my specific criteria.

Then we drove up north, making a stop at a shop selling the iconic sheepskin rug. Aunt suggested that we check out the price and compare with other places that we might pass during our coming road trip. Then we continued further up, to reach Mission Bay. Shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars lined the main road. It was a bustling business centre. Across the main road was a park over looking the sea. They were people basking in the sun and playing in the public ground.

To get a better vista, Aunt drove us up to a nearby hill, Micheal Joseph Memorial Park. There were people lounging on the freshly mowed grass. Initially Aunt just gave us five minutes to enjoy the view. When we passed the time limit, D came looking for us, only to join us doing geeky tourist stuff – taking loads of photos – and further prolonged Aunt waiting time! Realizing that we already spent about 20 minutes, we headed to the car.

We had barbecue dinner in another Singaporean's house.

Distance traveled: approx. 79km

Day 1 (Saturday 2nd May 2009) – One Tree Hill

Yes, there is such place on earth. It’s not a Hollywood’s fictional place.

After a little rest, Aunt drove us - Ma Hen, AD, D and me - around town. Our first stop: Dress-Smart. Dress-Smart looks like any other shopping complexes. Main items sold are clothes of every type – work, play, casual, formal, cheap, and expensive. Not a shopaholic by nature (except when it comes to gadgets but that is for other entry), I was at ‘lost’. I ended up seating on a wooden bench opposite an ice-cream shop, eating an ice cream cone, while at the same time, eye-balling passer-bys.

First thing that caught my eyes were the fashion senses and the postures of the general public. While the Italians were impeccably (and formally) dressed, walked with their back straight and chin up (you get what I meant?), even when walking through street bazaars, the New Zealanders that passed by me that day were opposite the Italians. Most were casually dress, preferring t-shirts and jeans. Some were wearing working boots and some were only in their sandals (open toes sandals in the cold weather!). They seemed to slouch and drag their feet as they walked. They all appear very laid back as oppose to the up-tight Italians.

I finished my ice cream just as the rest of the gang emerged from the payment counters. Everyone seemed to have bought something. We all hopped into the car and continued with our short tour. Somewhere near Maungawhau Domain, we spotted sheeps.

Having seen Malaysian sheep during our previous trip to rural Malaysia (note to self: snap a picture of Malaysian sheep), Ma Hen was excited to see white fluffy New Zealand sheep. Aunt was kind enough to let us out of the car and brave the grass land filled with sheep poop just to get closer look / photos. AD on the other hand, was excited to see a cow, saying that the cows here have thicker and denser fur.

We then drove to One Tree Hill. There used to be a lone tree standing on top of the hill. The hill (and the then alive tree) has some sort of significant meaning to a certain Maori tribe. The tree was vandalized and cut down by a bunch of hooligans some where in year 2000. To mark where the tree used to be, an obelisk stood in its place.

We returned home, got a little rest before going out again. We were having dinner at Aunt & Uncle’s friends’ place. We met three more Singaporean families there – a pair of newly weds, a family of five, and a family of four. Having never heard Gram talking in her thick native dialect, the Singaporeans wondered what language she uses when talking to me. I understood her just fine and had no problem in conversing with her using the same dialect.

We had a wonderful dinner with agreeable company. We went home and to bed almost immediately.

Distance traveled: approx. 47km
(p.s.: Location for dinner is not disclosed and covered in map)

Day 1 (Saturday 2nd May 2009) - Rise and shine

It was it was 4.11am (Malaysian time). We were in the Australian airspace when the sun rose that day. The plane touched down at the tarmac around 11.45am (New Zealand time). I have to refer to my photos (which have Malaysian time embedded in the EXIF) to refresh my foggy mind. I have to remind myself that NZ time is ahead 5 hours of Malaysian time.

While waiting for our luggage to pop-out at the conveyer belt, I noticed an airport personnel walking with a cute little dog, sniffing people’s bags. The little dog was specially trained to sniff out plants and dairy products. NZ, being an agricultural country, imposes strict regulation on bringing plants and dairy products. Understandably, you don’t want to have some foreign microbes destroying the whole country’s produce. If you have something against dogs sniffing your bags, just don’t bring food in them. And make sure that the bags have not been used to carry food, especially fruits, for the past two or three days.

Ma Hen spotted Aunt upon exiting the arrival gate. Waiting with Aunt was her niece, D. We hauled our bags into Aunt’s car and headed home, making a brief stop at a meat shop to buy some Halal meat. At home, we met more family members – Gram, doing the laundry in the garage; and Uncle, surfing the internet at the dining table. We unloaded our bags and had lunch. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we ate, only that it was very filling and tasty (all home cooked meal in NZ was superb).

About 8703 km from our starting point: KLIA