June 2011


Cadbury is a brand of chocolate that we are all familiar with, but I never fancied Cadbury chocolate as none of the chocolate I tasted here was so fascinating to keep me addicted.

Anyway, our destination after visiting the Milford Sound was Dunedin, which is one of the biggest cities in South New Zealand.

Dunedin New Zealand

The bustling street. We were excited as if we were in touch with civilization again!

Dunedin New Zealand McDonalds

Our lunch stop – McDonalds.

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Thick and juicy Angus beef burger at NZD$10. Certainly not very cheap, but it was so huge!

Dunedin New Zealand

After the quick lunch, we had 30mins to kill before we could check into our hotel at 2pm. They had Cotton On in the shopping malls too :D

Right after we checked in to our hotel, we had to leave the room as we had 2 destinations for the day – Cadbury chocolate factory and Lanarch Castle.

Cadbury chocolate factory Dunedin New Zealand outlook

Hello Cadbury!

Cadbury chocolate factory Dunedin New Zealand

They have the full factory tours (including watching their operations) during the weekdays; unfortunately it was a Saturday for us, and we had to make do with the 1/2 factory tour.

Cadbury chocolate factory Dunedin New Zealand milkman

Follow me!

(And all their staff were dressed in the same jumpsuit uniform)

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As soon as we entered the shop, we were greeted by a mountain of gold chocolate bars! We were already excited :D

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If you are following my trip, sorry that I am unable to update very frequently ;)

Continuing after we departed from Queenstown, it was a long drive ahead of us, 286km to reach our destination before 1.30pm. And the roads were winding as we were going up hill!

hot air balloon queenstown

Hot air balloon to welcome us along the journey as though they knew we were passing by :D

milford sound tunnel

The tunnel that has been dug as a passage through. The tunnel is nothing like our SMART tunnel, it is very primitive and you can’t help but to wonder..how did people do it back then when there was no high-tech machinery. It is a dark and long tunnel.

milford sound scenery

Our only stop over along the way.We did not have much time for photos and all I did was struggling to fight the nausea.

We were rushing our hell out to reach our destination as we had paid for the booking already.

milford sound center

Finally! We made it to our destination in time!

For most of the cruises, you have a check time time, which is usually 15 mins before boarding time.

Do note that you have to park further away from this center, about 10-mins walk.

milford sound cruise

Our Milford Sound cruise of the day :D

milford sound outdoor

Me sitting on the deck. It was very windy and sunny! It was not cold but I couldn’t decide to keep my jacket on or off. And it was impossible to wear a hat under the strong wind.

milford sound deck

Most people hung out on the deck, and thank goodness the water was calm.

milford sound lunch

It was NZD$99 (~RM237)  per pax for the cruise. And we were given a lunch box to fill our tummy.

And there were free coffee and tea too.

milford sound waterfall 2

We were told that it was quite a dry season, almost drought, and therefore the water volume was low and the waterfall was definitely not at its prettiest moment.

The thing about watching scenery is…..your luck is entirely depending on nature! When my parents were at Milford Sound years ago, it was raining heavily, sea was rocky and the waterfalls were enormous!

Well, I guess I would have still chosen a calm sea otherwise I would be throwing up left and right on the cruise!

milford sound scenery 2

The cruise was navigating towards the sea direction.

milford sound sea

Nature is such a great painter ;) No one else could have done a better job.

milford sound seals

Seals were spotted along the way!

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Queenstown is the only town that we stayed for 2 days because the scenery is amazing, so much to see, and it is one of the most happening towns!

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The next morning, we started the journey to Arrowtown, a town that is about 25 mins away from Queestown.

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Arrowtown used to be a mining town in the olden days.

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We were greeted by the fallen leaves.

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Arrowtown is very well maintained, the shop lots are refurbished but the old looks stay.

There are not many residents in Arrowtown, and most of them are running the businesses on the street.

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Wool Press anyone?

It looks very much like WordPress.

There are about 2 rows of shopping streets, where you can really find some bargains if you are looking for knitted wear or boots.

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And of course, being a mining town, there must be a gold shop right?

When we saw the old vs new photos of the street, it hasn’t even changed much. But only extended to building some new shops.

After the window shopping, we walked around the town for more photos.

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There is a jungle trekking path which will take about an hour’s time.

We did not take the trek as I injured my leg during the Glacier climb so I was actually limping my way.

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It was quite cold and we even found frost on the car!

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The blue sky, a stream, and fallen leaves, picture perfect!

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I still prefer wearing slippers even though it is cold! But of course :P Not all the time.

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After leaving the beautiful Wanaka, we were excited to go our next destination – Queenstown!

We were really eager as we have seen so many beautiful pictures of Queenstown online :D

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The ride to Queenstown was not a whole straight road, we passed though endless winding road before we finally reached. If any consolation, it was the amazing view along the way!

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There is a signboard that depicts the landscape of the city.

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It was rather cold outside, thank goodness for the heater in car!

*Tip: Bring a thermos with you so you will have supply of hot water in the car because you won’t be able to find any starbucks along the road.

queenstown street

Once we landed, we headed straight to the town center and what greeted us was the sight of the red leaves!

We fell in love with the place already :D

queenstown shopping mall

One of the shopping malls in Queenstown.

It is not like our shopping malls, their shopping malls are smaller, and the highest I have been was only 2-storey.

Thai Siam in Queenstown

We were sick of ‘anything n chips’, so decided to go Thai instead at Thai Siam.

They have special promo for lunch which selected meals were only NZS$10. It was considered cheap already.

Church

After the lunch, we parked our car and wandered around the town.  Even a little church is beautiful under the always blue sky.

taking pic of church

Gothca!

The parking in New Zealand is quite expensive, being at NZD$2 for an hour. They have this rule where the parking lots have signs that show P15, P20, P30, P60 or P120. It means you can only park your car for 15 mins, 20mins ..etc. And your tyre will be marked to not let you park at the same spot again.

Parking in major town centres was really a pain.

Queenstown lake noon

The weather was chilly but sun was burning. Only they could sun-bathe, I even had sunburnt even with sunblock already.

Queenstown lake

The famous Queenstown Lake, as seen it some beautiful pictures.

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