We installed NZ map on our phone so we can navigate around even more easily!

Driving in New Zealand is definitely enjoyable, drivers are courteous, speed limit signs are clear, roadsigns are obvious, although they don’t have much highway on the road, but all the trunk roads are very good in condition. And usually the speed limit is either 60km/hr or 100km/h.

Beautiful scenery along the way.

And oh, you might find huts like these which are public toilets. ALL FREE. And most of them are really clean even though they look deserted.

After almost 2.5 hr drive, we finally reached Kaikoura.

After checking in to our Willow Bank Motel, it was already almost 4pm. We headed out immediately to tour the town before the sky turned dark.

There will be another post with photos of all the motels we have stayed

Most of the seas or lakes are really beautiful! Clean and soft sand, and always blue sky. It is not easy to find garbage bin on the road but all the places are clean!

Even the stones look so beautiful!

A monument was built in memories of those who sacrificed themselves in the South African War 1899-1902.

Every place is just so beautiful!

It was almost 6 and you see how fast it turns dark?

Most of the shops were already closing so we just hopped into a shop that was still open – Why Not Cafe.

Interesting name.

My fish and chips burger. It was a mega huge portion and I barely ate half.

The beef burger with chips.

Each cost about NDZ$11.50.

Most of the food choices there are something + chips, eg fish and chips, burger and chips, sandwich and chips.

I have burger and chips phobia now already!

We settled down in our motel after our dinner at about 6.45pm, street was almost empty.

We had a good rest that night. In the morning, we had to pack up our stuff and check out already and head to our purpose – Kaikoura Whale Watch.

It was only about <10 mins drive from our motel. You will have to check in at this center to redeem your tickets (we booked online and paid in advance). The good thing is also the flexibility they gave us. We booked for 10am watch but we boarded at 9.30am since we were early. YEAY!

Whale Watch tickets aren’t cheap, it cost us NZ$145/pax, which is close to RM330+ for 3.5 hour of boat ride. If the sea is rocky or rain on that day, trips will be cancelled and you will be refunded. And in the event of no whale is spotted, it’s 80% money back for you.

The souvenir shop in the centre. Most of the items are pricey but I did pick up a fridge magnet

They have anti-nausea pills for those who suffer from sea-sick too.

And I did… -_-”’

Our vessel for the day – Aoraki, which is named after the highest mountain in New Zealand (Aoraki/Mount Cook).

Could you spot the Sperm Whale behind me?

It was a sunny day and sea was considerably calm. But soon, the motion sickness got better of me

The captain was a funny dude, as he was broadcasting on the vessel about the sea, some background, and also alerting us the appearance of whale or dolphins.

It was not easy to detect the fish, they used a stick which detects movement of the sea creatures by radio frequency. We were ‘lucky’ that day because the sperm whale decided to float for about 30mins before it dived in. It usually floats only for 10-15 mins. And the kids on board started to get irritated because it was boring watching the whale that did not do anything.

After some long good wait, we finally spotted its tail!

And, we moved further and spotted schools of cute wild dolphins.

See the stunts? They are really cute!

After the whale watching, it was time for us to move to another town for our next activity – which was a physically challenging glacier hike! View was absolutely breath-taking. Stay tuned!

We are really glad that we did this, although we really wanted to go Japan, but New Zealand is a beautiful place nonetheless

I will document our whole trip, if you are going to tour New Zealand (South Island) on self-drive, you are welcome to ask for my itinerary as a reference

*We picked a hot seat (+RM160) which I think totally worth it!

Air Asia flights to New Zealand are rather limited, there was only one flight to Christchurch in the morning (8.30am) and it’d be an 11+ hour flight so by the time we reached Christchurch, it was already near midnight.

Thank goodness our car rental Budget Car Rental counter was right at the airport, so it was a breeze to pick up our car. We had booked the car in advanced so there were not many procedures to picking it up. We rented for 12 days and it cost us about NZD$680 (~RM1632) which was not too bad. But, the petrol is not cheap in New Zealand, which is about NZD$2.2+- per litre. And more expensive in smaller towns.

New Zealand is UTC +12:00 so it is 4 hours in advance of Malaysian time, and the sky turns dark at 6pm!

Our hotel for the first night: Abbey Motel. Motels are abundance in New Zealand, and B&B is a great choice too!

An average price for a motel per night is about RM200-RM300.

Fast forward to the next morning, we checked out from our Motel and toured Christchurch city a little and to our shock, the quake damage was worse than we had read!

It’s definitely not a pretty sight

The famous Cathedral square was closed and no one could enter the area as they have fenced it up with police guarding.

I must say that shopping in New Zealand is really minimal other than groceries. They have large supermarket like Tesco, but the famous ones are: Park’n'Save, New World, which we found MANY interesting fruit juices!

Before we headed to our next destination – Kaikoura for whale watch the next day, we grabbed our brunch at a restaurant nearby. It was Easter weekend and many shops were closed! Easter is big there and they had holidays for 4 days.

Our breakfast cost us about NZD$30 in total and definitely not a cheap one. But the portion was huge!

After a quick refill to our tummy, we started our driving tour to Kaikoura which is about 190km away from Christchurch.

In the next post, I will share my whale watching experience

The Curve Shopping Mall

If Ikea is your favorite place to hang out, swing by Bubba Gump for a dose of shrimps!

The staff gets really excited when you flick the sign to : STOP FOREST STOP

Scampi @ RM31.90.

Linguini resting on a bed of shrimps. The pasta was yummy with the rather fresh shrimps + a piece of toasted garlic butter bread.

And I think there were like 15 shrimps in the dish!

Chicken Fingers @ RM23.90.

If you have been to Chilis/TGI’s for this dish, you MUST try this at Bubba Gump. The chicken fillets were still tender wrapped in the crispy and tasty batter. The batter is not like other flours, they have seasoned the batter too! And there were also 2 onion rings on top of the bed of fries.

Sunway Giza Mall (Kota Damansara)

Grab a cuppa of 5-star coffee at Coffee Chemistry Cafe.

Great coffee, food, and ambiance + free WiFi at high speed!

Recommended: Chicken & Mushroom Pie, Wraps and Chicken Herb Pasta.

Tell me your weekend plans

At the first glance of The Daily Grind menu, you might think that it is similar to Chilis/TGIF, but soon you will notice their menu is actually way more extensive.

On a Friday night, we had a fun double date with witch couple since we have not hung out for quite a while.

The Daily Grind Gourmet Burgers @ Bangsar Village I is located at a secluded corner at LG (next to electrical shop), it is easy to miss if you don’t usually walk to that side of the world.

There’s also a smoking/bar section.

The interior of the restaurant is feeling quite the 60′s, it is not noisy and will be a perfect place for a good talking/catching up session.

TDG Crabby Caesar Salad RM25

As a starter, I really love the soft shell crabs in the greens! It adds colors to the healthy stuff, and the crisp and saltiness really spice up the leafs especially if you are not a salad person.

Nanchos with Cheese RM12

On the other hand, I think the nanchos is just alright.

Slow-cooked Lamb Stew RM28

The lamb stew is also a crowd’s favorite, the lamb cubes are flavorful and tender, wish we could have more!

TDG Dynamite Wings RM18

If you are a fan of buffalo wings, here is another type called the Dynamite Wings. It is hot! And the spiciness is not the immediate type, it will slowly explode in your taste bud after you swallow it. Nonetheless, I love it!

Lamburgerni RM28

Here comes the main course of the day – Lamburgerni.And it is whole meal bun!

Don’t you think the name is really cute?

Extremely juicy patty in Lamburgerni, and it doesn’t taste lamby at all! In fact, we had a hard time tasting if it were lamb.

Chermoula Salmon Fillet Burger RM29

If you are a fan of salmon, you might find this worthwhile as it is a whole fillet of salmon instead of pounded fish patty. But I find salmon a tad too dry after a few bites.

They have also a set of samplers with 4 different variety of mini burgers on the menu.

Oreo Milk Shake.

For the drinks, the something-with-ginger is their specialty.

TDG Ginger Lemonade RM10

I strongly recommend TDG Ginger Lemonade as it is very refreshing especially after a heavy meal. Don’t worry about the ginger, you almost can’t taste it.

The last hit of the night- Peanut butter milkshake!

It is so smooth, creamy, and milky and it just slides down your throat! This is better for sharing to share out the calories.

Last but not least, a slice of Red Velvet Cake RM12.

It looks like a tower and quite intimidating. It tastes exactly like ma-lai-k0u but in red.

Do give The Daily Grind a visit if you fancy gourmet burgers

The Daily Grind
LG8 Lower Ground, Bangsar Village,
1 Jalan Telawi 1,
59100 Bangsar Baru,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel no: +603-2287 6708
Fax no.: +603-2287 6707
Business Hours: 11am – 11pm daily

It was a bargain as it was really cheap and fresh!

See? It’s meaty! I shall not show you the head of the fish as it looks really fierce with the teeth.

Firstly, make sure you scale the fish really clean and chop off the head.

Leave the head aside as we can cook fish soup with it later.

Now, the bone structure of the fish.

The best part about this Toman is, it has only one backbone, and no small and dangerous bones!

Chop into portions that you want to cook. You can see the flakes of the meat clearly.

Just remove the backbone before proceeding further.

Then, cut the fish into small fillet and ready to be used

Next up, there will be recipe for cooking fish soup with cabbage and ginger onion fish!

Coffee Chemistry Cafe @ Sunway Giza is the way to go.

I kid you not, a beautifully made coffee with art only set you back at RM6.

Yes I am serious!

Imagine all the hard effort to perfect the coffee art?

We had nachos as a starter

My main – Pasta in chicken & herbs – RM10.90.

The sauce was done just right – not too creamy and not too diluted. It certainly beats some of the expensive pastas in the market.

Thumbs up!

One of the latest dishes – Seafood Risotto @ RM16.90.

This is just alright with more room for improvement, nonetheless, seafood used were quite fresh!

For the weight-watchers, I recommend the HTC. Yeah they are joint together with a HTC shop, hence the name I guess?

HTC = Ham

It may look really simple but it is delicious! I like the slightly crisp wrap.

Another winner here is Mushroom Pie @ only RM6.90!

Love the delicious and warm filling wrapped in the crispy pie.

Last but not least….

*drum roll*

Affogato! If I am not mistaken, this will be selling at RM6.80.

In Italian, it means ‘drowned’, it is a coffee-based dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I don’t know what more to say other than: I LOVE IT!

Coffee is creamy rich, topped with fine vanilla ice cream and chocolate rice crisp, it is delish!

Although the kitchen is small, but it can cook up a storm!

Nothing really to complain about the food and price, would be better if the food came faster.

It’s located on the second floor of the Movida bar & restaurant, named the Cubic Platform, and attached to a HTC center.

I definitely will be back there with friends again

If you are looking for a Valentine’s dessert, or a present you have not bought yet, Baskin Robins might be a way to go!

Being made in a heart shape, it is a 3-layer ice cream with base being the sponge, middle layer is filled with coffee chocolate ice cream, and top layer being the cream.

For a sweetheart with sweet tooth, this can’t really go wrong.

Retails at RM55.90 at Baskin Robins outlets.

What’s a better way to start new year than a simple recipe to save your pocket from over-bleeding right?

Note: The sales tax has increased to 6% now.

I am going to show you how to make a egg-wrap-minced-meat recipe. But of course, Pocket of Minced Meat sounds a lot more glamorous right?

For 4 pax, you will need:

- About 100g of minced meat (pork/chicken)
- Same amount of minced onion and carrot for the crunch

Mix them together and marinade with small teaspoon of salt, sesame oil, pepper, and light soy sauce. Leave it aside for 30minutes.

Now, heat up the wok of oil and throw in some garlic to sauteed, before the garlic is brown, dump in all the ingredients and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Add dark soy sauce to make it look better.

Now, you are done! Serve it aside and now you need to prepare the egg.

Beat 4 eggs into a bowl and stir well, add some pepper and light soy sauce for taste.

Heat up the oil, pour the egg mixture and quickly pour in some minced meat too.

Don’t be so greedy and overload your egg with the meat. You won’t be able to wrap it nicely if it is too huge.

Sorry about the blur photo because you need to have quick hand otherwise your egg will be burnt!

Flip it over and now you see the pocket.

Turn the egg to fry a little so that both sides are even.

And you are ready to serve with white rice

It was a compact 2 days of road trip, packed with food and sight seeing!

What’s Penang without Kek Lok Si right?

Hello spanking new Puma shoes! Not mine of course

What’s Penang without Asam Laksa right?

It still tasted the same as 6 years ago!

Hello gorgeous! She must be excited to get her dose of Asam Laksa.

Located at the Air Hitam along the wet market, finding parking as hell!

Assam Laksa Air Itam Market
Pasar Road
11500 Air Itam
Penang

After touring the Kek Lok Si and the extensive walking, we were drenched in sweat.

It was a bliss to be able to nap before dinner

Our dinner destination: Bali Hai along the Gurney drive!

Bali Hai Seafood Market: 90, 90A, 90B, 90C & 90D, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang.  (04-2288272)

Some may say that it is  over-priced, but but, I love the dishes there! My last visit was 1.5 years ago already!

I must say things have not changed much except for the increased weight. Bummer!

Crowd started pouring in as early as 6pm+.

HELLO CHOLESTEROL! It was so good we licked every bit of the yolk clean!

We ordered 2 roe crabs to be cooked in salted egg, which cost about RM48. It was RM75/kg.

Kam Heong Lala @ RM15.

The kam heong is quite different from the usual dried one, it is more to the sambal side, absolutely tasty too!

And yes, most of the shells had meat

Mango chicken @RM15.

As good as it is, I feel that this is overpriced with such small portion.

Sambal bamboo shoots @ RM15.

You see, they have a strategy of taking order, they will also ask if you want to add prawns or scallops into the vege. Bear in mind that, once added, the price could be 400% of the plain vegetable.

After the satisfying dinner, we walked to Gurney Plaza and the hawker area from Bali Hai.

It was about a 15-min walk.

We entered G-Hotel to tour a little.

They still had the Christmas tree up!

Before heading back to our car at the other end of the Gurney drive, we packed some supper from the hawker area.

Love the rojak sauce!

And coconut jelly @ RM3.

Wish the jelly was softer though.

We called it a day after filling up our tummy.

And the next morning? Char Koay Teow for breakkie!

We found this famous Ah Leng Char Kuay Teow stall from CK’s blog.

Ah Leng Char Koay Teow
Kafe Khoon Hiang
Jalan Dato Kramat/Jalan Dunlop
Penang

You can just search for Ah Leng Char Koay Teow on GPS and it will bring you there.

Our breakfast for the day.

Love the juicy prawns! I am not a prawn lover because I am allergic to prawns. But that morning, I braved myself for this plate of Char Koay Teow!

Yummy!

After the breakfast, we wanted to visit Bukit Bendera but unfortunately it was closed under some construction. So, we decided to leave Penang by noon and head to our next destination.

Hello Taiping lake!

It’s a pity that we did not have a chance to stroll around the lake. It was my first visit in Taiping and the view was breath-taking!

I will be back for sure and, oh also to visit the zoo!

We had a quick lunch in this Sim Sim Restaurant, it is not the Taiping town yet.

Anyone can confirm where is this place?

And we had a Mee Rebus cooked by an Indian lady at a small stall.

Through out my lunch there, her business was so good, the patrons were non-stop.

A quick lunch, and we are on our way to the last stop – Ipoh!

Our tea destination – De Garden. It is located next to the Jaya Jusco.

It is a plaza-like place with only restaurants! The chain outlets they have are such as Papa Rich, Wong Kok, Oh Sushi..etc.

Read it off from J2KFM’s blog, I knew this place is MUST visit for me – Strawberry Moment.

Strawberry Crepe with Ice Cream @ RM12.90.

It came with both chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Though the berries were small, thank goodness they were not too sour!

Strawberry Strudel @ RM7.90.

They have a rather extensive strawberry-menu, including coffee and shakes.

Strawberry Moment (605-546 5595)
Lot GR-19,20, Ground Floor,
De Garden,
Persiaran Medan Ipoh,
Medan Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

After our tea, we had a little shopping in Jaya Jusco to free our tummy for dinner.

Restaurant Tauge Ayam Lou Wong was our dinner destination.

Restoran Lou Wong Tauge Ayam
49, Jalan Yau Tet Shin,
30300 Ipoh, Perak,
Malaysia

We wanted to visit Cowan Street but too bad it was closed So random.

Tao Geh for 2 – fat and juicy!

Poached chicken – thank goodness it wasn’t bloody.

Although the chicken was smooth and soft, but there is something lacking in it, which I could not pin-point.

The rice made up for it. I could just eat the rice with the bean sprouts!

We actually ordered meat ball soup too, thank god it did not come. We were stuffed to the brim!

A meal for 2 cost RM18.

It was close to 8 when we were done with our dinner, and we started our journey back home.

Now, another day for 2010, and I think I have accomplished a lot this year

Ew!

Anyway, what I would like to share here is my stay – Pullman Kuching!

To my surprise, it was much better than I thought.

Checking into Pullman Kuching.

There is a new shopping mall underneath the hotel too. Though not many shops opened, but there is Old Town, Marry Brown, MNG..etc. Unfortunately, there is no supermarket. But there is  a small 24/7 convenience store. It’s really a small store though.

The tall Christmas tree is set up right in the center of the lobby.

The huge waiting area is really spacious.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to check out my room!

Hello King bed! It was all mine that night.

This superior room has a King bed, and a work station.

The work station. However, there is no free Internet in Pullman and it was pricey.

Well, thank goodness I have my Maxis 3G broadband. The speed is fast in Kuching!

As for the TV channels, there were popular ones like HBO, Star Movie, CNN, Channel News Asia and etc.

They have a bathrub in the bathroom, wish there was a jacuzzi instead!

The toiletries are quite complete, and you can request to borrow an iron for free too.

The glass door partitioning the shower.

After touring my room, it was dinner time!

Being located at the tourist spot at Kuching Waterfront, there were quite some restaurants around Pullman.

We took a 5 min walk to a rather attention-catching restaurant called the TopSpot.

Being at the rooftop, no doubt it bears the name.

There were quite a few seafood stalls at the restaurant, and you can select the type of seafood you want. Prices were moderate and there were lobsters and crabs!!!

Unfortunately I did not order any because of my seafood allergy.

A round of applause for this Ikan bakar please!

BBQ just right, the meat was so tender and juicy! And it was not too spicy. Yummy! And it was only RM15 for such huge slab of meat.

Asam sotong @ RM20 was the recommended dish but the sotong was slightly overcooked.

The famous vegetable in East Malaysia – Paku Pakis @ RM12.

The last time I had it was more than 10 years ago, and as much as luck would have it, I can’t believe I had this dish 3x in a single week!! With 2x in KL.

I guess I must be on a roll of luck.

Overall, the dinner was quite satisfying and after dinner, we took a walk back to the hotel and called it a day.

Top Spot Restaurant:

No 4.5.6, 6th Floor, Taman Permata, Jalan Padungan, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak. (013-8084714/016-8919977)