Sloppy Chic

Wow…has it been that long since I last blogged already?
Time certainly flies!

After our visit to Cadbury factory, we had to rush to Larnach Castle as it was  near 5pm, and the sun set at 6pm. Not familiar with the road, it was not easy to find places after dark.

The Larnach Caste tour you have two options: The full package was about NZD$30+ while the ground tour (just the garden was NZD$16.

Since we were running out of time, we decided on just the ground tour.

There were quite many tourists on the day, but the crowd was not so bad. We still had shots of just us or the building without extras in the pictures

The garden is huge and green. It was beautiful, but it was not because of the flowers. The flowers were not as much as I had expected.

However, the view was magnificent. So picturesque.

In the castle area, there is also a resort for the tourists. But, I would suggest staying in the city for convenience purposes.

Last shot of the castle before we headed back to the city.

It was one of the most memorable destinations to us as our car was running out of fuel when we were heading there (and no gas station within 5km). We lost our way and drove to a dead end up the hill. And our car wouldn’t start again after it died off!

But thank god we had to make a u-turn down the hill and we needed no fuel to just roll down the hill.

But at last we managed to start the engine again.

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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.

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

Our lunch stop – McDonalds.

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

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

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.

Hello Cadbury!

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.

Follow me!

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

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

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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 to welcome us along the journey as though they knew we were passing by

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.

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.

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.

Our Milford Sound cruise of the day

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.

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

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.

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!

The cruise was navigating towards the sea direction.

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

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!

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

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

We were greeted by the fallen leaves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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