NZ

06 Feb2013 22:40

It is now the second day since arriving in Christchurch! It will take a some effort to remember yesterday's and today's events; so much has happened.

I suppose I'll begin with the 7-hour wait at KLIA(4th feb). Since Dad flew at 07:15, we needed to check in at 05:15, but our bus was earlier, and we waited an hour before the counter opened. After having breakfast(at Mc D's) Dad went off, and I saw him past the passport machine thing. Then I waited another 6 hours before my check-in time, sitting at various places, watching people, thinking, dreaming, and running through airport procedures repeatedly in my head. Had some trouble with getting a boarding pass..but there was an amazing solution there.:) Thank God.

I boarded, flew to S'pore and met up with Dad. We had Subway's for lunch/tea and waited for the flight to Auckland. It was a beautiful airport, the Changi airport, real big and Dad said we've only covered one of its terminals. We sat on a bench along the carpeted corridor, waiting for our gate to be opened. There're indoor fountain things and a lot of elaborate decor .The transit staff were rude though. They didn't even look up when I asked about the next flight, and they weren't busy or anything.

We boarded the plane, flying into the sunny afternoon. But there was little to see, since we were seated in the middle. This was my first flight which had a screen in front. We needed to pay to use it though ( of course). The +/-10-hr flight commenced, and we sat our behinds flat. I felt so stiff I actually felt sore. But it wasn't as bad as the flight to Melbourne last time; I suppose it's because I'm sitting beside a girl and not a strict looking granny this time.

We reached Auckland 'round 10:00 (5^th feb)! I have returned to New Zealand at last, after many years of picturing my birthplace. We claimed our luggage, went through customs, and entered the arrival hall. There were loads of people there waiting, and there was a statue of the dwarf in The Lord of the Rings. His name was void from my memory; I think it starts with 'h', and probably ends with an 'or', 'li' or 'warth'. We bought a vodafon sim card, and were told that there was $20 credit in there, along with a initial half-hour free call-time and 2500 free texts (wow) locally.

We got out and were greeted by an awesome flow of cool breeze. I wouldn't say gust, since it kept comin'. There were many chinese/korean/japanese there, seemingly more than kiwis or other whites. We didn't enter Auckland city due to shortage of time.

We walked to the domestic flights terminal,and along the way the breeze, the sun, the pavement, the vegetation, surroundings, drivers( they stop for you) and, well, the thought of 'Heey man, I'm in New Zealand!' all merged together to churn up this brilliant, brilliant indescribable feeling. I thought of words to describe it, because I'd have to soon, but I guess my vocabulary is limited to 'wonderful', 'marvelous' , 'amazing', 'tremendous', 'emancipating' and 'awesome'. Like any great experience or beauty, it needs to be experienced personally.

So we took the flight to Christchurch, and arrived at the fourth and last airport of the journey. I was fatigued enough to sleep through the plane's landing. We got our baggage and were greeted by icy wind outside, which felt immediately biting and chilly. But the summer sun was there, and it balanced up. Another rush of the everything-is-great feeling came. It was even stronger.

We found the rented car and drove to YMCA at Christchurch city center. It didn't look all that badly shaken at first, but we saw later on that it was, when we took a walk. Along the way, the suburbs around Christchurch were just beautiful in the strong breeze and afternoon sun. It's apparent that strong and lasting winds weren't uncommon; the bunches of tall, seaside grass (it's name unbeknownst to me) by the road were bowing as if Joseph's ear of corn was somewhere ahead. People were everywhere, jogging, cycling, scooting, walking dogs, soaking up the late summer sun.

Reaching YMCA we unloaded and rested a little, then took a walk around the city. It was about 7 or 8 then,but the sun was shining beautiful 4/5 o' clock light, and the city was still very bright. However,the city was mostly vacant, almost ghostly with its scarce occupation. We could look through two streets without meeting a soul, which was quite a big contrast to the time we just arrived, about 4/5, when there was a jam around the place, probably caused by the after-work rush.

It was also funny, since Dad said there was an outdoor concert coming up that day, Waitangi Day eve. We expected crowds. But we did not hear nor see anything of the sort.

What we did see though, is the rubble and ruin of the city. There were filled cracks on the road, and a large part of the heart of the city was closed, fenced up because of the dangerous unstable buildings. It looked rather sad, like in the movie 'I am Legend', a deserted ghost town.

We came by an empty lot, flat, with itty bitty bits of rubble. Dad told me it was Christchurch Cathedral square. I thought of the picture of the cathedral I saw in 'This is New Zealand', with loads of people and tourists, baskers and a couple of baskers who were juggling flaming torches to each other from their unicycles. There wasn't a trace of that, and I couldn't even imagine the scene there. Just then a guy walked past.

"You guys lost?" he asked heartily. We told him no, and asked about the square. He chuckled even more heartily as he crossed the road to the empty lot and jabbed his finger at it. " 'Twas right here," he laughed. "Right here. And now it's gone." He walked on. It cheered me a bit that the people weren't too sentimental about it, valuable and dear as the Cathedral square was.

We also came past a building with a mural , over which were a few rows of blank lines. Over the lines was: " I love Christchurch because...". I thought it was pretty cool to have participatory graffiti; I wanted to write on it already.

There was the park, the huuuge (simply humongous) Hagley Park, which could easily have had the area of 5 football fields. But my estimation is horrible, and I'll check next time (update: 164 hectares). It was extremely beautiful, with some real ancient, real special, real magnificent trees. There was a ( or maybe more than a) tree, with branches and leaves reaching to the ground, forming a leafy cone. You could hardly see through the dense leafy, twiggy mass, but there was an entrance leading into this cone. I didn't go in 'cause it was occupied. But I will. And there was a tree with its branches and leaves stretching so wide, so dense, from it's trunk, it offers a circle of shade at least 10 times it's trunk's diameter. So amazing! We covered little of the park though, and decided to come back some other time, because of it's enormous area.

We came past some city council place, which had a grand piano with a bull on it outside! I was disappointed that there were no keys in it. But I guess it was outside anyway so it would've been wreecked.

We drove out in search of dinner at around nine-something pm, and discovered the brokenness of the road system. Our GPS assumed Christchurch to be normal, but many of the roads and sections of the city are closed. After some annoying dead ends, we drove further out and found a fish and chip takeaway, and got dinner. I got a fishburger ( really big) for..$3.40 I think? Really cheap, anyway, I would say. I feel like a happy stingy :D. Dad got fish and chips, with a large sausage. Total up was $8.8, so I guess it was all rather cheap. Tasted great, and the pork sausage was a grand sausage.

We returned home to eat up the takeaway, washed up and finally, got some proper rest. It was about 22:10. It felt good. I must get to 6^th Feb later; it is now 01:15 of the 8^th, and Dad is sleeping. I think I'm keeping him up, and, well, I'll need some rest for the wonderful what'll-happen-nexts of tomorrow. I'm quite sure I'll regret this procrastination as I did for the last, but I'm busy, and I was too tired on the first day. I try to preserve the freshness of this experience as much as I could. What was typed above would not amount to anything compared to living it. To live it. Wow. I'm a real lucky guy.

o7Feb20130120

10,11,12,13Feb2013 20:22.

I never learn to finish works of today. I have not kept journals for the past few days, and now I'm gonna scrounge it from my memory.

-07FEB2013: We went to my accommodation, and walked to the Uni. We only took a brief walk, not even into the Uni. Just the path leading to the Uni, which was quite short. We didn't go to the Student Services Centre, since it was Waitangi Day, a public holiday, and the offices would be closed. Apparently Waitangi day is the National day, not Anzac. I wonder why is it crying waters day.

Dad looked at the map, and decided to go to Brighton Beach. It took awhile to drive there, and there was a sand dune hiding the sea from roadside view, just like the one at Apollo Bay in Melbourne, Australia. Over the dune was a looooooooooong, long beach, also quite a stretch from the ocean. 200m I guess:)? The ocean looked limitless, like they always do, and the sky was brilliant blue, with splashes of clouds here and there. I took photos hoping to capture the feel. My attempt was in vain; we couldn't catch the enormity and beauty of the place! It is the Pacific Ocean after all. There were few people there, some walking their dogs, some riding bicycles, some just walking, all of them well apart. Everyone had a space of their own.. There were seagulls flying here and there, looking for a clam called the Pipi, which was quite easily found on the beach. The seagulls carried them in their beaks and fly about 6-8m high,then dropped them. At first I thought the Pipi won't crack, but the bird went down to feast on it.I picked one up and threw it to roughly that height nearby a seagull, and I saw it crack on the wet sand, just like that. The seagull ate it. That's pretty smart, maybe crows can actually put pebbles into bottles for a drink after all.

There was a waft, or pier that we went on,and people were fishing and dropping crab-lines off the side. We went for dinner at a chinese takeaway shop. Not nice. Sweet and sour pork and what they call wantan noodles. Yuk. Malaysian food for the win.

When we returned to YMCA, we saw lots of people and cars, a lot more than the previous day. We guessed that the concert was on, and crossed the street to Hagley Park. It was further off from YMCA, and there was a large stage set in a field. As it turned out, it was a concert which includes classical music and some singing, with a full Orchestra ( Christchurch's own) :D! There were many, many people, most of whom brought their own foldable chairs (camping chairs) and the rest just standing or lying on the grass. We missed a big part, but at least we caught a piano piece, a song called Prayer, and also, the grand finale, Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture! There was a fireworks display along with the music, and wow it was grand, although the explosions covered the orchestra a bit, and most people clapped for the fireworks, not the music. Haha.

-08FEB13:We went to a town just outside Christchurch, called Riccarton ( just as Petaling Jaya was outside KL, Dad said, but on a smaller scale) to look for a bank to start an account and to get an IRD number. We dealt with the IRD number and made the bank account. A lady ran us through the details and procedures, and she was really friendly!

We went to Pak n' save and got lunch at the Bakery section, and bought milk. The bread was okay, not extraordinary or anything:/. Like, it'll pass.

We looked at the map and put Akaroa as our next destination. Akaroa was also in the New Zealand Book we have, described in there as a seaside town where the French colonists settled down. Or something like that. We drove some 60 km on the Addington Highway, which was rather narrow and very rough, to prevent slipping in winter. It curved around some hills and up some slopes, and wound down the other side to Akaroa. There were dangerous and unexpected curves at steep parts, and I thought there would be many traces of past crashes, but I saw none. I wondered how would Malaysian drivers fare on this road. I drove a little bit, though I wasn't legally able to. But there were few cars so hey why not.

Akaroa was not as small as I imagined, having other houses and buildings here and there amidst the trees on the hills. I'm sure there're roads leading to them, but we didn't bother to see. We went on the short pier for a glance at the sea( actually not sea, rather, the sea reaching in at several places, hard to describe) and walked along some houses and shops. It was past 1700 by then, so yeah, most everything was closed. Frankly, the scenic view of the place on the hill was better than the town. Nice houses though:)

-09FEB13: It's Mom's Birthday! But we can't wish her yet; she'd be sleeping. Dad wanted to go to a place called Arthur's Pass, a small "town", well, actually just along the Pass, or a road leading from east to West. Supposedly it will be very cold, because New Zealand's middle is a mountain range, and we were thinking to get onto one of the mountains and hopefully see some snow. There were beautiful, absolutely magnificent mountains along the highway, and of course, wide, wide plains and farm pastures by the road. We stopped at a place where there were boulders in the field, and we walked to them. All the other fields had them; they were everywhere, but not so close to the road. They were beautiful! The fields were so wiiiiiiiiiide!

Ahem, yeah, so we drove and drove and stopped by Lake Pearson, a beautiful lake where many caravanners were camping, canoeing and stuff. Opposite the bank was a large hill, and the lake lapped at it's feet.

Dad said this was the alpine country, and that no, it did not mean pine trees everywhere or Swiss alps. We arrived at Arthur's Pass and as it turned out all the mountains had lost their snow, save for tiny patches on the very peak of the really tall ones. So we took a really short trek along a stony, pebbly creek or stream or something and up to a point to see a waterfall which plunges from a great height and formed a cavity below, which they named the Devil's Punchbowl. It was beautiful, magnifico, meraviglioso. They should've named it better.

The water along the stream was crystal clear, and the pebbles and stone below seemed a shade of blue. The water was ice-cold, and really refreshing. We wished Mom Happy Birthday at noon, and sent her a photo of us. Dad washed his face in the stream and asked me to do it too, it was refreshing as heck.

We were done hanging around there, and drove on to Lake Brunners. It was a nice lake, but not as great as lake Pearson despite its larger size . But it was really scenic along the road. Everywhere was a viewpoint, literally. Everywhere was beautiful and spacious. We drove back to YMCA, the end.

-10FEB13: We went to the Uni to complete my enrolment. I had my stuff approved. The guy at the Engineering department looked at my results and told me I did well! I was quite surprised as I thought I did a really rather poor job with WACE. We visited the campus a few days before, and the campus was really beautiful, but some nice buildings looked damaged. The James- Hight library looked pretty old and grand - can't wait to get in the books!

We went on for lunch, and after that we drove to..er, yeah I forgot the name. North of Christchurch? Anyway, there was a beach (Christchurch is by the sea and beaches are everywhere) and the rocks by the sea had mussels. There were a lot of them, but they were still young/small.

Hm, I must have left out going to Pegasus Bay somewhere. It's a pebbly beach, and..uh, there was a tree with a swing. A couple of kids were playing in the water, and the waves were rather strong, the waters cold, but they didn't seem to realize. They had a winch pulling some remote toy boat thing. Not sure what that was.

-11FEB13: Moved into Unihall. Dad went back to YMCA at 2300, his flight early in the morning. The ice-breaking was awkward for me; I didn't know how they can talk so much with each other when they've not met before. I can't find much to say, I'm having trouble catching their babble anyway. Their accent and mumble..I wonder how this'll go.

They have a piano.