Leftover New Zealand!

Not keen to write about a trip I have done so long ago (to which I attribute to the excessive writing I've had to do over Spring semester), so here's a major photo dump of the rest of my New Zealand adventure!!!

Sumner Beach! ♥

I love how this photo turned out. Still at Sumner Beach, on the Cave Rock side

Warm Lamb Salad at Winnie Bagoes

Souvlaki/Kiwi Craving pizza at Winnie Bagoes

Mexi Lime Chicken/Marinara pizza at Winnie Bagoes

Christchurch Art Gallery - Te Puna O Waiwhetu

Cathedral Square

Me, being me, as per usual, on Worcester Boulevard

Penguins! Too bad they're not live ones.

The following photos are from our road trip to Akaroa, which is a small town that used to be a French colony. It lies on the edge of New Zealand, on the eastern side.

On the road to Akaroa!

At the hill top - our destination is where the water is!

Upon arrival, Akaroa Jetty :-)

Gorgeous flower in bloom, Akaroa War Memorial

Well, that's it for my little New Zealand adventure. Just a recap of everything I've seen in the 7 days that I was there:

• Methven
• Rakaia Gorge
• Mt Hutt
• Christchurch City
• Akaroa

In summer, Methven is practically dead, so best to go there in winter for some skiing or snowboarding up in Mt Hutt. Rakaia Gorge, which is also in Methven is probably the only other place you can go visit in summer, where you can go rafting.

Christchurch City, though small and quaint, has a lot of great food and sights! Go to the markets on Worcester Blvd, or visit the Christchurch Art Gallery! Learn about Maori life in Christchurch Museum. Don't forget to grab a bite to eat at Winnie Bagoes. They have amazing gourmet pizza and a friendly, warm atmosphere. :-)

Next stop - Singapore!

New Zealand/Nueva Zelanda/Neuseeland

A few months back I decided that I wanted to see New Zealand. I never really thought it would push through as I had so many troubles along the way. The embassy misspelled my name on my visa and so I had to wait another few weeks for them to return my passport with my visa printed on it, my travel agent really didn't do that great of a job, and so many other things.

However, it did turn out to be a surprisingly good trip.

We planned to go to so many places (which we did, but didn't fully cover our initial plan) and didn't expect to even cover as much as we did. New Zealand is absolutely stunning and is just beyond words.

On our first day it seemed pretty bad as it was raining and it was gloomy, but a lovely dinner with one of my old friends from the Philippines saved it all. We ate at Strawberry Fare and the food was just so filling and beautiful!

Chic menu!

Walter & I had a dish called Simply Salmon (Hot smoked warm Akaroa salmon, salad greens, ciabatta, caper & dill creme fraiche):

Perfection on a plate!

We then drove to Methven, to a place called Mt Hutt Bunkhouse. We had a lovely stay. It was detached from the internet (although they do provide access for a minimal fee), clean, cosy and homey. Giles (owner/manager) made sure we had everything we needed. It was so comfortable and at the same time very affordable. Would definitely stay there again when we do go back for another visit. :-)

Walter & I at Mt Hutt Bunkhouse

View from across our lodge at 8 in the morning the next day! :3

By the time we got there we were absolutely buggered and wanted to be up bright and early for our first day up the slopes. The 2 photos above were taken that morning before we caught the bus to go to Mt Hutt which was so amazingly nice, but that's for the next blog!

Going local

Brisbane has been a great adventure for me, as the entire year has been. I thought that immersing myself in the local sights of Brissy was the best way to wrap things up. It's like taking myself back home, wherever that is in my heart of hearts.

The day before we left Brisbane, we went to the North Pine Dam just for some down time and some quality chit chat amongst friends. We were pretty lucky cos it was deserted that day, and it was sunny and bright.

Caloy the talented, trigger happy boy enjoying the lush greenery

The dam. Wonder if you can go for a swim here lol

Of course my blog wouldn't be complete without an old tree

We spent hours on end there, until we got hungry and got some Cold Rock ice cream at Chermside (our first choice was a Mexican fiesta at Montezuma's but it was closed, so, sad face). Then, we waited for Tippy to finish TAFE at 9 in the evening. We drove straight to Mt Coot-tha, which is Brisbane's best lookout! Going up there at night was mesmerising - we saw the entire city lit up.

Tippy took this beautiful photo :-)

Before she got all melancholic and dramatic. Jokes

After that, we randomly thought of going to Shorncliffe one last time. As I may have mentioned before, this is where some scenes in the movie Aquamarine were shot. :-) The first time I went to Shorncliffe was in Autumn 2008 at night time. Then we went on the first night of our Brisbane visit this year. We saw a shooting star then. It was magical and enchanting. Then for our last night, we hung out here again. It just brings everything together beautifully. I say Shorncliffe is some piece of magical land.

There's no better way to leave Brisbane than being at Shorncliffe.

The ebb & flow of the water, the orange lights and the cool breeze just leaves you clear-minded and ready for another adventure.

(edit: I know this has been already posted as a 2010 entry, but I meant for it as a year ender one. Sorry for the timezone change, I'm in the Philippines and it's only 11:30 here and I still have an hour 'til 2010. LOL)

Seeing sights

Melbourne is such a beautiful city - full of art, life and history. I was blessed with another chance to come visit again this year, but this time I went along with some friends. It was a great experience and this time I got to know the city a lot more.

We flew in really early on the 4th of June (and I mean we took the 6.15 am flight). Melbourne was bound to have a beautiful day:

This is the aerial view of Melbourne just a little past 8am.

Right after breakfast we decided to visit Queen Victoria Markets which is comparable to Sydney's Paddy's Markets. It has everything, and I mean everything in it, from shoes to boomerangs to flowers and food. I reckon it is much, much larger than the Sydney one, though I can't be too certain. One thing I know that is worth heading to while in the QVM area is this mobile doughnut place:

I assure you fresh & hot doughnuts, for an affordable price (6 for $3.90). It's certainly a classic and nothing too complicated. You can pick from a plain sugar sprinkled one, and a jam-filled one. Both are good and it's even better if you have one after the other, alternately ;-)

The Queen Victoria Markets are open from Thursday-Sunday, with varying opening & closing hours.

Afterwards, my aunty gave us the idea of taking the City Circle Tram so that we'd get to see the entire place then just choose to hop on and off wherever we wanted to go after the ocular inspection. It seemed to be the most practical idea since we wanted to maximise our time to explore the entire city, so we did that. It's good because the City Cirle Tram is a free service that takes tourists (and locals just the same) to the different hotspots in the city. If you're the impatient type (like me) you will love this service because it comes around every 12 minutes, and it runs from Flinders Street to Spring Street and back. It's easy to find compared to the normal pay trams because it is small & very vintage-looking (and more importantly, labelled City Circle, lol).

I find that the best place to come back to after a long day of going around Melbourne would be Flinders Street as it has the train station for one huge landmark:

See what I mean when I say it's a landmark? It's one of my favourite spots in the city, as it is always busy and Flinders Street Station is just a lovely sight. Right across it is something extremely modern, the Ian Potter Centre:

If in any case you get lost this is the side that you have to go to because this is where the really big information centre is complete with all the train, tram & bus routes, events lists, tour booklets, maps & of course, friendly volunteers to help you find your way.

As for my friends & I on the first day- we hopped on and off everywhere (& sneaking cat naps on the tram), took a walk at the Docklands, ate at Flinders Lane (parallel to Flinders Street) & ended up doing some shopping at Bourke Street Mall where the biggest Myer is located. I'd have to say - it was a pretty long & exhausting day, especially if you hadn't slept at all.

Touring the city

Finally, after so long I have found the time to write. I've been meaning to share my first experience at touring someone new to Sydney with you guys the last couple of weeks but I have just been buried in assignments!

Now, we begin (I'm heaps excited)!

Every time I've been here (first when I was 6, then when I was 19, now that I'm almost 21 and living here), I've always been the one being toured. I always liked the idea of seeing new places, and seeing things so different from home. Things have changed ever since I moved here to Sydney. I've been going from the city to the suburbs on a weekly basis - not much of a touristy thing to do. I've been learning to know the ins and outs of the city by heart (and by foot!) and it feels like right now, this is home.

Anyway, I met a friend of a friend who came to Australia to work for a year. During her first few days I kept her company, because my friend was in Tasmania on a holiday. Cathy is Chilean, and when I asked her what she wanted to see - she immediately told me that she wanted to see the Opera House.

I thought, okay, cool, we can head off to the city and spend the day there. I also thought that maybe I should show her other parts of the city that were worth the visit. The night before, I set up our itinerary. It was an odd feeling, having to pick places to show someone who's new, considering I'm new here myself. Here is the list:

The Opera House

Darling Harbour

Royal Botanic Gardens

Queen Victoria Building (!)

Mrs Macquarie's Chair

Manly Beach

Circular Quay

At 8.30AM we took the train from Blacktown to the city - we both purchased DayHopper tickets, which cost $17. The DayTripper is really useful if you know you're going all over the place via public transport. It covers payments for the trains, ferries and buses. It's really worth it!

At Central we changed to catch the line that goes to Circular Quay. As soon as we stepped off, we already saw a place to take photos:

Me, trying to act touristy at the Circular Quay platform.

Me, again, on the other side. Lol

We then walked out of the station, and went straight for The Opera House. It was such a nice day, with the sun out and the cool breeze brushing past.

Approaching The Opera House for the nth time, I still needed a photo. LOL

This time, however, I actually paid attention to the tiny details of this magnificent structure. I had no idea that the roof, that was designed like a sail, was TILED. I always thought it was painted, or shingled, but I thought wrong. I became more impressed!

See how cool that detailing is? Wow. How could I have ever overlooked it!

After taking all of Cathy's photos, we decided to take an even longer walk towards the Royal Botanic Gardens. It's an amazing place to people-watch, as well as to have picnics. Lots of the people who live in the city do their morning runs here as well - I suppose it's a good location to just leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind even for a short while.

The Botanic Gardens have lots of trees.

Fishing is also an option here

I'm jealous of the lady just breathing in life, she seemed so relaxed.

I happen to love rocks/rock formations, and this is the big one leading to Mrs Mac Chair

This is the spot where Queen Elizabeth first landed on Australian soil!

I have a soft spot for old trees.

After that long exhausting morning, we took the bus back to QVB by midday.

We're pretty good at concealing exhaustion, aren't we? :-D

We had lunch with my aunty at De Costi Seafoods (if memory serves me right!), which is in the lower ground of The Galleries Victoria. Food there is fantastic! I didn't get the chance to take photos of what we ate because they were in take-away packs and they weren't too photogenic.

After which, we walked to Darling Harbour, which is a place that I usually frequent, for some strange reason. A lot of tourists hang out there and take water taxi rides or those jet boat things. They cost quite a fair amount, which is why I've never tried it. At the Darling Harbour, one can find a lot of food places and bars; I reckon it's best to go there at night ;-) However, look at this!

The spiral fountain fixture at Darling, which I love the most (compared to all the other fountains present - I tell you, there's heaps)!

Then we walked back to QVB to catch the bus to Circular Quay once again! It was at that time that we decided to take the ferry to Manly (More details on here). The ferry ride was windier than usual, but it felt so nice and calming! We took a stroll at the beach, where I found this particularly interesting:

Haha. I know it's common here, and I see them more often than not, but I thought it was just cute that they were huddling. We did some shopping in Manly, and by the time the clock struck 4.30PM, we were just beat. So we caught the ferry going back to the city, took the bus to the train station, and caught the earliest one home. I can now proudly say I know Sydney, and I really love being here. :-)

(Aussie flag along Pyrmont Bridge)

Not too bad for a 17-dollar worth day, isn't it? :-)