Hellor from NZ

hey sorry for the uploads in a short while...all have to be load at once as getting internet access is darn tough here...so have fun reading all of the below la..

will upload more whenever i get to go online...

toodles!

opotiki: Part 3

We have knocked on all three packhouses door in Opotiki but still, no job yet. Apparently, none of the packhouses has started operation yet due to the unusual warm weather they are experiencing hence the fruits not ready yet. Not really a good news for us. But nothing we can do except to wait for calls.

Speaking of calls, phone signals in Opotiki is pretty weak. Most of the time we will missed the calls due to lack of signal here and there. In fact, we have to find places where signals are stronger and angled our phone there. For example, we had to put our phones at the window sills as most of the time, signal there is slighter better.

Because of weak phone signal, we actually missed a job opportunity in Te Puke. When we received the SMS saying we had miscalled, immediately we called back but unfortunately, the person behind the phone said we were too late since we missed the call, they already called other people. Darn!

For that day, I was actually quite down lor…so sad that we actually missed a job opportunity. In uncertainty time like this, we cannot afford to miss job as our finance is getting low. However, since we already missed it, we have no choice but stay positive and hope for the best in Opotiki.

Thanks to Rachel, we managed to move 3 doors down the street from our backpacker to another backpacker, which is so much more better as we get to have the whole 3-room apartment to ourselves at the price 40.00 dollar cheaper than what we are paying now.

THIS IS A STEAL ISN’T?????

We spent a day to totally spring clean the whole apartment so that we will be comfortable there since it will be our hive for some time^^ Whatever is missing/needed we can always get it from the owner and she’s a kind lady that will provide us whatever we need. Not only that, we get to have the internet service for FREEEEEEEEEEE~~~~

This is what I call a bargain!!!!! When I heard that we can use the internet, I feel like I was on cloud nine! This is really too good to be true! We can finally connect to the world once again!

Our neighbour so happens is a Malaysian couple as well. Pretty interesting right how all Malaysian will meet each other one way or another. I was quite surprise that there’s quite a number of Malaysian in Opotiki actually as it’s a small town after all.

We were called to attend an induction by one of the packhouses here. An induction actually means a short briefing on the company dos and don’ts, the work process and procedures and finally a tour on the factory itself. It does not quaranty work, but it means you are put on “on-call list”. If they need people, they will ring you up.

Means still no job yet. Still need to wait for phone calls. Still desperate. Still free and easy. Still can play mahjong whenever we want. Yes, mahjong. Yours truly has been corrupted by them to learn and play mahjong. Learnt the basic rules already but not very good at it yet. Most of the time I’m on draught season (losing). Luckily no money involves hahahahaha^^

PHONE FASTER RING AND JOB FASTER KNOCK ON OUR DOOR ANYTIME NOW PLEASE~ !!!

Opotiki:Part 2

One fine Sunday we decided to explore what Opotiki has to offer. We decided to take a walk at Hukutaia Domain. It’s a small jungle and you walk on the trail to see birds, trees, leaves, well you know, nature? It takes approximately 30 minutes or so. A very easy relaxing nature walk for all ages.

On our way there, we passed by a honey farm of some sort. Called Hikutaia Honey. On the back of my mind I was thinking, “can we visit it?” Should be fun isn’t it?

So once we were done with the Hukutaia Domain, I suggested to them, what about make a stop on Hikutaia Honey on our way back?

And this is the beginning of our good fortune. Really.

You see, we make a stop there and enquiring if we can have a look at the honey making process but unfortunately, it was Sunday and they are not open. They were actually cleaning up the place when we arrived. Small talks and we found out that the owner’s daughter-in-law is also from Malaysia! What a coincidence right?

You see, that’s kinda make a bridge you know, seeing that we are also from Malaysia kinda makes us feel more connected. In fact the owner, Allan said if we want to, we can drop by again on Monday, when the farm is in operation so we can see the whole process ourselves.

You bet we do return. We make a date at 10am on Monday, however we were ahem, a little late. Hahahaha typical Malaysian I know ;p *blushing*

Allan was saying how his daughter-in-law must be glad to see Msians so he called her up and she was there too to meet us. Her name’s Rachel and she’s from Sabah. A very sweet nice lady.

The day before, Allan did tour us around and explained the process to us already. However, hearing it and seeing it in operation is really kinda cool.

The process goes from this, collect honey from the hives, and the honey comb is separated from wax and honey. Then the honey on the honey comb is put into a centrifuge to distilled the “pure honey” and yada yada yada…Finally it’s packed in jars and ready for consumption.

Each batch of honey they keep some sample and also send it for tested in the lab. This is what we called quality controlled, people! Mainly, they sell their honeys in drums to big players in the field. The honey wax is not left for wasted as well. It’s compressed and packed in blocks and sold to people that makes candles, soaps, handcrafts etc.

I’ve seen the wax blocks in golden yellow and brown colour. And the honey also has different colours ranges from light clear golden liquid to dark brown. We were told that they import the honey queen from Japan (if I not mistaken) Also, we were enlightened on the process of “raising” a bee hives, how to keep them survives during the winter, texture of honey from liquid to crystallized and more.

Allan showed us the queen bee and frankly speaking, I was a little disappointed as I thought queen bee is gigantic in size but it turn out nahhh….it was just slighter bigger than the regular bees. That’s all. Not as gigantic as I imagined, but bigger than the average ones lar…

Before we left, Allan was so generous and gave us two jars of honey. Yippie!!! Honey for FREEEEEEE~~~~ That’s fortune number One.

Fortune Number Two:

Rachel invited us all to her house for dinner. At first this seems like a polite offer but gosh! She really meant it. You see, later that day we were all crowded at the public phone booth right outside our backpacker and suddenly a car stopped by and a man asked Dinosaur “are you Malaysians?”

We were like, Uh-oh, what had we done? What’s going on? Dinosaur was like, “yeah~” and the man introduced himself as Steve, Rachel’s husband.

Upon hearing that then only can we release our breath with relief! Whoosh! Steve extended the invitation from Rachel to have us as their guests for dinner tonight. He said Rachel will come and picked us up at six.

At six, Rachel’s right at the front of our backpacker in her white sport-ish car. A Commodore. The interior is sleek black and red leather. Real cool. A lady vroom vroom in that baby is real classy lor~ Gaya~~

Her house is a little outskirt and beautifully surrounded by trees and kiwi orchards. In fact right behind her house is an orchard already. We take a peek at the orchard of course as it’s probably our only chance to get into an orchard. Unless we work in orchard of course, but I hoped not! Everyone’s been telling me working in orchard is really hard work.

Rachel and Steve’s house is charming and the view from it is even better. When we entered her house, we see many miniature aircrafts and helicopters model in a glass cabinet. Then we found out that Steve’s a helicopter pilot. That explains the models^^

Not only we had delicious dinner, we met their delightful daughter, Mia too. It’s really great to feel that you have friends in foreign land like this. It feels like you found some extended family members.

While we were chilling out at her place, we see some video clips on venison hunting made by Rachel with Steve as the pilot. Before we left, Steve gave us some venison meat and salami to sample.

All these good fortunes befall ever since we stepped into Hikutaia Honey Farm. It really feels like lady luck is indeed beaming down at us.

God bless!

Opotiki: Part 1

We stopped at Whakatane for just a day or two. Then we head further down to another smaller town: Opotiki.

Opotiki is so small a town that everyone practically knows everyone else’s business. It’s practically only few rows of shops in the town and that’s about it. It’s charming though how such small town is self sufficient. You’ll have almost everything you need here so you don’t have to go elsewhere. Almost.

Except the fact that we are Asian and we loved our Asian food the most, so we kinda lack of certain Chinese seasonings here in Opotiki supermarket, New World. Having said that, it’s still not bad here but of course as it is a small town, not much choices is available but heck, beggar can’t be chooser!

Personally, I don’t think New World is all that cheap as I kinda prefer Countdown. However, Opotiki only have New World and 4Square… so I guess it’s the lesser devil we know!

We spent the first week in a backpacker here; Central Oasis. It’s relatively cheaper compared to Auckland and Whakatane and they have “special price” for weekly rate. Maybe it’s because it’s a small town hence the rate is cheaper but it’s good news no?

The people at Central Oasis are very nice and friendly. In fact, we met a few nice people that stayed there too. In between dinners, we managed to get a few pointers and tips from them. From them I realized that many people in the world do travel around the world just like that. Like me, everyone put their life, career, family etc on hold and go explore the world. Some came from as far as Austria and Italy.

Opotiki is very near the beach therefore on our free days, we go explored the nearby attraction. We went to Snell Beach, Waiotahi Beach and also Ohiwa Beach. One of the things we realized here is that generally people don’t sell fishes here. Even if they do, it cost a bomb!

From the owner of the backpackers, we found out that people here normally catches their own fish. In fact, people here are so nice that if they caught more than they need, they will give away the rest to friends and neighbours. No money exchanged.

Sweet isn’t?

Godzilla was adamant wanted to try fishing but too bad we don’t have any fishing rod. Buying one would be ridiculous as its expensive and God! Where are we gonna store it? Our car is packed to the brim as it is already. Add more things? Oh NO! This is catastrophe man!

Frankly speaking, staying here in Central Oasis is not exactly the best I had experienced so far. However it is the only backpackers listed in BBH so… not exactly much choice for us. Our room is relatively bigger with 2 mini wardrobes for me and Twister. Dinosaur and Godzilla’s room is smaller but comfier, prettier.

Our room is located near the back of the house so not much sunlight can get it therefore personally I think the air smells a little musty. I can’t stand the odor therefore I ended up purchased a bottle of air freshener to “freshen” up the room. Apart from that, I accidently found out that the room is not very clean as near the bed headboard, there’s cobweb! GROSS to the max I tell you when my hand accidently touches it!

Err the pillow is damn thin and lumpy and I practically felt like I slept without one. Since our room is next to the owner’s kitchen, each night when I go bath I felt that my towel smells of cooking. Haiz

Again, this is just my personally opinion and experience. The rest of my friends doesn’t seems to be affected by it. Other than the few I have mentioned above, I don’t have much complain already.

Right at the garden of our backpacker, there’s an apple tree that grows full of apples. In fact apples practically dropped to the ground everywhere and no one picks it up. Finally the owner picks it up and offers it to all.

Apples for FREEEEEEEE~~~~~ wee~~~

A stop at Whakatane

On our 4^th day here in NZ (Wednesday, March 23, 2011) we moved from Auckland to a small town in Bay of Plenty – Whakatane. Reason being is to hunt for jobs. As now is the harvest season, we were hoping we can get a job in the packing houses or even the orchard work like picking.

Upon researching, it seems that there are lots of kiwi orchards in the Bay of Plenty. So finger cross that we will land ourselves a job pretty soon. I know it will be tough to work on the orchard as fruit picker, but I have never tried it before. To be honest, I was hoping I can have this experience. I know it will be tough and I’ll probably cry at the end of the day, but I still wish I will be able to do it, even if just for a short temporary time. Even a day will do.

I just want the experience of it. Whereas, working in the packing houses would be much much more easier as you are based in a factory, sheltered from the wind, sun and rain. I was told it’s very monotonous though. But still, it’s the money that I’m after. I don’t care how, but I just want the end results (or rewards) hehehehehe^^

The very next day, we woke up early and drove all the way to Te Puke and Edgecumbe hunting for all listed pack houses that we can get our hands on. We spent the whole day going from one packhouse to another and enquiring about seasonal job opportunity and dropping our applications. Forms after forms were filled and we wrote our names on the waiting list.

Most of the answers we get were pretty negative actually. Either we are told it’s full or there’s no opening at the moment. Most of the packhouses has not started operation yet due to the fruits are not ripe yet. We were told that the summer was unexpectedly warm so the fruits were affected. Some says the weather of late is the worst that they have experience for the past 10 years!

Imagine that! They say this year is the slowest for the packhouse. Usually, the operation would have been up and running by mid of March. And now’s end of March. If we are selected, they will ring us up. So we are waiting for calls everyday…

From the guide books, it is stated that Whakatane is the sunniest town in NZ. I gotta agree, it’s balmy here. However, as it’s somewhat down south compared to Auckland, hence the wind here is so much more chilly. At night, the temperature is quite cold and the wind. The wind is really a force to reckon with. The wind is cold!

Whakatane town is quite self contained as it is. It has 3 major fastfood chain, namely Burger King, McDonald and KFC. Oh and we did our grocery shoppings at Pak&Save. It’s so near to our backpacker house (Karibu), like only 5 mins walk.

The Manager of Karibu, Chief, is a big burly guy. He’s a nice quy really. Before we left Auckland, Uncle Tan C gave us some local fruits – feijoas. It’s sized like a lime, but less sour. It’s under the umbrella of pomelo I think. Sorry, didn’t bother to check out the facts.

You eat feijoas with a small spoon. Cut it into half and dig out the “flesh and seeds” with the spoon. Kinda like another fruit I know but I don’t know the name of it. In Chinese it’s called “bai xiang guo” I think. Not really sure. Don’t quote me!

Walking day at Auckland City

Open bank account : checked!

Apply for IRD : checked!

So what else to do?

We have a day to kill before we head to next town to hunt for jobs. So we went to Auckland City yippie!

BY FOOT. *

Yeah, we (me, Twister, Godzilla and Dinosaur) walked from our hostel to Mt Eden which is like, 15 minutes away and the walk to the peak is like another 15 minutes. Upon reaching the peak, we saw a great huge crater, and a few smaller ones. Also, we get a breathtaking view of the whole Auckland city. It’s pretty windy at the top. The climb up/down the mountain is pretty easy and convenient as there are well made tracks for all. It is not a steep climb, but for someone like me who doesn’t have much stamina, I gotta take it slow lol~

To make things worse, it is the time of the month for me. Those who knows me well knew that I always have some “problems” when the time due. So, such a strenuous activity on my first day, is really not exactly the best plan. But still, I endeavor and I made it!

My impression of Auckland City is….well, it’s a city. A nice, clean city. It does not have many high sky scrapper building like Kuala Lumpur. In fact, most of the buildings are like single storey or double story high mostly. I think those high buildings are probably only 10 storeys max? Not too sure, but yeah really not much high buildings around.

Houses in Mt Eden and Auckland are mostly made from woods. Probably only those really rich ones had houses made from bricks. Again, it’s mostly single storey or double storeys. What I like about their houses is the unique designs. The Kiwis probably buy the land, design and built the houses themselves. Some even had a garage! Cool^^

Not only that, the best thing is, public toilets are really really clean (it doesn’t stink) and there’s toilet paper in it. This is something you really can’t find anywhere else in Malaysia. I don’t think I would like to visit public toilets in Malaysia if I can help it!

The Kiwis are generally very courteous and law abiding citizens. Most of them will greet you warmly on the streets even if you don’t know them. The school kids too will greet you hello. Very warm and hospitable lot!

Walking around Auckland City is fairly easy with a map. It’s a little taxing though as it’s steep one minute and flat terrain the next. You probably feel like walking up and down a hill all the time as you explore Auckland City. It’s a good exercise. There’s proper pedestrian walkway and the road conditions are superb.

Remember to lather on sunscreen though, as it’s pretty hot there.

Naturally, if you are at Auckland, you must visit the Sky Tower. Although it is miniature if compared to our KL Tower, but it is still a must go. I have not been up the tower yet though due to financial constrain, but I’ll be back!!!

Oh what else have I done? Yeah I visited the AUT (University of Auckland). It’s really huge. It’s probably bigger than our UM (University of Malaya) and the buildings architecture are really great. Very western-ly and pretty. The landscape around is also quite spectacular and on a good sunny day, you’ll see many people sitting on the grass chatting, reading books and sun bathing at the same time.

The atmosphere here is really relaxing. You won’t feel the study/exam stress here^^

In the late afternoon, we walked back to Mt Eden (under the scorching sun). Walking in Auckland is really quite easy if you have the energy/stamina/urge for it. It’s a great way to save money on petrol or public buses. Moreover, we go green!!! Yay!!!

Oh, and Auckland is generally very very clean. There’s hardly rubbish littered around. Also, hardly you’ll see stray cats and dogs roaming the streets. The people here are really into recycling. They have bins prepared separately for papers/tins/glasses etc.

It’s part of giving back to nature. Go GREEN^^v

Byebye home, hello NZ~

I tried spending my last week with my loved ones as much as possible before I depart for NZ. As the date draws nearer and nearer, I was still very calm and unaffected. It was like nothing to me, to be going off to a foreign land for 6 months or so.

For someone who has never been away from home for more than two weeks in her entire life, I did not break down and cry in the airport when all family and friends came to send us off. *Thanks guys! It was really sweet of you!I THOUGHT that I would cry like a babe but turns out, nope, not a drop. Sometimes, I’m amazed with myself too.

I must have been tougher than I looked. Lolx~

Without realising it, I have practically survived a week here in NZ. Rejoice!!! Hooray to that!!!! If I can survive til Monday, I think I can unashamedly declare myself a survivor hurhurhur~~~ Why? That’s for another post;p

My flight here for KUL to AUK was pretty uneventful, doing the normal things you do in a flight. It was bright and sunny when we touchdown Auckland, and the weather was not really cold at all.

And I had my jacket on. How smart of me. I was practically roasted.

Checked in to Pentlands Hostel in Mt Eden, which is like a true gem! It was like, only 10 minutes walk to the supermarket which is great to get our grocery stuffs. Did I mention the Countdown Supermarket is open 24/7?

B.L.I.S.S.

Mt Eden boasts a small town that has all the necessary things you need eg: post office, banks, supermarket, food outlets, internet café, hmmm what else you need?

Oh, I have no idea how long it takes from the airport to Mt Eden as I was practically asleep on my way there. A result of only getting 3 hours worth of sleep on my flight. (despite it was a 10 hour long night flight)

The people here are very friendly and we made a few new friends too in the backpackers hostel that we stayed in. It was cool! The angel must be smiling down on us as we get to know a HK lady who’s about to leave NZ. She gave us all her seasonings! Now we can save on seasoning as well^^v

Only stayed at Pentlands for 3 nights, but it does feels like home away from home. Oh, as of March 2011, BBH members’ rate is NZD24/night. It is not the cheapest I know, but I think it’s worth every penny of it.

That’s my two cent.

toodles~