NZ Trip: Day 4-5

Read the previous post here.

After cruising on Milford Sound and watching dolphins and seals, we headed back to Te Anau, passing the mountainous road once again. On our way to that small town, we made a stop at The Chasm — a 15-minute return walk where you can see a spectacular view of Cleddau River and waterfalls. In Te Anau, I ate one of the biggest burgers I’ve had in my life! 😀 (is it really important??) We then travelled to Arrowtown, a historic gold mining town located on the banks of Arrow River. The town was also famous for The Lord of The Rings film location. Ok, honestly… I NEVER watched any of the movie’s trilogy (and I was not even interested in watching it), so when I went to see the site, I was like.. “yeah? so what?” hehehe. I think I remember the tour manager told us that the site was used for filming a number of hobbits hopping and passing the river. I also found out from some websites that the location — the Shotover River at Skippers Canyon, Arrowtown — was filmed for Liv Tyler’s confrontation with the Black Riders at the Ford of Bruinen. This was what we, Indonesians, called sotoy :P.

LOTR in Arrowtown: Liv Tyler & Black RidersLOTR Film Location

Afterwards, we stopped at Karawau Bridge Bungy, home to the 43-metre Bungy Jump. No, I didn’t do bungy jumping! I just didn’t like the idea of jumping upside down. For me, it was not worthwhile to spend almost a hundred bucks for this and you could only enjoy it for few seconds. But anyway, we stayed there for quite long, enjoying the view of beautiful Kawarau River and watching all of my fellow travellers who bravely did bungy jumping. It was indeed quite fun to watch people doing the bungy jumping and SCREAM 😛 . I loved the scream! One of the girls told the crew prior to the jump that she wanted to touch the water. Surprisingly, the touchdown went for the whole body!! She was entirely wet. Can you imagine that it’s winter!!! Good job, Katie! 🙂 At the bungy location, I saw a young boy did the jump. And then somebody asked his mom, “Is he an Aussie?” Then his mom answered, “Yes, but he was born here. He’s a Kiwi.” I was a bit confused… hah? a Kiwi??? That’s the first time ever I heard somebody described someone using a bird’s name!! Hahaha. FYI, Kiwi is a famous native bird of NZ that has a long bill and cannot fly (don’t confuse this with kiwifruit). I came to know later on that New Zealanders often call themselves Kiwis whose name was derived from the bird itself (in the case of Australians, they use the term Aussies). Isn’t it cute to say, “I’m a Kiwi!”??? Hehehe.

Kawarau RiverKarawau Bridge BungyBungy Jumping

After the whole bungy jump thingy, we arrived in Queenstown at 5-ish. The town was known as a centre for adventure tourism. You could find all sorts of things here! From skiing, skydiving, bungy jumping, tramping, and many more! We stopped in the town for a little while. Some people who wanted to do skiing (including me!) went to a ski shop to register and arrange for ski equipment and clothing. We then headed to our accommodation, Queenstown Lodge, where we stayed for 3 nights. Location wise, the Lodge was not my preferred place to stay. There were no shops or mini markets nearby. It’s located about 40 minutes to 1-hour walk to the town. It usually had a coach which ran every hour to the town, but unfortunately, at that time, it broke. It was quite troublesome everytime I wanted to get something to eat for dinner — there’s no public transport, so the only option to go there was by taxi, which was of course expensive. I usually had a full-day “energy wasting” activity, so the chance of walking to the town was just not possible. Everything else was fantastic. I couldn’t say the room was good, but I didn’t give a damn about it. As long as I could sleep and took a hot shower, then I’d be happy! 🙂 The room had two bunk beds for 4 people which reminded me of my high school dorm. I occupied the room with 2 other girls, Katie and Shelly.

The next day I woke up, I was sooo excited of skiing. I had never done skiing before, so can you imagine how excited and thrilled I was??? I got my ski jacket and pants in the morning. I put on as many layers of clothes as possible. I just couldn’t imagine how cold it’s going to be. I wore 3 layers of clothes underneath my ski jacket and jeans underneath my ski pants. We departed at about 9 am and I saw sooo many people on the street carrying ski equipment. Queenstown had 4 main ski fields; one of which, The Remarkables was a skifield we headed to. Once I arrived, I rented all the required equipment. Fortunately, the 3-layer-clothes worked really well for me. I didn’t feel cold at all. But one thing was: part of my face (from nose to chin) was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. I’m telling you, THAT part was horrible and became so dry! I didn’t know that it was gonna be like that, otherwise, I’d brought something to cover my mouth. Anyway, I applied for a ski beginner course. Our British instructor, James, taught us basic stuff on how to ski. It was SOOO fun, although I was sucked at it! Hahaha. I fell down on many times! I needed more practice and he was kind enough to let me do that (therefore he had to divide his time instructing me and the other group 😀 ). When I succeeded, everyone who was in the same group with me was clapping! Hahaha. You can’t imagine how many times I failed!! 😛 James also lets us used a ski tow; a kind of ski lift which required us to grab hold of the rope and stand on our skis while we’re being pulled. I was quite nervous about it, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought when I first tried it — although, yes, I fell down again (this time my skis were out of place LOL). But the next time I tried it, I always succeeded. Yay! The course ran from 10 am to 4 pm with 2 hours break in between. I got to chat with James and he told me that he’s been teaching ski for 3 years. He’s doing work abroad in NZ. He reminded me of Ian — a guy from Desperate Housewives hehehe. I also met another ski instructor when I was talking with James. He asked me where I came from. When I said “Indonesia”, he started talking Indonesian to me!!! Hahaha. He quickly gave me his business card and ran off to teach ski for the other groups. This thing reminded me of Saudi Arabia; where men would search for women (for “further” relationship, of course) by giving their business cards to these women. I always ignored these stupid men. But since I was not in a segregated place like Saudi Arabia, I accepted his business card and didn’t feel offended at all.

The RemarkablesThe RemarkablesI skied!

I’ve added more pictures @ the gallery. See all of them here.

… to be continued. Read the next post.

* LOTR picture was taken from here.

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21 Responses

  • mel… coba ke blogku yang ini, masih berat ga? keilangan loe juga lohh gara2 hosting lemot gw dulu…
    btw, you’re such a lucky girl.. bisa pnya liburan macam gitu… *fiuh*…
    Oh iyah… Kapan ke indonesia, at least ke aceh mungkin?? huahaha.. kidding mel..

  • ups.. maap banyak mis spelling kata2 di komentar sebelomnya yah… edit sendiri gihh… *dooogh*
    emang dasar kampung mah.. jadi susah jari2nya diaksain ngetik “english word/phrase”.. hahaha.. peace.. 😀

  • mel.. emang ga pernah pulang kampung ke Indonesia yah… TIMNAS Indonesia habis kalah lo di Piala Asia

  • haha.. yah yah bener..
    ‘it’s not worthwile to spend almost a hundred bucks for this and you can only enjoy it for few seconds.’

  • Ich

    Mellll…. danke banget für deine Postkarte, die heute ankam!! Hihi surpris deh… 🙂

    Und danke für den interessanten Reisebericht, menarik sekali, apalagi buat org Eropa NZ itu termasuk eksotis juga hehehe…
    asik di sana bisa main ski segala… kalau di Jerman udah semakin jarang tuh ada salju… global warming nih…:(

    ada kiwis, ada juga krauts… hehehe… but Germans never call themselves krauts, it’s a very offensive English term for Germans… 😉

    liebe Grüße….

  • debukaki

    Ameel… kemarin kan aku lagi sibuk ngetik di kantor. tiba-tiba satpam mendekatiku dan bertanya, “Mas Arif..”

    aku kaget! Tueng!!!

    padahal, gw dah yakin waktu nyolong mangga milik tetangga nenek ga ada yang tahu. alamaak..

    trus dengan nada berat, dia bilang, “ini ada kartu pos dari temennya di New Zealand.”

    waaa.. ternyata dia datang bukan gara-gara dosa gw 15 tahun lalu waktu nyolong mangga. pas gw masih terbengong, temen-temen kantor pada rebutan baca kartu pos itu!

    such a lovely card, from a lucky girl.. 😀

    terima kasih ya…

  • AAAARRGGHH..!! ARWEN..!!

  • tyasawa

    ameeell.. pakabar.. wah ;_; .. gw pengen banget ke nz.. huhuhu..

    taun depan deh.. pas winter mo liat salju juga..

    hehehe pakabar ni dah lama gak ktemu~

  • Wah, asyik banget liburannya. New Zealand is one of many favorite places I want to visit. Lucky you, girl *envy mode ON*

  • Senengnya dah bis ajalan2 ke NZ – wah bisa jadi acuan pelesir selanjutnya nih…

    Lama euy blom sempet mampir kesini lagi.. moga2 kahabarnya baik & sehat yah… salam hangat dari afrika barat (baru balik cuti singkat ke kampung nih!)

  • Nikmatilah liburan selagi masih bisa karena setelah itu harus balik jadi kutubuku 🙂 atau kutu coder.

  • hello mel, apa kabar? wah lagi liburan yaa .. aseeekkkk. met liburan, jangan lupa oleh2 fotonya 🙂

  • wah bener bener luh mel..
    posting informasi vs bikin ngirinya 50-50
    hahahaha

    pengeeeeeennn

  • mel… kemana aja?? sibuk apa sibuk? kok ga muncul dan ga ada posting baru lagi? almost amonth loh kamu ga posting lagi,…

    ck ck ck… be back soon aja deh.. 😀

  • amellie

    hello everyoneee…

    thanks so much for your comments.

    I’m sorry, I haven’t had time updating this blog (again). I have a hectic schedule this semester! My final year project is in a development process.. so I’m very busy @ the moment. Not only that, I also have to divide my time with other courses that I take this semester. It’s quite a hard semester for me.. but I’m enjoying every single of it! 🙂 There’re so many things I want to write on this blog, but I don’t have much time to do it 🙁 . Hopefully I’ll write a new posting sooooonn… see y’all!

  • senaz

    meeel..aku butuh bantuan niiiy..mo nanya2 ttg settingan blogsome..hehehe..kabarin aku ya kl dah ga sibuk lagih..

    btw, sukses for ure final year ya!!..pasti sibuk berat deeeh..

  • Duh mel.. udah 1 bulan overdue nih since your last post 🙂 Pasti sibuk banget ya? Good luck yaw!

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