7th September 2011
We started the day early today as we have 7:10am flight to Auckland. I woke up at 4:45a.m to clean myself and prepare simple breakfast - fish fillet and tomato sandwich. The motel owner had already help us to arrange for SuperShuttle to fetch us in the morning the day before. I prefer to reach airport earlier just in case, so I asked for 5:30a.m shuttle. But the owner thinks it will be too early and we should leave at 6a.m instead. We settled for 5:45a.m shuttle.
5:40a.m, we were already at the car park waiting for the shuttle to come. 5:45a.m... 5:50a.m... 5:55a.m... gosh... where's the shuttle? I was already worried [thanks to the Pisces in me] since the check in should be done 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. And it takes 30 minutes from our motel to the airport. Was the booking in order? Will the shuttle come? Will we be able to make it on time?
The shuttle finally came at 6a.m.. phew.. yet, will we be able to make it? There are 3 other people in the shuttle, two of them wanted to go to the train station, that means an extra stop! I was going dag dig dug in my heart. But alhamdulillah we finally arrived at the airport at 6:32a.m, 8 minutes before the final check in time and I ran to do my check in and everything.
We flew via Jetstar at 7:10a.m, reached Auckland at about 8:20a.m. Straight to Avis to take our car. It was a hatchback Toyota Corolla, the boot is so small that 2 luggage fully occupied it. We drove to the town, initially I wanted to go to Skytower but the parking was so full around there, so we decided to go to the museum domain instead to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum as well as The Wintergarden.
There's no entrance fee for the museum, it is by donation. We donated NZD10 per pax at the entrance. We also bought tickets for the cultural Maori performance, at NZD25 per pax. It was a very simple performance, but I do love it anyway.
The Museum itself has nothing much to look at, I was hoping for a more historical data to be displayed but was so disappointed for the lack of it.
After the Museum, we wanted to go to The Wintergarden. So we went to our car which was parked not far from the Museum, in between the Museum, the rugby field and some colleges. OK, first, I want to show where we parked our car, judge for yourself how public the area is :
Second, I want to show what happened to our car :
See the quarter mirror? Uwaaaaa.... our car was broken into!! I saw the back seat folded down, back door no longer locked, and all our luggage were gone! Panic.. panic.. panic.. I have my knapsack with me, so that means all the money, passport, credit cards, and all our tickets and booking information are safe with me. But Mr D's passport was in his knapsack, which was in the car. Hey you man, since when you don't carry your passport with you??
Mr D called 111, detailing the incident, together with the details of the bags and what's in it for insurance purposes. Meanwhile I sat down on the parking lot thinking of what to do next.. practically everything was gone, except for our money and credit cards [and my passport]. Mr D will have a bit more problem because his passport was also gone. Then I opened my knapsack to get my netbook since I saved some important details in the netbook as well such as what if our passport get lost or something.. and only then I realized.... gosshhh!! This morning I transferred the netbook to Mr D's knapsack because I need to put in our sandwich in my knapsack so taknak sandwich penyek with the netbook. Uwaaaa... the netbook was gone as well... I think that's why the guy broke into our car.. it was the netbook!! THE NETBOOK!! He detected that! I am always very careful about stuffs like this, netbook and handphone always with me and not left in the car. But today? Uwaaaaaaaa!!! I went like "why did you leave your knapsack in the car??" to Mr D a few times. Hahahaha.. pity him.. the truth was, both of us forgot that the netbook was no longer in MY knapsack, where it was supposed to be.
Now that I don't have the Malaysia High Comm details anymore (gone with the netbook), we need to find somewhere we can log to internet to get the details. But first, we need to go to Avis to change our car. Lucky I bought the insurance, so it took only 3 minutes to replace the car. We then cross over to the domestic terminal to log into the free internet.
Mr D called Malaysia High Comm in Wellington and was told that if he comes on Wednesday, Thursday or Monday in the morning, he can get back his passport in the afternoon. Today is Wednesday, but it was already 3p.m so definitely couldn't make it. We discussed whether we should drive down to Wellington the next morning instead, but driving down to Wellington will be too far and it will waste a lot of time. So we considered to take a flight down to Wellington from Hamilton [because we were supposed to go Hamilton today].
Mr D then thought that we will somehow ruin our schedule if we fly to Wellington the next morning when we originally supposed to be in Wellington on Sunday. He thinks there's no point going down to Wellington and then up again, so he thinks since he still have his I/C and international driving license with him for identification, and report to both NZ police and Malaysia High Comm for the lost of his passport, the replacement for the passport can wait till Monday. But we originally didn't plan to stay in Wellington on Monday, we just thought to just drop by Wellington on Sunday and took Interislander ferry crossing over to Picton on Monday morning. Now that we need to be in Wellington on Monday, we have to reschedule our South Island trip. I logged into Interislander website, change our crossing date from 12 September to 13 September. But the price is already expensive, initially I booked for Kaitaki with Kaitaki Plus at NZD250 for 2 pax. But now even Kaitaki, without the Kaitaki Plus cost us NZD240 for 2 pax. So we decided to drop the Kaitaki Plus, otherwise we will incur another NZD90 for that. It is OK.. with or without the Kaitaki Plus, we are crossing over insyallah. We also have to cancel our accommodation booking in Kaikoura, since we will have to stay a day longer in Wellington for the passport replacement. I was sad, because Kaikoura is one of the places I really wanted to go. But it is OK, we can later drop by for a while on our way to Christchurch.
Now that we have no mood to continue our short visit in Auckland, we decided to head straight to the next destination - Hamilton - the centre of our visit, because this was where Mr D did both his bachelor and master degree long time ago.
Next : What happened in Hamilton?
05th September 2011 : It is New Zealand, finally!
Me and Mr D originally planned to visit New Zealand in 2013 after we perform our Hajj [because I need to accumulate my leave for Hajj, so can't really use it up for something else yet], but the plan was brought forward to this year after I "accidentally" bought AAX tickets when the route was launched in Dec 2010 [hiks hiks.. Mr D didn't know until after I completed the booking process]. (I'll figure out how to handle my leave for Hajj). It is my first New Zealand trip, but for Mr D it will be sort of walking down memory lane because that's where he did both his bachelor and master degrees. This will be our first trip via AAX, as we normally take either MAS or Cathay Pacific for long haul. Didn't know what to expect initially, but am sure everything will be fine. We took 11:40pm flight (I love traveling at night when it comes to long haul). The flight was on time, and it was not bad after all. Can use AAX again in the future.. 
Approaching Christchurch, I was already in love with New Zealand with the scenery from above the plane. With the snow-capped mountain and all. Wonder how it looks like down there. We finally landed at Christchurch at about 1:50pm... hooray hooray!
Now.. it is the immigration time. I've prepared a file full of things, from tickets to booked accommodation, to credit card statement bla bla bla.. at the end only return ticket was checked. Going through the biosecurity check was also a breeze.. I already declared everything I brought, our bags were NOT even opened, and we went straight out! Easy peasy! Not even 2:30pm and we were already out of the arrival dragging our luggage to the shuttle area. 
I've booked City Central Motel for our accommodation for the night, before heading to Auckland the next morning. Purposely booked the one in the city centre, just so it will be easy to see the area most affected by the earthquake [crazy crazy yeahh!]. But I didn't book any transportation from the airport to the motel, so we just grabbed SuperShuttle at the rate of NZD29 for 2pax. The driver was so friendly, that suits my chatterbox Mr D, who loves to talk to everybody.
City Central is a good one I must say, just at the edge of the area most affected by the earthquake. Am sure before the earthquakes ruin everything within the Christchurch Central Business District, almost anything you want will be within walking distance. But because of the quakes, and CBD is closed, there's not much things around. The studio room I've booked was convenient enough for the two of us, with adequate kitchenette and all. It was clean, and the owner is also very-very-very friendly and accommodating, explaining to us where to get things and stuffs. We were also given fresh milk, though I don't drink milk and only Mr D drinks. Not much complaint about the motel, except the internet connection of course. We were given the first hour free as complimentary, but the next will be charged at NZD5/hr. Expensive max!
We didn't plan to do much things the first day, just to see what is it like in Christchurch now. There's not much time anyway.. we walked to Countdown supermarket within 12 minutes from the motel by foot, just to buy some things for dinner and breakfast. I saw Pak N Save on the way from airport to the motel, but Countdown is the nearest so Countdown it was.
The walk was rewarding.. it was quite sad to see how the earthquakes have impacted the city. Some buildings need to be taken down as it is beyond repair and no longer safe, including a hotel very near to our motel. Some shops moved to other locations, which am sure it will be difficult not only for the owners but also for the staffs. And am sure there's impact to unemployment as well. Road cracks here and there, buildings torn down. It will not be easy for Christchurch citizens, but at the same time, I am sure God has plan, and the plan will be the best for everybody.
So, what did we get in Countdown? Just enough for dinner and breakfast, and Whittakers of course! Dinner that night was simple.. white bread, eaten with cream cheese spread, tomato, grilled bread-crumbed hoki fish fillet and honeydew [which I bought at reduced price of NZD1.99 for half]. Lovely lovely lovely...
Tomorrow : Our journey to Auckland was eventful and full of drama!
Gosh... my flight to New Zealand will be tomorrow night, and I still haven't done any packing, food shopping bla bla bla - and plus I have to work tomorrow before going off to the airport. That means I just have today to do the shopping, packing, bla bla bla.
Yesterday I've just finalized the accommodation for the trip. I've been doing that since April, but because Jetstar rescheduled some of its flights (we use Jetstar for route Christchurch - Auckland and Queenstown - Christchurch), we had to do some changes to our itinerary thus our accommodation as well.
Our route will be KL - Christchurch - Auckland - Hamilton - Waitomo Caves - Rotorua - Taupo - Palmerston North - Wellington - Picton - Kaikoura - Christchurch - Akaroa - Lake Tekapo - Wanaka - Cardrona - Arrowtown - Queenstown - Milford Sound - Queenstown - Christchurch - KL.
We will not overnight at each places, only the main ones.
Since we are going during the Rugby World Cup, pricing wise is slightly higher than normal. I think if we go during normal time, the price might be lower.
We choose to stay at self contained motels throughout the trip, so the following are our booked accommodation for the 2 weeks :
6th September - Christchurch
We will arrive at Christchurch at about 2pm. Initially, we wanted to fly direct to Auckland via Jetstar at 19:50pm, but since Jetstar rescheduled its flight to 3pm, we have to then fly the next morning. So have to arrange the accommodation in Christchurch for the night. This is the motel we booked :
City Central Motel Apartments
252 Barbadoes Street
Christchurch Central
Room type : Studio Double @ NZD170 per night
7th September and 8th September - Hamilton
Atrium on Ulster
281-285 Ulster Street
Hamilton
Room type : Studio unit (queen bed) @ NZD128 per night
9th September - Rotorua
Alpin Motel Apartments and Conference Centre
16 Sala Street
Whakarewarewa
Rotorua
Room type : 1 bedroom queen @ NZD130 per night
10th September - Lake Taupo
Baycourt Lakefront Taupo
104 Lake Terrace
Central Taupo
Room type : Accessible @ NZD130 per night
11th September - Wellington
Fernhill Motor Lodge
17-19 Pharazyn Street, Lower Hutt
Wellington
Room type : Studio @ NZD150 per night
12th September - Kaikoura
Bella Vista Motel
45-47 Churchill Street
Kaikoura
Room type : Standard Queen Studio @ NZD145 per night
13th September - Christchurch
We will be back to City Central Motel, similar to our 6th Sept accomodation
14th September - Lake Tekapo
Lakeview Tekapo
6 Lochinver Avenue
Lake Tekapo
Room type : Lakeview Suite @ NZD195 per night
15th to 17th September - Queenstown
Earnslaw Lodge Motel
77 Frankton Road
Queenstown
Room type : Lake Facing Kitchen Studio @ NZD165 per night (extra NZD15 per night for wireless broadband)
So that's how my spending will be for accommodation. All in all, the total spending for accommodation will be NZD1,886, that is RM4,715 if we convert it at RM2.5=NZD1.
