Scenic Drive to Glenorchy

One of the most scenic drive I had during the recent visit to New Zealand is from Queenstown to Glenorchy. I didn't go to Glenorchy during my visit in 2011, I didn't research about Glenorchy then. But I can't remember who wrote about Glenorchy being beautiful in CARI forum after I came back from that visit.

So this time around, I tried to slot in Glenorchy as part of our destination. It is not far from Queenstown, perhaps about 45 minutes drive along Lake Wakatipu. This place is a very small town, with not many buildings around, but there are some coffee shops for tourists to stop by. But it is popular as the place where they film Lord of The Ring. There's nothing much to do in Glenorchy though, some tracking activities, kayaking, horse riding, Lord of The Ring tour, fishing and such. But I think scenery is what most people are after in Glenorchy - at least for us. We went quite late in the afternoon, so by the time we reached the place it was already about 5pm.  

The picture above is how beautiful Glenorchy is. I really love the contrast between the color of the hills and the shadow from the clouds. It was very cold then, the wind blowing strongly, but I think even my parents enjoyed the scenery. The picture above is on the left side of where we stood, and you know what was on the right side? See the picture below. Imagine we are standing in the middle admiring the hilly scenery vs the sea. Breathtaking indeed.

While I was attending to my parents taking their pictures and visiting the boatshed, my brother and sister-in-law were busy at the wharf. I didn't know what they did at first, tertonggeng-tonggeng, terbalik-balik... my brother siap baring lagi kat the wharf. Rupa-rupanya they had photography session taking the picture of my baby nephew. Kesian budak tu ditiarapkan atas jeti tu, while the father sampai baring-baring trying to capture the best shot. 

But look at the outcome - isn't this beautiful? The first time I saw this picture I thought it looks like a photo taken at a studio. Worth it mama and baba nya tertonggeng-tonggeng dalam keadaan sejuk gedi tu. 

This place is beautiful, really. It is not far from Queenstown, so though there's nothing much to do here, but worth to take a short drive and be there 1-2 hours admiring the scenery. Those who love Lord of The Rings probably can spend some money joining the tour, am not too sure of the fee and what they do during the tour though, but with this kind of place, it must be interesting. 

Campervaning around South Island with Kea

I didn't update this blog for close to 5 months ever since I came back from New Zealand. Fuhh. Kena update lepas ni... berhabuk!! 

Ada yg asked about New Zealand trip update .. not much to update though since I went to about the same places I went in 2011. And since the iPad kena songlap kat Rotorua, and most pictures are in there so I don't have much left except what I had in my handphone. Story about break in in Rotorua will be in another post insyaallah kalau rajin.

 

But one thing different this time is because we used campervan to move around in South Island. I used Kea Campervan, after a bit of research of what campervan to use. It was April, so it was still peak period and the price was at a high side. I hired the campervan at the rate of NZD235 per day basic, plus NZD60 platinum cover for the insurance and other facilities like GPS etc. The rate is half what I quoted if we rent it from May to Oct. All in all, I spent NZD2,950 for 10 day rent. There are other cheaper options like Britz, Backpackers, Apollo etc, but I read the reviews at many places and thought I would go with the one with almost no bad reviews, and that is Kea.

But I guess I was just unlucky. Turn out it was not such a good experience after all. We took our camper in Christchurch and drove it all the way to Lake Tekapo on the first day with our ears stuck because of the noise coming from the microwave since there's some crack at the plating. And we didn't know what to expect since we never drove a campervan before, so when my brother complaint that it was quite heavy, we thought that is because it was indeed heavy. Little that we know that there's something wrong with the turbo, causing the driving experience to be difficult. 

The journey from Lake Tekapo to Queenstown was a disaster. It became so heavy to the point we can't even climb a hill. And you know how hilly Queenstown can be. It was already night when we reached Queenstown, so the next day we called Kea Christchurch for help, and since there's no Kea in Queenstown, we were directed to Maui Queenstown for help. The camper we had was a new camper and still under warranty, so they directed us to another workshop, and asked us to come after lunch. So there we were, after lunch, we drove to the workshop as directed, and they told us it was supposed to be a one hour affair, so we can wait. We waited for about 3 hours at the workshop without being attended, and when I called back Kea, and Maui followed up with the workshop, then only we were told that there's spare parts they need to wait for and the camper will not be ready for the day. What the? So what the manager think am doing at their office if they know the camper will not be ready that day? I was so pissed off but the mechanic in Maui was very helpful and told us we can have the one and only Kea they have at Maui base at that time, but turn out it was a 4-berth camper while ours is 6-berth! So we had to go back and had to wait for the replacement camper which will be driven from Christchurch the next day. And the next day, they started to drive from Christchurch in the morning, and it was only in the afternoon we got the replacement camper. So all in all, we lost almost 2 days in Queenstown. The lesson I got is, I better opted for a camper company which has more branches, if I opted for Maui instead, I would have the replacement camper right away. And what makes me pissed off is, Kea told me that it was not their policy to compensate for the lost of days because they have tried their best to accommodate us as soon as possible. While I agree the staffs are polite and trying their best, I thought the policy is disappointing. You know you handed faulty vehicle to your client but no compensation? 

What did I get instead? Read the message below. When they send the replacement camper, they put a  bottle of wine in the fridge together with this message. I am a Muslim for God sake!

 The replacement camper is in good shape, the performance was good... but... there's a leakage of water hose. Macam mana nak isi air bang oii? Tension tau. Our fault was we didn't check the water hose before we leave Maui base. We should have checked it first!

But the experience driving around with a camper is really something. My parents can get their sleep anytime they want.. they can also go to toilet anytime they want. Though of course the capacity of the toilet is limited, it is designed for mat salleh where toilet affairs doesn't involve a lot of water. Depa tak payah cebok. Kita nak cebok tak boleh kat toilet tu kena cebok kat shower sebab toilet tu punya tank kecik gila. Kalo cebok gak dalam tu nanti penuh within seconds hahaha..  And the baby can also get his sleep along the journey comfortably.. with comforter, pillows etc by his side. Tak meragam langsung pun dia along the journey because his sleep was not interrupted. See the picture below, that's how comfortable he was sleeping in the campervan while his father drives.

 I didn't sleep in the camper all the time, simply because there are 5 adults and the camper can be quite crowded with 5 adults in it. My parents need proper sleep and the baby needs to wander around. We still sleep in motel and only slept in the campervan for 2 nights, one night in Christchurch and another night in Te Anau. I slept an additional night in Lake Tekapo in the campervan with my brother while the rest slept in a cabin.

With complete kitchen in the campervan, we were also not worry about food. I didn't cook in campervan all the time, I normally cook in the common kitchen at the holiday park. But it was so easy because we cook in the morning and bring it along the journey, we can reheat it whenever we want to eat, and we can get everything from the fridge along the way. The above picture is when I cooked in the campervan at Lake Tekapo. It was convenient except you can't do much frying because the smell will conquer the whole campervan haha. 

Minus the bad experience we had with the faulty camper, all in all actually a nice experience being in the camper. Will I do it again? Yeah... when there are only 2 of us in the camper. It is easier to handle because 5 adults I think is too many you will bump into each other all the time in the camper :)

Holiday Mood Edition : Searching for Flight Kuala Lumpur - New Zealand

It will be 12 more days before my second visit to New Zealand this April. This time around, I will be dragging both my parents, my brother and sister-in-law along. We will also drag my 10-month-old nephew along. This trip has been planned since September 2011 after I came back from my 14-days journey to New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be in September 2012, since I grabbed the cheap tickets from Air Asia X at the price of RM700++ per pax. Early 2012 however, Air Asia X announced that the route from Kuala Lumpur to Christchurch is to be cancelled, forcing me to decide whether to re-route the ticket to another Air Asia X destination, or to route it to Melbourne / Brisbane / Sydney and take a connecting flight to New Zealand, or to opt for a refund. I finally opted for a refund considering a few factors - that my sister in law gave birth in July so bringing forward is not an option, and my change of workplace to a Company with financial year end June. That means, September is the time when I am still struggling with audit and financial statements preparation to catch 30th September deadline by Bank Negara Malaysia. 

But the plan as a whole was not cancelled - I was just not sure when it will be and using which airline. It wasn't until November 2012 when I decided finally that the trip will be in April 2013 - the time when I can breath a bit before the next financial year end in June. And it was then that I started to survey for cheap flight for our trip. The keyword is cheap - kata cheapskate kan.

So I started googling and searching, including using KAYAK to fare comparison to get the cheapest and most convenient option available. 

So what were the options I was looking at?

1. Air Asia X to Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane and then connecting flight to Auckland / Christchurch using Jetstar / Virgin / Air New Zealand

It is kind of easy to find reasonably priced tickets from Kuala Lumpur to any port in Australia via Air Asia X. And the connecting flights from Australia to Auckland / Christchurch can also be easily found. But as I said earlier, I am bringing my parents along, and they are not actively mobile. Air Asia X is a point to point carrier, hence, timing is important. We can't risk booking a connecting flight too close to the point of arrival of Air Asia X, for fear that if there's a delay in Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur, we might missed the connecting flight. But I don't want to transit too long either, for fear that both my parents will be exhausted with the arrangement. If I were to go there without my parents, I might opt for this option.

2. Jetstar from Kuala Lumpur - Changi / Melbourne / Sydney - Auckland / Christchurch

Jetstar is another budget airline to be considered. It provides various routes from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland / Christchurch, either transit in Singapore or Melbourne / Sydney in Australia. Jetstar can be cheap if we book for the tickets early enough. But by the time I searched for the ticket, it was already quite expensive for a budget airline. And that is before we include tax, seat and baggage allowance. For the date I planned to go, it was close to RM3k per pax all in all then so I thought it was not worth it for a budget airline - I might as well search for a premium airline with that kind of price. But if you can plan earlier, the ticket can sometimes be very cheap.

3. Malaysian Airline System (MAS) Kuala Lumpur - Auckland

This is definitely the easiest option. It is a direct flight from KLIA to Auckland. 10+ hours non-stop. I was about ready to opt for this option then. It was expensive, at RM3,600 per pax for the date chosen. And considering there are 5 adults and an infant, I gotta spend about RM19k for flight tickets. I was already prepared to buy this, but then I thought, there are times when MAS do last minute sale, so I thought, let me survey a bit more and if there's no other cheaper and convenient option, I will buy this. Meanwhile, let us pray that MAS will do last minute promotion.

4. Emirates Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne - Auckland

I've never fly with Emirates before. The reviews I read about Emirates are good, for as long as we don't transit at their home base in Dubai. I found Emirates tickets are considerably cheaper than MAS for the dates I selected. It was about RM3.2k per pax, with a 6 hour transit in Melbourne. RM400 difference is not much comparing with MAS if we are looking at per pax, but since there will be 5 adults altogether, RM2k saving can be quite something. Never mind the 6 hour transit, because unlike Air Asia X which is a point to point carrier, I don't have to think of flight delay or anything with this. The problem I have with their transit is not the number of hours, but the timing. The flight will land in Melbourne at 1am, and will fly to Auckland at 7am. I can sleep at the airport, but my parents? I don't want them to be tired by the time they reach Auckland!

I was still numb then, OK.. looks like MAS will be the most convenient option, for my parents' sake. So I was already prepared to dig RM19k from my savings to buy tickets. But then, God gave me some ideas. What about Singapore? What options I have from Singapore? It will not be difficult to get a cheap flight from KL to Changi, so if I can get a cheap ticket from Singapore to Auckland / Christchurch, that will be good. So there I was, again, using KAYAK, surveying tickets flying from Changi to Auckland / Christchurch. And was very relieved with the plenty of options available, and IT IS MUCH CHEAPER TOO!!

It was then that I found plenty of other cheaper options, including :

• British Airways : Changi - Sydney - Auckland. The leg from Sydney to Auckland is operated by Qantas. It can be very cheap as in lesser than RM2k if the date chosen is right. And the transit is not long either, it is only a 1 hour transit. It was just that for the date I chose, the price was about RM2.6k so I didn't opt for this. 
• Emirates : The route is Changi - Brisbane - Auckland. For the dates chosen, I found Emirates from Singapore to be much cheaper than from Kuala Lumpur. Even after we take into consideration of the flight ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Changi, it is still very much cheaper. But as I said earlier, the only drawbacks for me is the timing of its transit. 
• Singapore Airlines : Err.. this one is of course not cheaper. It is a direct flight from Singapore to Auckland, but I don't see why I should choose this since it is expensive, I might as well choose MAS which will be slightly cheaper and more convenient. 
• Qantas : This is another convenient option , the route is either Changi - Brisbane - Auckland or Changi - Sydney - Auckland. The transit is also just around 1-2 hours. And the ticket price is also not bad, in the region of RM2.5k.
• Etihad : The route is Changi - Brisbane - Auckland, with the leg Brisbane - Auckland operated by Air New Zealand. Ticket in the region of RM2.1k, and the transit time is  only about 3 hours. And at quite an OK time too - because the transit is during day time so it is not that bad.

Apart from the above, there are also other airlines, like Southern China Airlines which can be very cheap at less than RM2k. The setback will be the transit is in Guangzhou, so you ended up traveling longer hours. 

I myself finally opted for Etihad Airways, at about RM2.1k per pax. From Kuala Lumpur, I just booked Air Asia to Changi. All in all, I managed to save about RM7k as compared with booking MAS. Lucky I didn't stop my research, otherwise I will be RM7k poorer. I hope it will not be too tiring for my parents. I booked early flight from Kuala Lumpur to Changi, and I will drop them in the transit hotel while I roam around later. And collect them back at night before the departure with Etihad. Wish me luck with my parents :)