Loving it~!

Just got home from Bali - love water, food and best of all, the villa! =D. Only disappointment was the case of the missing molas and mantas, which means that we just have to go back again! :)


Back at home in KL now, enjoying the life of a bummer before heading back to reality in Melbourne. If only I could freeze time! :(

@ Pura Besakih

Pura Uluwatu

Breakfast by the pool
*Now, THAT's living! :D*

Fiji Shark Dive

*Hello*

Our Shark Dive was not without a hitch, but BAD (Beqa Adventure Divers) did make it up to us at the end of the day.

We woke up enthusiastically in the morning in anticipation of our shark dive that we've waiting for days for only to be told that it was cancelled as we were having breakfast that morning. It was very responsible of the dive operators to come in and tell us individually and leaving us their numbers. Andrew was professional and honest with us about the fact that we might never be able to do the dive on this trip. The reason for the cancellation of our dives was because the dive shop was a rented property of a certain hotel that had been confiscated by the military for financial reasons. And the dive operators were not sure when they would be able to re-open for business.

We did scout around and eventually enquired with Aqua Trek for their Shark Dives, but they were fully booked for the days that we were there. But it was all good in the end when Andrew contacted us later in the day to say that they've reopened and they were giving us an extra dive day for free for the inconvenience! *YAY!!*

Bull Shark

The shark dives comprise of 2 dives for the day, with the first descending up to 30 metres in depth to watch the main show. The regular attendees were the famous bull sharks, black tip and white tips reef sharks, lemon shark, silvertip and nurse sharks, as well as the occasional tiger shark. She only makes an appearance about 1 in every 7-8 dive days and we were not of the lucky few.

The homeless remora
*kinda look alien-y* :P

He reminds me of the fatty shark in a cartoon
*I forgot which one*

Feeding time!

Check out the teeth!

I have to say the two of us do end up with the best seats in the house. Usually right behind the feeder, or just a slight off to their right. The sharks often feed and swim away on the right making the views marvellous. Though, the sight of their sharp white teeth gave me goosebumps. One of then even swam right over our head at extremely close range. *grins* We didn't take that many pictures as we spent most of the time taking videos.

And here's the video of our first dive :

We survived!

Map of the dive site in Pacific Coast

The main area of the Shark Dives for both BAD and Aquatrek is at the marked Shark Corridor on the map. Most of the other dives that we've done on the other days were mainly around Beqa Lagoon.

We did two day's worth of shark dives with BAD, one being the complimentary dive for the inconvenience. It was lucky that we took up their offer, as the second day's dive was much much better! The first day's dive was just so-so as there wasn't that many sharks, but many more of the larger fishes. Thankfully so for the better second dive - as we had to give up our kayaking along the gorges to go for the shark dive! =D

Auckland

We started out early in the morning, almost missing the check-in time as we had to make a turn back to the house as I had forgotten something. So, instead of dropping off the car first, we checked in before we parked the car.

We flew with Emirates but once again, the flight was delayed but only for an hour. Still, it meant an hour less in Auckland. Not to mention that the both of us were so tired as we barely had any sleep the night before. And I had just gotten off nights the day before.

Our first stop was One Tree Hill as it was on the way towards our hotel. For some reason, the weather seem to be adamant on making us wet. Each time we got off the car it starts raining and it will stop the instant we get back into our car!

Monument @ One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill, or also known as Maungakiekie in Maori is actually located on a volcanic peak. I was told that there was summit did actually have a single tree in the past, but was unfortunately removed after acts of vandalism in the past. A monument was built in return for the significance of the lost tree. Till today, there is no specific tree that represents the name of the hill.

The drive towards the summit was actually a pretty tight drive, and there was only a handful of car park spaces. Many had chosen to walk there, but we of course, being the 2 lazy people drove up instead :P. We probably only stayed for 5 minutes here as it started to pour. Even taking photos was becoming a challenge that I just gave up and ran back into the car :( .



We then drove down the hill towards an observatory centre. I initially thought it was an observatory tower to look into the city, but it was actually a proper observatory/planetarium. It is located in Cornwall Park of the One Tree Hill area. There is actually 2 parks in the area, but because they sit right next to each other, they are often perceived as 1 single park.

It was actually pretty nice inside, which I am sure I would enjoy if I had the slightest idea in astronomy. So, we only spent a very short time there.

We then drove into the city and checked in at our hotel, Rydges Harbourview. I scored a pretty good deal for the hotel, paying only NZD 95/night for a double room which had 2 double beds. It was recently refurbished, so it was all new and nice. There was a slight confusion at the start where they gave us a king room but it was all good in the end :).

The comfortable bed
*with 6 pillows each!*

Large big windows to let the sun in :)

By the time we've checked in, it was already about 4 p.m so we only dropped off our bags and quickly left to see other sights of Auckland. We didn't actually had that many things to see, but I was told that it was because we were without a local. Hhmm... Not so sure about it.

Our first stop was meant to be Mission Bay as that was where everyone had recommended to me as the famous Movenpick was there. We however diverted to a weekend market in town, which was closing at 5 p.m. I was expecting a big market, at least something half the size of Victoria Market and was hugely disappointed.

The market was tiny, located in a gravel car park and there was perhaps, 15 stores? We went on a quick round of the stalls and decided to settle for some food there. I had the taroyaki and Karen had the mini donuts and we got some chips to share. The chips were pretty good and looked pretty too! :D

Chips stall

Your uconventional chips :) *yums*

What amazed me in the market was how most people were spending. Most of them were using credit/debit cards and not cash! In a market.. Quite a sight.

From there, after going round and round in the city, we decided to head towards Mission bay before it's too close to dinner time. Everyone that knew we were going to Auckland had recommended the famous Movenpick Ice-cream in Mission Bay. Of course we had to go :).

Movenpick

I could only wish that the rain would leave us finally.. but no it didn't. Once again it started raining when we got off the car.

The ice-cream everyone raved about...
*It was quite good, but not as good as Al Fredo! :P*

A quick shot of Mission Bay before hopping back into the car

We were both so tired that we decided to hea back towards the hotel for some rest before dinner time. And Sky Tower of course. But not before some sleep time. And on our way home, we just had to take a snap shot of this :

NZ's version of Safeway/Woolies

I don't know why, but we couldn't stop laughing when we say the name. We were probably so used to associating the green logo with Woolies/Safeway that seeing it being Countdown was just too funny. No offence to any Kiwis :). Even the interior and shelves were similar to the ones in Oz. Heheheh

I took a quick nap while the reliable Karen did all the road planning for the next few days on the GPS *shy*. How I like someone else doing the planning when I'm on holiday. Hahahaha.

Last tourist stop of the night - Sky Tower!

It was located just a block away from our hotel, which made it really convenient for us to walk to instead of taking the car. We actually decided to valet park our car because it was cheaper than parking it in a public car park. Not to mention that the street parking all had a 120 minutes time limit.

@ the I-site of Sky Tower

Being economically-driven, we had taken quite a few brouchures from the airport while we were queueing for immigration. Tips : If you have yet to book most of your activities, be sure to grab the Rotorua guide and Arrivals guide. There was plenty of discount vouchers in the booklets that will help save heaps. We also purchased the Entertainment Book before we left Melbourne which again, helped us saved quite a bit.

Standing at 328 metres tall with the highest viewing platform at 22 metres, it offers a 360 degrees panaromic view of the city. It takes 40 seconds to get to the observation level. The Tower receives more than 750,000 visitors every year. There steps leading towards the Main Observatory Level and has 1,029 steps which the fastest record time taken to climb it was 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

And now, the pictures will do the talking :

View 1

View 2

View 3

To be honest, the Sky Tower was quite a disappointment to us. I may offend some here, but the Tower was small, poor constructed in terms of the viewing windows. It was hard to have a clear view of the city due to the condensation of the windows as well as dirt. I guess have the slanted viewing windows did not help as one's view was always obstructed by trails of water. Maybe it would have been much better if we were there during the day. I can only say that I am proud of the Eurake Towers in Melbourne after this.

We only spent about 20 minutes on the top before making our way to the gift shop which had this :

Hehehe... Cutesy :D

It was already 9+ by the time we left the towers to search for dinner. There wasn't much to eat at all, so we settled for Korean nearby. The food wasn't too bad, but we weren't all that hungry. It was more of let's eat so that we can go back to bed later. Hehehe.. Lucky for us, the trip improved tremendously from here on, both in terms of weather and tourist attractions :).

This was the sign outside the Korean Restaurant
25: 00 hours *hehehe*

Ziplining in Fiji

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision as our Shark Dive was delayed due to the military shut down of the hotel and dive centre that we had booked in with. We didn't find out till the morning of the dive but fortunately for us, there was an afternoon session.

We arranged for our trip with Rosie's Travel, located at the lobby of our hotel. Hassle-free and transportation arranged. The activity itself was FJD 130, and a further FJD 25 for transportation each.

The adventure activity was located about 30 minutes from our hotel, and we got picked up in clean and comfortable new vans :). All delightful!

All geared up

There was a 5 minutes briefing session on safety as well as information about the place. There was I think about 9 or 11 lines, and the longest extending as far as 200 metres. One also involved going over some water. There wasn't much else to say except to enjoy ourselves really!

And now, pictures galore :

And off we went :D

Me

SY

Our guides

There was about 3-4 guides on our trip and they were fantastic! All extremely friendly and accommodating to all our requests, it was a great trip.

I have to say, the scariest part of zip lining isn't the bit where I was dangling along the rope as I zip along (except when I do 360 degrees turn :P - the trick to avoid this was to lean back), but it was the part where u jump off the edge of the platform. But only for the first couple of times. After that, one just kinda gets used to it.

Waiting for our turn

One of the lovely friends we've met
Do not let the picture fool you - it was one big fat juicy pede.

And off we went again!

Landing safely on the 'grounds'

The boy doing some stunts - backflips

It was so fun! :D

Over the stream
*where I almost crashed at the landing... LOL*

The end of a wonderful day

It was truly an enjoyable 2 hour for us, especially when we had nothing planned for the day after the dives we cancelled. Definitely something that everyone should do when they're in the Pacific Coast!