Following a fairly heavy Christmas meal (at 7:00 pm because pregnant Sisterhood felt the pangs of hunger early on and could not wait to have noche buena at midnight), we decided to drive up to the Main temple of the Church of the Latter Day Saints to view their Christmas Lights display. The Mormons decorate their temple and the temple grounds every year and has always been one of the main attractions in the Tron during the Festive season.
Temple Lights
Last import from my old blog. After this is done, I’m going to delete that one and just focus on this. Since I’m migrating the text from another site and attempting (take note, the operative word here is ATTEMPTING) to consolidate all my accounts, some of the links may no longer work, so don’t click on anything – well, you can but it might lead you to a dead link.
Anyway, here’s the post on Queenstown. Ms. Kaladkarin and I visited this lovely place in December 2007 (I think) when we had that South Island Sojourn. Queenstown’s absolutely amazing during the Summer, it must be even more so during Winter. I hope to be able to visit Queenstown mid-year, when the Remarkables are covered in snow. We were supposed to go there last June (and again in September) but on both instances, circumstances prevented us from travelling. Oh well, perhaps I’ll have my chance again in 2012…
Welcome to Queenstown
On Boxing Day, my friend and I (for all intents and purposes, I shall call her Travel Companion or ‘TC’) went to Queenstown, at the South Island of New Zealand, for a much needed Christmas Break. After a whole year of backbreaking labour, we felt that we deserved to hie off somewhere and just relax. Since Air New Zealand fares for that period were way beyond our meager budget, we decided to skip the NZ’s national carrier and ride the Kangaroo (Qantas) instead.
Ready and raring to go!
It’s not that I haven’t been travelling in the past year and a half (or so), it’s just that I’ve been too busy to sort out my thoughts, post process photos and upload my stories onto the blog. But I’ve decided that I cannot use my so-called busy lifestyle as an excuse any longer. Thus this year, I will continue to travel and share my adventures and misadventures through this blog.
It would be nice to start on 1st January but I won’t wait until then. This coming Saturday, we (Sisterhood my brother in law, and myself – perhaps someone else) will be heading up to the Temple of the Church of the Latter Day Saints to view their Christmas Lights Display. I’ll start by blogging about that.
Until this Saturday then!
Hah! Who would have thought that barely a month after I flew back in from the South Island, I’d actually fly out again for a weekend getaway? I didn’t think I’d be going anywhere for the next who knows how long since I had kinda used up my savings but Air New Zealand came up with this amazing weekend package that was simply too delicious to resist.
Imagine this: 2 round trip airplane tickets from Auckland to Dunedin; accommodation for 2 nights at Living Space Dunedin, free parking at the Auckland Domestic Carpark, and free Speights Brewery tour for 2 all for just $219.00 (all inclusive and per person)! Who can resist that?!
(moving time yet again. shifting this thing I wrote sometime early this year regarding my experience at the aussie open when i watched it with my twister and paparazzi partner. man, i miss stalking those players and hounding them for their autographs. i think that was the most fun part of the open. perhaps i would be able to watch again sometime in the future.)
Now that the 2009 Australian Open is just about to end, I suddenly realised that I miss Melbourne. I was fortunate enough to have been able to watch the Aussie Open in 2007 and that experience was totally unbelievable.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
I watched the 2007 Australian Open with my younger sister (who we shall call Sisterhood). We flew in from Hamilton and had a brief stop over in Sydney. Mom suggested that we stay in Sydney for a few hours so we could see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. At first, Sisterhood and I were hesitant because we really wanted to be at the tennis grounds and watch the games but — well, we did stay a while in Sydney and did not regret doing that. I swear, the minute I laid my eyes on the Sydney Opera House, and then later on, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I just wanted to cry. It just felt so surreal. I mean, I’ve always heard about those and have seen them on film a couple of times (Finding Nemo) and I just never thought that I would be able to actually see both … Up Close! Those two structures were absolutely beautiful.Yes, I’m shallow like that.
(another old post from my previous sore feet blog. still moving some old texts while i’m trying to get my creative juices flowing. hopefully i’ll be inspired by jack nicholson and shelley duvall this weekend. i plan to blog while watching the shining on tvone. by the way, this was written in january 2009.)
After almost two years, I have finally crossed out one more item in my things-I-want-to-do-before-I-die list (or, simply put, my Bucket List). Actually, I really don’t have a list-LIST. I just make it up as I go along. Hehehehe.
Hamilton’s Balloon being deflated
Anyway, I woke up at the crack of dawn this White Rabbit Day of February (NZ Time, I have yet to figure out how to adjust the time and date settings on webs) because my much anticipated Balloon Ride was finally going to push through. I had to be at the Innes Commons at about 6:00 am because, according to Andrew (who we shall refer to as The Pilot), the best time to fly would be early morning when the breeze is not that strong yet and the wind speed is relatively stable. So, I had to drag my carcass out of the sofa (slept over at mum’s because she said she’ll take pictures of me going up in the air) at half past 5 and was driving to the Lake with mum at a bit before 6:00.
(Here’s another post I’m moving from my old site to this one. I’m off to the Coromandel, to see the Cathedral Cove, tomorrow. I hope to be able to write about this trip as well as the rest of the trips I have taken in the past – I’ve got a massive backlog already. I still need to write about Nelson, and Raglan and the other places I’ve been to)
Beijing’s Olympic Stadium
Last year, thanks to Air New Zealand’s Grab-a-Seat, I was able to get a really really cheap round trip airplane ticket (read: NZ$508.00 all in) to Beijing, China. So on the Friday before NZ’s Labour Day, I left Middle Earth to visit the land of the Imperial Dynasties.
The Tuesday after I arrived (and the day after I walked the Great Wall in Jinshanling and Simatai – worthy of another entry), with the insistence of my backpacker roommates, I braved the horrific Beijing traffic and pedalled my way northwards to the famed Olympic City. A visit to the Olympic City is a MUST considering the Great Games just finished a mere 3 months earlier. Better to visit the site before all the excitement, euphoria and the novelty wears off.
