Photobomb

I am sure many of us have heard or at least experience once photobomb incident before. I still remember when I was young and went to China, or more like Shenzen for travel, I got a lot of photobomb from tourists and somehow like to get into my view. And imagine there was no digital camera that time and after deveoping the photos, it's heart sick to see such photos being photobombed by so many people.

Nowadays it has become a normed for photobomb even during big ceremony events. The one that I remember very well was the photobomb by Benedict Cumberbatch during the Oscars this year. And who can forget the best photobomb of the year by Prince Harry during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year. Epic!

source from parade.condenast

source from popdust.com

Come to think about it, I kind of accepting the norm of photobomb and sometimes it's quite funny when I looked back at photos that I had been photobomb, for example the time I had in New Zealand (photobomb by my tour guide in a very funny way while the 3 of us were so serious).

Another time would be in Peru when a llama suddenly came into the picture and not forgetting the time when a cat photobombing my pre wedding photos which later on we decide to include him/her in the photo. 

Bomb by a Llama in Peru

Bomb by my guide during my New Zealand trip

Bomb by the cat who decided to join in the photoshoot

A video of me Flying in the Air

Paragliding in Queenstown from JY Wong on Vimeo.

Details of my experience is here

Cathedral Cove

If you have seen Narnia, Prince of Caspian, the following images will look familiar.

It was one of the scene whereby the siblings were transported back to Narnia from the London subway.

Cathedral Cove, the scene from Narnia: Prince Caspian

While our tourmates spend their time sea kayaking, our guide had to 'babysit' us. Actually we told him, we are ok to walk on our own from the parking to the beach and told him to go ahead with his sea kayaking.

And I remembered he told us the story of how he had to bring another mother daughter to the beach as it involved a bit of walking up and down the hill, they took a long time to finally reach the beach.

We also taught Hygi a folk song, Rasa Sayang and XS even wrote him the lyrics for him to sing to his future Malaysian tour groups or girlfriends, haha.

As it took us some walking down from the top to the beach, there are some stunning scenaries along the way.

Skydiving

No. I didn't dare to perform such stunt while in New Zealand. Just that we went and watched our tour mates skydive in Lake Tekapo and it was fun to watch the video together and laughed at the silly faces and expressions while falling from the sky.

The photos I managed to capture here are those when the parachute was opened and they were gliding down to the landing spot. I love how the parachutes contrast nicely against the clear blue sky. If you asked me whether I regret not doing the skydiving while there, I had a bit of tiny regrets though. Should have spend that money while I am still brave enough to do such extreme activities. Oh..it's not the money, it's the age factor, haha.

Jumping Jumping

I was looking through my New Zealand photos for the photobook and can't help but noticed that during the whole trip, we took a lot of jumping photos. As most of the time, I was behind the camera, the models are usually my two friends. Most of the jumping photos shown in my Facebook are the good takes while in actual fact we had to take numerous shots to perfect the best jump.

So here are some of the NGs of the jumping shots. Beware, many of these are really bad but they bring back good memories and the fun we had while executing and mastering the art of jumping. Haha.

Queenstown

Wanaka

On the way to South Bay

Pacific Ocean

Braving the Hailstorm at Franz Josef

It was raining non stop from the time we reached Franz Josef for dinner. We stayed in a quiet town with only 2 streets and the weather wasn't looking good for our hike to the glacier tomorrow. In fact, we had been told by our guide that most likely we will not get to hike the glacier. I was really dissapointed to hear that as this was one of the things in my bucket list that I am dying to do.

Hygi suggested for us to go for quad biking but being the super kiam Asians, we decided not to go ahead. We manage to see the glacier from a distance in the early morning before the hailstorm struck. It was also the first time I was stuck in the middle of the storm with no way to hide but to keep walking in the open area towards the parking. And the three of us were drenched from head to toe as I was too busy protecting my camera and not my pants. Lesson learnt, next time must wear water proof pants and not jeans if a storm is approching.

As we didn't sign up for the quad biking, we decided to do our laundry and we spent the entire evening trying to dry our clothes. This remained the funniest experience ever as the three of us were running around changing coins and 'chupping' the washing machine and dryer to dry our clothes. It took us 6 times to dry our clothes using the dryer as we made a mistake of loading too much at once, again blame on the kiam attitude of three accountants/auditors.

Even that, our clothes were not fully dried and we resort to let it air dry or rather heater dry in our room while we went out for dinner at one of the pub for the cheap food, again due to our kiamness. We tried to run away when we saw our tourmates coming as we didn't want to play the snooker but it was too late. We had to finish or at least try to make one ball fall into the hole. I totally sucks at snooker or any other games that required eye, hand and feet coordination!

New Zealand Tour Itinerary

Most people I know would travel to New Zealand via free and easy and plan out their itinerary on their own. In fact, before we decided to sign up with Haka Tours, we did some calculations and decided that we were too busy to plan out the whole trip. So kc went and did some research and suggested a few tours but in the end it was Haka Tours that attracted us with the itinerary and cost as well.

Just to share, here's the itinerary for our whole trip starting from South Island, Christchurh ending in Auckland. So, do we recommend Haka Tours to those who wanted to enjoy New Zealand, at least for me, it's a yes. I like them for the flexibility and small groups and we can choose to pay after the end of the trip for additional activities. Those optional activities that I highlighted in blue are those that we choose.

Day 1 – Christchurch to Lake Tekapo
Meeting time – 8am (introductions and breakfast)
Optional Activities – Hot Air Ballooning, Surf Lessons
Accommodation – YHA Tekapo – 03 680 6857
Driving time – 3 hrs

Day 2 – Lake Tekapo to Queenstown
Optional Activities – Scenic Flight, Kawarau Bridge Bungy
Accommodation – Pinewood Lodge, Queenstown – 03 442 8273
Driving time – 3 hrs

Day 3 – Queenstown
Optional Activities – skydiving, paragliding, hand gliding, Shotover Canyon Swing, Nevis bungy, Nevis Arc, Kawarau Bridge bungy, quad biking, white-water rafting, extreme jet boating, sledging, heli-mountain biking, snowboarding/skiing in Winter, day trip to Milford Sound (coach or flight), horse trekking, Ziptrek
Accommodation – Pinewood Lodge, Queenstown – 03 442 8273
Driving time – n/a

Day 4 – Queenstown to Wanaka
Optional Activities – Queenstown activities in the morning, then Monster Trucks at Cardrona
Accommodation – Purple Cow Backpackers, Wanaka – 03 443 1880
Drive time – 1 hr

Day 5 – Wanaka to Franz Josef
Optional Activities – skydiving at Wanaka, acrobatic flight, wakeboarding
Accommodation – Chateau Franz – 03 752 0738
Driving time – 4 hrs

Day 6 – Franz Josef
Optional Activities – glacier trek, heli-hike, quad biking
Accommodation – Chateau Franz – 03 752 0738
Driving time – n/a

Day 7 – Franz Josef to Christchurch
Accommodation – Haka Lodge, CHCH – 03 980 4252
Driving time – 2 hrs, 4 hrs train journey

Day 8 – Christchurch to Kaikoura
Optional Activities – Hot Air Ballooning, Surf Lessons, Tank Driving
Accommodation – Dusky Lodge, Kaikoura – 03 319 5959
Driving time – 2.5 hrs

Day 9 – Kaikoura to Wellington
Optional Activities – Dolphin Swimming, Whale Watch, Surfing lesson
Accommodation – YHA Wellington City – 04 801 7280
Driving time – 2.5 hrs to Picton, 3 hr on ferry

Day 10 - Wellington
Accommodation – YHA Wellington City – 04 801 7280
Optional Activities – Windsurfing, Mountain Biking, Adrenalin Forest

Day 11 – Wellington to Taupo
Accommodation – Blackcurrant Backpackers 07 378 9292
Driving time – 4 hrs

Day 12 - Free Day Taupo
Optional Activities – skydiving, bungy, sailing, parasailing, mountain biking, Tongariro Crossing
Accommodation – Blackcurrant Backpackers 07 378 9292
Driving time – n/a

Day 13 – Taupo to Rotorua
Optional Activities – Zorb, Bungy, Skydiving, Agrodome Sheep Show
Accommodation – YHA Treks – 07 349 4088
Driving time – 2 hours

Day 14 – Rotorua to Waitomo Caves
Optional Activities – white-water rafting, sledging, gondola and luge track, Hobbiton
Accommodation – Waitomo Backpackers – 07 878 3395
Driving time – 2 hrs

Day 15 – Waitomo to Coromandel
Optional Activities – 4 hour Lost World Caving Trip, Black Water Rafting
Accommodation – Turtle Cove, Whitianga – 07 867 1517
Driving time – 3 hrs

Day 16 – Coromandel to Auckland
Optional Activities – sea kayaking
Accommodation – YHA Auckland International, 5 Turner St – 09 302 8200
Driving time – 2.5 hrs

Mount John Observatory @ Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

Hyge, our guide suggested that we followed to see some of our tourmates skydiving and brought us to the Mount John observatory to kill some time. As soon as three of us saw the lake from the top of the mountain, we shouted Tibet as the colour of the lake is so similar to Lake Namtso in Tibet, calm blue greenish colour.

It's only after that, I got to know that this place is famous for star gazing at night. In fact, it is one of the famous spot in New Zealand and many star gazers come here for that purpose.

We spent some time here taking photos and admiring the view from the top.

It's Lupin Everywhere

It's the first time I saw such beautiful wild flowers during my travel. At first, I even thought these flowers are planted and not wild. It turns out that these are wild flowers and the locals even tried to get rid off these flowers.

We were lucky to be in New Zealand during the peak of the lupin season. The whole of Lake Tekapo is covered with the wild flowers making the scenary even more beautiful. From what I read, the peak of the blooming of these flowers is during first two weeks in December, which is the summer month in the Southern atmosphere.

Paragliding Over Queenstown, New Zealand

Whee..I am flying

Technically, I didn't paraglide over Queenstown town area but from Coronet peak, which is around half and hour from the town. It's actually a long story as after our guide, Hyge dropped us at the peak of the Queenstown gondola and we happily waiting for our turn to paraglide. I was quite sceptical in the first place as I have major motion sickness and some fear of height. And when they told us that the wind was too strong to fly, I was quite happy to have the activity cancelled. But since they relocated to Coronet Peak to fly, I had to go ahead.

It was a tandem paragliding and the four of us including Lin, were put with a partner who controlled the glide. I got myself a Venezualean guide who kept asking me whether I am ok and kept saying the view is beautiful. Actually deep down in my heart, I think my heart almost fell out once we kicked off from the hill. I practically had to run to start flying and it was really scary. After getting used to the height, wind and fear, I began to enjoyed the view. Too bad, the guide behind me started to be funny and tried to fly higher and doing some acrobatic moves. I can feel my motion sickness kicked in and yet my guide kept doing his spin. Sigh, until I had to resort to blackmailing him that I am going to vomit in the sky, that he finally stopped spinning and looking for the spot to land. Pheww....

But the view from the top is amazing and the feeling of wind rushing through felt good. If someone ask me whether I would recommed this activity, I will say yes. It's a very good experience if you can't take bungee jump or skydiving.

For information, we flew with G Force Paragliding in Queenstown. There is a counter at the top.

Strapped on

I getting dizzy

When are we going down?

Crazy things I did in New Zealand

Bungee Jump - Nope

Skydiving - Nope

Canyon Swing - Nope

White Water Rafting - Nope

Zorbing- Nope

So what crazy things I did in NZ?

The title itself a bit anti climax though. Although New Zealand is famous for extreme activities, the only things that I dare to do when I was there were paragliding in Queenstown and black water rafting in Waitomo. Well, Tongariro Crossing is considered another crazy thing as it was a 7 hour hike non-stop. Other that day, sightseeing pretty much sums up all the things that I have done in New Zealand.

Speaking of that, I haven't not even look at my paragliding video and photos which I have paid NZD40 for them. Problem now is I need to recall where I have left them.

Since I wasn't sure where I have left my paragliding photos and video, black water rafting is the only thing I can share for now. There is no photos or videos but it was one of the best experience I ever had although I almost drown at the part where we need to leap from the waterfall. Not very tall waterfall but considering that I DO NOT know how to swim, I was terrified. But after seeing all the glow worms in the Waitomo caves, I have to say this is the best way to experience the glow worms in the dark.

Tourist boat, not a fun way to see the worms
Picture credit to waitomo.org.nz

Cruising along the river in the caves
Picture credit to contiki.com

This is how I need to jump from the waterfall
Pic credit to smartertravel.com

There is one part where we switched off our headlights and we practically wowed at the sight of the worms glowing in the dark. And doing that while drifting away along the river inside the caves. Definitely something that everyone should do when they are in New Zealand and visiting the Waitomo Caves.

Just for info, we signed with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co.

A Hobbit For a Day

It's a dream comes true for me to finally see one of the famous LOTR filming locations which is the Hobbiton. Hobbiton is located at Matamata (which also meant police in Malay) and can be reached via tour bus from the main town nearby.

According to our guide, it's built on Alexander's farm and it was actually torn down after the filming of the LOTR finished. It was only after the Hobbit trilogy is filmed and owner of the farm received many requests for the tour, that Peter Jackson and the farm's owner decided to make the location permanent for tourists.

Truth to be told, I feel a bit disappointed with the tour as it was full of tourists when I was there. And we were mostly given an hour to finish the tour and for free drinks at the Dragon Inn. As we were taking a bus from Rotorua, we had to be back by lunch.

Hobbiton welcoming us

One of the hobbit hole

It's actually empty inside

Before the filming start, the workers have to repeatedly walked to the clothing line to make a pathway

Samwise Gamgee's house

Dragon Inn

Hobbiton overview and the famous party tent

So pretty

Going for a free drink at the inn

Love all the sky reflection here

Hobbit on duty

Kaikoura to South Bay

So before my big hike at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, our tour manager suggested us to do the small hike from Kaikoura to South Bay along the Kaikoura peninsula. He offered to send us to the starting point which is at Point Kean carpark but since we wanted to practise for our big hike, we decided to walk from the town to the starting point which we took around an hour. Along the way, we actually saw our tour manager driving past a few times and I think at one point of time, he was getting worried that we had not reach the starting point, haha.

From the Point Kean carpark, we set off for the hike along the Kaikoura peninsula to some of the stunning view points, Whalers Bay and Sharks Tooth point. We had so much fun taking jumping shots and enjoying the view at the same time. After a while, we finally reach the South Bay town, which is at the other side of the peninsula. From here, there is a short cut which is an hour back to the starting point.

source: virtual-kaikoura.com