New Year of 2013@Newmarket & Simon House

The 1st day of 2013, another brand new year for P&A, and now we are counting down everyday for the end of our Backpacking Life in Australia and New Zealand.

Today, we drove around in Newmarket and looking to find some food but only few restaurants are open today, what to say, it is a BIG holiday here, I think most of the people will be taking this chance to travel. We are lucky enough to found this mexicanfood chain for our New Year Lunch, yummss~~

Continue~~~

with a precious latte, cake and the very BEST Movenpick ice cream...

Dessert Time = Our Sweetsweet Time

After travelling for so long, what else will be better than having a great meal with Peter's relatives, feeling of home.. family.., we miss our family in Malaysia too, another 2 weeks time we will be having reunion dinner with our family back in Malaysia.

On New Year's day, we were invited by Simon to have a BBQ dinner at his house. Yums yums.. and homey..

Nice chilling time with Simon at the garden. They are having their bro talk over here. The relaxing living style in NZ is just so nice, but we still like the life in Malaysia, with the wonderful choices for breakfast (roti canai, nasi lemak, kuih, fried noodles etc etc) instead of just cereal/ toast =D Maybe when we are older, AUS/NZ is the retirement choice for sure!

New Year eve@Thames to Auckland

The wave musical of Thames~~ If you see what I mean... It's there, right there, on the left! Right?!

We are making our way back to Auckland already??! Another 90minutes drive and we get to see the most populated city of NZ.. Again..We want to celebrate New Year in Auckland, with Pete's relatives..

 Pie time @ Thames

A detour from our route to this farm cafe (unfortunately, we can't remember the name of this cafe), which we were attracted to cause they are serving Lala Coffee, a roastery in the Coromandel Peninsular here. I'd really like to get a taste of this boutique roaster's coffee.. Good thing they are selling Lala coffee beans in bags too, I can get some home now! We saw many cafes serving Lala in the peninsular.. Quite renowned around here.. It's quite good with a strong body.. 

LaLaLaLa~~

Lovely birds in this cafe/farm...

After the coffee time, we drove straight back to Pete's Uncle's house, yay, free stay there for few nights =)

 That huge yellow light at the center is not from spotlight but it is a REAL full moon....  Beautiful~~ It's New Year Eve, and we are in Auckland to countdown..

Sky Tower Fireworks @ Happy New Year 2013!!

Enjoying our first NEW YEAR eve in the most southern country we've been to =) This picture is the best of the fireworks to be honest and we are lucky to capture this! Hehe... And it's so windy, lucky they didn't cancel the fireworks!

Certainly the most crowded place in NZ ever!

Auckland still... and P&A Big Day

 It's P&A's 5th year anniversary and we have all the good food lined up for this special day! Heheee.. Starting off with Nando's for lunch...

Then Japanese for dinner.... at Banzai Restaurant.. Though one of the cheap eats in Auckland, their food is quite good.

 

The melting salmon.. yummyyyy

P&A favorite dish!! Melt in your mouth...

 

Salmon avo roll

 Spicy garlic prawn udon.. best...

Peter's taking his time chewing that salmon... 

Ermmm~~ Melting, melting...

The second friend we meet in Auckland whom we met in Australia, Joe. We worked together at Madura Pass, Western AUS (the absolutely outback roadhouse with nearest town 500km away). It was nice catching up with Joe reliving all the wonderful experiences at Madura and we might see him again in Malaysia!

Malaysian cuisine: Bak Kut Teh 

cooked by P&A as a sign of gratitude for George and Melinda for their hospitality =) 

and see the after effects of skiing, dark tanned faces =.=

 

Saw Anson again, we paid a visit to Simon's beautiful big house (Anson's dad) after a great SzeChuan dinner treat from Simon before we leave Auckland to start our journey..

Another cutie, Darney the doggie =)

We bought our VAN!

Auckland with Balz & Jenny

We met Balz and Jenny during our Diving course in Cairns, and today we meet them again in Auckland. It was just amazing how helpful this couple can be. They fetch us to the Backpackers car market and advised us on car buying in Auckland which we know little of. We saw one van recommended by the staff there, a Toyota Estima with a built in bed. $4200 for the 1995 van which had done over 300,000km is a bit too expensive for us with the mileage done. Apparently there are some negative reviews about the Auckland car market from overpriced vehicles to problematic vehicles. Best to check online about them. The other websites for backpackers van trade is backpackerboard.co.nz. They also have a lot of information of job vacancies and travelling in NZ. 

 Auckland Fish Market****

 

Then we had a beautiful lunch of fish and kumara (sweet potato) chips at the Auckland fish market. P&A also bought salmon sashimi to share. Balz and Jenny have never tried them before. Seems like Balz accepting the yummy flavour!

Rangitoto Island from Devonport lookout. This island looks similar from every point of view... There are hiking trails available in that island.

 Jumping on the Rangitoto..!

 Auckland, City of Sails...

Its really fun because Balz and Jenny wanted to try Asian food. So we went to the chinese grocer and got a Malaysian curry paste. Malaysian dinner it is! We cooked curry chicken, tofu and kailan in oyster sauce.

It was a great night indeed. Learned a lot about Swiss culture, mostly eating culture. Hehe.. Hope to see them again in Auckland when we're back :)

Snow Skiing for the FIRST TIME!

AOTEAROA.... New Zealand here we come!

Tui (native Nz bird).. Very unique vocalisation with clicks and wheezing sounds...

Aotearoa is a Maori word which means the 'land of the long white cloud'. Exactly a year ago, we arrive Perth, Australia. And today we are here at Auckland, New Zealand! Peter's cousin came to the airport to fetch us back to his house. We had no problem passing the custom and quarantine restrictions. It was really nice of George and his gf Melinda, giving us a warm house to stay while we arrange to buy a campervan in Auckland.

 

Spring flowers blooming all around Auckland =)

 Our first day in Auckland, headed to McDonalds to try out their NZ LAMB burger. It's huge!! And yummy.. The frozen coke did not taste as good as we thought.. =P

 

Auckland Britomart Train station

However we got no chance to try the train because bus is cheaper and more convenient for us.

Streets of Auckland city...

 

 Town Hall

 

SkyTower***** the Skycity casino, Sky walk and Sky jump all in this tower!

 St Patrick Cathedral

 Auckland Harbour

A A special event of presenting Valerie Adams the Olympic shot put gold medal..

 The Cloud on Queens Wharf

 

Finally we can have a great dinner together with Lim family in Auckland, we feel so glad to meet Anson and Rosie for the first time that night. That dinner was awesome as we are having 'Poon Choi' which need to be booked in advance and this is probably the best chinese meal P&A have since we left Malaysia.

Hearty Poon Choi with abalone, prawns, sea cucumber, duck and roast pork!

Cutie Anson

 A smartie, knows how to dance Gangnam style and eats lemon!

A healthy breakfast prepared by Melinda.. Rolled oats in yogurt with apple and Goji berries =) 

The view from Uncle Lim house. Went for a chat with Uncle that day, and we know lots more about NZ now!

NEXT @ AUCKLAND