The Cube

Our two days in Lake Tekapo was unfortunately pouring like no tomorrow, and I have realised that my only photo of this boutique accommodation is taken out from a car, of course - rainy day.

Our reservation at Parkbrae Estate was for Garden Tower, for 3 adults and 1 child. I didn't read up on the website before the travel, therefore I didn't expect that Garden Tower comprises of two floors - middle and top floor. Actually, sis who made the reservation was also as surprised as I was. Reason being there were actually 2 single beds and a queen size bed in the middle floor itself. It was more than enough to house all of us.

Middle floor:




Top floor:

The obvious bigger and more equiped kitchen, complete with a kitchen island

Likewise the middle floor, there were also comfy chairs at the balcony to enjoy the view. It was way too cold and foggy view for us, unfortunately.



We had high expectations and this place certainly was promising, especially the balcony overlooks to the Church of the Good Shepherd. We had hoped to see this...



Pic source

...but not only there were no stars to be seen, we could hardly see the church itself due to heavy rain. Sad to say that the only stars we saw was at about 4ish in the morning, in Queenstown sky.

and no church in the background....

Side note: Happy birthday Little P!

Peacock fountain

I have been warned that Christchurch would be really quiet, even more so on a public holidays. As we were scheduled to touch down late on Christmas eve, we carried some dried foodstuff as precautionary, also niece would want some snacks and all.

We anticipated a quiet town with most shops would be closed, but this was even worse. In actual fact, everything was closed, even fast food eateries which we thought may be in operation. We ended up driving back to the airport to get some food for lunch before making our way to Lake Tekapo.


This is probably the only one place that was open - Christchurch Botanic Gardens, and probably because it was free of charge.

Canterbury Museum

We only walked a very small part of the garden. Refer here for the map for the garden, we only walked the part near city.

These were from the Vegetables and Herb Garden area.




We left Christchurch for Lake Tekapo at about noon-ish after making a pit stop at the airport to buy food and ate them in the car to save time. :P


Side note: Back to lounge with light! ^^

In times like this, I really wish I have my proper camera with me - which is even impossible now as it is broken and too costly to be repaired. My camera really know how to pick a place to be broken, in India. Grin.

Anyway, I was waiting for the train to get to work and was pleasantly surprised to see those hot air balloons! ^^


Side note: Photo taken with mobile phone, not the latest version either :P

Source: Lonely Planet

Aotearoa - the Maori name for New Zealand. The breakdown of the word could be Aotea+roa or Ao+tea+roa.

Aotea - could be the name of the one of the canoes of the great migration, the great magellan cloud near the bright star Canopus in summer, a bird or food.
Ao - cloud, dawn, daytime or world
tea - white, clear, or bright
roa - long or tall

As such, the most popular meaning usually given is "long white cloud". There are two stories behind this naming. The less fairy-like version was that voyagers to New Zealand were guided during the day by a long white cloud, and at night by a long bright cloud.

The other version tells a story where Kupe (the discoverer of New Zealand) saw a peculiar looking cloud hanging over a land after his long voyage. He drew attention to it and his wife called out "He ao! He ao!" (a cloud! a cloud!). Aotea was initially named to the Great Barrier and North Island, but later became Aotearoa, presumably because of its length. Therefore it is also said that Aoteroa was used for North Island at first.
Source: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.


We took advantage of the Christmas - New Year public holidays, and take a couple of days to make it a nine days holidays to South Island New Zealand. We, in this holidays consists of sis, bro in law, little niece and me. We met up in Sydney during flight transit before took off to Christchurch.

One may ask, why South and not North Island? Mmm.. to be honest, there isn't any science applied on this, we just heard South Island is a more beautiful destination, and so we opt for South Island. However after we made the trip, I have seen beautiful shots of North Island too. So, if you are after any logical or scientific method to decide between North Island or South Island, I have no answer to that.

We were scheduled to land right before Christmas day but due to a small flight delay, we reached just passed midnight, exactly on Christmas day.

Day 0 - Christchurch* (Airport Gateway Motor Lodge)
Day 1 - Christchurch, Lake Tekapo* (Parkbrae Estate)
Day 2 - Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook, Wanaka* (Wanaka Heights Motel)
Day 3 - Wanaka, Te Anau* (Aden Motel)
Day 4 - Te Anau*, Milford Sound
Day 5 - Te Anau, Queenstown* (Shotover Lodge)
Day 6 - Arrowtown, Queenstown*
Day 7 - Glenorchy, Queenstown*
Day 8 - Glenorchy, Queenstown* (this is not a typing error, there's a story to this)
Day 9 - Queenstown, back to Melbourne
*overnight stay

We had 4 nights in Queenstown, both Arrowtown and Glenorchy were day trips. The cheapest flight I could find was one that transit in Auckland. LOL - yes, so I flew out of Queenstown to Auckland before reaching Melbourne.


Side note: Booked my flights to Tokyo in November! Koyo here I come! *happy grins*

Kids bite size cupcake

Steamed egg

Fettucini in Halloween sauce

This is how apple strudel look after a 4-5 hours flight

Custard horn



Amore on flight

I have always thought this is how tiramisu looks like. On my last trip back to Malaysia, I found another version of it. Sis told me there were some tiramisu in the fridge, and I found this...



Side note: Am still sitting in the dark....

The first Swedish Pastry House was opened in 1971 in City Arcade Perth by Miss Maud. After 40 years, there are now 16 Miss Maud Pastry Houses. 2 years since the first pastry house, Miss Maud Swedish Hotel was established. Granted, I have not stayed in this boutique hotel before, after all, there isn't any need as I could bunk at sis's place :P

However, I did try a couple of cakes from their Pastry House. Sis obviously has had many a chance to taste cakes from Miss Maud Pastry House.

It has been awhile, so I don't remember the exact name of the cakes but the obvious one - a chocolate cake, and the other one is apple.

I'm stating the obvious - chocolate cake

Apple based cake

We did the backwards two course meal, starting with dessert before having our main meal. This was unintentional, but merely because we kind of mistook the business hours of the eatery we wanted to visit.

Nao Japanese

I craved for good ramen. I'm sorry Melbourne but all the ramen shops I tried in Melbourne disappoint. I wish Ippudo would make its way to Melbourne soon. Anyway, sis recommended this ramen shop. It was excellent! The shop is so popular that there was a queue before the shop opened when I was there.

Sorry - non halal. Spicy chashu ramen

That - was lunch. After a short break at home, we had a little picnic for dinner at Jackadder Lake Reserve.


Jackadder Lake Reserve is not a touristy place but instead is a great park for families. There's a playground for little ones, older kids could ride their bikes or scooter around, and there's some exercise equipment along the way. It is located in Woodlands, about 8 km north of Perth city.

I can't really imagine tourists making their way to this lake reserve as part of their itinerary but this place does have some impressive view. I didn't have my running shoes with me but I did one round circling the lake.







Side note: How to get the light to work.. sigh...