C'est LA viE

Well, we dint spend the entire Xmas eve at Taupo, we stayed Palmy for half day before we drove up to Taupo.

I showed my family my working place, and also around Massey University.

Then kill sometimes at Victoria Esplanade...

My parents even played badminton with the local kids, really surprised!

Alright we travelled up to Taupo after lunch at Noodles and Dumplings. The road was quite smooth to drive, as according to my dad.

Well, i did had terrified when come to some narrow mountain corner road, but compared to the road we gone through at South Island 2 yrs ago, I think North Island road trip is easy peasy.

Glad that dad was not that tired on driving....we did experienced some foggy and watery weather upon our arrival at Taupo.

Luckily the rain stopped when we arrived, and Lake Taupo is really HUGE!!

You wont believe this is a crater lake! The volcano underneath now is considered dormant rather than extinct according wikipedia...

I really cant imagine what will happen if the volcano erupt, omg, that would be a huge disaster!

And actually i must blog this, there a mini golf at lake taupo too, but guess where is the hole??

Is located on the lake, so u actually golf to the lake (see the arrow), apparently the winner got very attractive prize....creative isnt it.

The Taupo town is small but very beautiful~ The tree at the round about is so beautiful!

Think frsh protect Lake Taupo!

even the mcdonalds is special!

Well, although we are not christian, we were at a western country where Xmas is a big event, so why not treated ourselves an awesome dinner for the special occasion?

We had great meals at Lone Star! My parents were so shocked with the huge portion size, lol

I am so used to the big portion size served in NZ, and I heard US actually got even larger portion size..

My dad enjoyed his first NZ rib-eyed steak a lot!

Mum ordered this meal named 'Rock the boat', i must said the fish fillet was very fresh and tasty!

And my brother really the most greedy one, he got this huge lamb shank!! And my dad kept on praising how tasty is the lamb, lol

While I, just gt a salmon, I think I can cook better than the chef ==. lol, well, is just felt not worthy to order it cz the salmon fillet is so small! And seriously, it was not that yum....

Anyways, great night tho!! We had such a full tummy and enjoyed a good walk along the largest lake in NZ.

The sunset was awesome!!

This moment, I felt how grateful and lucky I am to have my family with me (it would be best if my elder bro was here) viewing this magnificant scenary~

Love world, PEACE!

Yep, our road trip begin from today~ before we picked our car in the afternoon, we gone to the famous water front Sunday morning market!

My family enjoyed the mussel fritter so much!! I also firstly discovered that the frittle is really fresh and yummy!

I also bought my favourite Hungarian Chimney cake for my family, grate that they like it too <3

Then we spent sometimes hanging around water-front and also bought the famous Kaffeii ice gelato for my brother.

Thank god the car picking process was really smooth, i was so afraid that the car i rented was not good enough.

Because I actually got so many failed attempts before i successfully rented this car, oh well, luckily Omega car rental provided very good and friendly service.

They also kindly reserved this Mazda Premacy for me, and we did experienced so problem when we gone to Weta cave before we started our road trip to Palmy

Apparently the tyre wheel plate was not very fit to the car and produced some weird noise, thank god a kind lady warned us about the noise and we went back to Omega car rental for help before we gone to Palmy.

Oh well everything gone fine, and by the way we did have great time at weta cave~

creative ceilling, all great artworks were hanging...

This is also the first time I gone to Weta Cave studio, where most of the film that Wellington studio involved...There are so many cool iconic movie production displayed in here.

I am really happy to visit here, Weta Cave done a great job preserving these nice art work from those films, and we were able to view all these for free!!

with Gandalf~

Spotted the Hobbit contract!! This is the contract that Bilbo signed for the Hobbit trip~

Actually is the hobbit's feet that huge? ==

Of cz not just hobbit and LOTR, Wellington Studio actually involved in some great film production include KIng Kong and Avatar

Same  as yesterday, our trip dint really followed my initial itinerary, we dint go to Oriental bay and Lyall bay due to time constrainst.

But we did go to Mt Victoria, however we dint able to see any magnificant view due to a very foggy, cloudy weather....

We back to Palmy like around 6.30pm, really felt sorry to my dad that he had to drive along the trip, I am really regret that I dint learn to drive more precisely

sigh...dad u really the best.

I was meant to show my accommodation to my family, too bad the old flat i live in is having electric problem again

The only lucky thing is the dining room light was still functioning....but whatever then..

I guess my parents were really like to see the environment where I had live for nearly 2 yrs, that's why this short trip include Palmy as an overnight stop too.

Luckily we gone to the airport early this morning, it was such a long queue!!!

Jetstar airline really disorganized, well for the sake of saving money this time according to my mum (no doubt, I paid everything =)), we flied with a cheaper airline anyways. Really grateful we dint have any delay or cancel flight~

My family also got the first try of kiwi breakfast~

Had chat with my dad about my returning to home plans through out the whole flight, at least my heart is secured now....well will bring this topic on my coming blog posts.

We were welcomed by the huge Gollum at the airport upon our arrival at Welly.

After dropping our luggage at hotel, I brought my family to a vietnamese restaurant.

of cause spotted the massive Gandalf on our way to lunch~

I got headache when come to bring my parents for meal, as my dad got diabetes, it is essential to maintain a healthy and strict diet.

Thus, my dad has a tricky taste bud, while my mum is actually widely open to food. My younger brother of cause not having any problem because he eat EVERYTHING!

haha

great that they enjoyed the unique Saigon flavor, mum was really impressed. ^^ Guess what, they forgot what food they eaten during their Vietnam trip last yr ==

Then we gone to Te Papa museum, and my family also got impressed with the giant squid!!

Some photos~

Then we just gone for a short walk around water front....

my family of cz dint miss out the cherries season, they were so enjoying the sweet cherries sold along the street....and having them at the water front.

Actually my initial plan was to bring them to Parliarment for a guided tour, and also cable car up to botanical garden, however got refused, lol

surprised that my dad was not really interested on get into Parliarment....=P

Then I also cancelled the cable car trip as the botanical garden is pretty normal and required some steepy walk which is not good for my dad who having a sore le atm.

We had a dinner together with Paya at Cha, well we did have a good night =)

Yes, finally the day has come, i had taken a day off and gone to Auckland to meet my family tonight!!

Well, they wont be arriving until 12am tomorrow, therefore I chose a long-tiring bus ride instead of plane~

The bus ride today was alright, the bus was actually fully occupied, i guess many ppl had started their xmas and new yr holidays...=)

I dint take much photo today as i am trying to save my camera battery as also my energy, i slept over sometimes on the bus.

Not a pleasant and deep nap of cz, i think i am also too excited to sleep, i just cant wait to arrive auckland as soon as i could...lol

oh anyways, i arrived Auckland, but it was a 30mins delay, i ran all the way to britomart (auckland transport centre) as I need to meet Carmen at Sylvia Park (at East Auckland)

Well thank god I just managed to get the on-time train to my destination, and thanks Carmen purposely left her company xmas event and come for me

She already have a full dinner but still accompanied me to have a meal at Momotea.

Then I killed the remain times before my family arrival at Wann Zhen's hse, yep, just realized Carmen also had moved into her hse.

Anyways, I gone to Auckland International airport around 12.15am, really thanks Carmen for being my driver.

I thought I might arrive late, but actually it took 1 hr + for my family to go through all the custom and bag check.

Eventually I was so grateful I met my family at the arrival gate, had been waiting for an hr, seeing stewardness from various airlines, but not MAS

haha, great!!!

We had to stay a night at Ibis Budget hotel which is very close to the airport, as there are no any flight midnight....u guess that, NZ...

anyways, it would be a short stay, we are going to Wellington tomorrow....

I would definitely sleepless tonight, still very excited having my family with me now.=)

Lastly this is the view from our room, Auckland airport spotted!

Wow, never expect I will receive xmas gifts! This is also the first time since in NZ for 4 yrs and I got xmas presents

Thanks to my dearest santa - Sze Ying and Ping.

Few days ago, I received this special ever postcard from Sze all the way from Dunedin.

I am really happy she thought about me while seeing this special postcard, and she even got the special edition of Hobbit stamp and put on it!

Thank you so much Sze!

And  today, I received this surprise huge xmas present from Ping!

It is a speaker! Very creative speaker!! Only Typo got such brilliant idea for gift suggestion~

and here come my art work!

Is totally working well, but I would say is not functioning as a normal speaker, cz I realized without plugging in to my labtop, my labtop sound is louder than this speaker...==

But very grateful and appreciate this unique gift from Ping! Thank you!!