Ping's Skydive

Ninth Day 18 June 2014

Yay! We called the skydive company this morning and they said that it is possible to skydive! We quickly prepared ourselves and rushed to the company to skydive. When we were in the van sending us to the dropzone, we signed a formand selected the package that we wanted, 12000 feet. It was a forty minutes ride out of Queenstown. After twenty mintues, we were told that we could not jump as the wind had start to pick up and they have to drive us back. We were very disappointed. We requested that they dropped us back at our hostel where we rest for awhile, trying to calm ourselves down before heading out for lunch. While walking to Queenstown we saw people skydiving! We quickly went to another company to check if we could skydive. They said YES! Once again we were driven out to the dropzone to skydive. Again, we were driven back. The weather changed and it was terrible. Crestfallen, we went to i-site to check if they have skydive at Christchurch as we will be leaving Queenstown two days later and we cannot skydive tomorrow as we have already planned to ski. My sister met us at i-site and she brought me a present. She bought a sheep soft toy and gave it to me trying to cheer me up. It seems that it was my good luck charm. As soon as I hold the sheep, the lady at i-site told us that there is one more company that we can try out but no promises. She called the company and the company agreed to open another dive specially for us.We were extremely fortunate as the driver of the company happened to be at Queenstown which he usually isn't. We took an hour and twenty minutes drive out of Queenstown to Lake Wanaka. Not holding high hopes, we sat quietly in the car. Upon reaching the dropzone, they told us that we could skydive but we have to hurry as the weather seems to be changing. Quickly we changed into the jumpsuit and got ready to skydive. We managed to skydive! The feeling was beyond words. The view was beautiful, the crew was amazing and it was an excellent experience. I really appreciate what the company had done for us. This amazing company even personalize our videos for us by allowing us to select songs that we want to use. Skydive Lake Wanaka, you guys are amazing! Without you, I would never be able to skydive in New Zealand. Thank you so so much!

http://youtu.be/YX9zjwp0gUc

Eighth day 17 June 2014

Excited for skydiving, we woke up early. We called the company to checked if we will be able to skydive today. Sally called and she had to break the bad news to us. No, the sky is too cloudy and we cannot skydive this morning. However, the company said to call again in the noon perhaps the weather will be better. So not being able to skydive, we decided to head out to Queenstown and checked out Bungee. We searched for the company A.J. Hackett. The owner of the company was the guy who invented bungee jumping. We found the place and my sister and Sally proceed to check where they want to have their bungee jump. While waiting for them, I looked at the board and I felt drawn to bungee jumping. Immersed in my thoughts, I did not realize my sister was trying to pull Raymond to join her in Bungee jumping. Raymond was reluctant as he was afraid of heights. Raymond turned around and pointed at me saying if I would jump then he would jump too. I guess, Raymond thought that I would not jump as I kept saying that I do not have enough cash as it was not planned for me to go for bungee jump. I looked at him and said "I do want to jump so let's do it." Shocked but there was nothing much Raymond could have done. He has to keep his promise. Reluctantly, he went to the counter to purchase tickets for us to join my sister and Sally. We took the bus which brought us to Kawarau bridge, the first bridge where bungee started. Excitedly, I kept saying that I wanted to be the first to jump. Bad luck, I could not. I was the second last to jump. My sister was the last to jump and she was so afraid that she began to tear. Laughing at her, I step out to the ledge all ready to jump. When the guy count to one, I took a leap and jumped! I was so happy. It was definitely fun and enjoyable. After the jump, I kept telling my cousins that I want to do it again. As usual, they called me weird and decided to ignore me.

seventh day 16 June 2014

RINGG!! My alarm rang at seven in the morning. Today, I am attempting to watch sun rise. Putting on my coat, I went out to check if the sun has rise. Sadly, it did. My attempt to watch sun rise while I am at New Zealand had failed. Nevertheless, I spotted Raymond standing near the lake. I ran up to him to see what he was doing. He told me that he was listening to birds. I closed my eyes and joined him in listening to the songs of the birds. Time flew past as we admire the stunning view and listen to the beautiful calls of the birds. One by one my cousins began to wake up. We do not have much planned for the day, hence we started to make our way down to the lake. We spent the next 3 hours playing rock skipping. Even holding out competition to rank ourselves. As usual being bad at sports, I did not do well. Nevertheless, I had pick up the skill of rock skipping and watch my cousins to the amazing wonder of letting the rock skipped pretty far out to the lake. After which we had our breakfast and traveled to Queenstown. We drove the campervan to our hostel to drop off our stuff before returning the campervan. According to our plan, after returning the campervan we would take a fifteen minutes walk back to Queenstown to have our lunch. However, our plan had to change. We realize that it was a fifteen minutes drive back not a walk. The staff at the Maui company suggested that we took a cab back to Queenstown. We asked the driver to drop us at Ferg burger. We ordered our food and sat around to wait for it to be ready. When we saw our burger, we were shocked! The burger was as big as our face. Well, after a long drive we were all starving and amazingly we managed to finish the gigantic burger. After eating the burger, we strolled around Queenstown before returning to our hostel.

Sixth day 15 June 2014 Sunday

Energized, we head off for one of our longest drive. Along of our drive, we stopped by Blue Pool's trek. We decided to take a break and trek. As we went in, we were stunned by the beauty of the pool. I have never seen water that blue. It was turquoise and we saw trouts swimming in the pool. The trouts are only there during summer and winter. We stacked rocks and snapped pictures, relaxing ourselves before we continued our journey. With adequate rest, we head back to our campervan and drove off.

Finally we arrive at puzzling world. We had our lunch there at around 3pm and we bought tickets to enjoy the different themes available there. After playing and resting at puzzling world we drove to our campsite. It was the first time we had to drive around at night. It was so dark out there that the light from our vehicle can only shine out the road at around a meter in length. We drove carefully and arrive at our campsite. When we arrive at our campsite we were shocked to realize that we were the only campervan there. The owner was super friendly and he gave us the best spot to enjoy the beautiful view of lake Hawea.

Blue Pool

Fifth day 14 June 2014 Saturday

Fresh day fresh start. Leaving the bad luck behind us, we drove off to Franz Joseph. It was a special day for me. For the first time, I will be the vehicle commander in short vcom for my cousin, Raymond. As a non driver, I totally have no idea what I should be doing. Raymond briefed me about what I should be doing and we drove off. I was supposed to inform him if there were any sharp turns or turns that are upcoming as shown on the GPS. I took my role seriously and informed him of every single turn and even to the extend of how many degrees the turns would be or the turn would arched back to left or right. My cousins laughed at me saying that I acted as I was programmed. It was definitely fun being the vcom. For a start, the view was different. I seen road kills and cattle died due to the cold weather. After a long drive with lots of sharp turns, we arrived at our destination. Eugene went to the reception to register for our vehicle to park overnight at the campsite. While waiting for Eugene to settle the administration we found a trampoline and we started to play. It was special and fun to play during winter. A different feel. Once everything was ready, we head off to search for the place where we were suppose to do our glacier hike.

After lunch, we set off for our glacier hike. It was quite fun as we had to take a raft to cross the river in order to start our hike. It was disappointing when we found out the the glacier had melted tremendously which was why we were not able to hike all the way up the glacier. We had to settle to hiking up the glacier for like ten minutes. We went round the glacier to take a different look at the amazing work of nature. I removed my gloves and touch the glacier. Icy, as expected. While walking round I slipped and stepped onto a area covered in mud. The mud was squishy and squashy. I started to put my foot on the mud and stepped on it making it wobble. Eventually, the mud got on to me and my foot was stuck. I had to pulled myself out and return to the safer ground.

After the hike, we walked back to our campsite. We found horses! We stood and watched as the family groomed the horses. One of the horse noticed us and walked towards us. With the permission of the family, we stroked and took pictures with the horse. Having our fun, we went back and prepared dinner. After dinner, we went to look for glow worms! Something that I had always wanted to see. We took a walk in the dark and we were rewarded with the sight of several glow worms. Happy and contented we went back and rest.

Fourth day 13 June 2014 Friday

Honestly, I have never believed in Black Friday also known as Friday the thirteen. However, I do believe in a Chinese saying, lu xiang yao shui shu, simply means do what the Romans do.

As soon as the clock stuck midnight, a series of unfortunate events seems to be happening to me and my cousins. Eugene fell off the ladder as he tried to climb up to his bed after visiting the toilet at midnight. He fell into the space in between the steps and the vehicle. It had terrified all of us as from our point of view, it looked as if he had twisted his entire body. Thankfully, he was unharmed in a serious way and had only suffered from a bruised. We went back to bed, tossing and turning and after a while we manage to drift back into our dreams. As soon as the daylight breaks, we drove off heading off to our next destination. Along the way, we saw sheep. I was fascinated by the scene and alighted from the campervan to snap pictures of the sheep. When I was trying to return to the campervan, a car drove by and started to curse and swear at me for nothing. Ignoring the lady who cursed at me, I return to the campervan and we drove off. After 10minues, we were shocked. The road in front of us was filled with sheep! We had to stop our car and wait for the sheep to drive by. Definitely as tourist and Singaporeans we took photos and videos of the scene. As we waited patiently, the shepherd drove up to my cousin and started to scream and yell at him, accusing him of trying to kill the sheep. Stunned and shocked, we froze and only reacted after the shepherd drove away. After the sheep ran pass our vehicle, my cousins sworn back at the shepherd.

That was not the end of our bad luck. Suddenly, my cousin, Sally, looked at us and said "it seems like today is Friday the thirteen and it is my turn for bad luck." She showed us her finger. Her fingernail had chipped and caused internal bleeding in her finger. Horrified at what happen, we prayed silently in our heart that it would be the end of the unfortunate events. Lady luck seems to be not shining on us. The moment we reached Greymouth, a town, we were starving and decided to park our vehicle to dine at KFC. That seems to be the most incorrect decision we ever made. While trying to park our vehicle, we heard a loud bang and the vehicle jerked and stopped. Alarmed, we all jumped out of our seats and alighted to check what happened. To our horror, my cousin had drove the vehicle straight onto another car causing the accident. Dark clouds seems to have surrounded us, dampening our spirits. We waited for the owner to return to her vehicle and break the bad news to her. Leaving the car owner with our contact details, we head to KFC to fill our stomachs.

Settled down inside KFC, we reflected on our day. Bad luck had seems to hit all of us except for my sister. We hoped that nothing would continue this chain of bad luck. We hurriedly finish our food and went back to our vehicle. Seated in the campervan, we joked around in hopes to brighten the situation. That was went my sister phone starts to ring. She looked at Eugene and asked, "Why are you even calling me when I just seated acrossed you?" Eugene looked baffled and said "I did not call you!" He took out his phone and showed all of us. Chills ran down our back. What?! Eugene did not called my sister at all. Freaked out, we decided to ignore the phone call and drove to our campsite.

Thinking that everything should be fine by now since everyone seems to have their share of bad luck, we happily discussed our situation and was thankful that nothing deadly have happen. Well, we seems to be too full of ourselves. Our campsite is located right next to the cemetery. Shocked, horrified, terrified, all sorts of emotions ran through us. We kept thinking and hoping that midnight would soon arrive and everything would be over. With that in mind, we hurriedly freshen ourselves and went to bed.

Second day 11 June 2014 Wednesday

As decided last night we woke up at around 5.45 in the morning. Gathering the toiletries and grocceries for breakfast, I opened the door and stepped intio the cold. Feeling cold, I gathered my clothes tighter around my body and quicken my pace. After washing up, I rushed to the kitchen at the campsite and start to prepare breakfast before my cousins wake up. Slowly, one by one woke and joined me in the kitchen. Duties were spilt and everyone scampered around the kitchen to assist in the preparation of breakfast. After an hour, we were done. Once again, disappointed at the utilities as many were faulty. Thankfully, we were able to prepare a delicious breakfast. 

After clearing the dishes we drove off to Kaikoura. It was a long drive. We stopped at a cafe to rest before continuing our journey. After 3 hours, we finnaly arrived at Kaikoura. Quickly, we called the company, Dolphin Encounter, to check if our booking to swim with the dolphin is still in operation. Sadly, all activites were cancelled due to bad weather. Having to change our plan, we came into agreement to hike the peninsula walk. We checked for direction and drove off to proceed with our hike. 

Upon arriving at the peninsula walk, we were welcomed by seals sleeping or resting at the boardwalk. Like any other tourists, we quickly took out our camera and started to snap pictures of the seals. Amoung the cousins and known for my passion with animals, I sqeualed in delight and insisted that I must have picutes taken with the seals. Fascinated by the seals, we spent thirty minutes looking at them. 

Hurriedly we started to hike in worry that the sun would set before we could finish our hike. Initially hype with excitement andadrenaline, our pace were quick and light. After an hour or so, our steps slowed and our shoes soaked in mud. We had to ensure that every step we took was safe and that we will not drop off the cliff. Slowly, my passion for the hike was drained away as I could not see cows which was my main purpose for hiking. After passing through a farm, we saw mandarin ducks swimming in a pond. Turning around to look at the ducks, I realise the cows have came out to graze. Sadly, I could not turn back. Promised by my cousins that we will return, I quicken my steps and continued to hike. We continued for another two hours to reach our final destination. The view was astounding and spectacular. Snapping a few shots we return. Hiking down, we passed by the same farm where we last saw the cows, I ran quickly to check if the cows were still there. Surprisingly, there were still there. We took pictures and of course I took individual shots with the cows. With my target achieved, we went back to the campsite to rest. 

 

Third day 12 June 2014 Thursday

Like the previous morning, the air was chilly especially in the morning. This campsite was a little disappointing as there were no radiator provided. Quickly, we washed up and prepared our breakfast. We kept looking at the time, checking if the dolphin encounter company have opened. Once it was seven thirty in the morning, we called and checked if we could swim with the dolphin. Sadly, no. The company have cancelled all activities again. Carrying high hopes for our next plan, we quickly called to whale watching company if they would carry out the activities. Thankfully, yes.

We quickly change our clothes and gather to meet at the whale watching company. After the safety briefing, we left to board the ship. To my horror, the ocean was choppy making the trip unbearable. I vomited and my cousins did so too. On the bright side, we were able to spot a whale. It was a sperm whale. The view was stunning. After viewing the whale, the ship sailed around some rocks where many birds and seals rest. Although the view was stunning but all I could wish for was for the ship to sail back as quickly as possible. 

Back at the company, we walk around the gift shop to look for souvenirs to buy. I bought a kiwi bird and a giant squid soft toy which is not normal for me as I am not a fan of soft toys. I simply could not resist the temptation and the cuteness of the soft toy. Hungry after all the vomiting we wandered around the town to look for food. We chose Don's burger and went in to dine. Coincidentally, the shop owner is from Malaysia and his partner is from Singapore. After a great chitchat, we head off to shop around the town before heading back to the campsite to cook and rest.

First day 10 June 2014 Tuesday

After two long flights, I finally arrive at New Zealand. Excited to collect my campervan, I fidgeted while queuing to get my passport stamped. It was torturous to wait as the queue was moving really slow. Approaching the counter, I realize that the custom officer would ask questions like "did you bring any food?" to ensure that tourist will not bring in prohibited items. After ten minutes, finally it was my turn. The officer was very friendly and recommended some places I could visit. Thinking that I could just collect my backpack and meet with my cousins, I quicken my pace. To my horror, I'm not done yet! I still have to get my backpack checked. The officers literally open the bags and checked. By the time, I was done with the customs, It was already 3.30 in the afternoon. My cousin, Louis, hurried to called the campervan company as we were late. We were supposed to arrive at 2 in the afternoon and collect our campervan by 3.30pm. Thankfully, the campervan company was still open and was still willing to send their driver to pick us up at the airport. While waiting for the shuttle bus to pick us up, we went to purchased prepaid card to use. Listening to the salesman speak, my sister and I were mesmerized by his voice. Lost in his voice, time seems to pass by quickly. From afar my cousin, Eugene, hurried us as the shuttle bus have arrived.

Hurriedly, we went to join my cousins and depart to collect the campervan. It was freezing. Seeing the heater at the campervan company was like seeing our life savior. We gathered around the heater and waited for the person in charge to bring us to our campervan and have a tour about van. This time round we put on our coat and head out to the open. The rain cause the temperature to drop even lower. Shivering in the cold, we listened to how to use the different facilities in the campervan. Shockingly, we have to empty the toilet waste by hand! None of us were willing to do so. Trying to avoid the fate of emptying our own biological waste, we came into agreement to minimize the usage of the toilet. As it was winter, daylight is short. By the time we were done with the tour, the sky has turn dark. Afraid yet excited we drove off to our campsite. Definitely, there would be some hiccups along the way as my cousins are not familiar with the van and the direction.

Arriving at our campsite, we quickly grabbed our essential belonging, we head off to walk to the nearby mart to purchase our grocery. Walking in the cold, my fingers started to feel numb. Stopping my cousins, I quickly put on my gloves. Halfway through the journey, we realized that we have taken the longer route. We walk by a shop selling take outs. The aroma of food seems to be calling out to us. Hunger strikes us. We stepped in and ordered fish and chips to share. Surprisingly, the price was affordable and heap. Taking our food with us once again we stepped out into the cold. Stopping in front of a hair salon, we dived into the food. Hungry people are indeed scary, we finish the four fish and chips in five minutes. With our stomach fulfilled, we continued to head off to the mart only to realize the mart was just next to us. laughing at ourselves we stepped into the mart and started to shop. As usual, we bought lots of stuff costing a little over two hundred. 

Back at the campsite, we took out the utensils and groceries that we bought and headed off to the kitchen and start to cook .The knives provided were terrible. I cut myself while trying to cut the carrots. Nevertheless, I continued to cook. After an hour, the food was ready to be served. Being youngsters, we took photos and sent it to our parents. Looking at the time, we were shocked it was ten! Quickly we finished our food. While eating two other group of people stopped by us and gave us their share of grocery as it was their last day in New Zealand. By time we're done, it was closed to midnight. Time for asleep. Good night!