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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 09 February 2009, 05:13:56
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We went to New Zealand for the first time during the Ester holiday.
In my opinion, we were too ambitious to visit both the North & the South Islands, and ended up not enough time in any place.
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Jump!
We took the flight to Christchurch then drive to Queenstown the next day.
This picture was taken at the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown.
Natural beauty and extreme activities mixed well in New Zealand. My kid was begging for permission to jump.
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Luge Fun
Luge at the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown.
Both me and the kids had lots of fun on the luge.
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Shotover Jet
More serious fun near Queenstown. The jet skirt pass the rock only inches away.
When the pilot make the hand signal of spinning (like in the second picture), brace yourself for the spinning and the water coming into the boat.
Again, my kid was begging to go again, again & again.
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Heritage Hotel
We stayed in the Heritage Hotel in Queenstown. The rooms were quite spacious and nice.
We saw the rainbow from the balcony in our rooms.
Looks like most of the hotel workers were young people from overseas - a Japanese girl cleaned our rooms, a Middle-eastern looking guy and a Caucasian with funny English installed the kiddy beds in our rooms, and a Hong Kong Chinese guy served us in the restaurant.
We observed the same in lots of the restaurants. Apparently there is a serious labor shorterage, especially in the service industry. The Hong Kong guy in the Heritage Hotel restaurant told me that he earns about NZ$12/hour.
The second picture is our van right outside the hotel lobby.
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Gibbston Valley
Gibbston Valley is not too far from Queenstown. Lots of wineries in the area.
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Grandma
Japanese grandma in traditional dress.
This picture was taken near a former gold mine on the way from Queenstown to Christchurch.
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Farm Animals
The pictures here are probably the top three most frequently encountered farm animals in New Zealand, especially in the South Island.
As it turned out, it's hard to take snap shots of sheeps. They are generally very shy and run away as soon as we stop the car.
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Farmland
Warehouse for sheep food?
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Hermitage Hotel
Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook. The rooms are very expensive for the quality, perhaps due to the remoteness of the location.
The environment was very nice, and cold. In the morning, some wild chicken like birds came visit our backyard.
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Glacier
We took a boat tour to see the glacier in Mount Cook.
The first picture provides a good scale to compare how large the ice block was.
In the second picture, the ice block on the left was broken off more recently than the one on the right, judging by the erosion on top of the water line.
The third picture was taken on top of an ice block. You can see the different layers of ice alternate with dirt and rocks. When the summer came, dirts and rocks accumulate on top of the ice. Then in winter, snow accumulated on top of rocks, etc... Thus the formation of the layers.
The last picture is the inside of an ice block.
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Lake Tekapo
The turquoise coloured Lake Tekapo.
We were told that the colour was the result of glacier flour in the water. Glacier flour means rocks were grinded to powder by the force of glacier movement, and contained in the glacier. When the glacier melts, the powders are light enough to freely float in the water.
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Christchurch Cathedral
The outside and the inside of the Cathedral.
The face of the figure in the middle is not white. People in the Cathedral told me that it means Jesus was not just for white people, but people of all colour. Clever marketing.
I imagine the real Jesus, if there was one, should be brown skinned, like any Middle-easterner.
The background motif was very native New Zealand - with very heavy use of fern patterns. Fern is supposedly the tree of life for the Maoris.
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Christchurch Cathedral
I didn't ask about the significance of this pictures. But I imagine this is how Christianity and the white people came to New Zealand.
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Cathedral Square Photographer
First he waited for the customers.
Then he set them up for the photo, give them the flags, dolls, and dry leaves.
Then he brief the customers before taking the shots.
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Cathedral Square Musician
One of the many characters on the Cathedral Square. The day before was a preacher.
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Fire Alarm
We were staying in a hotel near the Auckland airport for one night, before driving to Rotorua the next day.
3:41 am in the morning, the fire alarm on the ceiling of the room started to scream. We jumped up and ran.
I managed to bring the camera and the video recorder. Some people actually managed to bring the whole suitcase, while some not even getting their shoes on.
We were told that someone trigger the alarm with smoking.
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Blue Sky
When we were in the South Island, it was mainly overcast. But in the North Island, it was mainly sunny and hot.
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Zorb
More exciting fun rolling down the hill inside the giant ball.
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Te Puia Maori Center
We visited the Te Puia Maori center. The guide is wearing the typical Maori jade and bone pendants and earrings sold in tourist shops.
I must admit that we did not take any extra steps to understand more of the Maori culture. But what we have seen (perhaps superficially) was disappointing. I feel like there is not much depth there. All the Maori performances were effectively the same Kiwi Haka, virtually the same storyline.
I was planning to buy a Maori jade piece. Lots of the showrooms we went to have a dusty jade workshop completed with machinery, drawing board, etc... connect to the showroom. But in ALL of these visits, the workshops were empty, and we were told that the craftmen were off for the day. Probably the workshops were just part of the showroom decoration and pretence. In one of the showrooms, the "workshop" was just too artsy to be real.
Anyway, I did not buy any, because the one that I like best with a reasonable price was in Arrowtown in the South Island.
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Te Puia Hot Spring
Inside the Te Puia Thermo Park.
I took lots of pictures of the gush, but both of my Kingston Elite 1GB CF cards crashed and beyond recovery. Also lost were pictures of the Kiwi Haka performance.
Man, I was so mad...
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Tourist Shop
What can I say.... More shops.
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Rotorua
The bus terminal, I believe.
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Rotorua Government Gardens
Near our hotel is this big park and museum. There are also at least two spa or hot spring public bath nearby.
When we walk around the park after dinner, we saw a huge hole on the edge of the park, with steams coming up. Probably a new cave-in of the underground hot spring.
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Farm Show
Rock concert?
No, it was the Argodome farm show. The guy was very funny.
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Farm Tour
Farm tour, fast food style.
I got my first ever bee sting here. It really hurted.
The sheep there are so used to strangers that they don't run away like other sheeps in the regular farms.
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Room With Views
In Auckland we stayed in The Ascott. The hotel is very nice and quiet, probably because its target market is business travellers instead of vacationers.
First picture is the living room of our suite in sunset.
Both bedrooms in our suite can see the landmark Sky City. I took the second picture in the balcony with a 200mm lens.
The third picture was taken inside a revolving Sky City restaurant in the evening. The restaurant is on the floor right under the big ring like structure.
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Sky City
More pictures of the Auckland landmark.
The second picture was taken in our hotel room with a 85mm lens.
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Auckland
Some pictures taken in Auckland.
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Luge Fun
Luge at the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown.
Both me and the kids had lots of fun on the luge.
Cool. I wanna try that!