Woke up at 6 am thinking to myself: how the hell did we survive the night?!
Was super hungry, breakfast only starts at 8 am so I went to the car to grab a cup of instant noodles that I bought previously and cooked it for breakfast.
Prepared some more hot water bottles to bring to the dome because the hot water bottles from the previous night has turned cold. Patrick, the owner of Valleyviews Glamping, appeared at the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and taught me how to optimize the hot water bottles.
Unfortunately it was still drizzling, so we decided to check out Valleyviews Glamping early, so we can reach Christchurch in time to return the rental car.
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| If it didn't rain, we will sit on these deck chairs and soak in the awesome views. |
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| That's Patrick, the owner. |
On the drive out of Valleyviews Glamping, we encountered a very special experience, that is a herd of cows crossing the road right in front of us.
So if I am not wrong, they are supposed to go to another grassland that is further ahead, but they suddenly uturn back and go back to the same place that they came out from. The guide told us that they are afraid of the bridge, and the guide told us to drive the car forward very slowly and the cows will give away and we can resume our drive.
We drove up to Timaru, and although is summer, it is still quite cold. We wanted to do some shopping here, but because of the cold weather, we dropped the idea and just had lunch here.
Lunch was at Naruwan Taiwanese Restaurant, food and service is good, the Taiwan scallion pancakes are legit, but do not go for their dim sum that is quite a failure.
After lunch it was a long drive up to Christchurch.
Our final night's accommodation is Airport Gateway Motel. I chose this motel is because is 5 min drive away from the airport, because our flight is at 8 am the next day. And this motel provides 24 hour complimentary airport shuttle. Luckily the car rental place is 1 km away from the motel, so I can walk back to the motel after returning the car.
And although it is a motel, whereby people have the perception that motel is a run down place with sleazy connections, this Airport Gateway Motel is nothing of that kind. I chose a 2 bedroom suite, and it is really not bad, exceeded my expectations for the price that I paid (NZD$299).
We went to Christchurch city centre to explore and also to buy some souvenirs for our family and friends.
We wanted to take the Christchurch tram but we were too late. The last tram departs at 5 pm. So we can only take photos with the tram.
We ate dinner at this sushi conveyor belt restaurant, standard is so-so, Kumo is much better.
Oh yes I need to share that we took Uber to the city centre and took Uber back, and omg is so expensive. Is about 15 to 20 minutes ride, and it costs NZD25 per trip. However it is very convenient, and the vehicle arrives very fast to pick us up.
In the motel at about 8 pm, I received a call from an unknown number that states is from Wellington. So here's the thing, I am using the Singtel GOMO app, I can use data roaming, but I cannot make calls and receive calls when I am overseas. I only realized that when I tried calling the NZ baggage office using my phone at Josh's house. And upon realizing that, I keep praying that nothing will happen to our car (break down or accident or whatever shit), if not I have to ask my sister or my friends to help me call the relevant personnel in NZ. So lesson learnt, next time if we go overseas, I have to buy a sim card at the country so I can make phone calls or receive phone calls.
Anyway, I went to the lobby and ask if I can use the phone to call back the number, but unfortunately it links me back to the Wellington baggage office number where I heard the same thing all over again, where they are experiencing high call volume, ask me to wait on the line, blah blah blah. So I heck it and it is our last night in NZ anyway, the next time we can see our luggage is back in Singapore.
That's the end of our NZ trip.
Will I go NZ again? Yes definitely. There are so many places that we have not explore, for example Queenstown, Wanaka, Milford Sound, Hobbiton, the LOTR places.
Will I fly by Air NZ again? DEFINITELY NOT. Honestly speaking their in-flight service and food is not bad, but their flight cancellation and customer service is horrendous.
I must mention that although this is Yuanyi's first time travelling overseas, he is like a seasoned traveller, super chill on the plane, never cry and never experience any motion sickness.
Both Yuanze and Yuanyi are very different individuals. For example, to make Yuanze buy him toys. For Yuanyi, he is not that interested in toys, buy him sweets will do. Hahahahaha.
All right, looking forward to our next overseas experience!
(Latest update: We received ONE luggage on 17 Dec at 8 pm at our house. The other luggage is still tracing.)
