Kia Ora! That's "Welcome to New Zealand" in the Maorian language..
We arrived at the airport after about 8 hours flight.. Ek, S, June, my sis and mom came to send us off at Changi Airport at 6am in the morning.. so sweet right!! Ferzana and Elsa came too, to see Keson off. My sister actually cried at the airport.. hai.. so like her.. make me want to cry too. She wrote me a letter, which i read on the plane. Feel so bad that i have to lie even to my dearest sister.. Oh well, sometimes, we have to make some sacrifices and do certain things in our life that are against our conscience. As long as we can live with it.
On the plane, i met a Soka member. He was the flight steward serving us on the plane. What a small world. Actually, i found him familiar the moment i saw him, but i didn't say anything. Who knows, he came up to us while serving us drinks and said we looked familiar too. Think we met during one of the NDP training when i was still in Soka then. So we kinda had special service lah on the plane.. he kept asking us if everything was okay, then even gave us postcards to write to our families and friends. When we alighted from the plane, we passed the postcard to him for him to post for us. So nice right! I also managed to watch 3 movies on board: Paul Bart - Mall Cop, InkHeart and 3/4 of Twilight..
My dramatic life started the minute i landed in Auckland Airport. At the immigration, i was told i couldn't pass through, cause my Visa letter was done using my own passport number. And i had with me my new passport. We ended up waiting outside the immigration area for like 45 minutes before we were finally let through. Lucky our plane landed early, otherwise, my host will be waiting outside for very long! So we got our luggage, went out to arrivals, and saw our first host family - George, Jane and Kathy. It was raining then, and the drive to their house from the airport took about an hour. This family is very chatty, which was good, cause I was quite tired from the flight then.
When we reached their house, we just unpacked our sleeping stuff, bathed, and headed to bed.
We had agreed to meet for breakfast the next morning around 9am. Our room was actually in another house. They had 2 houses, one where the couple slept, and another where their 2 daughters slept. Their eldest daughter had left to work in Melbourne, so we slept in her room. The room was quite dirty, and it was super cold. And we didn't have a heater! I didn't sleep well at all the whole night cause it was raining. I woke up with chest pains, like my heart was frozen or something.. so cold!!
Next morning, we overslept, and woke up at 1015 instead. We were woken up by George. K had set the alarm for 830am Singapore time.. haha.. So we quicky got dressed and went to the main house to meet them. Jane had cooked a sumptous breakfast for us. Fresh eggs, bacon, bread, butter, fruits, croissants and orange juice, followed by hot tea after that. My first New Zealand breakfast was delicious!!
The family's house occupies about 3 acres of land. They have a garage, 2 houses, a garden with a huge treehouse, and something like a mini farm. They also have 3 big dogs, 1 fat cat, 6 chickens, 2 sheep and 2 little pigs called Renu and Vegas. The pigs were like running around the house, so cute!! Apparently, they were not very worried about the Swine Flu cause the pigs are their pets and not from Mexico.. = )
During our 2 day stay with them, i had so much animal fur and dog hair on my clothes that i gave up trying to brush them off. Don't understand why the people here love to have SO MANY animals..
After breakfast, we headed out to the nearest Westfield Mall. K and I got ourselves a prepaid sim card from Vodafone. We also set up a bank account. Second drama episode. Apparently, i need a 2nd form of identification to set up a bank account. But i only have my passport. Credit card was not allowed. So in the end, only K had a new bank account. When we went home, i sent out an email to arrange for my IC to be brought here by Pui, who was coming on Thursday.
We had planned on buying a car, but there wasn't enough time for car shopping. George's colleague and the girlfriend (both from China) was coming over for dinner, so Jane cooked up another sumptous meal for dinner. We had roast chicken and lamb, cooked rice, stir fry vegetables with oyster sauce, and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and rock melon. Delicious. I was so happy to eat something Asian so early in my trip!
After dinner, we played the Wii that George bought in the afternoon, until about 12 midnight. I was so tired and kept asking K if he wanted to go to bed, but we thought it wasn't so nice since the 2 guests were still around. I managed to keep awake for about 30 minutes more before i gave up and announced that we are going to retire for the night. I was thinking how rude these 2 Chinese guests were, staying at people's house and refusing to leave even though it was so late! It was then that we realized they were sleeping over for the night. So stupid right! If we had known, we would have gone to bed much earlier instead of waiting for them to leave!! haha..
The second night wasn't much either, it didn't rain the whole night so it wasn't as cold. But still no heater. I learnt that their heater run on gas, which was expensive so that's probably the reason why there was no heater. They also seem to love the rain, cause their water comes from water storage tanks, so when there is rain, their water is free. Otherwise, they have to pay for the water.
The third day, we went car shopping. Their car sale was like an auction market at a huge carpark, where people just park their cars there and put up notices on the prices, mileage travelled etc on the windscreen to advertise. We saw a couple of cars we liked, took the namecards, and then headed for brunch at Denny's. K and I gave our host family a treat for their hospitality. We called the dealer for a White Ford Modeo that we liked, but then was told the car had been sold. It was fated i guess!
After brunch, we headed to Westfield Mall again to buy controllers and more Wii games, and then back home. During the drive, i was so tired i fell asleep. When we reached home, K and I packed up our luggage and hung around the main living room with the family, playing Wii and surfing the net for more cars.
In the evening, we left our family and said our goodbyes. George drove us to meet a car owner, and then to our second host family.. We bought the car finally. It was a really good buy. Can't say what car it is, keeping it a suspense for now cause somebody reading this blog will be sharing the cost of the car.. haha..
We arrived at the airport after about 8 hours flight.. Ek, S, June, my sis and mom came to send us off at Changi Airport at 6am in the morning.. so sweet right!! Ferzana and Elsa came too, to see Keson off. My sister actually cried at the airport.. hai.. so like her.. make me want to cry too. She wrote me a letter, which i read on the plane. Feel so bad that i have to lie even to my dearest sister.. Oh well, sometimes, we have to make some sacrifices and do certain things in our life that are against our conscience. As long as we can live with it.
On the plane, i met a Soka member. He was the flight steward serving us on the plane. What a small world. Actually, i found him familiar the moment i saw him, but i didn't say anything. Who knows, he came up to us while serving us drinks and said we looked familiar too. Think we met during one of the NDP training when i was still in Soka then. So we kinda had special service lah on the plane.. he kept asking us if everything was okay, then even gave us postcards to write to our families and friends. When we alighted from the plane, we passed the postcard to him for him to post for us. So nice right! I also managed to watch 3 movies on board: Paul Bart - Mall Cop, InkHeart and 3/4 of Twilight..
My dramatic life started the minute i landed in Auckland Airport. At the immigration, i was told i couldn't pass through, cause my Visa letter was done using my own passport number. And i had with me my new passport. We ended up waiting outside the immigration area for like 45 minutes before we were finally let through. Lucky our plane landed early, otherwise, my host will be waiting outside for very long! So we got our luggage, went out to arrivals, and saw our first host family - George, Jane and Kathy. It was raining then, and the drive to their house from the airport took about an hour. This family is very chatty, which was good, cause I was quite tired from the flight then.
When we reached their house, we just unpacked our sleeping stuff, bathed, and headed to bed.
We had agreed to meet for breakfast the next morning around 9am. Our room was actually in another house. They had 2 houses, one where the couple slept, and another where their 2 daughters slept. Their eldest daughter had left to work in Melbourne, so we slept in her room. The room was quite dirty, and it was super cold. And we didn't have a heater! I didn't sleep well at all the whole night cause it was raining. I woke up with chest pains, like my heart was frozen or something.. so cold!!
Next morning, we overslept, and woke up at 1015 instead. We were woken up by George. K had set the alarm for 830am Singapore time.. haha.. So we quicky got dressed and went to the main house to meet them. Jane had cooked a sumptous breakfast for us. Fresh eggs, bacon, bread, butter, fruits, croissants and orange juice, followed by hot tea after that. My first New Zealand breakfast was delicious!!
The family's house occupies about 3 acres of land. They have a garage, 2 houses, a garden with a huge treehouse, and something like a mini farm. They also have 3 big dogs, 1 fat cat, 6 chickens, 2 sheep and 2 little pigs called Renu and Vegas. The pigs were like running around the house, so cute!! Apparently, they were not very worried about the Swine Flu cause the pigs are their pets and not from Mexico.. = )
During our 2 day stay with them, i had so much animal fur and dog hair on my clothes that i gave up trying to brush them off. Don't understand why the people here love to have SO MANY animals..
After breakfast, we headed out to the nearest Westfield Mall. K and I got ourselves a prepaid sim card from Vodafone. We also set up a bank account. Second drama episode. Apparently, i need a 2nd form of identification to set up a bank account. But i only have my passport. Credit card was not allowed. So in the end, only K had a new bank account. When we went home, i sent out an email to arrange for my IC to be brought here by Pui, who was coming on Thursday.
We had planned on buying a car, but there wasn't enough time for car shopping. George's colleague and the girlfriend (both from China) was coming over for dinner, so Jane cooked up another sumptous meal for dinner. We had roast chicken and lamb, cooked rice, stir fry vegetables with oyster sauce, and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and rock melon. Delicious. I was so happy to eat something Asian so early in my trip!
After dinner, we played the Wii that George bought in the afternoon, until about 12 midnight. I was so tired and kept asking K if he wanted to go to bed, but we thought it wasn't so nice since the 2 guests were still around. I managed to keep awake for about 30 minutes more before i gave up and announced that we are going to retire for the night. I was thinking how rude these 2 Chinese guests were, staying at people's house and refusing to leave even though it was so late! It was then that we realized they were sleeping over for the night. So stupid right! If we had known, we would have gone to bed much earlier instead of waiting for them to leave!! haha..
The second night wasn't much either, it didn't rain the whole night so it wasn't as cold. But still no heater. I learnt that their heater run on gas, which was expensive so that's probably the reason why there was no heater. They also seem to love the rain, cause their water comes from water storage tanks, so when there is rain, their water is free. Otherwise, they have to pay for the water.
The third day, we went car shopping. Their car sale was like an auction market at a huge carpark, where people just park their cars there and put up notices on the prices, mileage travelled etc on the windscreen to advertise. We saw a couple of cars we liked, took the namecards, and then headed for brunch at Denny's. K and I gave our host family a treat for their hospitality. We called the dealer for a White Ford Modeo that we liked, but then was told the car had been sold. It was fated i guess!
After brunch, we headed to Westfield Mall again to buy controllers and more Wii games, and then back home. During the drive, i was so tired i fell asleep. When we reached home, K and I packed up our luggage and hung around the main living room with the family, playing Wii and surfing the net for more cars.
In the evening, we left our family and said our goodbyes. George drove us to meet a car owner, and then to our second host family.. We bought the car finally. It was a really good buy. Can't say what car it is, keeping it a suspense for now cause somebody reading this blog will be sharing the cost of the car.. haha..
Posts
May 6, 2009 at 2:46 AM
Hi babe, what a busy busy 2 days you had! And such a short stay with your host family. But I bet you couldn't wait to move out and leave the cold room!