The Unbalanced Libra..

Exactly 64 years ago today, the entire city of Hiroshima was bombed to pieces. 64 years later on the same day, something inside me too exploded. And to me, it felt like the entire city of Hiroshima exploded inside me. I have not felt so much anger and hurt inside me for a very long time. Once again, I do not wish to blame it on my changing hormones. But I must admit I am becoming really sensitive and touchy these days.

Once again, it's the whole thing about me needing attention much more than ever now that I am pregnant. Attention I have received, but not as much as I had hoped for, especially from the one person I truly needed attention from.

Today we checked out of Wanaka and drove another 3 hours to Dunedin – “A City of Firsts”. Dunedin is home to NZ's first University (Otago), first chocolate factory (Cadbury), first daily newspaper, and also the place where the first telephone call in NZ was made. We also have here the world's steepest street (Balwin St).

After having Japanese Bento sets and seafood Udon soup for lunch, we set off on our search for accommodation, and settled at a backpackers called “Hogwarts” - the former home of a pretty wealthy bishop. This place is actually the best of all the backpackers we have stayed in so far, with a huge double room, good heater, and decent facilities. My bedroom even has a small staircase leading to a small reading area with a large comfy sofa facing the window.




After checking in, the 4 of us headed to Otago Peninsula for some penguin and seal watching. We had to go down and climb up steep sand dunes just to watch a few ugly seals and one pathetic penguin which kept coming onshore and diving back into the water when he saw us. Quite cute these flightless birds! = ) But I didn't like the seals. Seals / sea lions remind me of some people I know – So ugly but yet so full of themselves and complete show offs.



My Hiroshima bomb went off at Otago Peninsula when we climbed up the steep sand dunes back to our car. Since nobody cared whether I am pregnant and might hurt myself while climbing up and down the steep sand dunes, I had to depend on myself and climb up without any help. I forced myself to climb up even though I knew I was not in the best of physical shape. I was panting so hard along the way cause it's so difficult to climb up on sand that just keeps slipping off beneath your feet. I fell on my hands a few times and once just fell. At one point, it was so bad I felt all the air being knocked out of me, and got so dizzy that I nearly fainted. But I continued on. If nobody cared, why should I? Perhaps I should just run all the way uphill, fall a few more times and have a miscarriage along the way. All the better... I cried to myself in the car on the way back..

After Otago Peninsula, the 4 of us headed to the library to use the free internet for browsing. We had to pay if we wanted to check our emails. So stupid. At about 730pm, all of us got hungry and headed to this Korean restaurant for dinner. I had BBQ chicken with tofu stew and side dishes.. The rest had kim chi stew and spicy seafood noodles. Everything was so spicy that I ate until I teared and sniffed.

S had a craving for ice cream after dinner, so we went to Macdonald's for their 50 cents ice cream cone. S bought one for me, not realizing that I should not be eating soft serve ice cream while pregnant. So K ended up having my ice cream instead. We headed back to Hogwarts after picking up a few apples from the supermarket.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Larnach's castle and the Cadbury chocolate museum. So far I really like Dunedin. It has a really young population so it's not like a ghost town after 5pm (unlike most of the cities we have been too), many beautiful cathedrals, and lots of shopping and restaurants serving decent and cheap food because of the large student population here. Plus, they have a huge hospital, a castle and penguins. = ) Dunedin is definitely on my list of cities to stay in NZ when we move here for good.

I made French toast for breakfast myself today. I went to bed hungry yesterday night and woke up hungry. K was supposed to make the French toast for me, but I ended up doing it myself while he watched “Iron Man” with EK, and that pissed me off totally. I started to imagine things, and visualized how this is going to repeat itself when I am under confinement. I would tell K I am hungry, and he would ignore me and continue watching whatever's good on TV instead of attending to my needs. Out of spite, I didn't make any toast for him, and didn't acknowledge his presence thereafter.

After breakfast, we headed to the post office to send back all the ski wear and the car steering wheel lock (together with a Thank You card) we had borrowed from Tony's family in Auckland. After the whole blizzard experience and tiring first timer lessons yesterday, we all figured we won't be doing any snow sports for some time.. = )

We headed to Puzzling World after that and spent the next hour or so exploring the weird puzzles and illusions there. It's actually a pretty interesting place and we took quite a lot of pictures. There are different rooms with different themes, like the Hologram room, a room full of famous people's faces that seem to follow you everywhere you walked, a room that can make you look like a giant and a midget, and a room that throws you out of balance completely. The last room was very unique, but K and I felt so giddy inside that room that we got out as soon as we could.


Amongst all the photo taking and exploring, I kinda became less pissed off with K. He didn't seem to realize I was angry with him, and kissed me couple of times, so I guessed that helped..
= ) When we had some alone time, I told K about my unhappiness over breakfast, and he had a very good explanation, so we were fine after that..

We left Puzzling World after exploring all the rooms, and decided to head off for lunch before going back again to try out their Giant Maze. Lunch was chicken parmigiana, beef lasagna and battered fish & chips at a restaurant called The Reef. Everything was average except the beef lasagna, which tasted worse than those frozen ones they sell in the supermarket.

The 4 of us went back to the Giant Maze after lunch, and had a Maze Challenge to see which couple finds all the 4 colored towers and get out of the maze first. We spent nearly 1 hour in the 1.5km (think we covered 3km at least!) confusing maze walking on uneven ground and climbing staircases, and that got us all totally tired out after that. K and I lost to EK and S, and our forfeit was to clean the car. = ( I actually blamed K cause we lost some valuable time when we were on one of the towers and he offered to take pictures for this Ang Moh family even though they didn't ask. Being the competitive person I am, I was really disappointed that we didn't win. But it was all still good fun. = )



By the time we finished, it was almost 4pm. We decided to check out this place called “Have a Shot”, where EK and S did the rifle range, while K went clay bird shooting, which is actually more difficult than it seemed..


After that, we headed to the supermarket as usual, and got ingredients for dinner. I did fried rice with chicken, egg and mushrooms, while EK and S did instant spicy noodles, and stir fry vegetables. And K pan fried crumbed fish fillets. My fried rice turned out terrible, totally unlike what I had cooked for K before at the Hastings motel. It was too salty. So sad!! I kinda give up trying to rescue my fried rice, so K ended up re-frying the rice for me. Sigh.... I think I am losing my ability to cook. Cause my French toast tasted bland as well this morning. = (

Tomorrow we will check out of our motel and leave Wanaka. Still not sure where we are heading. The plan is to go to Dunedin, then Te Anau / Queenstown before heading to Milford Sound. But Jeremy told us yesterday night that Milford Sound has been closed due to an avalanche, so maybe we won't be able to go after all. We intend to go and check the conditions at Milford Sound tomorrow morning before deciding where to go next. Really hope we can still continue as planned cause I would REALLY like to go to Milford Sound, after hearing so many good stuff about it from others! My sister actually told me that I MUST go there before I come back to Singapore.. haha.. Keeping my fingers crossed for good weather this week and next!

K and EK are still playing computer games beside me now. Think S went to bed already, and I too, am getting sleepy. These 2 boys have been playing this battle strategy game called “Quake” (something like Counter Strike) for the few nights. Think they are reliving their poly days.. = )

We woke up at 7am today. I had garlic butter toast for breakfast. While we were having breakfast, Jeremy (K's cousin) called and told K that his car just spun out on the snow mountains. He advised that we put chains on our wheels before going up. We managed to borrow the wheel chains from our land lord at the motel, and left for the ski slopes around 830am. The drive up took about 30 minutes.And because we have never done it before, the boys had difficulty fixing the wheel chains. As it turned out, the chains were not the right size for our wheels, so we took another set from the shed at the stop point, and EK and K managed to fix those on.
As we drove uphill, we saw more and thicker snow. It was beautiful.

When we reached the ski slopes, the 3 of them bought $100 passes each for 4 hours of skiing and snowboarding beginner lessons, while I bought a $20 pass for unlimited rides on the chair lifts. We took a really long time to prepare ourselves for the sport. First, the 3 of them had to change into ski / snow boarding clothes, then rent and put on the equipment before we could all walk out into the actual ski / snowboarding areas for the lessons. There were already so many people there when we arrived that I was half worried I will get knocked down by some skiing or snowboarding people rushing down the slopes.

The snow was about 15cm thick, and temperature was -4 degrees C. But there was sunlight so it didn't feel that cold on top of the mountains.

I hung around and watched and took photos for about an hour, then got bored eventually and went inside the cafe, where I ordered apple juice and freshly baked chocolate muffin for myself. = ) I sat at a table for 4, and people watched.for about 45 minutes before hoards of people started coming into the cafe. I looked out the window and realized that there was a blizzard. So I switched on my walkie talkie and paged for K.

No response. So I walked out to the ski slopes, where the wind had gotten so strong that the snow kept hitting my face hard and visibility was so bad I couldn't see anything at all except a thick fog of white snow blowing across. Before I walked further out into the blizzard, I asked a girl along the way if the snowboard / ski lessons were still ongoing. She said she didn't think so. So I U-turned back to the cafe and walked up to the second floor of the cafe. I got pushed around a lot in the crowd, cause I don't think I looked very pregnant in my winter jacket. I even walked back to the toilets near the car park to look for K. The whole time, I kept pressing the comms button on my walkie to page for K, but still no response. After about 15 mins, I actually panicked a bit, like a kid who has just lost his parents in a crowded shopping mall. I walked back to the cafe again, cause I had told K I will be there when I left the ski slopes earlier. By then, there were even more people. It was kinda impossible to do anything in the blizzard so EVERYBODY was in the cafe. Then, I finally saw EK and S, and heaved a sigh of relief at seeing someone I know. About 2 mins later, my walkie rang. Apparently, K's instructor was crazy enough to continue lessons cause when K paged me, he was still in the ski field and his lesson had just ended. The 4 of us finally met up and had lunch at the busy crazy cafe.

After lunch, EK and S went back for their 2nd ski lesson, while K and I sat in the cafe cause K didn't want to learn snowboarding in this crazy weather. We sat for about an hour before we got bored and went out to play with snow and look for EK and S. By then, a lot of people had gone back to the slopes. The wind was still really strong though, and a lady was walking around the cafe and shouting to everyone that the chair lifts were all closed. Which meant people couldn't go up the slopes and won't be able to ski or snowboard down either.

The 3 of them snow boarded / skied a bit at the foot of the slopes while I stood at one corner and watched them. The 4 of us had a mini snow fight before we were told that the slopes were closed cause the blizzard didn't subside. So we headed back, returned our gear, changed shoes and clothes, took some last minute pictures, removed wheel chains etc.. So troublesome right! I think only EK enjoyed himself. S kept complaining, and K simply cannot understand why people would go through so much trouble for the sport.





After our snow experience, we went to the supermarket (usual thing). Dinner was minced chicken porridge and steamed egg. Plus leftover pizza. It was my first time preparing the steamed egg, but it turned out quite nice I think!

After dinner, K and I met up with Jeremy for drinks. We were running late halfway through preparing dinner, so EK and S cooked the remaining stuff: Stir fry spinach with carrots and mushroom, and leftover spaghetti from yesterday. We had drinks with Jeremy at a bar in town called Shooters. Turned out it wasn't just Jeremy, but some of his friends as well. And his friends were all guys, his girlfriend didn't even turn up! It was rather awkward for me at first, but after a while I warmed up and started chatting with them. We left around 930pm, headed home, showered and slept.. Tomorrow is our last day in Wanaka. And we are going to Puzzling World and Toy and Transport Museum. I am already planning French toast for breakfast!!

After having our breakfast in a very crowded kitchen, we checked out of “Tailor Made” backpackers and started the day with a drive up to Mt. John university observatory. We saw some decent snow for the first time since we came to NZ, and took plenty of photos. I had a cup of “Orgasmic Organic” chocolate ice cream, while K had a cup of hot cappuccino and a slice of carrot cake. We all sat on the bench outdoors with the beautiful view. It was sooo nice!!





K drove the 3 hour leg to Lake Wanaka. We reached there around 230pm and started searching for accommodation. Went to the i-site to collect a few brochures, started calling up a few motels, drove down to a few more to see the actual rooms, and finally settled with a 4- bed studio unit at Fairway Motel, which is just 5 mins drive from the small town center. By the time we finished unloading our stuff, it was already 3plus and I was so hungry. We drove to the town center, parked and started walking around in search for food. After walking for about 5 mins, we finally settled on Da Vinci's pizza, and ordered 3 large pizzas to share. The very hungry 4 of us managed to gobble up 19 slices of pizza altogether.. = )

After lunch, we headed back to the i-site to collect brochures and information on the ski slopes for our trip up tomorrow. I learnt from the lady there that there were no snow tubing or snow sleds on the slopes, which meant I couldn't do anything tomorrow except watch the rest of them ski and snow board. That upset me quite a lot. We had walked over from the pizza place to the i-site while K went to collect the car. We were done in a jifffy, and ended up having to look for K in the cold wind, which kinda pissed me off even more. K arrived a few minutes later. Turns out he had been driving around for a look see while we were searching for him.. By then, I wasn't really in the best of moods. The 4 of us drove around Wanaka to see if we could do anymore sightseeing or touristy stuff.

It was already 5pm, so a lot of the places were closed. The 3 of them ended up taking pictures at this place called “Puzzling World” while I stayed in the car and waited. I was in no mood at all to take pictures or do anything else for that matter. And being the ever so “transparent” me, my emotions showed. K asked what I was upset about, but I didn't reply.

After “Puzzling World” and another 10 minutes of aimless driving, we finally decided to go to the supermarket to buy ingredients for our dinner. After much deliberation, we settled on EK and S making spaghetti for dinner. Again, I wasn't in the mood for the whole supermarket shopping either. And EK and S kept asking me what food to buy and what I wanna eat, cause K was outside parking the car. But I wasn't in the mood at all to think about what to eat, so I just asked them to decide.

Dinner was simple but delicious. Spaghetti with minced chicken in tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese. = )

We went through the ski brochures during dinner, and when we finally had some time alone, I burst and told K what I was upset about. I know it's really silly to be upset over the fact that I won't get to ski / snowboard tomorrow cause I am pregnant. But I couldn't help it. At that point, I was totally pissed off at my pregnancy and the baby, cause it has caused me so much inconvenience, and because of it, I am missing out on all the fun stuff.. Sigh.. Crazy right!

Anyway, I felt so guilty for blaming the baby after that that I apologized to it before I slept that night. I hope it doesn't feel unwanted.. = (

I had some problems with my key deposit after checking out of Cokers this morning. The stupid lady kept insisting that it was written in their log book that only $20 was collected, but I had paid $40 for 2 keys. I told her a guy named Chris had taken the money from me when we checked in. But she told me there's no such person. I was dead sure the guy's name was Chris. So I described the guy to her. She said she knew who I was talking about but his name wasn't Chris. So I asked her to go and check with this guy. Then she said the guy is too drunk to remember anything so early in the morning. Wah Lau!! I just kept repeating my stand and gave her this “don't bully a pregnant woman” look, and she finally relented and went upstairs to check with the guy. And I got my money back. = )

After we left Cokers, we went back to West Field mall because EK had left the light soy and chilli sauce at the ASB bank. We encountered more irritating people there. There were already staff loitering around inside the bank when we arrived, but they had insisted we come back half an hour later at 10am cause that's their opening hours. That was despite us having told them that we just want to collect something we left behind, not do banking transactions.. We ended up wasting 30 mins hanging around and waiting outside the bank. Sigh.. Why are these people SOOO freakin rigid??

EK drove the 3 hrs leg to Lake Tekapo today. Along the way, we were stopped by a traffic jam caused by some sheep being chased along by a sheep dog while we followed close behind. This was a first time for all of us and we were all totally amused by it. The sheep are all so obedient and so cute!




We stopped for lunch at a small town called Geraldine. Had lousy smoked chicken and mushroom fettuccine, while K had lamb that tasted like liver. Only S's fish and chips were good. We finally reached Lake Tekapo around 3pm and started looking for accommodation in the very cold wind! Finally decided on “Tailor Made Backpackers”.

There weren't anybody staying there when we checked in, so we kinda had everything to ourselves. The place even had free minestrone soup in the kitchen! I wanted to drink some but K was in a hurry to make use of the sunlight so he told me to drink when we come back in the evening. So after checking in and unloading our luggage, we drove to the lake for some breath taking scenery. I was overwhelmed by the gorgeous view of snow capped mountains and pine trees surrounding the clear and serene blue lake. The whole view looks so fake I felt like I was in a postcard! Just standing there made me feel so happy and peaceful. There and then, I fully understood the meaning of “picturesque”..= )




After that, the 4 of us drove to this Ski Park and explored around. We saw kids snow tubing and people ice skating and having hot spas. I had terrible contractions (or whatever it was) while walking downhill back to our car from the ski park. Think these are the worse ones so far. It's like I am having really bad stitches but below my tummy.

In the evening, we headed to a small “4 Square” supermarket and bought chicken and fish fillets for dinner. We cooked mee sua and instant noodles with fish fillets for dinner. When we got back to the backpackers, a lot of people had checked in, and there was no more soup! I was so sad cause I had been looking forward to it. We played Monopoly and listened to classical music in the lounge after dinner. EK emerged the winner with the most money and most number of houses on the board. We ended the game at 930pm, bathed in the common bathroom and then turned in for the night...

Our day started with a trip to the ASB bank at West Field Mall so EK and S can open a bank account. While waiting for them, K and I walked around the mall, and discussed about the whole confinement lady and baby stuff. As a result of the discussion, plus our past few discussions regarding the baby and my confinement, I ended up totally upset, so K brought me to this chocolate cafe for some aphrodisiac to cheer me up. K bought me chocolate and bananas Belgian waffles. We talked more and I ended up crying at the cafe... Not because I was upset, more because I wanted to just let it out. Really hope everything will turn out well for my baby..

After EK and S were done, we went to this Korean supermarket and bought light soy sauce and chili sauce. We chatted with the cashier working there and he ended up giving us some Chinese newspapers with job adverts. After that, we had lunch at a Korean restaurant (recommended by the supermarket cashier). We had very spicy Tofu and Kim chi steam pot and some side dishes. The lady boss had a bit of an attitude problem. She seemed pissed when she took our orders and realized the 4 of us were only ordering 2 meals.

After lunch, we visited the Royal New Zealand Air Force museum. There, we learnt about the history of the air force, saw plenty of exhibits and model air planes, and watched a film on the Air Force. We got bored after 5 mins and left the theatre.. = )

Me sexually harassing one of the RNZAF pilots = )

After our last breakfast in Nelson this morning at 630am, we packed up and left the sunny town. Ayelet and Brett had woken up specially to see us off, so we had a chat over breakfast and that kinda delayed everything. We finally said our goodbyes and hugged. While Brett and I moved forward to hug each other, I accidentally stepped on Brett's toe with my boots! Haha.. Brett's such a nice guy, good cook and very gentlemanly. Once, he even opened and closed the car door for me. He also gave me and baby a lot of attention during our 3 day stay with them. I will miss both of them and their good company.

K drove 5 hours in the rain to Christchurch after we leave. There wasn't much scenery on the way cause we took the inland route. We did see some snow mountains though. Initially, we had planned to take the coastal route where we will get to see seals, but we forgot to pump petrol the night before, so had to go to the petrol station this morning, and the inland route was more convenient from the petrol station.

After 5 hours of driving, we finally reached Christchurch around 1230pm, and started to search for Cokers Backpackers in the slow Christchurch city traffic. After about 10-15 minutes, we found the place, checked in and unloaded one round of luggage before rushing to the airport to pick up EK and S. They were supposed to give us a missed call when they landed, but we only reached the airport an hour AFTER we got their missed call.. It was so difficult to find our way around the airport! There was renovation work going on, and only one exit for both domestic and international flights. And no differentiation between arrival and departures.! What a lousy airport.

After picking up EK and S, the 4 of us headed straight to Cokers to unload, then went straight to explore the town center. EK and S registered for their IRD tax number and tried to open a bank account. But the bank didn't have anyone to attend to them, which I thought was totally ridiculous. After that, we headed to the Cathedral Square, where the Winter Festival / Carnival was going on and lots of people were there. Along the way, S and I bought some delicious looking doughnuts from this Japanese bakery. It tasted nice, just that it was cold. For dinner, we fried bee hoon in the huge common kitchen. We didn't have any light soya sauce so the outcome was not that nice. After dinner, we headed back to our room, and re-packed our luggage for our trip further South in the next 2 weeks. We simply didn't have space in the boot for all of our luggage, so we had decided to leave some at Cokers and collect it before K and I fly back from Christchurch. We slept quite late that night after all the packing. Both K and EK snored a lot that night!