sooyindotcom

KL - Auckland - Hamilton

After spending days researching, compiling, packing…it was finally time to leave! The flight to Singapore was uneventful…and we even managed to sneak the extra 8kgs through…phew! After landing at Changi and getting our boarding passes for the next flight, we ended up at Genki Sushi for dinner. I had Gindara Teriyaki, my favourite, while hubby tried some weird scallop cheesy thingy. Trying to kill some time, we browsed around some of the shops at the terminal where I found some absolutely lovely dried oranges coated with dark chocolate. After taking some pics (and looking like total tourists…*eeek*), we finally ended up going back to the flight transfer area to find a comfy place to seat. Despite the noise from the kids playpen area, I settled down to start on my storybook (The Historian) while hubby puzzled over which magazine to read first.

Finally, it was time to board the plane! As usual, once we found our seats, I started praying really hard that no one will seat in front of us. Or behind. Or next to us. And for once, my wish came true!! The flight to Auckland was surprisingly empty and hubby and I got a whole row of seats to ourselves, ie. I got one row, and he got another row…woohoo! First time ever!

I was too engrossed in my storybook to watch any of the inflight movies even though hubby kept bugging me to watch Failure To Launch. And coz he was sitting behind me, he kept poking his fingers through the space between the seats to disturb me and at one time, gave me an awful fright cause I was at the climatic part of my storybook…luckily I didn’t scream…wouldn’t want to be kicked out of the plane with a parachute now, would we?!?

Dinner was served about an hour after take-off. I found the airplane food to be better than MAS…and luckily, it was all white meat (fish or chicken), so no repeat dramas like the flight to Melbourne several months ago. After dinner, I settled down to sleep…ahhh…the comfort of being able to stretch my legs…=) Five hours later, I awoke to the sound of breakfast being served. Took a peek outside…the sky was a delightful array of reds and oranges…so pretty!

We touched down at Auckland International Airport ahead of schedule…the pilot must’ve been speeding, tsk tsk! Come to think of it…is it possible for an airplane to speed? *grin* The immigration department was mercifully empty…no queues! We collected our baggage, made a quick stop at iSite where I became super-kiasu and started taking all the brochures available, picked up the car keys from Hertz and walked to the exit….only to be blasted by a wave of icy cold air. Brrr…! Our car was an sky-blue Ford Fairmount (what happened to the sporty Ford Falcon we were supposed to get?!?), but heck, it’s just a car, right? Hubby loaded our bags into the car while I snapped a few pics of the airport surroundings…and away we went!

I’d collected plenty of maps from the iSite centre and Hertz, so we weren’t too worried about getting lost. Along the way to Hamilton, we wound down the car windows to breathe in the fresh fresh air (no haze, no smog!!)…and you can really tell the difference as the air is cool and crisp compared to the humid, heavy, exhaust-smoke-filled and the *cough*neighbouring-country’s-illegal-burning-asthma-inducing*cough* air in KL. One photostop, an emergency stop at McDs for food and two rainbow sightings later, we finally reached Hamilton and checked into the hotel at about 2pm. I wasn’t too impressed with the hotel room…it was decorated in a very English style, and oh-so-small. Reminds me of hotels in London, actually. But no worries, we’ll only be staying for one night…hehe…=) We, or rather, hubby, brought the bags up from the car, dumped it in the hotel room, and hurried out in search for a late lunch. After walking up and down the main street, we finally ended up at Embargo where we had bacon (*oinkoink*) and eggs and their Big Breakfast…yummy! Oh, and a hot hot cup of tea for me…hehe…=)

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to get the car and drove to Hamilton Gardens to take some photos before the sun sets. As we didn’t have time to walk the whole area, we only went to the Paradise Garden Collection which consisted of six different gardens designed in English, Chinese, American, Japanese, Indian and Italian style…absolutely lovely! My favourite is the Chinese Scholars Garden complete with a Chinese Pagoda, with the Japanese Garden of Contemplation coming a close second.

By the time we snapped the last pic, the sun had set and the sky was all dark and gloomy (the sun sets at about 5pm…that’s the only thing I don’t like about winter). We headed back to the hotel for a short nap before walking out again for dinner. We wanted to try the nearby Lone Star Restaurant, but it was so packed with people that we finally ended up in another restaurant that I had on my itinerary: Cafe Centrale. It’s a small Italian restaurant near the Waikato River banks and when we arrived, most of the tables were already filled up. But despite the good recommendations from the food review website, I found the food to be just average. We did have our first taste of Kumara Fries though…exactly like French Fries, just made with sweet potato!

By the end of dinner, I was feeling extremely tired from the lack of sleep and also the cold weather, so we went straight back to the hotel, took a hot shower, and it was lights out…!

PS: Check out our photos here (Day 0) and here (Day 1)!