Author archive
13 March 2011
With an evening flight back to Auckland, we had a lazy day and went out briefly to the Riwaka Resurgence. That’s where the Riwaka River comes out from under the ground. Beautiful clear water but I think it would be too cold for me.
12 March 2011
We woke early and rang the kayaking company. It’s still all on, regardless of the tsunami warning … we later understood that Civil Defence’s expectations was that it would affect the North Island more (the TV showed some surges in Northland when we went back at the end of the day). We had booked the […]
11 March 2011
Sea kayaking is something I’ve always wanted to try out … well, not quite always … since I saw the beautiful green waters of the Abel Tasman National Park. We flew down to Nelson in the evening and drove to Motueka where we stayed with family friends. We arrived to hear about the big earthquake […]
7 March 2011
A traditional pickle that is very labour intensive … took me five f'ing hours to make these two f'ing jars. 3… Posted by Alex Chan on Monday, March 7, 2011
20 February 2011
In between the various events at the Art Deco festival, I had some spare time. So I decided to go swim with sharks in the National Aquarium. I checked out the pricing and it wasn’t too bad compared to just a walk-in visitor. I was led up to the backroom where I donned a thick […]
19 February 2011
Today I set off to attend the Art Deco Festival in the Hawkes Bay. I had been before and having had such a good time previously, it seemed like a good idea to repeat the experience. It wasn’t all smooth sailing (or flying, should I say) this time. While driving out to Auckland airport, Air […]
12 February 2011
It’s never nice to abandon the Kiwi summer, so it was nice to arrive back in Auckland around 1110 knowing that there’s some of the summer left for me.
10 February 2011
Today I fly from Penang at 1455 to Hong Kong for an overnight, before picking up my flight back to Auckland on an Air New Zealand staff ticket (hence the circuitous routing). It’s also one of the rare instances AirAsia gets my money … while I normally buy free or nearly-free tickets for my travels, […]
9 February 2011
Kek Lok Si (or Temple of Supreme Bliss) has been Penang’s big attraction for decades. The Chinese-Buddhist temple complex at Ayer Hitam is massive … there are many shrines in addition to the old main pagoda built in an eclectic style … Chinese, Thai etc all put together. More recently there is a ginormous statue of […]