Author archive
25 February 2020
I fly at 1145 today from Nelson airport back to Auckland. The drive and the rental car return process off-airport meant that I had to leave after 0800. My drive was uneventful. As I passed Richmond on the outside of Nelson, I topped up the car and then continued to return it to Omega Car […]
24 February 2020
The “main event” of my visit to Takaka is Farewell Spit, a long piece of land at the top of South Island. It was a little hard to coordinate the dates of the daytrip because it has to fit in with the outgoing tide and daylight hours. Eg. on a certain day, it may start […]
23 February 2020
Pupu Springs My plan for the day had been to revisit some of the sights around here, and discover some new ones. Talking to my hosts, some proved too much to fit into the day. It was just the driving as some would involve a long walk from the carpark. I invited Simon, an Australian-born […]
22 February 2020
Flying off again Today I make a 3 night trip to Golden Bay at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. By flight from Auckland, Nelson is the gateway to the area for me. My flight departs at 0945 and with light weekend traffic on the roads, I left home at 0725 and made it […]
10 February 2020
Landing at Sydney around 0740, it was fairly painless going through security to the departure area. I grabbed a meal with my Priority Pass card. A bacon and egg roll, coffee, pastry and a fruit salad took up most of my AUD36 allowance. I kept the fruit salad for onboard consumption, which was just as well […]
9 February 2020
Disrupted again Today I have an evening flight out of Bali to Brisbane and onwards home to Auckland. Upon waking up, I noticed an email advising of a 2h delay to my first flight. This seems miniscule compared to nearly 10h of delay on my outbound journey. But with only an hour’s connecting time in […]
8 February 2020
Inland Temples Today I had booked through Traveloka a 12h rental car-and-driver for IDR130K (USD9.50) plus petrol and driver’s lunch allowance of IDR50K. I had the itinerary all decided and it was all within their “In Town” zone. With a pickup at 0930, I lay in bed and decided to check the zonal map once […]
7 February 2020
Leaving Singapore I tried to spend some time with my aunt in the morning as it was a very short visit on my part. At her age and with her special condition, she keeps to a certain routine. It appeared she wasn’t too fussed with my presence so I didn’t push it. Heading to the […]
6 February 2020
Flying visit to Singapore Today I travel to Singapore for a nightstop with my aunt before flying to Bali tomorrow. It’s quite funny domestically in Indonesia with a Singapore layover. I left the hotel around 0900 by Grab and had a chatty driver (again, being Indonesia). I learnt that while he is Malay, the Minang […]
5 February 2020
I had a leisurely morning at the museum. Pekanbaru’s museum is named after Sang Nila Utama, the prince from the broader region that founded Singapore, changing its name from Temasek to Singapura (which the English later changed to Singapore). It was a simple museum where I learnt new things about the familiar, things that I […]