Landing on New Zealand

27 April 2011

Today is the day we are flying to New Zealand for a 6-month working holiday. I am greatly thankful to all of them who went to the airport for me. Not only my parents, grandma, brother, and sister in law, but also my colleague (Jason and Siew Kim) came to the airport after work as they promised. As usual, I hug everyone whenever before I am leaving.

We checked in at around 9pm and we were asked for travel documents by the ground Airasia staff. The flight departed at 11.40pm, and surprisingly this time, we are flying on a big Airasia aircraft, with 9 seats per row.

We arrived at Christchurch airport at 1.40pm (NZ time) which is equivalent to 9.40am in Malaysia. We passed through the immigration counters without any hassle and proceed to the baggage claim. There were some guards carrying dogs to inspect if there was any drug in our baggage. When we reached the custom checking, we were asked if we brought any food, fruits and etc. We saw a couple’s bag was opened by the staff and they found dried mushroom.

pic: The first sun rise and scenery of NZ viewed on flight

Once we exit to the arriving hall, we urged to the toilets and washed up ourselves. Then we went out to grab for the first deep breath in New Zealand. To our disappointment, there were constructions around the airport after the earthquake. And the weather was so much colder than I expected too.

Before we fly to Auckland in the evening, we went to a café, called FLYTHRU for our dinner, or probably lunch. We ordered two bread, smoked salmon bread (NZD 7.50) and chicken patinini (NZD 8) and shared among three of us. I like the patinini very much. It was very chewy. But the smoked salmon bread was too hard and dry.

Once we arrived at Auckland airport, we took supershuttle to our hostel, Pentlands Backpacker. It is a door-to-door service which saved us from walking if we took airbus.

I have heard how good Pentlands is before I came. As expected, it is a quiet and clean home. I have no complaint at all except for the limited space in the room. I loved to take my meal at the opened barbeque area.

New Zealand Flight Check In

27 April 2011

It is now the day we are going to fly to New Zealand via AirAsia. If you are a regular customer of Airasia, I believe you are aware of the new self-check in service through online or kiosk. It does save you a lot of time from the long queue. However, this service is not available for flights to Australia and New Zealand.

http://checkin.airasia.com/chkin/step1.aspx?Code=&lang=EN&langId=1

Check in counters open two hours before departure time for all flights except for those flight numbers beginning with D7, which open 3 hours before. New Zealand's flight number starts with D7. The answer can be found in below link.

http://www.airasia.com/ask/

Similarly, the counters close 45 minutes before departure time, but it is 60 minutes for flight number beginning with D7.

All passengers are allowed to bring one hand carry which does not exceed 7kg and the dimension 56cm x 36cm x 23cm, excluding laptop and ladies bag.

http://tommyooi.com/airasia-faq/

Piano Video 2

23 April 2011

Nocturne

Composed by David Lanz.

Kindly visit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1S_Tb2icYk - Piano Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEVSQ8Eg_Sk - Bell Pad Version

A Moment Lost

Composed by David Nevue

Kindly visit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz_cocu-8tw

I Do

Sung by Faye Wong

Kindly visit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZk4AxjEaO4

Travel Insurance for New Zealand Working Holiday

22 April 2011

We never expect the travel insurance arrangement could take us so many days. We first obtained the information about Chartis from MSL Travel. One week later, we were told that there is no any travel insurance in Malaysia which are not for travelling visa holder. We did not believe and started to ask other insurance companies but we got the same answer. I believe there is not many people are aware of this.

We had no choice but to get an insurance from OrbitProtect, an insurance company founded in New Zealand. They do design different insurance plans for different visa holders such as seasonal worker, working holiday and etc. In fact, this is the cheapest and most common we could find. To be more cautious, we tried to find its review in internet. To our disappointment, there aren't many good reviews about it. Despite this, we are actually quite satisfied for the coverage with this fair price. It only costs NZD157 + 15% (for property cover) for 6 months coverage.

http://www.orbitprotect.com/content.asp?syscmd=dl&ID=BD300561B9B6447C9BA3E0319AFE6E46

Of course there are other insurance companies you can choose from, but the price is much much more expensive. All of them cost almost double of OrbitProtect.

• Worldnomads: http://www.worldnomads.com/index.aspx?
• AA: http://www.aa.co.nz/insurance/Pages/default.aspx
• Comprehensive: https://www.ctisales.co.nz/policyMatrixSummary.aspx
• Souther cross: https://www.scti-online.co.nz/travel-insurance/travelcare-holiday.aspx
• Uni-Care: http://www.uni-care.org/pdfs/inboundvis.pdf

When we saw OrbitProtect is so much cheaper, we doubted its reliability. Due to budget constraint, we have finally chosen OrbitProtect. In any event of injury, we are protected under ACC in New Zealand, at least. Hopefully everything will go smooth and we would not need to make any claim.

One month without working

13 April 2011

The days without working were so enjoyable. I was like back to school time and having a one-month school holiday, but this time, with many vacations.

On 4th April, 3 days after my last service day in my company, I went to Tanggak and had a few days of gathering with my two partners who will be going to New Zealand together. Edwin, who didn't know much about Eileen, was the one who drove to this idea. And this trip was mainly to let two of them get to know each other more.

3 days later, I headed to Singapore to visit my sister and her newborn baby son, Nigel. I didn't stay long there. After two nights, I went back to KL and then on the following Tuesday, I went back to Ipoh together with my two partners. This was the second trip we had before we fly to New Zealand.

I thought we would need more exercise to prepare ourselves for the adventurous working and travelling in New Zealand soon. So I brought them to Gunung Keledang in Menglembu. It was indeed a tiring 60-minute of hiking, but we were pleased to see the picturesque scenery after that.

A few days later, I went there on my own. This time, the scene was not clear and covered by mist. Yet, it was still amazing. I posted these photos in Facebook, and many of my friends didn't believe I took them in Ipoh.

After shower and breakfast, I brought them to caves, which are sightseeing spots in Ipoh. The first one we went is not common to tourists, but it is my favorite among all. It is situated near Gopeng, called 广福岩. Each of us was charged RM6 but we had great moments exploring inside the cave on our own.

Then we headed to 南天洞and灵仙岩which are located next to each other. The reason I do not quite like these two is because they have been commercialized and they look more like temples than a place for us to explore nature. The former is much better, at least we saw steep steps which can lead us in to the cave. But we reversed when we saw no light provided in the cave.

Counting 10 days to the departure

17 April 2011

I have been busy with my two partners travelling around Melacca, Muar, Tanggak, and Ipoh. Despite the packed schedule, I spent two days with my newborn baby nephew in Singapore. Yesterday was the end of all my travelling, and I have another 10 more days now before my next travelling to New Zealand. Life has been so relaxing and enjoying this month :) After 10 days, life can be difficult but I believe it would also be a memorable one.

I never thought that one month of no-working-life can be so short. Very soon, I have only 10 more days to settle all necessary arrangement. I feel that I am running out of time. Travel insurance, traveler cheque, cash exchange are not ready; KWSP, JPN and podiatry appointment are in my pending list; Packing is not fully done;

正式不用上班的日子

4 April 2011

我终于经历了人生第一次的离职。这样的一天，应该是我过去一年一直盼望的日子。可现在的我，感觉却是又轻松，也不舍。

习惯了每天7点起床，吃一顿丰富的早餐，再前往公司。现在难得能睡到日上三竿，却发觉原来我身体已经习惯了早起。

之前我最爱利用午餐的时间在公司上网，管它只有区区的一个小时，却很享受它那流畅的速度。现在的我，反而感到害怕从早到晚都在家上网。

在公司的日子，虽然没有与同事一起吃午饭的习惯，少了很多交谈的机会，但也比现在整天对着电脑不说话来的好。

我习惯放工后到领近的花园爬山，虽然通常都是独自的，但每当有同事一起去时，我却兴奋万分。

我习惯被喻为全公司最年轻的那一位，唯一一个在雨天或阴天也去爬山的人，也因为经常不吃午餐而被说为成仙。

在这一个早上，我比往常起得早，原因是现在的我，少了夜间活动，能够在10点就入睡了。但是起床后，也只能上上网，看看戏了。

纵使有太多的不习惯和不舍，我相信再过不久，我会很喜欢这样自由自在的生活，想必到时也懒惰找工了。