Saturday, December 18, 2010

NZ #3: start of the road trip

i called up several car rentals in auckland a day before the road trip & settled for a family sedan. this one offered free pick-up & drop-off as part of their service. when i went to collect the car, it was a 7-yr-old nissan sunny, which looked more like a sentra. after driving for 7 days & 2000km in it, it turned out to be a well-maintained set of wheels. without fail, whether cold or not, the engine roared to life with just one turn of the ignition. everytime.

we drove north towards whangarei. we had to pass thru a tunnel on the only tolled road in the north island. they don't have barriers or toll booths like in m'sia. we pass thru like everyone else & we can choose to pay at a machine by a rest area or even pay online. the vehicles are caught on camera & we have 5 days to pay the toll. how convenient is that??

besides bungy jump, you know you are in NZ when you see this...

together with sheep, they are estimated to number 30m, compared to 4m people.

along the way, we dropped by a honey factory. the boy was fascinated by the live bees behind a glass screen....








we thought the manuka honey was reasonably priced. NZD12.95 for a 500g bottle.
in fact, we stopped by this same shop on the return trip to get more honey & have something we didn't try the 1st time....
macadamia honey ice-cream.

16 comments:

FilipBlog said...

I have never seen live bees like that

stay-at-home mum said...

Actually the Manuka is really cheap. I pay about $49 over here for a 500gm bottle!

Reanaclaire said...

wow.. so u were in Auckland.. i never been to NZ yet.. hope to go in near future.. :)

Michelle Mak said...

ur two kids look so lovely, doc! :D

Jo said...

boats, bungy, sheep, macadamia and honey!! What else what else??

doc said...

Filip,

neither have i, till that day.

doc said...

SAHM,

then you can understand why we had EIGHT bottles in our luggage on the flight home.

doc said...

Claire,

air asia flies to christchurch in march 2011.

doc said...

Mich,

thks. they are the love of my life.

doc said...

Jo,

narrow-gauge railway, luge, haka, etc. it's coming up in future posts.

Reanaclaire said...

doc, my son is eyeing for that!!

Anonymous said...

Queenstown is a great place for bungy jumping besides winter sports. Yes, there are more sheep than humans in NZ.

doc said...

Claire,

eyeing the road-trip, honey or ice-cream?

doc said...

Mei Teng,

true, but queenstown will have to wait for now.

Reanaclaire said...

doc, u said air asia will be flying to christchurch in 2011, well, my son will surely be eyeing for that.. :)

doc said...

Claire,

apparently, air asia already had its introductory offer for booking to christchurch in early december. i only heard about it when i came back.

booking is still open but at regular price now. anyway, wait for some more offers in due time.