NZ - 3/11/2005 (Thursday) - Day 3

Whole day walking!

We take a Christchurch city walk. The city is clean and organised.

The botanical garder has all species of plants. The ranger must be very good in gardening. One person do all the job at the same time - watering, planting... This is a city that ducks can walk in the town! The ducks must be having good life here. They do not scared of people. There is a pond in the middle of the garden. Ducks are snorkling, diving, swimming and even landing like a plane.

Taking lunch at one of the convenient store. Very expensive! Two buns for NZD4 each. We decided to cook for toninght dinner. Bought some groceries from the supermarket. The supermarket here is amazing. Thhey have everything fresh!

I cook black pepper beef. Haha! very delicious. My dear like it very much!

NZ - 2/11/2005 (Wednesday) - Day 2

We touch down Auckland at about 12pm. 5 hours different from Malaysia time. The airport security check is very tight. Everything is checked thouroughly. But they are very efficient and friendly. We then walk to another terminal for transit to Christchurch.

Finally, we reach Christchurch. Has been travelling for almost a day.

We take a shuttle from a very strong lady driver to a Vegabond Backpacker, a place that we've booked earlier. This is the first time in my life staying in backpacker. It has been furnished with all the facilities - toilets, kitchen, common area etc.

It's now 7.00pm. We are very tired. After shower, we still need to go out town as we can't pack everything from home. There are some stuffs that we need to get immediately from the local groceries shop. Before that, we have our dinner in a restaurant as this is out first dinner for our honey moon. It cost us NZD25! For just a simple dinner. We have decided not to consume in restaurant anymore later in our trip. Really need to have good budget planning as this will be a long trip. After dinner, we just quickly find a supermarket and pack our goods and straight back to the backpacker.

We need rest.

Christchurch, a very beautiful city, peace, calm, quite, less traffic... We will explore more tomorrow.

NZ - 1/11/2005 (Tuesday) - Day 1

We are leaving to New Zealand! A long waited trip. After getting ready for months, finally, we are leaving for NZ!

With food stuff, camping gear and clothings, we have two big luggage and two backpack:
- A big duffle bag to store our tent, tripod, clothes, airbed and sleeping bag.
- A green ice box to store food stuff. We bought a lot of packed food (e.g. Maggie Black Pepper Beef, Asam Curry Fish etc). We also bought our favourite 3-in1 Nescafe, Aik Cheong Coffee-Tea and the most important is RICE!
- A big backpack for my dear David to keep our fleece and books.
- A small backpack for me to keep my personal stuff like camera, passports, air ticket etc

My dear do all the planning for this trip. I feel so guilty. But he's really good in planning and organising. He started planning 3 months ago - route, stuff to bring, accomodations, tranportation etc. I feel so proud of him.

Our flight leave KLIA at 5pm. Then transit at Singapore Changi Airport. 10 hours flight to NZ is very tiring.

怎么都不会沟通了呢？

今天下午到club去游泳，过后顺便做个蒸汽浴。由于club刚装修过，所以也有了一些新规矩，我刚刚游了半小时的泳，所以有些懵懵地，也没有去注意有了新的告示，就穿了我的夹脚塑胶鞋进了去。里面没人，所以我就选了个角落位子坐了下来。五分钟之后，有位长发小姐打开了玻璃门，看了看，又把门关上走了。我想，可能这位小姐忘了东西没拿，要去拿了再进来吧！我也不以为意，继续泡我的蒸汽美人浴。

过了一会儿，club的印度清洁阿嫂，又打开了玻璃门，指着我的拖鞋，叫我把它拿出来。我一错愕，问为什么。阿嫂提高了声量，说不可以在蒸汽室里穿鞋。哦，对不起，对不起，可能我一时大意，没看到什么新规矩了，于是我便马上起身把拖鞋拿了出去，放在门边。这时，那位长发小姐也刚好在门边。她过后也跟着进来了。

长发小姐选了另一个角落，背对着我，果然，开始涂涂抹抹起来了。大概是海盐之类的吧。全身抹透了之后没多久，她就急急忙忙地离开了。唔。。。怎么了？这么急？我又继续泡了大约五分钟，就出来了。

一打开门，又看到了那位长发小姐，已穿好了衣服，像要离开的样子。看到我出来，突然用很凶狠的眼光瞪着我，然后指着蒸汽室门边的一张纸，吼了一句，“Please read this！”，就匆匆忙忙地走了，留下一脸错愕的我。怎么了，干么那么气冲冲地？

看了门边的那张纸，原来是新的告示，不可穿鞋进蒸汽室。哦，原来是气这个，原来那个阿嫂也是她叫来的，害我还以为怎么阿嫂这么勤力，会进来巡逻。哈哈，原来是有人去告状了！

唉，也太小题大做了吧。她又不是哑巴，我也不是聋子，难道就不能够提点一下吗？我只是一时疏忽，穿了拖鞋进去而已嘛，只要开口提醒一下，“Excuse me，slipper is not allowed in this steam room” 我也马上会跟她道歉嘛！用不着投诉吧。就那么简单的一句话都不会说吗？真奇怪。

回头想一想，我们的社会是不是出了什么问题呢？怎么人与人之间的沟通就这么难了呢？连简单的对话都无法掌握，而要借助外力了。现代人的沟通方式的确更方便了，除了语言之外，我们也可以用简讯，电邮，甚至是MSN来沟通。但也因为这样，对话少了，人也变的更拙于言行。很多时候连最简单的表达都做不到。

是时候思考，是不是该重塑礼仪社会，重新学习沟通了！

Our Honey Moon - New Zealand

New Zealand -- our honey moon destination. It happened in November 2005.

After two years, and now trying to transform our Anzac trip journal into this blog...

That should be a big project. Let's see how it goes...