Day 1-2 (KLIA – Auckland/ Hamilton)
We were very excited to go New Zealand for our vacation. Why would anyone not want to take time off work for a nice long holiday? Despite the protests by some persons that I shalt no name, we brought Lucas along for his first real overseas trip! Truth to be told, I was a bit worried about the 10 hours flight with Lucas in case he throws a tantrum because when he cries, he can get really loud…piercingly loud.  Only at 7 months old, he has already been to more places than I probably did in my first 12 years of life. Privilege little babe ain’t he?

However, my worries were unwarranted because he was the sweetest boy all the way there and back although he wriggled quite a bit and even managed to free himself from the zipped flap in his bassinet after he woke from his nap. Thankfully, the man next to us was awake and saw Lucas getting up in his bassinet and woke us from our slumber.

 
Here’s Grandma mm-seh-tak Lucas at the airport while we were checking in

 
But Lucas cannot wait for his trip to start!

Lucas sleeping in his bassinet

After a 10 hours flight, we were really excited to have finally arrived at Auckland airport so we can breathe the fresh air of New Zealand and see the ultra-filtered colors of New Zealand. BUT, we were held up by the immigration. Actually, I, the wife, was held up. Personally, I find the immigration officer (a young Kiwi man?) wasn’t very nice and snobbish. I passed our passports to him with the arrival cards in separate stack. But the officer told me in a condescending manner and stare (I am not exaggerating!), to please put the arrival cards with the respective passports. Eh? Perhaps he can’t read Asian names that he can’t match them together? Can’t he see we have our hands full with the stroller, the car seat and our backpacks?  Well, most likely, I suppose that wasn’t in his job description hence he can’t do it (Note that sarcasm is fully intended here). I was pretty annoyed and didn’t bother to hide it. And after processing, he allowed both Marcus and Lucas to go, but not me. Yes, I was completely dumbfounded and I felt like this: Whuat???

So we waited almost half hour before I was finally ‘interviewed’ and was allowed to go.  A full hour wasted at the immigration. While all these were happening, Lucas was sleeping peacefully in his car seat.

Sleeping Lucas, annoyed Mummy in the background

Please let my Mummy go

Anyways, we met Alicia outside and we headed to Hamilton where she is currently staying. We were very blessed with good weather almost throughout the whole trip although it was late autumn and the day of our arrival was no exception too. We visited Candyland in Hamilton, where we bought ‘Sheep Poo’ chocolate (chocolate raisins) and ‘Kiwi Dropping’ (chocolate almond). Hehe, we ate them. 

And there was the biggest (and heaviest) lollipop we’ve ever seen. It weighed over 1kg…

Then we head to Alicia’s place where we met

Scooby (the black and white) and Saber (the stripey). Huge cats, not fat cats as insisted by Alicia

And where Alvin (with the glasses), Alicia’s bf, cooked yummy dinner for us. The other guy is Domique, their housemate from Hong Kong

Day 3
Still hanging around Hamilton, we visited the world famous Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Since Alicia has seen this before, she gave it a miss and plus, she had to work. Took us about an hour – two hours drive to get there, and on the way there we saw the ‘desktop’ picture for real. No filter lens was used too.

Microsoft may have taken their desktop view from New Zealand

No pictures were allowed in the cave, in case we scare the living day ‘lights’ out of the worms and they will have no more glowworms in Waitomo Caves ?

After Waitomo Caves, we visited Otorohanga Kiwi House, which is about an hour’s drive away. Although it’s suppose to be a bird zoo and a place to protect Kiwi, we see more ducks than anything else!

Pretty autumn leaves

Daddy and Lucas

With so many ducks around, it is hard not to take a few of them and get some nice shots too

No pictures were allowed in the place where they kept the Kiwi because Kiwis are nocturnal birds, and lights frighten them….hmm…But

Lucas got a ride on a Kiwi!