Guy 2: Mr. Anderson….(from the Matrix)

Me: Anderson Cooper! (CNN newsperson)

Girl 1: Pamela Anderson!

Hahaha….really shows the differences between my friends, doesn’t it?

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A few days ago, I was reading someone’s blog, and this person was talking about a new line of nail polish by OPI. I saw the pictures of the nail polish, and I wasn’t too impressed.

Kinda bling, right? The reds are so bright, and the shimmery ones are so…disco-ey. Maybe for a night out, but definitely not for everyday use. And then…I saw the packaging.

Ooohhh, so pretty! OPI has released this new selection in conjunction with the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie, which is directed by Tim Burton and features Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter! I’m a huge fan of Johnny Depp, and what more when he’s put in a movie together with Tim Burton! So, it definitely made me look twice at OPI’s Alice In Wonderland range.

One thing I’ve discovered about OPI is that they have a real knack for naming their nail polishes. For this round, they are called Absolutely Alice, Mad as a Hatter, Thanks So Muchness! and Off with Her Red. Aren’t the names cute?

So, whilst packaging doesn’t totally influence me (I’m definitely not buying these nail polishes!), they do make people stop for a second…and maybe even third look.

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I signed up to sponsor a child with World Vision Malaysia. The RM50 a month that you send in is not solely used for your child, it is also used to improve the village that your child stays in. For example, it might be used to help build a water system in the village, or build new houses, thereby improving the quality of life for the entire village, not just the child that you sponsor. This has something that I’ve been struggling with for awhile, on and off, but never felt able to commit to it. Recently, though, I realized how blessed I am in so many ways, and how many people there are that will never have as much as I do. If I can spend RM20+ on a lunch with colleagues, why can’t I abstain from a pricey lunch once in awhile and use the money for something better?

I finally felt ready to do it, so I signed up! You’re allowed to choose children living in a few different countries, but I selected the ‘Where the need is greatest’ option. Within a week, I received a mail from World Vision, containing info regarding the child sponsorship, as well as a picture of my child. I was assigned to an 11 month old baby in Indonesia, her father is a fisherman, her mother is unemployed, and she has 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I’m supposed to get periodic updates regarding her progress, but since she’s so young, I’m not expecting anything much! When she’s older, I’ll receive her report cards as well, to show her progress in school.

I feel oddly satisfied, knowing that I’m doing something to help somebody else. Yes, there have been people that asked me, ‘What makes you so sure that your child receives the money?’. Well, firstly, World Vision is a Christian organization. Then they asked, ‘So, because they’re Christians, does it mean that there are no corrupt Christians?’ Yes, I’m sure that there are also corrupt Christians, I’m sure there are corrupt people no matter what religion you are! But World Vision is a long established Christian international organization, if it was a scam, I’m sure that they would’ve been found out by now. World Vision also organizes trips to parts of the world where they provide child sponsorship, and you can actually sign up and visit your child. One of my friends has actually gone on one of these trips before and met the little girl that she sponsors. At the end of the day, it’s your intentions that are the most important thing.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a child, you can visit the World Vision Malaysia website.

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I wish my blog was coming out of hibernation for something happy. I wish my blog was coming out of hibernation for something happy. But instead, the reason my blog’s coming out of hibernation is because I need to express my sorrow at the state of my country.

For those of you who don’t know the background story, quite awhile ago, the Catholic weekly Herald was banned from using the word ‘Allah’ in their publications. The reason given was that it might “confuse” Muslims, and that ‘Allah’ should only be used for the Islamic religion. There was an appeal, and justice was declared (or so we thought), when the High Court declared that the Herald was free to use the world Allah in their publications. An appeal was filed, and the Herald was told not to use the word ‘Allah’ whilst pending the results of the appeal

At midnight, this happened…

A church in Desa Melawati was firebombed! According to some of the newspaper articles, there was an eyewitness who stated that three or four people on motorbikes stopped in front of the church. They broke the glass panels on the ground floor, poured some flammable liquid and set off the fire.

What is happening to our country?? I dare say that it’s only because of a small group of people that they are resorting to these attacks, but it is going to have a huge effect in the already unstable situation.

What makes me even sadder is how our the two ‘official’ online newspaper sites are reporting the news. The news of the firebombing was all over, even on the front page of The Straits Times. On The Star, the only mention of the issue was: “PM has pledged to resolve ‘Allah’ issue”. On the NST, it was even worse: “No stopping protests over ‘Allah’ issue: PM”.

What happened to the peoples’ rights to know? Why should the newspapers only report certain things, and leave out other important issues? As you can see, I’m full of questions, and not many answers. The only thing that is certain is that we all have to pray hard for the country, and wisdom for our leaders so that they will know how to act…

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Nora Roberts has always been one of my favorite authors, from her romance novels to her murder series, written by her pseudonym, JD Robb. So, whenever a new book is published, I pick it up, no matter what it’s about!

Twelve year old Cooper Sullivan was sent to the Black Hills to stay with his grandparents for the summer. He hated it initially because he was away from his friends and was of the opinion that he was stuck out in the country, but after awhile, he came to like it. He met Lil, a ten year old girl, and they became friends, brought together by their mutual love of baseball.

After that summer, he came back once in awhile to visit his grandparents in Lil, but nothing happened until he was in college. They became lovers, but due to certain circumstances, they eventually drifted apart.

Now, years later, Lil runs a successful wildlife center which takes in animals that can no longer survive in the wild. Coop has returned from his previous job (private investigator in NY) to help out his grandparents with their farm and business.

A serial killer is introduced into the story, and he’s set his sights on Lil. Coop starts to get involved again, after all, they’ve always been in love…

There’s another sub-romance in the book between Lil’s colleague, Tansy, and Lil’s “kind-of-brother”, Farley. Tansy was reluctant to get involved with Farley, because she was older (only by four years!), and because she was black and he was white. This little romance was really sweet, and had me rooting for Farley all the way!

All in all, it wasn’t Nora Roberts best work, but definitely a book that kept me entertained most of the way.

Book: Black Hills by Nora Roberts
Read in: September 2009
Rating: 7/10

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Our first stop was the Church of the Good Shepherd. The town of Lake Tekapo is so small that you can’t possibly get lost. It’s practically just one major road, and that’s it. We took a few minutes to get to the church, and then stepped outside to take a few photos. As soon as we stepped out, we wanted to get back into the warmth of our car! It was so windy that it was difficult to pose for photos, the wind made us want to keep our eyes closed all the time. We hurriedly snapped a few pictures, and then got back into the car. A few meters down from the church was a statue of some dog, erected in memory to something or other. This time, we didn’t even get out from the car but took some pictures from the inside of the car.

After that we drove back to Christchurch, and made a visit to the cathedral. Then, we walked around, looking for some places to have lunch. Overall, I much prefer Queenstown to Christchurch. Queenstown feels like compact town, with friendly people all over, and everything is easy to find. In Christchurch, we walked around quite a bit, and everything was so spread out that it didn’t feel very “tourist-friendly”.

We dropped our car off at the Omega office (the car was wonderful, and highly reccommended!), and they gave us a ride back to the airport, which is only a few minutes away from the office. And so, ended our great NZ trip!

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We set off from Te Anau and reached Queenstown by 11ish, and decided to explore Queesntown for a bit. We took the gondola up the mountain, and it was so much more fun compared to the Genting cable cars. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but the views were so wonderful!

When we reached the top, Terence went off to the luge track as he had purchased 5 rounds around the track together with the gondola ticket. It’s a bit hard to describe what a luge is, it’s kind of like a go-kart. From the website, this is what it says:

The scenery’s a blur!
Hurtle down a winding downhill track through the trees.
Race through the bends, or pull in for a breather and enjoy the panorama.
Burn it up on the advanced track or cruise sedately down the scenic track.
Then hop on the chairlift and do it all again.
Skyline Luge – it’s 800 metres of fast-paced freedom.
Once is never enough!

It sounds so much cooler than it looks. I managed to get a picture of Terence on the luge, and it looks like he’s sitting on a teeny land-based boat.

After we came down from the mountain, we stopped at Vudu Cafe for our lunch, and here’s our obligatory meal pictures.

After lunch, we explored a bit more, and I must say that I really like Queenstown. It’s my favourite town that I’ve been to so far in the South Island. It’s a smallish place, but very compact, and lots of activity going on all over.

My impressions of Queenstown were further improved when I discovered two shops. The first was a sweet shop called The Remarkable Sweet Shop. They have great fudge there, I tried so many flavors but amongst my favorites were Creme Brulee and Hokey Pokey. I would love it if this shop was in Malaysia, but then again, I’d probably get diabetes really quickly. They do have online shopping though….

The second shop was one that sold this great tasting gelati, I’ve forgotten the name, but it was so yummy. I can see myself putting on tons of weight if this trip was any longer!

We spent more time that we should have in Queenstown, which meant we had to drive in the dark in order to reach Lake Tekapo. Everything went smoothly though, and we checked into our last night’s stay at Lake Tekapo’s YHA.

I would say that overall, comparing BBH to YHA, I think I do prefer YHA more based on the different places that we’ve stayed at. However, either way, backpacking in New Zealand is at a much higher standard compared to anywhere else I’ve been before. So, my dear Shangri-la friend, do go backpacking in NZ, you’d love it!

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The views whilst going up to Milford Sound was stunning. We could see lots of snow all over, the results of the avalanche that occurred a couple of weeks ago.

We made several stops whilst on the way up at several places of interest. One of them was called Mirror Lakes, and from the picture, you should be able to see why!

When we reached the Real Journeys base, we hopped onto the cruise boat, and we were off! As it was winter, they had a promotion where we got a free lunch pack. We started off eating it inside the boat, but quickly decided to go out onto the deck so that we can see more. It was cold and oh so windy, but really worth it.

The skipper of the boat spotted some bottlenose dolphins and he brought us right next to the dolphins, and it was so cool! It was a whole pod of dolphins swimming around, and they stayed around the boat for quite awhile before swimming off.

There were tons of waterfalls all around us. It had rained the previous day, so according to one of the guides, there were quite a few “temporary” waterfalls which would be gone by the end of the day.

Other than the dolphins, we also managed to catch a glimpse of a few tiny penguins, but they were so small and hard to see! Finally, we saw some seals sunning themselves on the rocks nearby.

It was an experience I wouldn’t have liked to have missed, and I’m so glad the roads were cleared of the avalanche in time for us to make the trip!

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There was an awesome van at the information center, and I had to take some photos of that van. If I ever had a van, I’d probably want it to look like that!

After our visit to the i-Site, I had decided to go to Puzzling World, which was just a few kms away from Wanaka. There was enough at Puzzle World to keep us entertained for a few hours, the maze itself took us almost an hour to complete!

The goal was to find the four corner towers of the maze, the easy challenge was just finding them, whereas the more difficult challenge was finding the towers in a certain order. We decided to start off with the difficult challenge, but soon discovered that it was more difficult than it looked, so we ended up doing the easy challenge instead.

After completing the maze, we went on to visit the Roman style toilets. It’s so well done that when I peeped through, I thought there were real people using them! We finished up with the illusion rooms, then made our way back to Wanaka for lunch by the lakeside. Of course, the idea always sounded better in our head, when we sat down by the lake, the wind was so strong that we quickly found ourselves making our way back to the restaurant to eat in peace.

We arrived quite early at Te Anau, before 6 and checked into the YHA there. We asked the receptionist for a few dinner suggestions (not that there were that many restaurants!), and headed off to La Toscana. On the way there, we passed by a park, and I felt like making a quick stop to relive my childhood.

Then, we continued on our way to La Toscana, and our dinner.

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When we arrived, they gave us a short briefing of the extra clothes that we would need. They provided us with overtrousers to keep your pants from getting wet, hat, gloves, waterproof jacket, boots and crampons. After putting on all the equipment except for the crampons, we took a short bus ride to the starting point.

From the drop-off point, we had to walk through a small forrested area, and then it was about 40 minutes walk through a rocky area to reach the foot of the glacier. Along the way, we passed a few small waterfalls on the sides, which were really pretty. At this point, I was feeling a bit overheated from the many layers I was wearing, so I shed the poofy jacket layer. I guess it really wasn’t necessary to put on so many layers, the exercise would probably keep you warm anyway!

At the foot of the glacier, we were split into two groups. The first, was the one that would go a bit faster, whereas the second would be taking a more leisurely walk, with more opportunities to take photos. I wanted to go in the second group, because I knew that I wasn’t fit at all, but Terence wanted the first group, so that’s where we ended up.

About ten minutes into the hike up, I knew that it was going to be a tough day. The steps going up the glacer were pretty steep, and probably not made for a short person’s legs, especially an unfit person! I was huffing and puffing, and had already dropped back to the end of the group after a few mintues.

At this point, I was really glad that we hadn’t chosen to do a full day glacier trek, it probably would’ve killed me! Thankfully we stopped fairly often. As we were the first hike of the day, some of the steps needed hacking with the pickaxe, which our guide had to do, and this gave me a few minutes to rest each time. After an hour or so, we reached the highest point we would be hiking to, and this gave us a chance for a few photo opportunities.

After the glacier trek, we stopped for a quick lunch at The Landing, where we had a chicken cajun sandwich, and a bacon quiche.

We then set out for Wanaka. Initially, I was a bit worried about going over the Haast pass, as I had read in a few blogs that the cars had required snow chains to drive through the pass, and it was dangerous, and we would only be able to go at 25 kms per hour. In addition to that, someone had mentioned that during winter, the pass closed at 5pm! In this case, our only option would be to stay the night at Haast, but the accommodation reviews were pretty dismal.

We made a stop at the information center, and they reassured us that there was no snow, so the chains would be unnecessary, and the pass was only closed when the roads were dangerous. So, we were good to make our way to Wanaka. It probably took us about 4 hours or so, and by the end of the drive, my driving total stood at 350 kms since the start of our journey.

Our accommodation for the night was another YHA, and this one was quite different from the Franz Josef YHA. We were booked into a twin room at the YHA Wanaka, and we got something like a service apartment. There were two rooms inside this little cottage, one of which was ours. The other room was unoccupied, but it was locked. In the cottage, there were all the facilities, shower / toilet, kitchen, TV area. For the dorm rooms, we saw that the shower / toilet areas were actually outside the main accommodation area, so you’d have to keep coming outside into the cold if you wanted to use the facilities. I was really happy that ours was so much more convenient!

We had dinner at a nearby pub, I think it was called Muzza’s. The owner recommended the lamb, so we ordered that, plus a pork spare ribs appetiser, which I decided would be my main course. When it came out, it was pretty huge, 6 ribs! I would never have been able to finish the main course size, which was double the amount of ribs.

I’m constantly amazed at the amount of food that the locals can consume. We also had a dessert, which was too yummy that we didn’t even manage to take a photo. After dinner, it was back to the YHA for the night.

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