New Zealand Trip - Day 1 - Part 2

From the Red Bus, we transferred to The Orbiter. Thank goodness, the bus stops right at Whiteleigh Avenue. We called our host and asked him for directions. We were right on the street yet, we walked towards the OPPOSITE direction and got further from the place. Haha! 5 minutes of confusion later, we arrived at our hosts house. Since it is basically a frat house, I was not expecting neat and tidy lawn but whoa.. there were lots of stuff on their porch. Haha!

The equipment-laden porch. :D

Our host, J, welcomed us. His roommate, A was on the phone when we came in. J told us that we could have the living room to ourselves and sleep on their couches. Err.. but on their Couchsurfing profile, they mentioned that we would have our own private room and that's mainly why I requested to surf in their house.

Of course, out of courtesy I smiled and said "Yeah. Couch. No problem.". God knows my brain is racing to find some solution to this issue. After awhile, A came out and greet us. Our hosts dropped another bomb. They told us that tomorrow night, their other roommates, N and other two guys whom I forgot their initials are having an initiation party. Apparently, the next Monday is the first day of the new semester and the party is to welcome the new students. For the rest of the summer their roommates went on a camping trip and guess what? They are coming back tomorrow, just in time for their initiation party. Picture drunken, rowdy 20-year-old college students. Attractive. NOT.

J and A have been accepting requests on Couchsurf during the summer and since their roommates are on camping trip, the surfers HAD private rooms to themselves. It's just that J and A forgot to amend their couch's description. This is getting interesting, eyh? ;) From their conversation, J and A are quite reluctant to have the party at their house and prays that none of them will enter the house. They're having the party at the backyard.

Our hosts' green front yard. Love it!

While our hosts gave us the low down, I kept my composure and tried, real hard to keep a straight face and pretend that the arrangement works for us. Suddenly, a light bulb turned on!

Me: Hey A. Since N will not return home till tomorrow, do you think we can use her room?
A: I can try asking her is that's ok.
Me: Ok. Cool.

Both J and A texted N but they got no response. Before we left the house, A told us that since N is not replying, we can stay in her room instead. That is so sweet of her! I was so grateful that at least, tonight, I won't have to sleep in my hijab, in the middle of the house with boys walking around me while I am sleeping. One problem SOLVED. :)

Oh wait, what about the party tomorrow? *cue doomed music*

New Zealand trip - Day 1 - Part 1

On 15 February 2012, I boarded D7282 from KUL to CHC at 2340. It was my first time taking Air Asia X. My verdict: MAS>AAX in terms of seat comfort, food, in-flight entertainment, cabin crew. Basically everything. BUT, the AAX's service commensurates with the low airfare. :)

On my own in-flight entertainment. iPad is my saviour. :D

After 10 mighty uncomfortable plane ride, we safely arrived at Christchurch International Airport at 1535, 16 February 2012. The time difference is 5 hours and I was totally exhausted from lack of sleep and jetlag. The immigration was a breeze. One officer randomly pick passengers to ask random questions and "lucky" me, I was randomly picked out the crowd and the lady officer asked me about my plan in NZ, how much money I brought with me, etc. Don't get me wrong, she questioned me politely and even made attempts to engage me with small talk. Like it or not, the staff of the airport is the first impression the country is portraying to the tourists like myself. My first impression of the Kiwis: polite and friendly.

As soon as I step out of the airport, I knew I am blessed to be on New Zealand soil. The sky is glorious blue. Eventhough it was summer, the breeze is pretty cold but the sunlight kept us warm enough. Excellent weather on our first day.

Information on the public transportation available at the airport can be found on the airport's official website. Right outside the airport, we boarded the Red Bus No. 3. Our destination is Whiteleigh Avenue, Addington where our Couchsurfing hosts' place is located. I used the Journey Planner on the bus company's official website. I was informed that we need to transfer to another bus once to get to our destination at "Riccarton Rd and Field Tce" and take bus No. 40 to "Church Rd". It is a bit confusing for tourists since we are not familiar with the street names. Plus, the bus stops do not have any signboards to indicate their names or locations and there is also no indications on the bus of the name of the next bus stop that the bus if going to stop at. During times of like these, I miss Seoul's superb public transportation. Easy peasy. To avoid further confusion, we told the driver our destination and he was more than happy to let us know where we need to alight and the number of the bus that we need to get on.

While waiting to get on our 2nd bus, a few Kiwis helped us to identify which bus we need to get on. According to them, it has been raining everyday until that day. Talk about sheer luck, huh? Alhamdulillah.

One interesting observation - the Kiwis (people of New Zealand, not the kiwi bird) once they get on the bus, they ALWAYS acknowledge the driver by either a simple "Hi!", "How are you doing?" or "Thank you". Kiwis do have excellent manners which I found very delightful. Well, this conclusion was formed when I was on New Zealand soil for just 3 hours. Too early to see the Kiwis' true colours. Hehehe.

Honestly, I am beyond sleepy right now. Will update the blog tomorrow. Pinky promise.