The Great Kiwi Adventure Day 2

Craving: Grilled Cod Seasoned with Salt and Pepper

So it's the end of day 2. This time around I have some pictures to show, courtesy of my sister's camera. Here's some shots of yesterday's walk at night.

Mum, Min and I by the docks

Beautiful colours of the dusk sky

Another of me by the docks

Amazing feat of engineering. May post up the video of this later.

Sky Tower all lit up

Sky Tower from the roof of the apartment building

Nightview of the city from the roof

And so that was last nights walk about. Today started a little slow. I'm still not really adjusted to the time difference yet. I'm a fan of nice relaxed holidays anyway so I took my time getting up. Strangest thing though...I actually got up later than expected because I actually had a dream about me getting up!!! So anyway once I've gotten my morning rituals out of the way I started cooking myself up some breakfast. I rummaged around in the fridge and cooked up a plate of pork sausages with pepperoni, scrambled eggs and bread. A nice hearty meal to start the day. After some more lounging about we headed out to the beaches. Sadly my sis was feeling under the weather so she had to stay home and rest. Especially with her glacier walk coming up!

Well we hit quite a few beaches and it was really a big difference to the beaches I am used to back home. Where the beaches in Malaysia are usually quite big with a very long stretch, here the beaches were quite small and the expanse not so wide. However the water is so clear and the deep blue is so inviting. It really makes me marvel at the awesomeness and the power of God when I see these things.

Mum and I at the beach

Look at that beautiful blue expanse!

The weather was also sort of a contrast to the way it was back home. Though it was sunny out, the weather was still quite chilly. In fact it has felt like I'm in Cameron Highland's on a cold day for the time I've been here. As you can see by the jackets in the picture below, the wind can really be quite chilly.

Mum and Dad standing out against the blue

The absolute closest I could get to a gull

Sea all the oysters stuck to the rock? I'm told people actually crack them open to eat!

Once we were done with the beaches, we decided to drop by and visit the aunts and uncles. For some strange reason my dad feels it's fine to drop by without calling, supposed to be a generation thing I think. Since it was a working day and other's were away....we only managed to catch hold of Jie Yang at our first stop. Our luck was better at the next stop when we managed to catch up with ber kor and Hui Yen. Would have managed to catch Jian Wei as well but he didn't wake up the whole time we were there.

Shhh......don't tell my aunt I put this up. She'd skin me alive!

It was great catching up. I was also introduced to my aunt's famous lemon tree. Famous because it produces lemons the size of grapefruits! And apparently, those are the small ones!!!!! Will be trying to bring back a few, hopefully they'll keep :)

Yes, this is too small to be plucked!

Roses from ber kor's garden

After we left their place we headed to do some grocery's from Pak 'n Save and Taiping (the asian grocer). Didn't get much, but I managed to get a loaf of Sourdough! Oh how I miss sourdough. Too bad it's almost impossible to find in Malaysia. Headed home for a simple lunch and rest for the afternoon. Dinner time came around again and this time we headed to Tony's Lord Nelson for steak. It was just the three of us as sis was still sick so she had to sit this one out. It was a just a short walk from the apartment, which is very nice especially in this kind of weather. We all had the soup of the day which turned out to be Clam Chowder, which was very very nice except that it was a little bit too salty. For the mains, Dad had a Fillet Provencal, which was is a fillet steak with Claret and Bone Marrow sauce. Mum had a Carpet Bag Steak, which is a steak stuffed with oysters, and boy were those oysters large! As for me, I had a huge 20z T-Bone steak which was grilled to perfection, albeit a little under seasoned. All in all it was a excellent meal and I was not disappointed. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until I had finished half my steak, but I then I took some anyway. Also unfortunately, its all in my handphone and I won't be able to post the pictures of all the food I've had till I get back.

After dinner, we took a stroll around town where I had a minor altercation with a local. We were walking up the street minding our own business when our attention was drawn to this man who seemed to be drunk and was making lots of noise. His friends were calling up to him but he just seemed to be steam rolling along his way. For some funny reason he decided it would be fun to body check me as he walked past. Fortunately I saw it coming and was able to cushion it. Didn't bother with him too much and didn't respond and just continued walking. His friends seemed really embarrassed and apologized profusely. Really stupid, the things that people do while drunk. Wasn't a very pleasant encounter but I didn't dwell on it very long.

We continued our stroll up Queen street and saw this amazing storefront display. It various, holiday season scenes, but entirely done with puppet mice. It had music, lights and everything. Was really very nice. We then stopped by Borders. Didn't get anything, but I was sorely tempted by this series I saw "Vampire Academy". Looks like sort of a Harry Potter meets Buffy meets Blade kind of story. Was sorely tempted to get the series, but it would definitely be cheaper back home. Hopefully I'm right. Called it a night after that and headed back to the apartment. So till tomorrow. Ciaoz!