So, since the last post
1. Dato' Seri Ong Ka ting visited Palmy. Our Housing and Development minister is in Pamy for a conference, and has taken time to meet with the Malaysian students. Held the meeting at his hotel Rydges, and talked about his visit, and other stuff in an informal fashion. Very nice guy.
2. I am now the member of Massey Masochists Social Soccer team. I have no idea what Masochists meant, and after I searched the dictionary, the meaning made me laugh. It kind of means "like to dish out pain and punishment" which is okay, if we actually do that to the other team. Instead the other team always trashes us. But, am glad to have the weekly training and match.
3. Classes have started and ended for Easter Break + Mid Semester break. Classes are fine I suppose, with my Business Law subject being the least favourite, not because of the subject itself but more to the draggy nature of the lectures. Two assignments have been submitted and have been marked an collected, and both I must say, I got better marks than expected. Hurrah for me. One test done, and that as well went well despite the late, late revision.
4. We have 2 weeks of Easter Break holidays. The first week was spent by playing football in the hallways of Walter Dyer Hall. As only a handful of people staying in the halls during easter, no one to complain.
5. The monday of the second week of Easter Holidays, Me, Iylia, Imran and Nana headed off on a road trip to Rotorua. We departed from Palmy at around 9 AM and spent three and half hours on the road to reach Taupo. The bread and butter of this country, thier scenic views, did not dissapoint. Rolling hills, snow topped mountains, farmlands, huge lakes that look like the sea but is not. Yeah, definitely beautiful. So reached Taupo for a Loo stop. They had a public restroom called Super Loo. They had a reception area, and to enter the toilet, you need to put in coins and go through a turnstyle thing, the one they have at the entrance of amusement park rides. And yes, the toilet was clean.
Continued one and a half hours on the road to reach Rotorua. Upon arrival, we headed for Rotorua's i-Site. Each town/city in New Zealand has an i-Site. An i-site is the place where people go to find info on the town/city, the attractions and accomodation options. You can book, and pay for accomodation at the i-site, which I think is very effecient. We booked the accomodation, and paid for the Sky Gondola ride up as well as the luge which I will explain in a bit.
Left the i-site, and headed for our accomodation. We chose a backpackers called Treks Backpackers. Here, there are backpackers, motor lodges, motels, and hotels. So yes, backpackers are usually the cheapest. Its like a dorm like accomodation where there are common rooms, and communal bathrooms. It sounds dodgy, but the one we picked was really nice. We settled payment, and dumped our stuff and off to the sky gondola.
The Sky Gondola Station was 15 minutes from our backpackers. Reached there and proceeded to line up to board the gondola. Usually, upon stepping inside the gondola, a photographer would snap a group photo and you will have an option to purchase the pictures when you get back down. In our case, and only us, when we stepped in the gondola, a member of thier staff hitched a ride, and because of that, we did not get our picture taken which was quite frustrating. Therefore, we also did not snap pictures on the way up due the awkwardness of us + the staff.
We reached the top and made our way towards the luge. A luge is a go kart sized contraption, where it uses the downhill slope to move.
So as you can see, to luge, we have to control the handle bars so that you don't pull it all the way back, or let go. Pulling it all the way back will cause it to stop, and letting go of the handle bars would cause it to stop. Basically its maintaining the handle bars in a middle position. I'm not actually one to explain, as I got trashed by them when we raced down, 3rd twice and dead last three times. When we get to the bottom, we ride the chairlift back up to the starting position..
Towards the end of the 4th luge, It rained so, the last race was a wet race, which was fun but also made the luge faster and control of it less. I crashed on the barrier near the end but it was all good. No injuries.
We headed back down with the gondola, this time it was just us and snapped pictures
Reached the bottom, and headed straight for the car. We went looking for the Agrodome, which was a place with more attractions. One of them was the Zorb, which if you don't know is the big plastic ball rolling down the hill. Nana wanted to zorb, so we rushed to find the place as it was already 5 and there was a possibility it was already closed. And it was. When we arrived, the guy said the current ball rolling down was the last ride. So, we headed back towards town.
On the way back, about 5 minutes before reaching our backpackers, we stopped at the thermal park. Thermal pools are all over Rotorua. We learned this in geography, Datin Josephine pernah ajar. The thermal pools smells like fart. Its the sulfur. Anyone in Pn.Rogayah's chem class would know the smell. If i'm wrong and its not sulfur, I actually barely passed chem in school, so forgive me...
Headed back to the backpackers to relax and get ready for dinner. Showered and put jeans in dryer as each of us brought only one pair of pants. Waited for pants to dry, and headed off into town to get food. All of us agreed on Pizza. After Pizza, we cruised around town, stopped at Pak n Save for ice cream, and headed back to Treks. Settled in and relaxed. The best thing about backpackers is that there are usually hot women around, and they're foriegners who actually backpack through New Zealand. Slept to recuperate for tommorows activities.
Had to check out at 10.30 so everyone got ready. After checking out, headed straight to the Zorb place. Imran and Nana zorbed. It looks fun, but I was saving my money for something else that day. After they Zorbed, we headed back to town and snapped our last picture in Rotorua
On the road again, for 1 and a half hours, back to Taupo. I think it was me who suggested it, Imran obliged, and Iylia was threatened when Nana said who did not go through with it was a chicken and a girl. What is this feat we are doing. Bungy people. Yes bungy. Jumping off the edge and free falling 154 ft down the face of a cliff, dipped half way into the Wanganui river below. After parking, we went near the edge to see how far was the drop. I must admit, I had second thoughts about this despite being the hero who wanted to do this in the first place. The three of us looked at each other faces unsure, and heard another guy jump, scream echoing all around. Then I psyched myself and the guys up and proceeded to the office. Paid the guy, and braced ourselves.
The three of us walked towards the jumping platform, and I went through the barrier first. Then the guy closed the barrier. Told me to sit down and he proceeded by setting up the bungy cords. I think what happens next should be interpreted with a video
Wohoooo!...yes that was liberating stuff people. I highly recommend bungy jumping. Makes you feel alive. Hahha...
After the jump, settled down, and on the road again. Stopped at a Subway for dinner, and drove non-stop back to Palmy. Great Trip.
6. Classes started, and assignments are due within these 2 weeks. 2 tests coming up.
And thats it for now. Will update when anything exciting happens.
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