"Hello, Kia Ora and Salam Sejahtera", that was what the chairman of the 2007 BERSATU Games started off with when he gave his speech during the opening ceremony held at the University of Canterbury events center. The BERSATU Games is an annual sporting event organised by the Malaysian Students Department in New Zealand. This year, the event was held in Christchurch, and organised by the collaborating team of Canterbury Malaysian Students Association (CMSA), Petronas Students Organisation of Canterbury (PETSOC), Lincoln Malaysian Students Society (LMSS), and UMNO Christchurch. Having prepared for the games for over a month, I was definitely looking forward to the trip, and the games. The journey to the Bersatu Games held in Christchurch began with a 2 hour bus trip down to Wellington. The bus which was an hour late, meant we had to wait under the drizzling rain for an hour, finally came and we boarded a little annoyed for the delay despite the bus driver expressing his deepeest apologies. Arrived in Wellington at around 12 AM. Walked for 20 minutes to Nana's apartment which was where we were docking ourselves until our flight which departs at 6.50 AM. All were hungry so after storing our stuff, we set out through the streets of Wellington in search of food. Wellington is most definitely more alive than Palmy at 1 o'clock in the morning, with the streets still lit up, cafe's still operating, and clubs still alive and kicking.
We walked 10 minutes in one direction, towards a restaurant called Satay Kajang, but was dissapointed when we found it closed. Walked back in the other direction and settled for a kebab place callled " Abra-KEBAB-ra". We ordered, ate, and set out for coffee. Walked in another direction for 10 minutes, and stopped at a place called "Coffee's & Tea's" or was it the other way round?. So, ordered, drank and went back to the apartment. Got maybe 2 hours of rest, when Imran turned on the light, and told us to get ready. Took a shuttle to the airport. checked in, boarded, and off we went to Christchurch.
Flight lasted 40 minutes, which meant the only refreshment the flight crew gave us were fruit flavoured sweets. Touched down in Christchurch expecting it to be cold, colder than Palmy. Got our bags and had to wait at the airport fo around an hour for Imran to collect the rental car in town, and also to wait for Safwan, whose fight arrived 30 minutes after ours. Headed out of the airport and into town and towards X-Base Backpackers, which was where we would be staying for the games. Staring out the car window, I felt a sense of coziness in that city that I did not feel when I was in Wellington or Auckland. It had a certain historical feel to it. Anyways, reached X-Base round 9 AM, which meant we were early. Registration was at 10 AM, so having an hour to kill, parked the car and went into the cafe across the backpackers to get breakfast. Registered with the organisers and got our room keys. I was in a six to a room room, and had bunk beds. I stashed my stuff on the top bunk and settled in. At round 2 PM, went out and got the other 2 rental cars. Driving in Christchurch was pleasant, unlike Wellington or Auckland. The parks in Christchurch were huge, there were even multiple netball courts on the park which I have not seen before. Usually you see multiple basketball courts, but being New Zealand, they would have to accomodate I guess. Got back to the backpackers at round 3.30 PM, and a bunch of us decided to walk round town before the opening ceremony. After a quick stop at Starbucks, went back to the backpackers, and waited for everyone to get ready. At round 5.30 we were off to the University of Canterbury events hall. The trip took 15 minutes from the backpackers, and the venues of the games would also be around the university area. Upon arriving, we all waited in front of the hall, and went in together. We were greeted by the organizers and were allocated seats to the right of the stage. There were probably over 200 people in the hall, consisted of athletes, supporters and the organisers. Waited for 20 minutes for everyone to settle down, when the MC's started off the ceremony.
The event started with bacaan doa, then the singing of our national anthem, "Negaraku". Singing Negaraku overseas was a good feeling, and having 200 over people doing the same was even better. The chairperson of the event was next, and he started off with "Hello, Kia Ora and Salam Sejahtera". His speech was brief, and included the welcomes and thank yous and good lucks. Next was the VIP speech which was unsurprisingly boring but ended with "I now declare the BERSATU Games 2007, open". Then came the time for the "Roll Call". They put on a video, and when the contingent name came up on the screen, we were supposed to chant or have a war cry. Being the unprepared contigent that we were, we jumbled up a chant right there and then. We thought of a "300" style war cry, but then changed it to.."MUMSA !!!....FUIYOOO!!!" and Hadi was supposed to shout "Celah maneee". So the video was played, and the first contingent name came up, and a 300 style war cry was heard, then the next contingent....another 300 style war cry. Good thing we changed it. Then our name came up, "The White Masses" and we did our thing. After all the roll calls were done, The MC's announced that the ceremony had come to an end, which was a welcome thing for everyone, as it would be an early day the next day. Waited for El Presidente and our sports officer Razif to have thier meeting and while waiting, had our supper provided by the organizers. Went back to the backpackers, and went to sleep.
Have not updated this blog as much as I would like. It all comes down to laziness I suppose, and the fact that not much relevant stuff to write about....until now that is.
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.
This update comes after 2 weeks after the last. Over the weeks, the events worth mentioning are
1. The day I played senior and greeted the new Malaysian students to Massey University as if i've been here more than 3 days. Macam bagus jer...hehe
2. The trip to Wellington, which took one and a half hours from Palmerston North. Went to the Student attache's house first to meet her, and other new students this year. Proceeded to the city which I have to say, is more happening than Palmerston North. Beautiful waterfronts, high rises, and San Francisco type streets. Memang bandar habesh ah...
3. The trip back from Wellington, I had to drive. The trip to Wellington we had three cars, but the trip back, the car of the ambassador was not making the trip back. So we had to rent an extra car. On the 4th day in New Zealand, I drove long distance.
4. The Hall meeting was held in Monroe Dining Hall, which is approximately 50 steps from my hall. Had some activities including a general knnowledge quiz. Yeah, general knowledge my ass. To answer the questions, you had to be
a kiwi
rugby fan
an american
You guessed it, the questions were about new zealand, rugby and American football. I contributed towards one question I thought I knew. It was "what was the longest and biggest reptile in the world?" I can bet that most of us would say The Anaconda Snake right? I've seen those fuckers on TV, not referring to the movie of course, but the real thing, and they big. But I was wrong, it wasn't the Anaconda. Try Googling the answer people.
5. The clubs and socs day. Lots of tables set up on the main concourse, where all the Uni clubs promote thier clubs and activities. I first went straight for MUMSA, the Massey University Malaysian Students Association. Met up with familiar faces, and even helped them sign up a couple of newbies. Non-Malaysians signed up as well, which was funny to me, coz I knew the main agenda of the club, which was to recognise the Malaysian contingent at Massey. Also signed up for the Massey Soccer Club. Thinking of trying out for the team, but gotta go to town and find some cheap boots first.
6. Signing up for the gym. The recreation centre offers gym services. It's 70 NZD for the whole year, which was really a bargain, because I paid that amount monthly when I went to Fitness First.
7. Crazy Sports day. The battle of the Halls. Despite having the biggest hall this year, only a handful of the "Walter Dyer Warriors" went down to the Oval that day. We came down that hill, and saw that we were really unprepared. Other halls had face paint, whistles , hats etc...and they had already thought up thier cool chants before hand, while we the Warriors, just had our banner. We won the first game, and lost the second, and drew the third. The fourth was the most fun. The slippery slide. They layed plastic covering on the side of the hill, watered and soaped it, and presto, they had a slippery slide. The objective was, that one team had to run up the hill with a cup, fill it with water, and slide down to fill the water in the bucket...while the opposing team, had to throw sponges at the runner to make him fall, or make him drop the cup. We won beacuse the other team cheated. But the best part was when everybody jumped on the slide, 20-30 people sliding round. Mucho Fun...
Then we had the chant and danceoff which was fun. Ours wasn't the worst, but the eventual winners were really good.
And the latest event worth mentioning, I experienced my first earthquake ever. The day before, my sister and brother had infomed me that they felt a eatrhquake back home. Nothing major, but they still felt it. They said sumatera suffered a new eartquake. Anyways, I was sitting in my room watching a movie, with my headphones on. Suddenly I felt my chair move. I immediately turned round to expect Iylia shaking my chair. But no one was there, and I remembered the eartquake in Sumatera, and concluded it was an eartquake I was experiencing. I verified it when I immediately buzzed a friend here in the Uni, and he said he felt the tremors too. Good thing, because, I thought I was getting a major headache or something.
So yeah, A brief summary of the last 2 weeks here in Palmy.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, on the 15th of February 2007, Shah Baharuddin has officially touched down at Auckland International Airport. The captain of the flight, gives us the standard info, local time and temperature, which was 21 degrees celcius. In my head, that was quite hot, but then again, it was still summer in New Zealand.
When we got off the plane, we went straight towards immigration, for which already had a long queue. Standing in line, I looked around, and saw a handful of Malaysians queuing up as well. I shared this info with Iylia, who told me, none of them are going to Palmy (short for Palmerston North), which is kind of a good thing as it gives me more reason to mix with students other than Malaysians. So we got pass the immigration officer, who I have to tell you, would not cut it if he was working in another country as an immigration officer, because, he was too polite and nice, all the officers were. I can definitely say, that friendliness really comes naturally to them. Waited at the baggage claim to obviously claim our bags. We needed to be quick, and get to the Domestic terminal, as our flight was only 2 hours away. Got our bags, and went through the "nothing to declare" lane. So far so good.
Got to the domestic flight in time, and checked in our bags again for the trip to palmy. Our aircraft this time was a small airplane, of maybe 25 passengers, but nonetheless, the flight was smooth. The stewerdess didn't look have bad as well.
Arrived in Palmerston North Airport at 5.00 PM. When we entered the airport, our transport was already there. They were Ezim (Iylia's cousin) and Caroline, (Iylia's friend). We got our bags, and got into the car. When we left the airport, I had my own perceptions of what Palmerston North would look like. The three of them, sarcastically implied how boring the place is. To me, Palmy surpassed my expectations. I honestly thought that Palmy was a "pekan Koboi" and there were only 2 places to shop for everything. When they drove me around (yes it was a short drive round) I saw supermarkets, loads of different restaurants, shopping complexes, McDonalds, Burger King.....in short I honestly didn't expect much.
So we arrived in Massey University, which was 5 minutes drive from town. First impression was that I liked it. It felt right to me, the trees and buildings. Alhamdullillah, finally I get to experience a real university campus. We drove on, to the hall I would be staying in. Its called Walter Dyer Hall, which was just up the hill from the main campus. I used the electronic device for releasing the lock on the main door of the Hall for the first time, my thoughts at that point were "Giler Cool Sial !!". I climed the the stairs to the first floor, and searched for my room number. 1.11 was the second last room at the end of the hall. I put the keys in, and unlocked the door. Went in, and there it was. My room for the next year. It was an alright room. It's almost like my room at home, except without attaching toilet, so I was comfortable enough. Dumped the bags, and left for town to get Dinner. After Dinner, went walking a bit, into Downtown, which was what Ezim says the "OU" of Palmy. Hahah. The cinema was there, so definitely a future hangout place. Went to pack n save after that, which was one of the lowest priced supermarkets. Bought bread and nutellla for breakfast. Off to the hall again, and settled in for the night.
