20th June 2007~
My alarm clock rings the bell at 5.45am sharp. Jump out of my bed. Morning call Poh Yee. Rushing my morning ablutions, having my bfast, packing up my luggage, there we go. Around 7am Wyne & I headed towards the bus stop to get bus no.17 to the Railway station.
before departing,waiting bus at the bus stop to the railway station
By the time we reached Platform 9, Elun & Poh Yee already there. Our coach- Newmans Coach Line was also there waiting for us. We checked in our luggage and up to the bus. When the clock strike precise 8 o'clock, the bus begin to move.
on the bus~ ready to go
Along the journey, we stopped quite a few places- Porirua, Paekakariki, Paparaumu, Kapiti to get more passenger. On the way, nice scenery welcomed us along the way. Initially, we have a nice sea view when v passed the coast where there is borderless between the sea and the sky. Next, we came across the peaceful greenery view from the farmland where you could see lotsa sheep & cows. Cute small sheep were seen grazing in the large green field, the cows seems much more different with M'sia cows where they r much more fury and have less spots, the horse were seen to have clothes on them (to stand the coldness in NZ i guess...hehe), beautiful dearie deers were occasional sights as we headed our way. Along the way, bloom of exotic flowers and diverse range of unique tree plants welcoming us as we passed by. The most wonderful part was we grabbed the chance to see the perfect view of the peak of Mt Ruapehu. The peak of the mountain beyond was covered in snow. I could hardly imagine how cold will it be when we going there this evening.
Mt Ruapehu from far, nice view huh?
Besides, we passed by the windmill as well, v were really surprised to see Holand's famous architecture- the windmill in New Zealand...hehe We also passed by a Cookie Time aircraft, sadly dint manage to snap the pic(the bus is moving too fast!)
the windmill~*
Flock of sheep
Around 11am plus, we have a short refreshment break at the Flat Hills. I ordered a chicken satay burger & a Mocaccino for my lunch.
at Flat Hills- having chic satay burger + mocaccino
snapping pic in front of Flat Hills
with the big shoes...keke
Bout 2pm, we reached our destination- Taupo! The bus stopped at the Taupo Bus Terminal. After we discovered that there is only left one bus up to Mt Ruapehu, we quickly hopped into the Intercity Coach via Turangi up to the National Park. The fare wasn't cheap, 59 dollar for one way,yet v got no other choice but to move on...When the bus stopped at Turangi, luckily the kind hearted bus driver informed us to transit to another bus up to the mountain. We got down the bus & went into i-site to reconfirm again bout our further journey details... When i asked the lady whether r v supposed to wait the bus here, she was shocked for one moment & quickly rang the driver to turn his way back. At that moment, we discovered that miss the bus! After 15mins of waiting, finally the bus came bck to us. We were thankful that the driver was kind enough not to scold us, he even sent us straight to Skotel- our accomodation up at Mt Ruapehu. About 1hr ride, we finally reached Skotel. After checking-in & settle the transportation for tmr journey, we logged into our cabin for rest. The cabin was in my satisfactory mode, with 6 clean beds, spacious rooms for 4 of us, equipped with a clean kitchen, tv & heater set, dinning hall, toilets & a balcony for scenery viewing purposes. Not to compare with other grand motels, i think this is a good, comfortable shelter for our stay.
Our room at Skotel- u notice the middle pic shows the unique equipment? its some sort of heater to dry up ur towel..
As the Skotel restaurant is not opened,we walked further down to the grand chateau restaurant for our dinner. It was really a luxury restaurant to accomodate those rich people, we have no other option, but to order expensive meal from the menu. I ordered a western delight food- smoke chicken + salmon salsa + crispy noodles. Though the meal served was abit dry for me, but overall, it was not bad.
Dinner at the Grand Chateau Restaurant
After dinner, ELun treated us a dessert. Wyne & I shared the Plum Pudding added with sweet cream & raisin sauce. Not that special though I will comment. Elun hav a choc topping ice-cream. It looked pretty nice, delicious to eat, yet its not worth it as you could get a few scoop of vanila ice-cream for jz a few dollars whereas it cost lots more than dat jz to hav dat in this grand restaurant.
Delicious ice-cream~ Choc toppings..
our dessert~
After dinner & bath, this is wat we do- self-capturing...wakaka=p
our feet~kekeke
at skotel reception~
