I could say this a million, billion times:
I MISS NZ!
I miss everyone who went on the trip with us, the sights, the weather, the whole atmosphere. I can say that this is one of the best trips i've had so far! It's like experiencing so many things at once, a strange feeling but you want it to last.
Ok, so i really should get on to blogging a day-to-day recount of the trip..
Day 0
We met at the airport at around 6pm to catch the 9pm flight. Dad and SM sent me there. We gathered, and the whole group of us, both parents and students were like all in sort of a mess. There were 4 NY teachers with us, Mrs Sandy Tan, Ms Tan Yew Ling, Mr David Han and Mr Mark Shone. 2 guys from the Travelations Agency also followed us, Addison and Jacob! They're like PE teachers and OBS instructors or something like that.. Addi is cute can! >< But nevermind, we got our passports, electronic tickets and headed for the checkin counter. Oh yes, and my group(5) consisted of me, BOJIA, PINGHUI, IRIS, SHENYANG, JINFAYE, SHIYU, JOLEEN, MELVIS & JACEY! yay! =X After all that we had some time to ourselves and went for dinner. Met back at the departure hall at around 8pm and then boarded the plane. I was sitting at the aisle seat beside Nicolea, Vernice and Christabel on the other end. The plane took so long to have it's entertainment system turned on! Had to wait for close to half an hour.. well in the mean time, we played cards, hah! as usually, the favourtite way to kill time. =X I watched Stardust on the plane! (the song at the end is now stuck in my head!) and something else...i forgot >< so anw, we had a 9+hr flight and arrived in Aukland the next morning..
Day 1
We landed at about 11. Went through the customs and everything.. Huifang's bag got like checked twice! wahahaha. lol, so ok once we were all ready we took a short walk from the airport to the coach parking area. The first time we breathed NewZealand Air! The temperature was just perfect, it was sunny, yet breezy and cosy! Really like natural aircon =D oh yea, and we say this BIGBIG banner that was advertising "DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONING" so ironic right! it's like there's natural aircon everywhere already and you need "DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONING" so funny can! >< Ok so ya, we took another long 6hr journey to OPC, which is in the middle of Tongariro National Park. We also stopped at Huka Falls and took in the beautiful sites there! We also had another stop closer to Rotorua where we had a toilet break and some icecream, hah! We stopped a third time at Turangi, known to be the fishing town of NZ or something like that. Everyone's favourite sport there was catching trout! the town was on one side of this lake called Lake Taupo. It's the biggest lake in NZ i think and it could fit the whole Singapore inside of it! Not that the lake that that that huge, ok la quite huge, but probably because SG is so small...lol! yep, so the coach drove around the lake and into Tongariro National Park and then to the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre! We reached at about 5+, settled into our chalets, we had Mr Shone as our tchr in charge! =X yepp then went to this place called 'Youth Development Centre (YDC)" to gather and have dinner. Another 2 groups of 10 ppl came, they were from KCPS..mixed school, and the guys are like irritating -.- So we were introduced to our instructor! ROB! and all the others.. over there it does get quite cold at night! and the worst thing was the GREEN MOTH INFESTATION! these little crawlies only come out in a certain season of the year and if you leave your door open with the lights on, they get in! bleah, our whole toilet got littered with those irking bugs.. T.T I dont rmb if it was the 2nd or first night, Mrs Tan purposely wanted to scare us and deposited a green moth in our chalet room! grrr. some ppl were like totally freaking out la! quite funny >< i think shenyang's got a picture of them huddling on the bed freaking out at the sight of that green moth..
Day 2
We had on-site activities! Learnt a tit-tat about navigation, orientation, safety stuff yadayada. Rented some gear from the gear shop thermal, fleece, parka, overtrou,and boots, then we went for a BUSHWALK! NewZealand special, so they say.. I honestly thought it could be rephrased as Mudwalk! Well it was drizzling slightly so yea, kinda muddy everywhere. We walked around a swamp also can! then my foot got like kinda stuck in that iky mud T.T (that's not the worse!) ok, so after that muddy bushwalk, we did some teambuilding activities! one of them was to make a perfect square with a piece of rope as a team but with blindfolds on! chao nan can! our first try was actually not bad, but second one was so sucky can! but it was real fun! that day Mr Shone and Addi followed us, and they took picture without us knowing can! I only realised when i saw them.. hmm.. ok, so that day ended early, yep.. bathing was a big problem! the water was either bloody cold or freaking hot (did i mention before?) bathe until so xin ku.. -.- plus there were only 2 bathing cubicles in our toilets so we had to chiong.. there were some activites after dinner and basically we were given this situation and we're supposed to make a stretcher with limited material, a piece of string and the foam mat. quite fun, i thought we had won! but in the end didnt..lol! we slept in the loft of the chalet room that night! there's this window on the slanted ceiling and we could watch the stars from there! but that night was cloudy, so not that many.. well, me, joleen, and melvis slept up there that night in our sleeping bags! Melvis is cute can! she didnt allow us to sleep until she won a game of tai ti all by herself! funny la, but she did win anw, so we got to sleep ><
Day 3
oh yea, in OPC, there's this duty thing where groups take turn to do dinner and breakfast duty. We only had to do breakfast duty once, hah, so lucky >< oh yes, i didnt mention, our lunch, was self made sandwhiches! everyday in that 5 days 2 diff ppl would make sandwhiches for the whole group =D I made it on the 3rd day! =P ok, so it was 'Water Day' for us on that day. So we went CAVING! SO COOL I TELL YOU! Mrs Tan went with us today. She was being sick la! But super duper funny. It's like our instructor said if his butt could fit thru the gap, we would all be able to go through, and she went like, 'my breast!' we were like so OMG la.. she's hilarious, but nice >< CAVING IS FUN!! we went to the Pumice Caves, basically eroded gigantic pumice rocks which came from the eruptions of mount er.. Tongariro i think, and some other mountains.. yep, they had names for different areas of the cave! like master bed room, main room...something like that. there was one part in the cave where we had to cross this stream, basically the cave is made by water so somehow there will be water.. plus it's damp inside. the water is SO COLD i tell you! but super shuang >< It's clean water too! =P oh yea, we saw GLOWWORMS! and did you know, glowworms GLOW because of the chemical reaction of their excretory products! lol! hmm, in the cave it's pitch-dark! abit scary sometimes, and luckily we had helmets on cos we kept bumping our heads on the ceiling.. yep. Rob is mad, according to clara he belongs to the 'SAC' which stands for the Self Amusement Club.. he's totally like crazy! his favourite joke is the knock knock thing, he goes like "knock, knock", "who's there?", "you!", "you-who", "YOOHOO! WE'RE CAVING!" or something like that! he probably said it 10times so far.. talking about clara..she is OBSSESSED with her own instructor! Her instructor's called Ben White, and quite good looking, she totally went crazy! She's even got this teddy bear named BenWhite and she's dreamt of him 3times so far already..crazy clara, see aliteration! Clara is such a stalker, she kept taking so many pics of ben..and talks none stop about him -.- ok this is getting off point, hmm ANW so after caving, we went ABSEILING! so cool can! =X we had to find our way up to the abseil site ourselves! nearly went the wrong way.. i tell you one funny thing that happened! Joleen flipped over! like really upside down in the air, while abseiling down! it was quite funny, cos all of us who hadent went down yet were like, lagging totally la, then we were watching her as she slowly tilted backwards, eyes widening and suddenly her boots were sticking out in the air then we went 'OMG JOLEEEEENNN'! super lag i tell you! but she didnt scream or seem to panic, cool huh. Mrs Tan was like, "Hows the scenery", "hmm, actually very nice!" she's cute la she..ok, so after abseiling down, we still had to find our way out of this wierd forest we were in.. we were practically swinging from tree to tree, and we didnt even walk on the path! we kinda went off the path but got out anw.. that day, we were late for dinner! so we didnt get to bathe before eating, so we decided to CHIONG through our dinner and rush off the bathe. we probably took like 5 mins down all our food, clear the table and stack the chairs back, so pro right! i think everyone in the dining area were like staring at us lor, so funny can. Jacob was sitting with us at first, but i think he got totally freaked out watching us eat until like that >< yep =) there was a presentation that evening, about this crazy rock climber who did alot of extreme rock climbing and cliff hanging and all that.. i think he's not only abit sot diao but very very sot diao. -.- ok random..
Day 4
WE WENT MOUNTAINEERING! ok, something like mountaineering and rock climbing at the same time, haha, Mr Shone, Jacob and another guy called Carrie was with us, other than Rob. we climbed mount Ruapehu! 2nd tallest mountain in NZ! we didnt climb all the way to the summit, but we did climb to one of the peaks, probably about 2+km in vertical height. SO PRO CAN! =X plus, if the distance we travelled would have been like almost 5+km! haha. but it was one of my favourite activities in this whole trip! it's like i got to experience this sense of achievement that feels so different from getting full marks for a test. I LOVE IT! The first part of the ascend was just small rocks, gravel, soil, not many big rocks at first. then we encountered small patches of snow! Rob was teaching us to 'PENETRATE' the snow! basically kicking deep into the snow suck that you make like a step such that you dont slip. yep. then as we went higher, there was this valley so we were supposed to follow the valley then to this pinnacle ridge. it started to get really really rocky, but fun! so climb climb climb...we got to the ridge, the view was GREAT! you look to the left, you see mount Nagahoe, not sure if it's the correct spelling though, basically the LOTR Mount Doom! a beautiful cone shaped mountain! =)the other side was lake Taupo in the far far distance! you could see, green, blue, orange, so many shades of colours up there! so we climbed up up the ridge and met up with another group! Another instructor, Mrs Tan Addi was with them. Rob is funny can! He was like saying, we must beat them! climb higher up and faster than them! So we were to walk past them and say 'HI', then say 'BYE' or something like 'I would very much want to stay but well, I'm on an important mission! so BYE!' So funny can! there was snow there already, so they were attacking us with snowballs! grr, then we marched past them and to higher grounds, then attacked them back, wahahaha! so fun can. but nvrm, we continued on our MISSION! and went even higher, till it was just SNOW PLAINS! like totally snow everywhere! but we didnt quite stop yet, till we reached the peak! we were racing in the snow and panting so hard because the air was so thin, but it's just pure fun i tell you! at the peak, we made a snowman (or sort of one) and had a snowball fight! we also took a photo of the 'destruction of the snowman' iris kicked the head off and we totally smashed the body, wahahaha how evil >< during the snowball fight snow like went into my shirt, but i didnt feel cold, hmm. instead like very shuang de gan jue. hahaha. though my hands are like permanently frozen, feet got kinda frozen too! anw Rob then taught us how to butt slide! like just run down the slope and sit, then use the iceaxe to brake! and the purpose of the iceaxe right, is to LOOK COOL! and look like a PRO MOUNTAINEER! Rob is funny can! ok, so that night, i think everyone slept really well =) it's really hard to describe how it was like up there in the snow, on the rocks! but well, hope you can at least feel that little bit of it =D ohoh, and on that day, we had to do 'duties' so basically our group was incharge of sweeping up the varanda and the volleyball court(yes there was one) and how wonderfully, the whole place was just FULL OF GREEN MOTHS! quite gross, but we still had to sweep them away. and the veranda is made of wood with gaps in between the planks..the gaps are just wide enough for those moths to get in but not be able to crawl out. so while sweeping the moths, they inevitably get stuck there! and they're not dead either so it's like so gross and while we try to get them out and sweep them away with the brush, either the body gets squash, wings get torn off..bleah it's just super gross. like some fen si an jian lor. all those who swept those moths are guilty! so others inside the building were like staring at us in horror and totally screaming when a moth got stuck or head got squashed.. i felt very cruel trying to get rid of them, but oh well that's our duty! and as a consolation Mr Han kept reminding us that these bugs only live for 24hrs then die..so we aren't that evil after all =X
Day 5
OVERNIGHT EXPEDITION! YEA! that day, Mr Shone and Addi went with us too! and before canoeing..we had to pack up the chalet, clean the toilet, pack our luggages so we can leave straight away after the overnight expedition yep. so as clara mentioned, Rob was holding this newspaper rolled into a bat. and went round hitting ppl! -.- like i was halfway cleaning the toilet he came in and ask why this whole place had become a swamp! cos we splashed water everywhere and there was only 1 draining outlet.. so e started hitting people, wahlao. he was like whack! ouch! dont hit me! ok i wont hit you. whack! he's mad de lor! a second ago he'll say he dont hit you, then the next minute he will.. and i guess clara was a victim too. she was strolling peacefully..when Rob came up behind her and whacked her, then he said hi! i think clara was prob kinda freaked, so she walked faster, then he whacked her again, and said hi, he did it one more time, then clara was like, oh hi! bet she's lagging too..wahahaha. ya, so you see Rob belongs to the SAC. ahem, ok back to the trip... because Shiyu and Melvis had injuries sustained on their knees, we decided to do less hiking, and did CANADIAN CANOEING! 2 ppl to 1 canoe! you know, THE CANOES ARE SO FREAKING HEAVY! took like 8-9 ppl to carry one! well so we went to this lake (i dont know the name of it ><) and we canoed to this island on the lake! CANOEING is tiring! but fun!! (almost everything is =X) yepp, we could see like the mossy bed of the river, little fishes here and there, but not that many cos they were all gone once we came.. so, we canoed to the camp site! parked our canoes in this tiny, sandy, bay and headed to the campsite, which was about 10steps away, haha. the camp site is really nice! not wet and muddy! haha. and it was like this cleared area with small bushes around, really nice. we set up our tents..and had to do like 15presups(pushups in other words) cos we requested for 3 clues to set up the tents! yepp, we were done and then cooked dinner which was er.. like taco? i forgot haha.. so after that nothing to do i decided to emo by the lakeside there, the scenery is so amazing, really. the lake water was really SPARKLING under the rays of the setting sun! the sky was streaked with different shades of orange and blue! and in the distance, we could see the mountains where the other groups had went to camp, it was cloudy, probably raining too, lucky we made a good choice to canoe! =P yea, the whole place was so lang man can! (shenyang reminded me to blog this: hah, toilet! it was so funny cause the whole pack of us marched off to some bush in search of somewhere to pee, i went further away from them though cause i was later. and the rest were like screaming and talking sososo loudly even the tchrs at the campsite could hear! and i suppose rob said it was the first time in OPC histoy any group has done that, aha. we made history! =X then went back to the campsite, we were trying to ask them if they heard anything they said, cause obviously it was quite embarrassing..then they just stoned there, they must have heard! wahahaha.) =D around 8 it started to get totally pitched dark already, and the stars came out to play! it was an almost cloudless night! the sky was really DOTTED WITH STARS! the kind of illustrations you see on books of starry skies, it really did look like that! it's a sight you can never see in places like SG! oh yea, we set a fire, yep, then sat around the campfire and just talked, ranted about school and teachers, in front of a teacher(pro right), played abit of truth or double truth. haha yepp, Rob was also telling us about the stars and all.. i thought i saw a shooting star! but didnt really see it, i dont know, haha. i think shenyang saw like 4 or 5! she was star gazing, and we just decided to go to sleep ><
Day 6
morning! Rob came to wake us up, he was talking and talking i thought he was singing some song la! so funny like dunno what, "the sky is clear, the sun is up, the day is young" blah blah blah... yea, i crawled up real fast! and felt quite awake =D we had maggie noddles for breakfast! lol! i always thought NZ wouldn't have maggie mee..hmm. yep, so we packed up and headed back to our canoes to canoe back to the van where we started and then back to OPC. we were up the current and wind! very very tiring, phew. after getting back to OPC, we had to wash the canoes in salt water to make sure there's no contamination of this fungus called Dydimo i think..yea, it poses as a serious threat to NZ cos it grows on the beds of rivers and then the fishes cant feed then there's a whole chain reaction and NZ is very much dependent on these rivers.. yep. so then we went off to do the flying fox! haha didnt think it was that thrilling la..haha. then Mr Shone and Addi did also, i tell you, they're SO HEAVY! so hard to pull them back up! lol! but the view on the flying fox was really nice anw =) so after than we continued hiking about to our campsite for that day. the slopes were quite steep! and bogey! bleah, i got stuck in almost knee deep mud can! bleah. i could pull 1 leg out, but my other leg was stuck can! our instructor had to pull me up in the end.. bleah, luckily we were going to cross a stream after that, could wash off most of the mud =D but anw the lower half of my pants was like thoroughly soaked! my socks were like super dirty can! bleah. ok so anw, hike hike hike, super tiring can! we were like in this jungle climbing from tree to tree lor! bet we uprooted quite alot of shoots too! oops..yepp, so we like camped in the middle of a coniferous forest can! and my hands like had so many scratches! but didnt bleed too much.. that night we didnt have much of a campfire T.T not enough dry firewood, but oh well, got a little bit on burning.. then i burnt my hairband in a fire can! cos i untied my hair then put the hairband around my wrist, i was fanning the fire then all of a sudden, eh, where's my hairband? i saw it burning away in the fire! tai pro le lor.. so no more hairband le -.- funny can! ok, so now no hairband, and didnt get to wash hair the day before, i was like combing my hair then someone told me to put it infront of my face i turned around then they totally freaked out can! and they were like, gogogo and scare the guys! they didnt dare look at me can! then i turn around, they were like, errr, stoned there.. LOL! ok then, went to sleep, with damp pants T.T, not that many stars that night, cos there were alot of tall trees.. that was the last night being at OPC.. so sad..
THIS IS TIRING! shall continue another day! =X
-nat* on 12:32:00 PM