Welcome to this week’s post for Fabulous Journeys! I got great responses from the first part of 100% Pure South Island that I’d like to continue on with Part 2 and showcase the magnificent South Island of New Zealand.

The Road to Queenstown

Queenstown at dawn

For some tourists, a trip to Queenstown is basically either a direct flight from Australia, or a direct flight from any other major city in New Zealand. That is perhaps the quickest way to get to Queenstown, and the flight itself could already show you some great aerial views of the mountains and lakes along the way. What these tourists haven’t realised though is that the road from Christchurch to Queenstown is perhaps one of the most scenic road journeys they’ll ever experience! The lakes, rivers, the mountains, they all make up for a memorable drive to the picturesque town of Queenstown.

The road from Christchurch to Queenstown starts off by going through State Highway 1. This is perhaps not the most exciting part of the journey, but even then, you get to pass by farms and small towns. The towns of Ashburton and Rakaia would be the 2 major towns you’d go through.  Rakaia sits on the southern end of the Rakaia River, a great area for Salmon fishing, and this has given the town the title “Salmon Capital of New Zealand“. The bridge that you’d cross to get into Rakaia is actually the longest bridge in New Zealand, and spans 1.8 kilometres. Just after you would turn off into State Highway(SH) 79, and that’s where the scenic part of the journey begins!

Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd

Along the way on SH79, you’d pass by the towns of Geraldine and Fairlie, and around that area is the Peel Forest. It’s a nice area to go for a walk, and trampers (as hikers are called in New Zealand) have a wide variety of tracks to go walking. Further from Geraldine is a place that I always love to stop at: Lake Tekapo. The township of Lake Tekapo is on the edge of Lake Tekapo itself, along State Highway 8, and is part of the McKenzie Country. This lake is just absolutely gorgeous to look at! It is a glacial-fed lake that radiates a turquoise-blue colour of the water. At one end of the town is the Church of the Good Shepherd, which is an old stone building that has become popular for weddings, as it offers a fantastic view of the lake! On the other side of the town is a hill called Mt. Johns, and on that hill is an observatory where you can do star-gazing and during winter, watch the Aurora Australis (the Southern Lights). It’s a great place to chill out on a nice sunny day and dip your toes on the cool blue waters of the lake!

Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook

Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook

Further down SH8, around 50kms south is another glacial-fed lake called Lake Pukaki. It’s the second biggest of the 3 nearly-parallel lakes in the McKenzie basin. At the end of Lake Pukaki is a hydroelectric power plant that supplies more than half of New Zealand’s power supply. The water on the lake looks very much like Lake Tekapo, very turquoise blue, and is also glacial-fed. The great thing about the view of the SH8 part of the lake is that on a very clear day, you can see Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in Australasia! If you go on a slight diversion from the road to Queenstown, you can get to Mt. Cook village. It’s a tiny village with a hotel (the Hermitage Hotel), and this is a great place to base yourself for any tramping or mountain climbing you may want to do near Mt. Cook. There are a number of glaciers in the area, one of them is the Hooker Glacier, which is just a short walk from the village itself. There is also the Tasman Glacier further afield, if you are interested in going for longer tramps (or hikes).

Twizel and Omarama

Omarama

On the way closer to Queenstown, you will most likely pass by the town of Twizel, Omarama and Cromwell. Twizel is a small town that was purposely built to accommodate the workers who built the Hydroelectric power scheme near Lake Pukaki. As the project finished, the government decided to keep the settlement and turn it into a proper town. It now serves as a service and tourist town, where you can base yourself if you want to do water sports in Lake Ruataniwha, or in winter go skiing in Round Hill and Ohau ski fields. Further south from Twizel is Omarama. Omarama, on the other hand, is a town that has been known for being one of the best spots in New Zealand for gliding. Gliding tours are offered from Omarama airfield, where you can get spectacular views of Mt. Cook, the lakes and the Southern Alps.

Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

As you go along SH8, there will be a turn-off that would lead you to SH8A, which then joins up with SH6. This is the road that leads to Wanaka, another lovely town by the lake that is set to rival Queenstown in terms of its location. Wanaka used to be just a small sleepy town at the edge of Lake Wanaka, but as the property boomed in Queenstown and property prices became exorbitantly high, a lot more people have opted to build their dream holiday homes in Wanaka. The town is a perfect base for skiing during winter, with 2 fantastic ski fields nearby: Treble Cone and Cardrona. Wanaka’s location being beside the lake makes it ideal for those into water sports and fishing. Wanaka offers a very picturesque view with the mountains surrounding the lake, that it is really able to rival Queenstown’s magnificent scenery, less the crowds! The view is so great that Lake Wanaka even got a mention from Tom Cruise at the opening scene of one of the Mission Impossible movies!

Queenstown is next on the agenda, but I will leave this majestic town for my part 3 post. I promise you that it will be more exciting than ever, action-packed, as it is, after all, New Zealand’s adventure capital! I hope you enjoyed this week’s post!

Have a Fabulous Journey ahead!

Welcome to another post for Fabulous Journeys! This week, I’m featuring a country down under. I’m making a series out of this, as this is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been in the world (and had the privilege to live in). Enjoy this Fabulous Journeys post!

Aotearoa – The Land of the Long White Cloud

There is a special place located 42 degrees south of the Equator. It’s comprised of 2 major islands, and it’s often confused to be part of Australia. Its original inhabitants called it “Aotearoa”, which means the “Land of the Long White Cloud”. The locals refer to it as “Godzone”. If this still doesn’t ring a bell, I’m talking about the beautiful country of New Zealand! Many people would have seen the ad campaigns of New Zealand, showcasing the magnificent scenery of snow-capped mountains, turquoise-blue lakes and pristine, glacial-fed rivers. It’s very clean, fresh and peaceful, and for lack of a better word to describe it, the last paradise on Earth!

The New Zealand Attraction

New Zealand holds a very special place in my heart. It’s one of the places on Earth that I have never grown tiredof seeing and I always have great fond memories of the place, the people and the laid-back lifestyle. I cannot work out still how I managed to end up in New Zealand, but I’m so glad I did. One memory I had before I first arrived in New Zealand was when I was in Sri Lanka several years ago. I was in the Singapore Airlines office in Colombo waiting to get my tickets to head back to the Philippines, and while waiting, I saw their brochure of New Zealand. I remember vividly that it had a picture of a bunch of guys whitewater rafting on a wild river, with snowcapped mountains surrounding it. I was awestruck by the picture and thought to myself that this would definitely be one of the place I will visit before I die. Little did I know that 4 years later, I would be given an opportunity to work and live there! Talk about the law of attraction working here!

I lived in New Zealand for a good 5 years. During that time, I spent as much opportunity as I could to explore as much of the country as I can, and I loved it to the point that I became a Kiwi myself 3 years ago! I’ve said enough of what I think of New Zealand, it’s time for me to show you what New Zealand really has to offer to tempt your senses and feast your eyes! For starters, New Zealand is comprised of 2 major land masses: the North Island and the South Island. I thought that having lived in this beautiful country that there is a lot to write about, so I’m putting this out as a series of blogpost on New Zealand. I’ll start this week with where I lived and spent most of my time in New Zealand, Christchurch, the Garden City of New Zealand.

The Garden City

Christchurch has often been referred to as the Garden City of New Zealand. You will notice it with all the beautiful parks around, and the well-manicured lawns along Fendalton Avenue, where you will most likely go past from the airport going into the city centre. Christchurch is also known to be the most English city in New Zealand. This is due to the fact that the city was specifically created as a new settlement by the English who arrived here in search for a new life in the colonies. The city was designed to look like a typical English town, hence you will notice that in the architecture of the old buildings around the city.

Christchurch is currently the second largest city in New Zealand (second-equal to the capital Wellington, though this could be argued by the Wellingtonians), and it has the second biggest airport in the country. Most people who go to New Zealand would usually have passed by Christchurch if they are on their way to Queenstown. However, most people bypass Christchurch and just proceed to other parts of the South Island. Christchurch has its own attractions and deserves to be seen. As an ex-local, I have explored a few sights that are totally worth visiting in Christchurch. Here is a list of these wonderful attractions:

1.) Christ Church Cathedral – this cathedral is the focal point of the city, and the Cathedral Square, where it is actually located. This cathedral is of a gothic style, and took a few years to complete. It’s one of the best cathedrals in New Zealand in terms of its type of architecture. On Cathedral Square, people hang around and there is an area where they play this huge chess pieces, and anyone can have a go at them. You can play with anyone you want. They also have an open market in the square every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, where you can buy local, handmade New Zealand products and souvenirs . Most of the vendors at this small open market moved to the Arts Centre weekend market for the weekend, so if you miss them at this location, look out for the Arts Centre on weekend.

2.) Arts Centre – this is the old University of Canterbury campus that is now transformed into a gallery of shops and artist galleries. The building is of gothic design as well, much like the Christ Church cathedral. As mentioned earlier, there is a weekend market that happens here, and you find the best souvenirs here, from jade (pounamu) to wool products to homemade beauty products made of local natural ingredients.

3.) River Avon, Botanical Gardens and Hagley Park – this is a great place for a stroll, especially during Spring or Autumn, when you see the different colours come alive! In Spring, you will find lots of cherry blossoms in full bloom along Hagley Park and in the botanic gardens. In autumn, on the other hand, you will find the change in the colour of the leaves, which is really stunning! Both the Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park are right beside each other. The River avon cuts through the middle of both of them, and you can do “punting” on the Avon, which is basically like cruising on a gondola in Venice.

4.) Sign of the Takahe – This is another old gothic building that sits on top of the Port Hills, in the suburb of Cashmere. You get great views of the city and the Southern Alps on the other end. On a nice winter’s day, you get to see the city with the snowcapped Alps in the backdrop, one of those picture-perfect shots of the city! You can hold a function at the Sign of the Takahe, and they serve great food there!

5.) Lyttelton and the Christchurch Gondola - Lyttelton is a harbour town that is technically outside the Christchurch city boundaries, but is very close to the city. It’s only a 20 minute drive from the city. This is where the first settlers from England docked in Christchurch in the 1850s. It is now the port area for Christchurch, and from time to time, you get cruise ships arriving here. The town itself is quite charming, as its location is on the slopes of the Port Hills looking out to the Lyttelton Harbour. There are nice cool cafes and shops around that’s worth checking out, and if you happen to be Filipino, the only Filipino restaurant in Christchurch is just right there. On the harbour, you can also go for a dolphin watching cruise. You can have a great view of Lyttelton and Christchurch City by taking the Christchurch Gondola. The gondola is basically a cable car that will take you up to the top of an observation deck where you can have coffee or a meal with a view. There is a restaurant at the top that you can check out

6.) Sumner – This nice seaside suburb is a great place to chill out on a nice hot day. The beach here is nice, and the weather is generally slightly warmer than the city because of its sheltered location. It’s only a 15 minute drive from the city, and the suburb has a lot of nice houses around. It’s one of the more upmarket suburbs of Christchurch. I used to go there on weekends just to stroll on the beach and have ice cream on a nice clear and warm day! =)

Around Christchurch – Canterbury Region

7.) Waipara – Further afield from Christchurch, a 45-minute drive up north on State Highway 1 will take you to the wine-growing region of Waipara. There are more than a dozen wineries in the area, and they are known to produce a good Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. This is a fantastic place to go if you love your wine (like I do), and you can have a nice lunch in the many wineries around. The most famous wineries are Pegasus Bay (personally my favourite), Canterbury House, and Waipara Springs. Every March, the region holds a Waipara Wine and Food festival, which showcases the region’s many produce aside from wine, though wine is clearly the highlight!

8.) Akaroa - A little bit southeast of Christchurch is an area called Banks Peninsula. This area is quite hilly and offers some beautiful coastal villages. The biggest town in the area, and a big drawcard for tourists, is Akaroa. This town is a 90-minute drive from Christchurch, and is known for its rather French character and heritage. The French nearly colonised New Zealand in the 1840s, but the British managed to beat them by a day. There was a boatload of settlers from France who wanted to settle the Akaroa region, and when they found to their disappointment that the British beat them to it, some of them still settled here and put in their French character throughout the town. You’d find the street names are in French, and is the only town with a French character in the entire country.

9.) Hanmer Springs – This small town in the Hurunui district is a 2-hour drive from Christchurch, but it is a popular weekend destination amongst people from Christchurch and surrounding areas. The main attraction here is the thermal pools. These are natural pools that used to be just a hole in the ground in the 1890s, but eventually got developed into more like a resort complex. The water is still taken from the ground and distributed to the pools. There are different pools of different temperatures and nature, so kids can play as well as the adults. Around town, there are a number of great mountain biking tracks that you can explore, and walks up the nearby mountain range. It has an alpine feel to the town, and definitely a great winter getaway if you feel like staying in a log cabin. This is one of my favourite weekend getaways from Christchurch, and what my friends and I do is hire one of the holiday homes for the weekend, and just chill out on the thermal pools or go running up the beautiful mountains around!

10.) Kaikoura – This town is 2.5 hours away from Christchurch and offers a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean and the Kaikoura Ranges. The town’s name is comprised of 2 Maori words: “Kai” meaning Eat and “Koura” meaning Crayfish. Kaikoura has an abundance of crayfish on its shores, and you can see some stalls on the roadside selling these cooked crayfish that are just so good! This town is also known for its whale watching. Sperm whales tend to hang around near the deep trenches just a few kilometres from Kaikoura’s shores, which makes the area so unique in that whales can be found close enough from the shores. There is also a winery just as you enter the township of Kaikoura called Kaikoura Wine Company, and their location is absolutely wonderful! It is on a hill facing the ocean, which makes for a gorgeous view.

11.) Mt. Hutt – If you’re into skiing or snowboarding, then you have to check this field out. Mt. Hutt is one of the closest ski fields in Christchurch, and one of the best in the region. It has great facilities for beginners, intermediate, and advanced skiers. It’s only a 90-minute drive from Christchurch and has a reasonably good access road up to the ski field itself. This is one of my favourite ski fields in New Zealand and highly recommended when you’re in Christchurch during winter.

These are only some of the attractions in and around Christchurch. There are a few more which I haven’t covered, but I’ve only highlighted the ones that are really not to be missed. I hope this has given a great light to Christchurch, which is usually overlooked by visitors to the South Island, and only used as a gateway. There is more to it than you think.

I’ll have more posts coming up on other parts of the South Island of New Zealand, so watch out for it!

Til then, have a Fabulous Journey!

Kelvin Lim

Welcome to my new location for Fabulous Journeys! It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted a travel story, so I thought I best write something as my first post for the new home of my Fabulous Journeys blog! For those of you who have followed my original Fabulous Journeys blog (http://kelvin.uwcblog.com), thank you for your support and comments, and I hope you will continue to follow on this new address.

Inspiration Behind This Post

On the plane from the Gold Coast today, I caught a glimpse at one of the papers, and it had an article about a bomb that blew off at a Muslim celebration in Sri Lanka. The picture was bone-chilling, as it was taken just as the bomb blew off, and you see the explosion seconds after getting triggered, just starting to come out behind a group of guys on a procession. I could just imagine that those people would be either seriously injured or dead by now. Then, I recalled that I saw this same terrifying photo of the bomb blowing off on the social bookmarking site  DIGG last night.

This inspired me to write a post about the war-torn island in the Indian Ocean. It is not the best source of inspiration, but I love to help the people of Sri Lanka. I had the privilege of visiting Sri Lanka in the late 90s to early 2000s through my work as an IT Consultant for a government-owned bank. Along the way, I have met a few local friends in Sri Lanka and heard their stories about this civil war and the division in their country. I have seen what horrors this civil war between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sinhalese-dominated government has caused, and how much this has affected the everyday Sri Lankans. This war has been waging since the 1980s, and yet, the world has stopped paying attention to this and put this to an end. Nearly as much lives have been lost in this war as those in the Middle East, yet people have forgotten to help this beautiful nation to live in peace and harmony. My hope is that this will raise awareness to people around the world and something will be done to end this war.

How I Ended Up Visiting Sri Lanka

Let me share my story of how I perceived Sri Lanka to be at the start, but please read on, as this post is meant to introduce you to the wonderful island of serendipity. Years ago, I started out my career working for a multinational IT Consulting firm back in the Philippines where we were servicing the Asia-Pacific region. One of their clients happen to be a government-owned bank in Sri Lanka, and this happens to be the very first assignment I had for my very first job. I was fresh out of university, and wasn’t so exposed to the rest of the world. I didn’t know what to expect from a country like Sri Lanka.

I’ve heard stories from my other colleagues who have been there, and all they can tell me was that a civil war is being fought, and a few of our colleagues experienced first hand a bomb attack by the Tamil Tigers, which they were extremely lucky to have survived! They survived a bomb attack from the Central Bank building which was the neighbouring building of the hotel. The explosion was so great that it shattered all the glass windows of the hotel and our client’s building. Luckily for my colleagues, they were in their rooms that time, and they had the drapes closed. The drapes saved them from the sharp shreds of glass which could have caused injuries or worse, stab them to death!

This naturally frightened me, having just finished university and starting out my career. I thought to myself, I didn’t want to die this soon, and I really don’t know if my life is worth the risk of building a career in IT with this firm! Anyway, I eventually mustered the guts and took on the trip as an adventure.

My First Impressions

I landed in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, in the evening and I can still remember the airport. There were so many military personnel around, and before we were allowed to exit the building, our bags had to be re-xrayed even if it has already been xrayed at Customs. They had lots of sniffer dogs looking for traces of explosives. Along the way to the hotel, we passed by 3 military checkpoints with guards carrying big machine guns on sandbag barracks. It really looked like a scene from those Vietnam war movies! It was so surreal, and what we noticed was, if a car was full of dark-skinned Sri Lankans which may look like Tamils, they were all asked to step out of the car and the car was heavily inspected by the military! Since I look too foreign for them, they didn’t bother checking our car out thoroughly apart from the boot.

The next day, it was my first day to the client site. I was accompanied by my colleagues who have been to the client before. On our way to the office, I had to go through a military checkpoint. The road in front of the client’s office has been blocked off by a military checkpoint for fears that the bank will become the next target of the rebels. When we got to the client’s office, I was frisked by the guards and my bags were inspected for any suspicious items. I then went to the floor where our team was supposed to be based, I was shocked by what I saw. The building looked like it has just been bombed yesterday! The ceiling was not fixed, and the lighting fixtures and wires were dangling from the ceiling! It didn’t give me a good impression at all.

The True Gem of the Indian Ocean

As my stay went on, I began to appreciate the warmth of the Sri Lankans, their peaceful nature (ironically, despite the war), and the beauty of this teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean. On my free days, I started to slowly explore the city of Colombo and the nearby towns and cities. In Colombo, I used to walk along Galle Road, which is the strip of road along the Indian Ocean coast. I used to enjoy watching the boys play cricket on a grassy patch just beside the road. You can watch fabulous sunsets along this strip of road, and it’s perhaps one of the best spots for watching  sunset in the world! It is also where you’ll find the Galle Face Hotel, an old 19th century hotel known to be a favourite hangout of Sir Arthur Clarke, a British sci-fi author who has made Sri Lanka his home.

One of the things I learned is that Sri Lanka mines a lot of gemstones. Precious stones like Sapphire, Ruby, Turquoise, Aquamarine, are mostly mined in this island. Great bargains can be found in the various gem shops around Colombo, and one of our project managers became a regular customer to a few of these gem shops/jeweller. My colleagues and I used to get treated like royalty when we go along with that project manager!

Tea, anyone?

Sri Lanka is known around the world for its tea. Sri Lanka used to be called Ceylon, back in the British colonial times, and Ceylon Tea is very well-known worldwide. In Australia, the most common one is the Dilmah Ceylon tea, but in Sri Lanka, there are a lot more varieties and brands of tea to choose from! One specific brand that I really like is the Mlesna Tea. They offer a great range of exquisite tea with various different flavours and varieties, plus the packaging of their tea is also superb! They have a number of Mlesna stores around Colombo and around Sri Lanka, and the ones I used to go to were below the Hilton Hotel and the Crescat Boulevard shopping mall.

While in Sri Lanka, a tour of a tea plantation is one that should be on the must-do list, especially for the avid tea drinkers. There are a number of tea plantations in the highlands of Sri Lanka, but the area with the most concentration is in Nuwara Eliya (pronounced as Nu-wa-rel-ya)region. I visited the Labookelie Tea factory, where a local woman did a tour of the plantation and the factory. She explained to us the different types of tea leaves. At the end of the tour, the group was given some tea to sample.

A trip to the Sri Lankan Highlands

Before I visited Nuwara Eliya, I started the journey with a stop at an elephant orphanage in Pinnewala. I got to see how orphaned elephants are kept and fed and bathed by the river. The baby elephants are fed using a bottle, much like human babies are, and the adult ones are given bananas and leaves to chew. The river bathing part was very interesting because the caretakers take the elephant to the nearby river and individually sends a command to dunk themselves into the water like this photo on the left. Some of the elephants are quite cheeky and playful and could splash the people watching them with some water using its snout.

The next stop was the city of Kandy. It’s the second biggest city in Sri Lanka, and it holds one of the most sacred relics in Buddhist religion, the tooth of Buddha. This is being held in the Temple of the Holy Tooth. The tooth is kept in an enclosed area not open for public viewing, but once a year (usually in August), the locals have a celebration called Esala Perahera, where the monks take out the holy tooth from the concealed location and parade it on the streets for people to see and revere. This is one of the tourist spots of Sri Lanka, and the temple itself is in a gorgeous location beside a lake.

On the way back to Colombo, I spent the day exploring and walking around the Horton Plains National Park. Part of the National Park is this area called World’s End, where there is a 5,000 ft sheer cliff face that makes for a spectacular highland scenery. This national park has a number of walking tracks, and a few magnificent waterfalls to explore and look at. This is very much worth visiting.

Sri Lanka has a couple more national parks, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to explore them. I’ll save it for the next visit! There are still other very fascinating religious and historical sites like the Sigiriya Rock fortress and frescoes, the Anuradhapura temple and the city of Polonnaruwa that I would love to visit, but I’m sure I’ll be back to see it.

At the end of the day, Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, rich in history and culture, and of course, natural beauty. Though the war was waging, it wasn’t enough to drive tourists and visitors away, and the fact of the matter is, the civil war has not involved intense fighting in all areas of the country. There are a number of safe regions for tourist to visit, but before you do, check out your government’s travel warning and heed their advice on the situation. For Australians, check out smartraveller.gov.au for more information before visiting or planning a trip.

Til the next Fabulous Journey!

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