12 things to do in New Zealand

This post is way overdue 5 months! So here's what I love about New Zealand! Maybe you can enjoy it visually :) All photos are taken by either my Canon 650D or my Lumix GX1.

#1: Best Ugly Bagels in Auckland
They taste quite awesome, I mean how can such simple looking thing make my morning taste so good! Top it up with a bottle of Charlie, best morning perk me up!

Opening hours 7am - 3pm
CITY WORKs DEPOT
CNR WELLESLEY & NELSON ST
AUCKLAND, NZ
www.bestugly.co.nz

#2: Hobbiton™ Movie Set  in Matamata

I always thought they are a small set, oh I'm so wrong! They are life sized! At least I can fit in that door! They have people maintaining this set regularly! And after that we went to watch The Hobbit! Such a picture worthy place! A must go!

They have different timings for the tour, so do check! I would recommend you to go for the earliest session so at least there's no tourist ahead of you when you try to take the overview photo of the place. It's quite annoying.

501 Buckland Rd

Hinuera

Matamata 3472

New Zealand

www.hobbitontours.com

#3: Agrodome in Matamata
I have been waiting for this day for quite awhile!!! TO GRAB SOME LAMB MEHHHHHHHH... and was super happy when I finally get to touch them! Just look at the joy on my face! Poor lamb.. it looked dead. Prob tired after many attempts of me trying to catch it.

141 Western Road, Ngongotaha
PO Box 634, Rotorua, New Zealand
www.agrodome.co.nz

#4: Wai-O-Tapu in Rotorua
If you have been to Iceland, I would recommend you not to go for this. Can't be compared to the geyser there. But if you haven't been to Iceland, this is prob the next best thing nearby? I don't really enjoy this place. I felt like I've been cheated to pay for something which is supposed to be free. I didn't pay a single cent to see the one in Iceland so yea that's why I'm abit not too sure about this.

201 Waiotapu Loop Road
RD 3, Rotorua 3073
waiotapu.co.nz

#5: Queenstown
I think this is the most relaxing and beautiful place in New Zealand! If I had known, I prob spend most of my time here.

#6: Doubtful Sound
I did an overnight cruise for this place, as its quite big and there's activities you could do in between the cruise like kayaking which my husband and David did. Beautiful scenery, there's dolphins, seals and some random birds.

www.realjourneys.co.nz/en/destinations/doubtful-sound

#7: Milford Sound
After Doubtful Sound, we thought maybe we go to this place to just have a quick look and a few snaps to kind of check out the place. I feel it's quite similar, mountains, sky, waters after awhile they start to look the same to me.

www.milford-sound.co.nz

#8: Salmon Fishing
Well the boys have been trying to fish near the Salmon farms and they just didn't catch anything the whole trip. So we happen to drive past this place and wanting to grab some sashimi! Boy I manage to have my first catch and have our meal serve sashimi style! But the chef doesn't seem to know how to cut sashimi salmon, I had like fish bones in my sashimi and its not those melt in your mouth type, its those chewy type. I would recommend if you know how to cut, do it yourself.

230 McCallum Road,
Takaka, Golden Bay,
 South Island, New Zealand

www.anatokisalmon.co.nz

#9: Picnic
Next best thing to do other than fishing, or driving around. ITS PICNIC! Look at the pretty mat we got from the stores! The weather is good, while the boys are getting their hooks stuck in the waters. We are busy stuffing food in our mouth and escaping the bees that are flying around us. And yes BEES for some strange reason, we been killing lots of them during the trip. Most of them just get "knocked down" by the car.

#10: Lake Tekapo
Its quite well know for the stars in Lake Tekapo, the skies are pretty clear at night, and there's not much lights from the town. It's quite a small little town. And we decided to give ourselves a little nice treat to have a good night rest! This place is really nice. And at night you can go out to the church and take photos of the stars!

Peppers Bluewater Resort
State Highway 8 , Lake Tekapo, 7945
South Island, New Zealand
www.peppersbluewater.co.nz

#11: Alpaca Farm in Te Anau

I didn't had enough of the farm animals in Matamata so I wanted to see more! So we chanced upon this little alpaca farm which also sells honey. Well I also did ask how much does she sells her alpaca thinking that I can keep one as a pet. I can't remember the exact amount but I think its like 300 NZD?

Honeyfields Alpacas 

15 William Stephen Road 

R D 1 Te Anau New Zealand

www.honeyfields.co.nz

#12: Seal Colony in Kaikoura
If you want to get up close to seals, definitely stop by Kaikoura to check out the seal colony! We walked there from carpark, took us about 30mins. There were at least 10 fur seals just lying by the water, perfectly poised for pictures.They sit quite close to where people walk, one of them even slept all the way in. Don't forget to check the water while you're there, when we went it's quite low tide, so we were able to walk very far out into the "sea" area. This is free!!!!

State Highway 1,
Ohau Point, Kaikoura,
New Zealand

Well even though I would say Iceland is much better but.. New Zealand did leave me with a lot of pretty photos of really blue skies which I didn't get in Iceland (went during winter) and blue water! It's really amazing.

And the reason why I also agreed on going to New Zealand was because during my trip to Iceland, the season that I went, they killed all the sheep for the year and left them to roam in the mountains =.= So I didn't really get to see sheep on the road! Well it's fulfilled in New Zealand. Although they are not wild. But its quite something.

Where shall I go this year? States or Rome? Or somewhere else?

Kranji Farm Resort Review

Finally, I sat down to extract the photos from my SD card. So this is from one of the weekends we went to stay at Kranji Farm Resort. I thought I stayed at the end of the world, coming to this place makes me feel like Pasir Ris isn't that bad afterall. This place is really farrrrrrrrrr. If you want to be far away from the city and you don't want to take a boat to Ubin. Maybe you can try this place.

This is the unit we stayed in. We had a drive way in front of our door! You can park your car here if you drove. And when you open the door, straight away you see a few steps to the bed. There's like a small balcony outside which we didn't really make use of.

The shower is open concept, not really advisable to bathe at night unless you want to be attacked by the mosquitoes. Also the toilet is connected to the room so if you don't close your toilet door at night. You are in for mosquitoes party. 

Usually when I go to a hotel, the first thing I will check out is the toilet and their toiletries. The stuff they provided are really basic. Seems quite clean around the basin too.

That's pretty much about the room. So outside its connected to the cafe via a gate.

Simple breakfast provided, just some tea bags and bread with a toaster.

 

This is the breakfast that was provided. I should have ordered an egg omelette. Next time if you ever go, order the egg omelette. Looks yummy.

Anyway this is Kailey's magic water bottle that doesn't drip even if you tilt it upside down. MAGIC!

This is Kailey.

There's really nothing much to do there, you can prawn or just walk around the farm if its not too hot.

For me, I rather just rot in bed and sleep my day away.

Pros:

Quiet

Far from city

Refreshing air

Affordable only on weekdays

Cons:

Far hard to get around without a car

Hot especially Singapore weather

Nothing to do there

Mosquitoes 

Well, it's an experience.

Good night!

Interview with Alexis Cheong - Singapore Food Blogger

Today I got an opportunity to check out Alexis' (from alexischeong.com) home and also find out more about her. We also did a donut shoot with her which you will see later as you scroll down and we also messed up her makeup table while going ra-ra over all the eye-shadows that she has...

 
So how did you get started with this idea of blogging?

I actually started blogging way before, when I was in secondary three. It used to be the 'in' thing back then after making websites on Geocities became boring. When I started it was more of an online journal of my personal life, but when I started working about 4 years ago I started to eat out a lot more and discovering new/hidden places which I wanted to share with my friends. I would often blog about it, and then tell my friends to read my blog when they ask me for more details for food places.

After a while, I started receiving food tasting invites - I still remember my first invite was actually from a backpacker's hostel! Then a food court.. then a restaurant. It just started snowballing from there and I started to have this aim in mind that I would like to be invited to a famous fine dining restaurant for a food tasting. I realize now that that is rather unrealistic (if you are a well-known fine dining restaurant, you don't need to invite bloggers for tasting) but perhaps new fine dining restaurants might want to consider me? 

Other than blogging about food though, I do also try to share to a smaller extent some other aspects of my life - like my travels, music favorites and beauty recommendations. Not many people know this, but I am a closet makeup junkie though I only collect, not use! And I have more than 100 bottles of nail polishes from OPI/China Glaze. I am also quite the tech geek and audiophile because I love testing new gadgets, apps and good sounds. I also shop a lot... (starting to see where's all my money going).

What is your favorite food?

This is such a tough question! OK, if there is only ONE thing I can eat for the rest of my life, it is probably canned sardines with lightly spiced tomato sauce. I know, that is REALLY weird right? But that is so versatile, and you can have it with bread, rice.. or on its own! It's so delicious.

Otherwise I think my favorite cuisine will be a tie between Thai, Japanese and Italian. I also don't think I can pick.

A great prawn aglio olio with loads of garlic (the famous Coffee Club garlic prawn pasta) would be probably my favorite, if I have to name just one.

What makes a dish good? What would it need to have to get 5 stars from you?

A dish needs to be simple, but complex. That seems like a paradox, but what I mean is, it needs to use simple but FRESH ingredients, lightly combined in a way that they play up to each other's strengths and create this "3D" taste profile. A good example will be a very good piece of steak - all you need is some salt, pepper and herbs and it will be great on its own with its juices and fats. I find it a headache when the flavors are so salty, sweet or thick, you end up downing two cups of water after.

I also have a pet peeve when it comes to food - I actually prefer food that is slightly cold or room temperature, and not piping hot (especially porridge and noodles!) because I am an impatient eater and hates it when I scald my tongue on hot food. 

For a restaurant to get thumbs up from me, the service, ambiance and environment also plays a part, and helps justify the price of the food. The first thing I look out for, or rather, smell for, is the ventilation. If it smells like the food I'm eating, the place is not worth going back or hanging out at, unless it is Korean BBQ or steamboat! 

Extra brownie points if the food comes from sustainable sources, like fish. I do hope Singaporean restaurants can put more effort into sourcing for those. Grub at Bishan Park is a good example that should be commended!

How would you dress to a food tasting and what is a must to bring?

I normally go for food tastings after work, so it will be whatever I wear that day. I would always bring my Panasonic Lumix GX1 to invited tastings because photos are an important part of the tasting/review. I will then use my HTC One or iPhone to snap pics for live postings on my Instagram.

Ideally, the best outfits for food tastings (and I'm sure every girl blogger would agree) are those that are not too tight around the mid-section, so there's room to expand! Some of the food tastings can get quite extensive, so no tight belts or jeans, loose fitting tops or maxi dresses instead. I also try to avoid white tops in case of splashes.

If you had only one day to live, what would you do and what would u eat?

I would tell all my family and friends how much I love and appreciate them, and spend the day with my family and dog, #mikmikk. I will also put my social media accounts in order.

I would love to have my mum cook for me one last time - and I'll eat anything she makes. Favorite homecooked food include sardines (!!!), "mao gua" with egg, onion duck (family recipe), curry chicken and steamed pomfret with plum. I would also love for some sichuan veggie soup (Cantonese style) and rice.

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Photos by Spoiltbytes

Makeup by Megan Tang from Cause by Effect

#sy_di wedding

Went to a beautiful wedding yesterday. the decor is so pretty.

Finally get to meet my girls after our BKK trip! Miss you!

Team reception.

Love the decor, makes me want to get married again. With another different set of deco...

Congrats SY and Diana on your new journey ahead as a married couple.