When third year begins.

Alhamdulillah at last i could update my travel entries. Alhamdulillah i've started my new journey, as a third year Pharmacy student in University of Otago.

Today is the second day of lecture. Five papers for this semester. A best friend of mine, si rain -soaked kitten ( i call her a kitten :p ) got 6 awards for our second year papers last year. Another 3 malaysian friends too. I'm proud of them. I didn't get any awards, but they made all Malaysians proud. How i wish to be one of them. Really. Sometimes i wish i could be like my old self. A nerd girl that was always with books. Came back from school and studied until Subuh prayer. Slept only for a few hours before going to school again. And got all the awards at school. That was me when i was in school back in Malaysia. But i'm not like that anymore. I lost the nerd and hardworking girl. But anyway, at least here i do a lot of things that i never done in Malaysia. Studying and do something else to gain knowledge and experience. I just realized life is not just about study. Because of Kitten, i will work harder. I promise. I want to get one of the certificates. You can do it Siti Fairuz Latif !!

Alhamdulillah again i finished cleaning and rearranged my room. phew. i just realized that lots of unused stuffs in my room. Not just mine, but my seniors's stuffs too that she left before giving me this room. huh. I feel good to throw the unused things into the recycle bin. I feel good to donate the clothes that i don't wear anymore. I feel good to arrange my novels,books and shoes on the shelves. i feel good to stuff in all the things into boxes. I feel really really feel good!

My make-up table *konon*

Scarfs and tudungs.

(what colour do you see the most?)

Skirts! (selepas membuang beberapa yang tak terpakai)

Cardigans! (what colour again?)

Shoes :)

I put them in my room because it's easier to choose which one should i wear to match with baju. hahaz.

bags.

Black for winter. flowery for spring. pink for summer.belang2 for autumn. Okay just kidding. I used them for any seasons. haha :p

Look my bed! I bought a new duvet cover! The same question again, what colour it is?

Yes purple. I just love purple :)

Novels and fairy tales collections!

Everythings done. So it's time to focus. No more play play. They said third year is busier and harder than second year. Yes sure, it's a upper step to reach the top. Scared T_T . *breathing* I hope everythings gonna be okay. Usaha tangga kejayaan. Mari berusahaa! Good luck Siti Fairuz Latif!

Bye.

The Lord of The Rings journey : The return of the South.

After working at the orchard, i went travelling from south island up to the north island again like what i did during last Autumn break. But the difference is, i used different route which is the other side of south island, West Coast. I travelled with my sister, her hubby and their two little girls. We travelled from Dunedin to Auckland and it took 12 days to reach our destination. 12 days on the road! What a hectic travel itinerary.

27-30th Jan 12 : Christchurch - Dunedin

I took a flight from Dunedin to Christchurch to fetch them and stayed there one night. How happy i am to see my little hearts again! love love love! Kisses and hugs for them! Early in the morning, we drove down to Dunedin again. They stayed at my house and i brought them to some main attractions here like Botanical Garden (okay lame,hey but not lame for me), watching penguins at Peninsular, Roxburgh etc.

With si keciks!

31st Jan 12 : Dunedin - Roxburgh - Te Anau

We started our journey at 3.30pm . Our destination was Te Anau, but we went to Roxburgh first to take my camera's charger. We trusted GPS too much until it brought us to a very outskirts route and rarely used. And its not a highway! A country road without a single sign boards all the way long for a few hours. But Alhamduillah at last we found a small pekan with a sign board. phew, we were on the right route! We reached Te Anau around 8pm and it was raining! We stayed at Te Anau LakeView Holiday Park, right in fornt of Te Anau Lake. Beautiful!

Te Anau Lake.

1st Feb 12 : Te Anau - Milford Sound - Queenstown

It took about 2 and half hours to reach Milford. The scenic route was amazing. I was speechless all the way long seeing the God's creations. Waterfalls everywhere coming down from the hills just beside the road! Can you imagine that? Some of the hills are covered with snow and the melted snow came down as waterfalls. We stopped for a few minutes at Homer Tunnel and there was a big ice fell from the hill and forming an ice cave.

the road ...

Ice age!

sitting on the ice!

At Milford Sound, we took a cruise for 1 hour and half. Splendid! and we got wet because of the waterfalls! The mountains, waterfalls, rainbows were everywhere on our left and right! Ahh i just love nature. Can't deny it. Let me tell you a story, when the cruise was approaching the biggest waterfall, the captain announced '' I hope they understand English that waterfalls are wet '' telling the people at the lower deck. At the same time, i saw my sister and her husband & the kids as well were at the deck! Few kiwis beside me said ''they are Japanese (expecting they don't know English) '' the other person said '' No no no. They are Asians '' And i was like. tettttt. I felt like screaming loudly towards my sister saying '' Kak, move!move! '' But i didn't . haha. And brshhhh (sound of water falling on the deck)! they got all wet! What actually happened was, they couldn't hear anything from the lower deck and they didn't expect at all that the captain really really wanted to go under the waterfall.

Can you see my sister is running? hahahh

:p

After having a real journey throughout the cruising, we continued our journey towards Queenstown. We reached Queentown at 9pm. Phew what a long journey we had. We stayed at Pinewood Motel on Hamilton road. Honestly this was my first time coming to Queentown and i'm not a loser anymore! Before this, every time people asked me have you been to Queenstown, i said no. the nearest place kot. Loser! hahaz.

2nd Feb 12 : Queenstown

Queenstown is like Genting Highland,but with awesome sceneries. We naik gondola and played luge! We went to Kawarau bridge, konon konon wanted to do bungy jumping. But when they looked at the real situations, nobody did jumping. Me? I won't pay for my own death!

Dare to jump?!

Lepak-ing at the Harbour.

We went to ArrowTown. When we reached at the town, i felt like we were in a different era. Its very classic like seriously classic! Small houses with small shops.

Cute kannn ? *histeria*

We then spent the rest of the day sitting and playing at Lake Wakatipu. Both si keciks were so excited to mandi at the tasik.

Wakatipu Lake.

3rd Feb 12

Still at Queenstown. We went for a road trip to Glenorchy which is 45 minutes drive from Qstown. Along the road, on our left we could see a very big lake and on our right were green mountains. Speechless .

4th Feb 12 : Queentown - Wanaka - Franz Joseph - Greymouth - Nelson.

The longest journey ever! Mandi at Wanaka Lake. Huh the girls were so naughty. Keep asking to have a bath at all lakes. At Franz Joseph, we cancelled our plan to stay over here one night and went to Greymouth instead. But we still went to Franz Joseph glacier but too bad the ice melted, so not much we could see.

Can you see the glacier at the back?

We reached Greymouth at night and it was 7 hours 30 minutes journey. *faint* . We stayed at Paroa Hotel, $150 per night. Hang mampu? The most expensive motel for the whole journey!

5th Feb 12 : Greymouth - Punakaiki - Nelson

On our way to Nelson, we stopped at Punakaiki to see the blowholes and pancake rocks. Too bad we reached at the wrong time so we couldn't see the water coming out from the blowholes. but still it was gorgeous over there! Hahaz let me tell you a funny story again. Si kecik Keisya, she has a habit of putting her head into jaring pagar, in between the steels (ala pagar yang ada besi panjang panjang tu). So it happened that, i accidentally looked at other place for a second and when i turned back to her, her head was already in between the besi besi. Ahhhh gelabah! Everyone was panic. hahaz. after a minute, i managed to take it out. phew.

Pancakes!

(nampak tak besi besi tu?haha)

Blowholes!

We stayed one night at Nelson.

6th Feb 12 : Nelson - Picton - Wellington - Wanganui

Like i did before, we took ferry from Picton to Welly. While waiting for my brother to check in the car, i had a walk around the harbour. by the time i wanted to go in the ferry, it almost closed! I looked again at my ticket, the time was 1.10pm but i thought it was at 1.30pm. demm! *running into the ferry*

At Wellington, we visited NZ National Museum, Te Papa Museum. And then continued our journey to Wanganui. Ahmad (mesti la bukan nama sebenar kan), he invited us to have dinner at his place. He's working there now after graduated last year. He cooked nasi ayam and the kecikss were so happy eating and layan Uncle. He likes kids anyway. huh. whatever *tetiba kan*

7th Feb 12 : Wanganui - Taupo Lake - Rotorua.

Before leaving Wanganui, i had to go to hospital to meet him again. He gave me my watch back. Ahhh macam mana boleh tertinggal jam rumah dia ni. Buat malu jeh! We went to Durie Hills lookout (as suggested by him).

8th Feb 12 : Rotorua - Auckland

At Rotorua, my sister and her hubby and Karmila too paid to had a jetboat ride! me? Jaga si kecik je la. It was awesome, i could see the jetboat spinning here and there in the lake. We went to Huka falls (second time for me) Like my previous trip, i didn't do much activities at Rotorua. Well you know me, i love to see the natures and not really into the games.

Wanganui

We drove up to Auckland.

Stopped at Desert Road. *i posted a picture of this place before in my previous trip*

At Auckland, we had tram ride. 3 dollar each ride, about 15 minutes. Lame. One thing i hate about Auckland, it is a busy city (but not as busy as KL of course) . We spent more than one hour to find a parking. Can you imagine, $16 per hour? Crazy. At last we parked our car at a shopping mall. Hahah hopefully the CCTV didn't realized that we didn't enter the mall at all.

9th Feb 12 : Auckland - Dunedin

I took a flight at 9am to Dunedin but their flight to Malaysia was at 2pm. so they sent me first. T_T Saying goodbye is the hardest thing for me to do. I miss the little hearts!

12 days spending time travelling with them was great. so i've conquered both south and north island but not yet the southern part of south island. Now, i can't see children, because they remind me of si keciks :' ( How i wish to just keep them here!!

Back to my normal life in Dunedin, still having summer break at that time. Housekeeping at the hotel. sigh.

waiting for the next break which is autumn break! Another trip? hurm maybe!!

Bye.

The cherries diaries.

Again, my second summer break as a student of Otago University , i spent one month as a cherry sorter at Roxburgh, Central Otago. It is 2 and half hours drive from Dunedin. This was my second time working here. I started working on the 1st until 26th of January. Almost three weeks. I had a very busy but simple life at Roxburgh. Live in an old house just at the foot of the hill, in the middle of acres of orchards, without internet, without transport ... But i love it. Love this simple and peaceful life so much. I love the stunning sunrise up the hills, love the full moon, love the sunset, love the fruits, love the lambs, love the wild deer ... When i was small i always dreamt of living in the middle of english orchards. haha. yes there we go, i lived here twice. First year summer and second year as well. It's like a dream came true. True :)

A note for me from Suraya. haha. she's funny.

Sunrise.

Full moon.

Woke up early in the morning because work started at 8am, but i always been the last person to wake up because i don't like waiting for the toilets and queuing for the breakfast. Worked from 8am until 4.30pm for cherries and 12 hours for apricots *die* I learnt to be tough. I learnt to accept my own mistakes. I learnt to give and take. I learnt to be patient. I learnt a lot of things. I'm stronger *built biceps muscle* haha . It was a hard work i can say, well kata pekerja buruh kan :p But i made money as well! So it's worth it.

Ahh nampak gemuk di situ!

My boxes (too lazy to write my name,so i just put smileys on my boxes)

6th day; Suraya Zubaidah (of course not the real name) , she's my supervisor , a kiwi and we lived in her house, she taught me driving. That was my first time driving a car. It was scary but exciting! How i wish to learn more and more and more and drive crazily like a drag racer! Okay back to reality, i just drove for a few minutes and it was a automatic car . Sigh. Never mind i will have my licence soon (entah bila entah kan) .

7th day; they (the owners and all the orang atasan la) asked me to go and help the apricots girls because they were too slow like an old rusting machine without grease! The apricots were falling heavily on the floor and they still working like that. So i had to work as an apricots grader now. More work but less money. But it's okay. Life is not just about money kan. At least i could do something else and learnt other things as well. yeehee.

8th day; It was a day off and Suraya's birthday!

I baked apricots tart for her.

On the same day, I went tracking alone climbing the Bullock Track which is 30 minutes walk from our house. i took almost 1 and half hour to climb up and only 30 minutes to get down. Alone! Mampu? Haha i did it ;D

Halfway! (Self timer .haha )

On top of the Bullock Track. *muka puas*

10th day; Kak Y's Birthday! She asked me to bake her a chocolate cake.

Love the colourful pebbles :)

18th day ; My birthday. My second birthday celebrated at Roxburgh :) Early in the morning when i woke up, Suraya kissed me on the cheek. She said, this is a mom's kiss as your mom is not here to kiss you on your birthday. She said, i've grew up. i'm a big girl. i'm not a little cupcake anymore, i'm not a girl but not yet a women. Terharu :' ) And i just knew that the present that i've got last year wasn't from all the girls but actually from her alone. And this year's present too. I'm touched .

A little duck with a card. She said, she couldn't find any butterfly at Roxburgh,so she bought a duck. She's funny,isn't she? :)

23rd day; The day i got very grumpy,upset and sad. The day i worked for twelve hours. The day that was my turn to cook dinner. I'm waiting for someone to cook for me, or swap the turn,but no one volunteered. Everyone could wait and eat later. Common sense. It's not the matter of you can wait and have the dinner later but it's the matter of how tired the person is after working 12 hours and you expect her to cook. Full stop.

27th day ; The day i left Roxburgh for Dunedin. It was snowing and the hills are covered with snow. I know it's summer, but well who can control the weather? Unpredictable. Beautiful.

I went to the pack house for the last time and said goodbyes to everyone :' )

Apricot girls!

I enjoyed the days spent at Roxburgh. Far from town. I forget about everything here. Working like a machine, enjoying the rest of the day reading fairy tales book up the hill accompanied by the lambs and the rugged nature. Who doesn't want to live a life like this? No one. InsyaAllah i will visit the kampung again. I promised Suraya to come back during winter break. Hopefully i can make it.

Alhamdulillah. See you again kampung :)

Bye.