First landing

christchurch

I remember my first trip to New Zealand – my entire family went with another family for our first landing (one of the prerequisites to get a Permanent Residency). We arrived at Christchurch and rented a caravan large enough for our family of 4 and their family of 4 and did nothing except go to prospective high schools to prepare for our education there two years later.

The first few days were a drag – we went to several schools before deciding on either Burnside or Riccarton high school. Next was the search for a home stay since we were minors and my dad finally settled for one right behind Riccarton High School (which was the one we ended up going to).

auckland nz

The rest of the time however was marvelous – we spent a couple of days in Christchurch, swung down to Dunedin (primarily to prepare me and my sister for medical school – she made it, I didn’t), met with the steepest road in the entire world before heading to the North Island.

rotorua

We pretty much toured the entire NZ in 3 weeks just by driving. My favorite place would be Rotorua – the air smells like sulfur and everything is more expensive than other towns but I loved the mud baths and our motel even had its own private spa!

luge

I was also an adventure fiend back then and went for this precarious ride called the luge (and got teased mercilessly by the other family’s twin sisters for pronouncing it loo-gee) where I nearly shit my pants by intentionally steering down “Advanced” instead of “Beginner” and careening down the side of a hill with sheer cliffs and nothing but centrifugal force to avoid you from tipping over.

I got out all wobbly legged and was properly chastised for heading down the Advanced route when I’m not supposed to.

bungee

I also went bungee jumping – AJ Hackett originated from New Zealand, but to be honest, the luge experience scared me more than the bungee jump coz I was supposed to steer but I didn’t know how to.

riccarton high school

Fast forward two years and I found myself studying in Christchurch. My parents decided on RHS primarily coz it had a low ratio of Asian students compared to Burnside. They are firm believers of fitting in and immersing yourself into another culture, which I guess rubbed off on me during my travels.

I joined the drama club (best thing that happened to me) and had a leading role in the end-of-year school play Peer Gynt. I also got kicked out of school for disciplinary issues but we shall not be discussing that today. 😉

fishandchips

The year that I spent in Christchurch was a lot of fun. The temperature drops down to the negatives in winter and despite being only 15 years old, I was very active in the rave scene. I can be seen at Ministry most weekends, which is where most of the good raves are found. I love eating fish and chips loaded with ketchup during the colder days of the year and explored every nook and cranny of the city (as much as a 15 year old who hung out with uni students who could drive did).

Christchurch is a beautiful city and although I’ve been to Auckland late last year to see my mom, sister and niece, I still prefer Christchurch to Auckland. It’s like how I love Melbourne but can’t get into the groove of Sydney.

christchurch-tram-nz

It’s a perfect place with quiet spots like Church Corner with its quaint dairies (a grocery store of sorts where you can get hot food and drinks) and yet with a vibrant night life, if you know where to look. You can even hang out in the city square where there is a huge ass chessboard with equally gigantic pieces.

Christchurch is also great as a base to REALLY travel around New Zealand. Just rent a car and explore the South Island before hooking back up north.

dairy

It’s been ages since I’ve been back to Christchurch and I’ll really love to see how much it has changed (and perhaps see my old principal, whom I had a lot of run-ins with and show him I didn’t turn out to be a total delinquent after all ;)) so it was great news when I heard that AirAsia X is now flying to Christchurch from an amazing RM 499 one way!

Man, you gotta give AirAsia X kudos, they’re adding more and more destinations exponentially – it really makes travel much easier at a great value!

You can also get the chance to win an awesome 7D/6N holiday in New Zealand courtesy of AirAsiaX by participating in the Faces Go Places contest on their Facebook page. Just upload a photo of your face to their Facebook application, which has a variety of activities you can match an expression to. Add a caption and share it with your friends to get votes. It’s that easy!

manic

This is my maniacally excited face. Heh! The Faces Go Places contest is where it’s at. Come on then, give us your best shot mate! 😉

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12 thoughts on “First landing”

  1. I would like to visit CHCH again too. Btw, I also went to Form Five there but in Burnside. Your right there are a lot of Asians, M’sians especially. 🙂

    I’m your two year junior.

    Reply
    • Hello there! Heh! I went to Burnside quite often too, since I have a lot of friends there as well. 🙂

      Two years my junior and started in Form Five. I wouldn’t have met you then, I was only there for a year before I got kicked out of Riccarton. 😡

      I agree though, Christchurch is nice, would love to visit again. 😀

      My best memory is walking to Riccarton Mall and passing by this dairy that sells foot long hotdogs.

      Reply
  2. Wow! That took me back! I was an exchange student there in ’93. I went to Catholic Cathedral College. I’ve wanted to return ever since, but maybe it’s better to hang on the memories as they are. I had such a great time there.

    Reply
    • Nice! I was there in ’96/’97 – stayed in Church Corner, small suburb just right beside the highschool. I used to jump the fence when I’m late since I just stayed at the fence bordering the field.:)

      I moved three times when I was there though.

      Yeah, I had a lot of memorable times too – some good, some bad, but all enriching!

      It’ll be nice to head back to revisit the old places again though. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Nais! I am trying to get the 499 fare to Christchurch. I’ve never been to Australia or NZ before but I’m a fan of Lord of the Rings. Haha!

    Will try my luck with the contest as well. 🙂

    Wish me luck man……

    Reply
    • I’ve actually already written about it…several times in fact. 🙂

      It’s somewhere in the archives…have a few posts of the first few chapters on a book I’m working on called Black Kingdom. 🙂

      Reply
  4. SIGHHHH!!!!! Tried the MAS one the other day – tickets to Auckland AND Paris and got 180 LIKEs….and some Malay lady got over 4,000…and her entry sucked big time! Tsk! Tsk!

    Reply
    • Oh yeah, I’ve heard about that one. Oh well, you can always try this AirAsiaX Christchurch one – I’ll vote for you. 😀

      Reply
  5. mind asking.. if i drive in nz and rent a car. Do we need a english translation for our driving license?
    or it’s okay to just drive there? let me know thanks 🙂
    wonderful place nz. Hoping to visit thr next month.

    Reply
    • gary, you need to apply for a temporary license over here I believe. It’s not hard though, if you already have a full license where you live (final stage, whatever it’s called overseas) ie. no conditions to where and when and who you can/cant drive with

      Reply

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