♥: christchurch - greymouth

Lodging: KIWI Basecamp Backpackers, Christchurch

- the Customs, err, the authority was quite easy on me. I was out and about less than 30min :) heeee. most importantly, no officer who claimed they just want to have a chat alkesah konon2 takdek pape but actually, they are interrogating us :(

- free call to KIWI Basecamp Backpackers upon arrival. i think that was the coolest invention ever. i was on a foreign land not knowing where to head, and tadaaa, just dialed the number given at the free phone booth. thannk god i had a good arrangement with my lodging. they are picking me up! weee

- at 4pm, i went out to meet my neighbours who are on working holiday. i love it that we are miles away before and now we are re-uniting!

- i bought simcard for 20dollar and make few calls&texts to important people. fuh lega that i get to be online.

- we parted at around 9pm where it is still cerah because it is summer!

- i had a good 15min from CBD to my lodging.

- the thing i err like less about the town is, it is quiet after 5pm. most of cafes were closed at around 5pm (even starbucks! huh). kedai2 yang buka adalah bar sahaja. huh.

- i love their gardens! boleh golek2.

- from Christchurch to Greymouth, we took Tranzalpine. we bought tickets online and got discounts like half of the price.

- i was told to get the seat on the right side, better view that side but the seats were already pre-arranged so we cannot change seat. yes, ours were on the left.

- left was still good nonetheless. but we didnt stay put on our seat, instead there was an open carriage where we spend most of time there taking pictures. the wind and bumpy ride were the main factors you need to be stable and you can tell most of our pictures were shaky. hihi. but we managed anyway.

- i dint know there were time limit (out of courtesy however) to be in the front view of the open carriage. i was nudged (hard!) by a matsalleh old guy and when i rolled my eyes, he was cynically giving me the info. courtesy goes a long way la uncle. anyway, be considerate to others who want to get a good view. lagipun, it wasnt the best view pun, trust me.

- going thru Tranzalpine train, i thought i have seen the best :) not until i went on the roadtrip and get to summarize the best part of the journey. if there will be a repeat trip to south, i'll def skip the train, maybe caravan instead :)

- oh it took us 4hours to reach Greymouth, a lil small town where we started our roadtrip.