Life

Image from Pinterest

“Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear” – Al Baqarah : 286

Day 8: Sydney - KLIA2

DAY 8: 20.03.2016

(SYDNEY – KLIA2)

“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone”. – Anonymous

We booked another (final) trip with Mohamad to the airport. Masa untuk pulang ke Malaysia and flight kami adalah waktu siang (tak suka bila travel flight lama siang but we had no choice sebab next flight malam adalah for another next 3 days, so cuti sekolah pun dah habis – terpaksa juga pilih flight siang). Dah siap check in and everything, we had our breakfast at Nando’s inside the terminal. 

Our flight was delayed for 40 minutes and we had 2 meals on board for the 8 hour flight (pre booked meals). Sebenarnya kami dah booking flight malam to KT on the same day (supposed sampai KLIA2 at 5.30pm and next flight to KT was scheduled at 8pm). Dah ada back up plan kalau missed flight malam sebab kami kena juga balik ke KT that night memandangkan Khayra ada mid year exam esoknya (got to know this a week before we went to Sydney, mood ada sikit ke laut sebab kesian juga dia nak exam tapi kita nak pergi holiday). 

Flight panjang + siang hari + sempat buat latihtubi esoknya nak mid term exam -_-

Memandangkan flight was delayed from Sydney, so we arrived at KLIA2 at 6.05pm, kami berlari collect bags and to the domestic check in counter. Haha. Satu pengalaman yang tak boleh dilupakan sebab cuak semua ada. Kalau boleh memang nak check in juga balik hari yang sama. Both of my PIL tak balik KT sebab stay in KL for another 2 days, so hubs had to rush send them to our pre booked taxi and kami yang lain berlari nak pergi check in. 

Nak dijadikan cerita, bag kami ada 1 yang the last to arrive at the conveyor belt, memang dugaan sungguh padahal kami ambil priority lane. Yang bestnya, stroller tak kelihatan langsung so kami ambil keputusan just nak tinggal je stroller kat situ sebab mengejar masa (made a phone call to my hubs to check on the stroller kalau dia sempat sebab hubs keluar lambat sikit to settle the wheelchair of my FIL). Masa dah sampai di check in counter, kami cari lane yang paling pendek (siap 2 kali tukar lane sebab nak cepat), so the next in line adalah 3 orang students UMS depan kami. Students tu nampak kami cuak so tanya nak ke mana, kami kata nak check in balik KT, flight dari Sydney delayed so we had another 15 minutes for the bag dropped tapi sebenarnya I salah tengok ticket! 

Actually we had another 5 minutes only (counter closed at 7pm and at that point of time, it was 6.55pm!) to do the bag dropped and kalau tak sempat, memang kami tak boleh check in! Huwaaa. Nasib baik tengok semula tiket and dengan politely saya minta dari that students to check in first (read: potong turn mereka) sebab kami mengejar masa. Their flight was to Sabah and scheduled at 9.30pm if I’m not mistaken, so diorang dengan baik hati bagi kami check in dulu. Ya Allah, bersyukur sangat.

To cut the story short, kami berjaya check in for that flight back to KT that night and tatkala dah the last bag to check in, Hazri tiba with our stroller. Syukur! Dah berdoa dari sepanjang flight semoga urusan kami dipermudahkan Allah. Alhamdulillah.

Lepas dah buat bag dropped, kami terus bergegas ke boarding sebab plan nak solat dulu before masuk boarding gate. Lagi sekali berlari-lari merentasi manusia di airport. Hehe. Alhamdulillah sempat solat Jamak Ta’akhir di airport and dalam masa yang sama dah ada announcement for boarding flight to KT. The moment masuk perut kapal terbang ke KT, rasa syukur tak terhingga sangat. Baru rasa letih berlari-lari dari tadi. Kahkah! -___-

Alhamdulillah all went well and I feel so grateful Allah bagi rezeki kami boleh ajak parents and PIL pergi holiday with us even banyak dugaan in between dan kena plan dengan sangat thorough sebab bawa warga emas kan, but all in all I am so so so happy with this trip. Semoga Allah berikan rezeki lain untuk kami sekeluarga in the next future, insyaAllah.

Day 7: Queenstown - Sydney

 DAY 7: 19.03.2016

(QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA)

“Travel is still the most intense mode of learning”. – Kevin Kelly.

We woke up early as usual and did last photography session inside Wakatipu House, had our quick breakfast (roti and telur), signed the Guest Book, kemas sikit-sikit and loaded our luggage inside the minibus. Our Jetstar flight to Sydney was scheduled at 9.40am and we left Wakatipu House at 7.15am.

Sampai kat airport, Hazri dropped us at the nearest departure gate, we took the trolleys and Hazri went to park the minibus at the designated area for Thriffty rental car at the parking lot. Next, we checked in, isi borang and we were good to go. Flight to Sydney from Queenstown took about 3 hours 25 minutes and most of us were dozed off inside the plane sebab bangun awal pagi. Teehee.

Checked in for Jetstar flight to Sydney

Love this photo so much! Macam cover album – haha! Taken by my brother at Sydney Airport sementara nak tunggu Mr. Mohamad ambil van dari parking area.

We arrived Sydney at 11.05 am and Mohamad was already waiting for us. We booked him to fetch us at the airport before we went to Queenstown. This time around, we booked a standard suite with 2 bedrooms and a standard king sized room at Valentine On George Hotel, Sydney. The hotel was apparently run by a Malaysian couple berasal from Perak. There was a Thai Halal restaurant connected to the hotel known as Time For Thai (which replaced the Kasturi Café – we had our lunch and dinner at Kasturi Café back in 2013). This hotel is located not far from University of Sydney, so kadang-kadang the receptionist diambil alih oleh students from Malaysia yang bekerja as a part time there (we had a chance to talk with one of the student yang bekerja part time di situ). 

Had our lunch at Time for Thai

Valentine On George Hotel, Sydney.

We had our lunch at Time for Thai (with big portions and delicious, some of the food had to be packed sebab banyak sangat), solat at our respective rooms and at about 3pm, we went to Paddy’s Market which was located about 5-7 minutes walk / 400m from our hotel. Aktiviti shopping ni tak payah cerita lah kan tapi all of us enjoyed habiskan duit AUD. Teehee. 

Paddy’s Market

Next, kami dropped by at Woolworths sekejap sebab terjumpa on the way balik ke hotel. For dinner, some of us still kenyang, so my father pergi tapau nasi goreng and roti canai at Time For Thai and makan dalam bilik masing-masing je. My father sangat suka with the hotel sebab dekat dengan restoran Halal yang makanan dia sedap and dekat dengan Paddy’s Market. Haha. He even said that next time kalau datang Sydney, he wanted to stay again at the hotel. Hehe. Semoga ada rezeki untuk kembali, amin! Since we booked the 2 bedroom suite with bath tub, the kids had fun playing with water.

We didn’t go out at night and just lepak around, packing and be ready for our next day long haul flight back to Malaysia. 

Day 6: Queenstown - Wanaka - Cromwell - Queenstown

DAY 6: 18.03.2016

(QUEENSTOWN – WANAKA – CROMWELL - QUEENSTOWN)

“With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding”. – Sandra Lake

Hello! It has been quite some time from my last update. Sorry, banyak sangat halangan kononnya.

So we were we? Oh, still in Queenstown, NZ. So, today actually macam free and easy lah konsepnya. Since we were in NZ during autumn, kami nak bawa our parents to go for autumn colour scenery to look how beautiful NZ by road trip. Kami bangun awal as usual, makan breakfast together (nasi goreng, salad, roti with scrambled eggs, juice) then off for our road trip in NZ.

Kami memulakan perjalanan ke Wanaka (about 67.2km / 1 hour drive from Queenstown) melalui Crown Range and Cardrona Valley Road. From Wikipedia :

“Crown Range Road, a steep and windy route that climbs up through the Crown Range Mountains. Once you reach the summit (1076 metres above sea level), you can pull over to a small parking area and take in the views of Queenstown in the distance.”

Along the way, ada juga kami stop untuk bergambar dengan pemandangan yang indah. Kami tiba di Puzzling World, Wanaka at 10.30am and terus ke ticket counter.

Sementara tunggu ticket and toilet break, the kids pergi main dulu kat waiting lounge. Ada pelbagai permainan menguji minda dan menarik di sini.

Below is the Puzzling World entrance fee:

	Great Maze	Illusion Rooms	Combo
Adult	$16	$16	$20
Child (5-15 years) > 5 FOC	$12	$12	$14
Family Pass (2 Adults + 2 Children)			$61

Some of the pictures inside the Illusion Rooms at Puzzling World, Wanaka NZ:

Inside the Ames Room :D

Lil H was so interested with one of the sculpture sampai bergambar nak peluk! :P 

Our comment on Puzzling World: The 5 Illusion Rooms with sculpture, holograms and other visual trickery are so fun to explore! The Hall of Following Faces sangat unik.

We didn’t have the chance to drop by at Puzzling World during our first visit to NZ last year sebab mengejar masa for skydiving, so this time it is a must for us. Our parents also did enjoy the Puzzling World. 

The toilet (area) is so interesting, guys! Teehee :P

Toilet area at Puzzling World, Wanaka NZ

Some of the photos taken outside Illusion Rooms at Puzzling World, Wanaka. We didn’t take the chances to explore the Great Maze as no one was interested :P

Tok Abah and Hafiya in front of Puzzling World entrance :D

Next, after dah siap tour to all Illusion Rooms and other weird things inside, we went to buy some souvenirs and toilet break before continue our journey to Cromwell. 

Kami dah plan to have our lunch at Cromwell, so perjalanan from Wanaka took about 40 minutes (50km) via State Highway 6 (laluan berbeza dari masa kami datang from Queenstown). Along the way, kami stopped by a few tempat nak ambil gambar sebagaimana berikut:

Gambar wajib ketika berada di New Zealand :D

The best family picture that we managed to snap with two kids on tow :P 

(Not in the picture: Lil Bro as the photographer and my FIL)

We reached Cromwell just about time for lunch and parked our minibus near to i-Site before going for a family photo shot in front of the Cromwell’s famous town landmark i.e. the large fruits sculpture.

Trying to get a decent photo with my parents but this was the best result -___-

Next, we proceeded to have our lunch at Souvlaki & Kebab Grill – the one yang kami pernah singgah secara tak sengaja last year.

The best thing was that, our parents and my lil brother sangat enjoy their food and they came in big portion. Siap tapau sikit bawa balik nak makan kat Queenstown. Our lunch cost us about NZD90 that day. Souvlaki & Kebab Grill can be found at No. 65, The Mall, Central Otago, Cromwell, NZ. We met a retired couple from Malaysia at Cromwell and had a little friendly talk with them.

We continued our journey back to Queenstown via State Highway 6 (61km / 50 minutes) after having our lunch. 

Our next pit stop adalah membeli buah-buahan sekitar Cromwell and terus menuju ke Queenstown. 

We arrived at Skyline, Queenstown at about 4.30pm, beratur beli tickets and terus naik Gondola. 

Gondola ride – both of my mom and MIL were quite nervous actually, so Hazri and Hafiya went together with them .__.

We bought this photo (we were given a photo code to download this) of my hubs and Khayra on the chairlift to the Luge rides.

We bought 2 rounds of Luge rides and had so much fun like before. It was so awesome, guys! My lil brother and hubs bought another extra round and tried the adventurous track (Red Track) and they had fun. While we were busy with the Luge ride, our parents were busy doing souvenirs shopping at the Skyline Gift Store -__-;

Family photo again at the Luge area back to the Gondola site – taken by my brother. Last year punya gambar kelabu asap sebab sejuk and the camera was filled with wap sejuk. Kahkah!

We went back to Wakatipu House which was located only 10 minutes from Skyline Queenstown, had our dinner and did some packing sebab esoknya we had an early flight back to Sydney. Tsk, it was so hard to say goodbye to NZ (again!).

Working Mom Dilemma #3

It’s nearly 15 minutes to go for … our weekend! Weeee! *star jump* Thursday is the most awaited day for me as a full time working mom. You would understand this if you are a working mom who has to leave your children to a caretaker / maid / nursery / playschool.

Both of my daughters are now been to a new transit – a private school. Both of them seem very happy for these two days. I am more grateful if this change will make them happier. This private school caters for only closed friends’ children, so most of us know each other’s children. It provides for lunch, iqra’, fardhu ain, tea break, solat berjemaah (and emphasize on bacaan dalam solat), sunnah & hadis, activities and they do help with the kid’s homework. What makes me happy is that since it is a private school, they do not take more than 15 children. As a mom, we always want the best for our kids and pray that they will always be in safe hands.

So next week, our firstborn will sit for her final exam. All the best, to my Lil Darling K!

I’m going nowhere with today’s post but I feel like writing something here. Lately I discovered that I’m being a bit clumsy here and there. Like today, I almost hit a car in front me while waiting for the traffic lights; I spilled some water on the table few days back during our dinner; made a simple mistake when I booked online flight tickets (thank God for the prompt response from MAS! Their customer service is the best – they replied to my email within a few minutes after I emailed my inquiry on the mistake), made a silly mistake on some documentation for my legal work which caused me to redo the things (unnecessary work! Haish!), dropped my phone on the floor which caused the glass screen protector cracked and a few more that I can’t even remember. Oh Emm Gee, what’s wrong with me? I think I need a break. Or a holiday. Or a staycation. Or anything else other than having a normal routine. Teheee! The best overcome to my clumsiness. Yeah, right!

GTG.

See you again.

My Lil Darlings who always have a special spot in my heart :D