HW Umrah 2017 (Day 1)

TGG – KL (30.01.2017)

Our parents buat tahlil dan solat hajat a day before kami bertolak ke KL. Penerbangan kami dari KT ke KL pada 30.01.2017 jam 3.45 petang dengan penerbangan MAS. Dari mula lagi bagitau my parents yang K and H would not be following us to the airport sebab risau ada drama airmata and susah nak berpisah nanti. So we bid goodbyes at PIL’s house – tu pun ada drama airmata sikit. Teehee :P

Drama airmata sikit :P

My parents together with my MIL sent us off at TGG airport and upon reaching at the airport, ada petugas Rayhar dah sedia menunggu kami untuk urusan check in dan tickets. We had to be at the airport 2 hours before departure sebab bagasi kami terus check in ke Madinah dari TGG airport. After check in, kami had a meal at Secret Recipe. 

We landed at KLIA at 4.20pm and bila keluar ke balai ketibaan, dah ada seorang petugas Rayhar menunggu kami. Just an excellent service! We got to know that we were the only couple who took the 3.45pm flight from TGG. The rest of jemaah (ada 11 orang dari TGG yang under Rayhar Travels Sdn. Bhd.) took the 5.50pm flight. We then being transported to Empress Hotel by a coaster and we were guided to the hotel room by one of the petugas. Bagus sangat layanan yang kami terima.  

At Empress Hotel (and baby bump of 18w)

We went out for dinner with Harris that night. Hujan lebat.

Hari Pertama (31.01.2017)

7.00 pagi Breakfast at Empress Hotel. Mingled with other jemaah.

9.00 pagi: ke KLIA untuk taklimat ringkas menaiki bas. Jumpa Kak Liana and family. Taklimat di booth TH berdekatan McD. Beli extra nose protector. Tukar hand luggage (for free!) sebab hand luggage kami yang dibekalkan oleh pihak Rayhar KT handle tarik tu rosak.

12.30 tengah hari: ke satelit building KLIA

1.25pm solat jamak dan qasar berjemaah di Gate C17 KLIA (perlu berwuduk sebelum naik ke tingkat 2)

2.20pm boarding - tunggu pelepasan. Ada re route baru menjadikan journey 9h15m (sebelumnya 8h)

Gate C17 KLIA (lepas berwudhuk)

Meals onboard

7.00pm (waktu Madinah) / 12 malam (Malaysia): selamat tiba di Jeddah airport urusan imigresen 20mins dan claim luggage

9.00pm : bertolak ke Hotel (Dallah Taibah)

9.30pm tiba di hotel dan makan malam dan taklimat

 Hotel di Madinah (Dallah Taibah)

Long Silence and Good News

#I wrote this in my handphone notes to publish in this blog but unable to do so in the nearest of time until my confinement days. Teehee :P 

(Oh, did I tell you anything about our 3rd bundle of joy? Will write on this later, I promise).

13.06.2017 | 18 Ramadhan 1438H

I only asked pizza for berbuka since yesterday was my birthday, but my hubs booked a hotel buffet berbuka instead (and invited my parents, my brother and my best friends to join us);

I pray that my firstborn would get at least top 5 for her mid term exam, but she got an excellent result that made us proud;

I hope that Dato' Boss will consider my half day working plan as recommended by my gynae due to my health issue, but he suggested for me to come to the office whenever I have appointment with clients only and can work from home for 3 months instead;

I only imagine to have sahur at PIL's house due to my condition, but both of my parents and PIL invited us for berbuka AND sahur everyday with them;

I hope to give birth to our third child after Hari Raya, but insyaAllah we will see our baby at the nearest time;

And with that, I am forever grateful to Allah for everything :D

Happy (belated) birthday to me (yesterday)!

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.

Lil H Turns 4!

Our little darling Hafiya turned 4yo 2 days ago (25.10.2016). We threw a small celebration for her at school with her classmates and teachers. Prepared goodie bags for her classmates; a pink bag for the girls (Barbie colouring book, bubbles, crunchy wafer) and a green bag for the boys (Car’s toy blocks, bubble, wafer crunch), she picked her own favourite dress, we bought balloons and identical paper plates with the goodie bags. 

Hafiya was undecided on the theme for her birthday cake, as at first she wanted Dora (we already did this during her first birthday – ordered a Dora Victoria Sandwich cake from Canteksekali), next she wanted a Barbie cake and finally she wanted a My Little Pony (MLP) Cake. As a result, I combine her birthday cake with Dora and MLP’s theme. Teehehe!

 Assorted sandwiches prepared by yours truly :P

(woke up at 4.30am to prepare those sandwiches)

Mommy’s kiss for the birthday girl *love*

Photo was taken by her Abah :D

Photo was taken by her teacher.

Happy 4^th birthday to our lil princess Hafiya!

May Allah bless and keep you safe, guide you along life’s way and

shower with all goodness surround you.

Ameen.

A Quick Updates After 3 Months

It has been 3 months since I last posted something in here and I still did not finish my updates on my travelogue: SYDNEY – QUEESNTOWN (cries!).

The truth is – my assistance was on maternity leave and a few new projects / portfolios were coming in, so I had to handle eeeveryythinggg (cries a river!) from A – Z; from I don’t know nothing to I master everything. Tehee. Because sometimes, we just passed to our assistance(s) to check on this or that and get back to us and please finish this and that by using our sample and copy this or that. So thank God, banyak yang saya pelajari in the last 3 months.

And even though my assistance was on leave, I got 1 chambering student and 3 practical students to help me out. They were very good and so dedicated in helping me with my so called never ending work. (Hmmmphh)

The kids are growing up very fast. Too much updates on them. Khayra got number one in her mid-term exam (it was my best birthday present ever as we got to know the result one day before I was turning a year older and I cried when I saw her online result because I couldn't believe it myself) and ranked number one in her batch. We never expected on this sebab memang tahu she improves a lot from her previous test, Alhamdulillah, syukur Ya Allah. She claimed her present from ToysRUs after I promised that she can get ANYTHING - yes, no limitation on prices as we always do that (price screening :P) if they wanted to buy toys (I’d swear it was only a joke!) if she gets good results (read: number one) in her exam. Lesson learnt - never underestimate your child / children and don’t simply promise anything in the first place. Bahahaha! Hafiya could read a simple word / sentence / iqra and she is very talkative nowadays. Alhamdulillah.

Will continue soon, insyaAllah.

Have a good day!

Day 5: Queenstown, NZ

DAY 5: 17.03.2016

(QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND)

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark”. – John Muir

My husband and I woke up super early in the morning sebab dah buat booking with NZone Skydiving, Queenstown for Skydiving and the check in was scheduled at 7am. It took about 15 minutes from Wakatipu House to NZone office at Shotover Street. This time, kami tak menaruh harapan tinggi sangat sebab sebelum ni dah kecewa 2 kali sebab cuaca tak mengizinkan untuk kami skydive. Doa dalam hati semoga ada rezeki kami kali ini. Both of us went out at 6.30am dan cuaca masih gelap gelita. Syukur juga dah settle dengan urusan minibus dengan jalan curam malam tadi sebab pagi ini pun masih gelap. 

NZone dropzone

We reached at NZone office at 6.50am and dapat parking memang betul-betul tak jauh dari NZone Office and it was P60 (it means free parking for 60 minutes). Bila masuk NZone Office, kami kena check in / register and bayar for our altitude (we chose 9,000 feet memula (NZD299) tapi dapat upgrade to 12,000 feet (original price NZD339) and next kami diberikan borang untuk diisi and went to the briefing room. Dalam briefing room, ada presentation on skydiving, previous experience dan belajar key dari tandem master. Next, kami kena pilih either nak pakej gambar dalam pendrive sahaja atau full package consist of photo album. Ada 3 packages with different prizes. So husband suggested taking for the full package (NZD299 per person / RM868.00) sebab bukan senang kan nak buat skydiving ni. This was a separate payment dari fee Skydiving itself. Teehee. So after dah buat payment dan ada briefing on jalan ke dropzone sebab kami driving sendiri dan tak ikut shuttle sebab plan nak balik seawal yang boleh bila dah habis skydiving. We were informed that the dropzone was 20 minutes away from NZone office.

Tak susah sangat nak cari dropzone (waze tak boleh detect, so staff NZone Office dah bagi printed out map), just kena alert kawasan nak masuk simpang je (read: ada batu besar tulis nombor 786 sebelum simpang masuk ke dropzone. Address: 786, Kingston Road) then akan jumpa terus. Bila sampai kat sana, kita akan kena check in lagi sekali dan akan diberitahu group mana. Macam kami, dapat group No. 3 haritu. So sementara menunggu, kita belek album gambar etc dulu. Next, bila group dah kena panggil, kita akan kena suit up. Ada staff yang akan tolong. Memandangkan diorang nampak I bertudung, maka diorang assigned staff perempuan untuk bantu pakai suit. Bagus sangat. Pagi tu cuaca sejuk menggigil and staff kat situ inform it was 3°C! Sejuk tahap menggigil, bercakap keluar asap semualah (you get what I'm trying to say, righttt?). Next, kita akan on air for interview session, lepas tu berkenalan dengan tandem master and getting ready to get into the plane. 

Perasaan? Frankly speaking, masih lagi banyak perasaan excited kalau nak dibandingkan dengan perasaan nervous. Dan masih lagi berperang dengan cuaca yang menggigil sejuk, maka tak ada sangat perasaan yang betul-betul boleh difikirkan. So bila kami dah dijemput untuk naik plane dan took off sampai altitude yang ditetapkan i.e 12,000 feet and at the moment pintu plane dibuka, barulah rasa ada perasaan:

“Am I really wanted to do this?”

Ya, bila pintu plane buka baru ada rasa cuak sikit, which was too late for that sebab aku orang pertama yang akan terjun! Haha. Dari tadi syok je tengok pemandangan Queenstown dari atas (sambil berzikir Subhanallah indahnya ciptaan Allah), posing bergambar dalam plane, borak dengan suami dan tandem masters, now pintu plane buka baru rasa nervous. Hehe. Memang tak boleh buat apa dah sebab tandem master dah tolak kau ke depan, kaki dah terjulur keluar, kepala kena dongak sikit and then zuppp… your were already out of the plane dari ketinggian 12,000 feet at 200km/h! 

Skydiving together to celebrate our 13^th year of becoming an item! 

(it was exactly yesterday’s date : 16.03.2016)

Masa ni akan berpusing-pusing to stabilize our position and masa free fall you’ll meet your private videographer yang akan minta kau posing macam-macam sehingga tandem master tarik parachute and you’ll be more stable untuk tengok keindahan alam ciptaan Allah. So tandem master akan guide you to the landing area and zuppp, you’ll be landing on earth again. Alhamdulillah. Nanti the videographer akan datang shoot video dan gambar sebelum kita buka suit. Masa terjun tadi, I could see my husband was coming down from the plane and I could see everything clearly tapi bila kita berpusing nak stabilize tadi rasalah macam dizzy. 

Sebenarnya I ada tulis something kat tangan konon nak show off sempena anniversary kami couple (hewhew!) dekat videographer masa buat free fall, tapi sejuk menggigil tak tahan nak buka gloves. Haha. My husband really enjoyed it sampai plan next time nak pergi buat kat lain pula! For me, cukuplah sekali (kot). Hahahah. We cannot imagine the tandem masters did it at least 7 times a day! OH EM GEE!

Perasaan lepas skydiving? – Awesome! (except for the dizzy part). Macam tak percaya pun ada. Both of my parents and PIL (and my besties) still macam kagum kami berani nak buat skydiving ni, especially me! Hehehe.

Bila dah siap bergambar lagi, kami ke minibus and I still feel dizzy. Next, kami sebenarnya kena singgah buat groceries kat Countdown, Queenstown so bila sampai kat Countdown, I went to the toilet and bertapa lama sikit untuk bagi dizzy hilang. Siap kena paksa threw up barulah lega. So next, we did our groceries shopping sepantas kilat sebab nak balik rumah pula for early lunch.

Signage to Wakatipu House.

My man and our rented Thrifty minibus - this was taken at the upper road to Wakatipu House.

From the balcony of Wakatipu House.

Major love. My lil family unit.

Photo shoot at Wakatipu House with the whole entourage. Major, major love.

Photo shoot: freestyle! (except for our parents. Haha!)

Panorama shoot at Wakatipu House.

Bila sampai kat rumah, the kids dah ready and our moms tengah bersiap-siap untuk early lunch. Kami makan besar tengah hari tu sebab dah buat groceries so ada juices, ada fruits, ada salad and lauk-lauk lain. Lepas makan, kami buat photoshoot kat balkoni rumah sebab kami dah booking TSS Earnslaw Steamship and Walter Peak Farm Tour at 2pm. Dah siap with our photoshoot, kami terus bergerak ke Real Journeys dan cari parking. We already bought the tickets online and boleh redeem kat Real Journeys Visitor Centre on Steamer Wharf, Queenstown Bay and must check in 20 mins before departure time.

Memandangkan parking agak susah, kami terpaksa drop dulu semua ahli keluarga at the nearest wharf and kami berdua je pergi cari parking. Alhamdulillah, jumpa 1 parking area across the Cookie Time Shop block and kami kena menapak ke Steamer Wharf, Queenstown Bay. Memandangkan agak kesuntukan masa, terpaksa juga lari-lari marathon dengan husband. Haha. Nasib baik kids and ibubapa dah drop dekat dengan wharf. 

Yours truly, my PIL and my hubs.

At 2pm sharp, cruise bergerak. Kami diterangkan secara ringkas tentang Lady of the Lake (the Twin Screw Steamer steamship cruise) and boleh bergambar kenangan sebab pemandangan sekitar Lake Wakatipu was so amazing. Subhanallah.

From Wikipedia: The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 Edwardian vintage twin screw steamer plying the waters of Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand. It is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Central Otago, and the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere

More info on the TSS Earnslaw Steamship and Walter Peak Farm Tour can be read here.

My beloved parents.

Right after we disembarked from the TSS Earnslaw Steamship Cruise, there will be a tour at the farmyard, boleh feed the sheep, deer and yak. Next kita boleh jalan-jalan and getting up close with the Scottish Highland Cattle and stroll through the lakeside gardens and had our afternoon tea at Colonel’s Homestead. It served the best scones and cakes, variety of juices and tea.

My father and the breathtaking view of Lake Wakatipu from Walter Peak Farm. 

Next, the farmer lead us over to the shearing shed where we can watch the farm dogs rounding up sheep from the hill paddocks and there will be a demonstration on the farmer shear a sheep. Dah habis tengok sheep shearing process, kami diberi peluang untuk beli souvenirs kat kedai berhampiran before boarding the TSS Earnslaw for our cruise back to the Queenstown. The cruise took about 1 hour 30 minutes return and the farm tour took about 2 hours

Watching the farm dogs rounding up sheep from the hill paddocks. 

Sheep shearing demo. 

TSS Earnslaw Steamship Cruise. 

Memandangkan kami parking berhampiran dengan DF Souvenirs, jadi next in line adalah shopping souvenirs. I managed to go to Smiggle and Cookie Time Shop and bought few cookies untuk dibawa balik. Sedap! 

Khayra at Smiggle, Queenstown.

Moms, Hafiya and my lil brother with the balance of our souvenirs sebab first batch dah hantar ke minibus. Hehe. 

Shopping cookies at Cookie Time Shop, Queenstown. 

The Dark Chocolate Caramel is to die for!

Next, kami balik ke rumah tapi on the way tu sempat singgah NZone Office sebab dah boleh collect album skydiving and next kami balik enjoying dinner together at the comfort of our Wakatipu House. We did laundry that night and ada dryer sekali (siap sabun basuh tuan rumah sediakan, thank you Jessi!) and it was very convenient to us.

Day 4: Sydney, Australia - Queenstown, New Zealand

DAY 4: 16.03.2016

(SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND)

“We must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong.” – Anonymous

We woke up early as we had a morning flight to Queenstown, NZ. Dah siap deal dengan Mohamad, our taxi driver from Sydney Airport tempoh hari (c/f: my entry on Day 2). Our flight to Queenstown, NZ via Jetstar was scheduled at 9.40am, so Mohamad suggested to fetch us at 7.00am sebab perjalanan ke airport around half an hour and kalau jem ke apa better sampai awal. Check in counter for international flights Jetstar closed 45 minutes before departure time dan ini berbeza dengan domestic flight yang kami naik last September from Auckland – Christchurch yang check in counter closed 30 minutes before departure time. Since kami dah deal awal, kalini Mohamad charged us AUD100 only.

Mohamad had informed us that his friend yang akan fetch us using the same taxi sebab dia on off day that day and kawan dia nama Subash datang quite early at 6.45am. Memandangkan kami dah siap sedia masa tu, kami terus je check out from Holiday Inn Old Sydney hotel, angkut beg segala ke taxi dan teruskan perjalanan ke airport. Pagi tu hujan renyai-renyai. Kami doa semoga cuaca di NZ elok dan tidak hujan supaya boleh nikmati pemandangan indah nanti. Kami breakfast makan roti je on the go haritu dan disebabkan hujan, maka kenderaan agak packed that morning on the road. Syukur juga kami bertolak awal.

Sampai di airport, kami ambil trolley which cost us AUD4 untuk 1 trolley dan ada mesin untuk bayar dan ambil trolley. Ingat ya kena bayar for trolley. Kami ambil 3 trolley sebab beg agak banyak and consider for 9 people kan.

Kami terus proceed ke counter Jetstar (boleh tengok info for counter number kat papan information sebelum bergerak cari counter for check in). So bila dah jumpa counter for check in, kami pun beratur sebab ada 3 counters tapi semua full. Tiba-tiba ada seorang staff Jetstar ni yang agak berusia datang approach kami dan tanya pasal check in dan tanya condition my FIL, so dia terus minta proceed ke kaunter di mana dia sendiri yang handle to check us in. Bagus sangat kadar perihatin masyarakat di Sydney ini. Rezeki kami lah pagi tu dapat priority check in dan dengan staff pangkat lagi tinggi (berdasarkan pemerhatian kami sebab another staffs yang bertugas di 3 kaunter lain memakai pakaian lain sikit dari staff yang handle kami serta semua staff lain yang menyapa dia adalah more polite than usual). After dah check in (ambil masa sedikit sebab system diorang kena tukar surname dalam passport kami), kami diberitahu untuk terus ke boarding hall dan isi Departure Cards (sebab international flights).

Gambar blur tapi nak tunjuk that Jetstar staff (counter tengah) yang very helpful to us dan bagi kami priority check in :D

Dah siap isi semua, kami masuk boarding hall, kena screening di mana semua liquid termasuk ubat, dispenser susu dan air dalam Thermos kena keluarkan dan letak dalam bakul. Meaning, semua ini tak boleh berada dalam beg masa screening process. Dah siap, kami terus menuju ke pintu pelepasan.

Flight kami dari Sydney ke Queenstown, NZ mengambil masa selama 2 jam 55 minit dan kami tak tempah apa-apa makanan on board sebab dah plan nanti sampai terus makan. Kami diberikan Arrival Card untuk diisi.

Average weather in Queenstown, NZ - March, 2016

We safely landed in Queenstown Airport at 2.35pm waktu tempatan (Queenstown). Turun je flight, dah sejuk nyaman sebab cuaca dalam 14°C. Masa jejak semula kaki kat NZ tu kan, I couldn’t tell my exact feeling masa tu. Semua ada. Rasa syukur sangat boleh kembali semula ke sini with all my beloved family members especially with my parents and my PIL. Syukur sangat diberi peluang boleh bawa diorang tengok sendiri keindahan alam di bumi NZ ciptaan Yang Esa. When we were in NZ last September, we prayed that one day we could bring both of our parents here with us (sebab rasa terkilan sangat tak bawa masa bulan September tu, tapi ada hikmah juga at least kami boleh survey tempat dulu and we feel that motorhome is not suitable for them). Banyakkan berdoa ketika musafir, the least that you can do while exploring the world milik Allah. It reminds you how small you are dengan apa yang Allah ciptakan. Allahuakbar.

Syukurnya dapat kembali ke NZ with my beloveds big family :D

Queenstown, New Zealand Airport.

Sebelum kita keluar ke Arrival terminal, kita akan kena melepasi immigration and custom check. Again, we were lead to the priority lane untuk express immigration check and custom check. Masa kat custom, when we were lining up, the custom officer upon checking our Arrival Cards bertanya tentang prohibited items or fruits with us. Bila terdengar fruits, my abah (yang beratur belakang sekali dalam group kami) terus teringat ada pisang dalam hand carry dia yang supposed to be eaten at Sydney Airport sebelum ke boarding hall konon-konon nak makan sementara tunggu nak berlepas. Terus abah berlari ambil pisang dari dalam hand carry beg dan cari tong sampah untuk buang. Panik juga kami sebab kalaulah ditakdirkan tak ingat pasal pisang nan satu itu (yes, sebijik je pun), free je kami kena bayar fine of NZD400 that day. Alhamdulillah, semua selamat! That officer siap cakap to us “Oh, he should just give it to me (instead of throwing it away).” Manalah tahu kan, dah gelabah sekejap. Tehehee. Next, kena screening all luggage dan tunjukkan Arrival Cards. Tips: make sure declare everything.

Ini part ada drama jugak. Kami ada a few luggage and memang purposely pack 1 beg yang only for foods. Kiranya beg lain adalah beg pakaian masing-masing and other stuffs. So bila part screening luggage ni, tiba part beg yang ada food tu, kena tahan untuk further check up (it is their policy untuk check semua barangan yang berunsur makanan). So bila semua beg lain dah lepas, we asked our parents, my brother and kids to go straight to the arrival terminal and husband and I will go for the further check up purposes.

So beg makanan kami kena buka. When the assigned staff came and met us, the very first question he asked, “Oh, I need the chef here.” Haha, buat lawak pulak. Orang dahlah tengah berzikir supaya semua dipermudahkan dan semoga kami dilepaskan dengan semua makanan (read: tak ada yang kena buang, hold or kena denda, gulp!). So we went through a brief and friendly interview, staff tu ada belek-belek sikit makanan and kami dilepaskan. Alhamdulillah, semua selamat. Actually NZ memang strict bab bawa makanan even yang dah commercially packed. Basically hampir semua passenger kena buka beg untuk further screening kalau bawa food. Tapi we were lucky masa last time di Auckland and Christchurch, both tak kena buka beg, just went through a friendly interview je dengan customs.

When my husband and I went out to the Arrival Terminal and jumpa family, semua ucap syukur sebab diorang pun actually sangat cuak bila kami kena tinggal dengan beg makanan tersebut dan semua doa banyak-banyak supaya kami semua smooth sailing. Hehe. Drama lah kan, tapi akan jadi memory for us nanti.

Thrifty Counter at Queenstown Airport - International Arrival.

Siap dengan file merah acik bawa. Kihkih :P

So next, since we already booked transportation via online and paid 10% for deposit booking and full insurance cover (tips: adalah lebih baik ambil pakej full insurance cover for peaceful of mind) and the pickup would be at the airport itself, we went to search for our car rental counter. Memang sengaja pilih yang pick up kat airport (rather than have to wait for shuttle to pick us and go to the outside airport terminal for rental transportation) memandangkan kami dengan beg banyak (it would be quite hassle kalau nak loading and unloading kalau ada shuttle), group ramai dan ada anak-anak kecil serta warga emas with us, so it is more convenient untuk terus ambil kat airport. Keluar je dari custom clearance tu, jalan sikit dan dah boleh nampak Thrifty Counter sebelah kiri. Kami terus settle bayar baki booking, pilih car seat (sebab actually masa booking dalam website, hanya ada option for booster seat, which was too big for our children, so kat kaunter boleh tukar ambil car seat), signed a few rental documents, ambil GPS and we were good to go. 

Thrifty Counter - settled up balance of payment, signed rental agreements, picked up car seat and GPS.

Sebelum ke area Rental Car di kawasan airport tersebut (kena jalan about less than 10 minutes), kami pergi beli simkad Vodafone di counter sebab basically tak boleh guna yang Australia punya sebab different region. So after that baru kami ke area Rental Car untuk cari our transport according to the registration/plat number. Kami sewa Toyota Hi-Ace Automatic 12-seater yang dikenali sebagai ‘minibus’ kat NZ. Bila sampai area Rental Car tu, kita kena mencari kereta yang telah parking siap-siap according to the rental company. Macam kami, perlu cari di area ‘Thrifty’ dan cari plat number kereta. Lepas dah loading semua luggage and set GPS, destination pertama kami adalah pergi makan di Queenstown town area.

Memandangkan perbezaan waktu antara Sydney, Australia dengan Queenstown, New Zealand about 2 hours, walaupun kami baru nak lunch di Queenstown, waktu tu dah dekat pukul 5.00pm dah di Queenstown. Yelah, walaupun kami tiba dari Sydney jam 2.35pm kan ada banyak drama dan check point kami sebelum boleh naik minibus/car rental untuk ke town area tadi. Hehe. Jarak dari Queenstown airport to town area adalah less than 20 minutes. Again, tak boleh nak explain how I feel masa perjalanan ke town area tu, rasa overwhelmed sangat. All the familiar places and roads, cuma bezanya dulu naik Motorhome and only with my husband and kids, now naik minibus disertai dengan both sides of parents and my younger brother. Alhamdulillah, syukur dapat kembali lagi ke sini.

We went to O’Connell’s Mall Food Court and makan di Turkish Kebabs (Halal) and parking tak jauh dari The Mall dengan charge bayaran parking bermeter NZD2 for one hour (until 6pm kena bayar). Lepas dah kenyang, plan asal kami adalah singgah terus di DF Souvenirs yang tak jauh dari situ untuk shopping souvenirs, tapi memandangkan dah nak dekat pukul 6pm dan kami belum solat, maka semua setuju untuk terus ke homestay kami dulu dan skip shopping souvenirs.

Queenstown Mall

Kami booking homestay kami melalui Airbnb dan terjumpa rumah area Lake Wakatipu, which could accommodate 10 people with 4 bedrooms and 2 toilets and known as “Wakatipu House”. Jarak dari town area to Wakatipu House dalam 15 minutes drive. Along the way, kami menyusuri Lake Wakatipu dan sempat bergambar sekejap tepi jalan untuk kenangan. Masa tu sejuk menggigil di New Zealand berbanding di Sydney yang cuaca panas although it was already autumn.

Maybe I should make a special entry on Wakatipu House (yes, I owe an entry on motorhome itself too, sigh).

Area Lake Wakatipu to our rented house, Wakatipu House.

Sampai je Wakatipu House, kami agak cuak sebab parking kat depan rumah tu macam kena melalui jalan ke bawah yang agak curam and we were never be warned about this entrance condition of the road by the owner. Huwaaa, nak nangis pun ada sebab berdebar sangat nak turun tu dengan minibus. Tapi kalau parking kat atas tu (since it was our first time), kami risau pulak nak turun dan fikir abah (FIL) dengan wheelchair lagi. Tapi my husband cool je drive sampai depan rumah. Alhamdulillah, semua selamat dan kami masuk rumah tu dengan kekaguman sebab ya Allah subhanallah sungguh cantik sekali pemandangan dari balcony, keadaan rumah yang sungguh besar, bersih dan cantik sangat. Allahuakbar. Alhamdulillah rezeki kami dipertemukan dengan rumah ini menerusi medium Airbnb (it was our first time too using Airbnb).  

Balcony area at Wakatipu House - sooooo breathtaking :D 

Our bedroom :D

So lepas semua dah solat, kami tinjau-tinjau sekeliling rumah dan memandangkan cuaca dah agak gelap, tak banyak bergambar petang tu. Kami masak nasi dan makan lauk instant je malam tu.

Lepas Maghrib, kami keluar ke balcony dan rezeki kami Alhamdulillah boleh nampak Milky Way right above of our balcony. Cantik tak terperi, subhanallah. Cantiknya kejadian Allah SWT yang menjadikan seluruh alam. Tapi sayangnya tak ada gambar sebab kamera tak canggih dan keadaan yang gelap menjadikan gambar tak nampak as what we had witnessed by our own eyes. Yes, we did several attempts to take pictures, but tak ada rezeki secara bergambar.

At about 8.45pm, kami bercadang nak ke Countdown sebab nak shopping for groceries untuk memasak. So mama and abah (my PIL) decided not to follow, jadi yang lain bersiap dan dalam kesejukan malam, kami naik minibus and try to drive up to the exit road (curam, remember? Huhu). Tapi setelah cuba a few times nak naik jalan ke exit road atas, kami tak berjaya. Saya dah cuak sangat-sangat-sangat sebab macam mana nak driving up tu kalau Hazri yang paling professional driver among us pun tak berjaya (huwaaaa!) macam manalah calon lain nak tolong drive? Memang nak menangis dah rasa. Macam-macam terfikir dalam kepala sampai tahap nak call assistance, tow truck, crane dan sebagainya. At last, kami memang cancelled plan to Countdown while my abah, my brother and Hazri try lagi to drive up. Sampai bau hangit kesan tayar semua. Next, kita semua bersetuju nak tunggu hari cerah sikit to try again or calling for assistance.

Tapi Hazri tak boleh duduk diam sebab dia kata we already booked an early slot for skydiving (yes, our third attempts after the previous two attempts were failed due to the weather condition last September. You may read my entries here and here on our attempts for Skydiving last September), so kalau tak buat malam ni, memang we have to cancel the skydiving slot tomorrow (and had to pay in full with Nzone Skydiving sebab dah buat online booking! Sobs). So abah, my brother and Hazri went out to try again, guna lower gear, siap dengan lampu suluh (using handphones) and alhamdulillah berjaya! Masa ni syukur sangat Alhamdulillah eventhough kami para ibu pada mulanya tak setuju untuk teruskan mencuba dimalam hari sebab keadaan sangat gelap. Phewww. Baru boleh tidur lena malam tu.

All in all, after what we have been through here, I totally agreed with this quote:

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart, but that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind”. – Anthony Bourdain.