The First station in NZ is Ashley Homestay, A lovely warmly homestay~
Here was a really lovely place to start my NZ Journey, the host, Amy is really lovely person!
There were also many Asian, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia whv here~
We could exchange a lot a infromation here…
The most thankful thing was Amy provide 1GB internet data per week! (It’s really big in NZ~)
Cost: 120 NZD/week
I almost stay for another week here~
Beside, the closest town, Botany Town Center was only located 500m away…
Inside the town, you can open IRD account, Bank Account and buy stuff (New World, Pack’nSave, Count Down are located here)
If you were a walker, you can reach a China Town and Second Hand Shop (Family Store aka The Salvation Army)
For Backpackers, second hand shop was a great place to buy travel stuff!
shoes 2 NZD, cloth 4-10 NZD
Unfortunately this family store has less shoes, I still couldn’t find my trekking shoes~
But here was a little bit far away from Auckland City and some famous points…
All of these place only can go by bus or car, and the bus fee in NZ was expensive!
But they were selling one day pass, which provide unlimited trip in 1 day for only about 16 NZD.
So you can travel all the place in one day, since there are not much view points in Auckland too…
Beside waiting for my IRD number and Bank Card, I spent my day on thinking what to eat~
Out Topic: Actually the Bank card aka Eftpos is very convenient on buying stuff.
It is because the normal counter was providing service for buyer with 12 items or more…
And the others just when to self-check-out counter to make their payment by themselves~
But only card payment accepted.
So I had to queue at the normal counter .
(But sometimes local kiwi will give turn when they saw you buy a little stuff)
On topic:
About eat, that was always a truth: Self cook was the cheapest~
if self-cooked, 1 meal could be less than 3 NZD…
but the problem was shop always sell in bundle, so it’s hard to achieve self-cook since I was alone and staying for short term.
(For instance I brought the smallest pack of rice, 1kg, and only eaten 1/3 for 3 meals, the remain I had to left it in homestay for easy travel)
If eating outside, the cheapest is above 5 NZD, and the cheapest was fast food… (except Pizzu Hut, 4.90 NZD)
What after eat was play~
Since it’s a city, there was cinema, library too…(But I am not going since they can found in Malaysia)
But there were also some good scene in the City!
Because in NZ they will partition some area as reserved area~
They built up filtration pond (avoid waste flow into sea), and modified it to a lovely pond with fishes and ducks…
The reserve I go today:
A original mountain area, a good city view…
Unfortunately the weather is cloudy, no blue sky~
First try on 360 degree panorama (because of zoom-in, there are 20 degree more)
Hard to shot self-portrait with the absent of tripod…
Time to introduce my camera——Olympus TG-2 (spent a lot of money…)
And brought a Octopus Tripod from E-bay… (Thanks God it arrived just before i go…)
On Topic:
The mountain was same as Canada Hill in Miri…
I saw a lot of Local Kiwi came here for jog…
And 80% of them brought their doggies as well~
The lady below brought 3 doggies and 1 more on her hand!
Beside wonderful view, (felt more nature with the large field of grass)
There is a more advantage, no mosquito!
I can walk slowly and enjoy the view, without racing with the moquito~
After some walk, finally see the sheep in NZ!
Road specially for horse
The wind over here was big and cold…
But the people over here won’t get sick after sweat and blew by the cool breeze~
A good view for my Lunch~
There were almost walkway here…
And some Bush walks, but it’s only some staircase…
Compare to Canada Hill in Miri, its much more easier~
Nest Fern was always found injungle
Flower across the road after my hill walk…
(One more advantage of Olempus TG-2, up to 1cm super Macro Focus)
There are some familiar flowers too~
Next destination was their filter pond…
A park beside the pond equipped with gym equipment~
Luckily I bring some bread, could use it to lure a lot of Pukeko and Duck over here…
(Pukeko was like Malaysia “Mikai”, could see it over the street, but it swim-able~)
Wanna take a walk to beach after a rest…
But gave up because of laziness, hunger and bad weather~
Lastly I regretted because the weather turned almost prefect!
The sky was full with the golden light ray!
If now I was at the beach, I should able to shot a more beautiful sunset than Miri~
At least I able shot some photo around Ashley HomeStay…
Because of lacking travel fund
I had to end my day in Ashley Homestay…
Next station will be working in Tauranga/Tepuke
Thanked God for bringing me to such a lovely place to start my journey…
Hope I’ll be able to return this home again for my return trip!
Pray hard for my journey because pocket is getting empty!
