Photobook Melbourne-New Zealand Part 1

Dah sampai yeay! 1 lagi in production. Pb paling pantas siap...tepat2 deadline met walaupun voucher lamat lg expired...sendri yg letak pon deadline nyer..apa2 task wajib ada deadline betul tak. Barula gigih dan komited gitu. Stay up sampai 2am..mcm wat assemen MBA tau..mujur takde markah jer :)

Hasilnya biasa2 jer..tp dah cukup cun di mata akak yg mmg x kreatip nih akaka. Cover x cukup vibrant la pulak...lesson learnt nx time kena pilih gambo cun2 sket..ohh kalo la ada lagi 'nx time' tu hikss

Ok so now yg masih pending:
1.  PB 6x6'
2. 150 pcs of 4R prints

...dan misi mencari album gambar!

Selamat Tahun Baru semua!

Saya dan Ammar dah viral fever masuk hari ke5..harap2 senin dah recover. Akak bersemangat nk jejak kaki ke Menara nih..rindu! Doakan kami cpt sihat yer..tq.

Moga rakan2 semua sentiasa sihat dn dipelihara olehNya selalu. Moga segala impian menjadi kenyataan.

Impian saya mmg byk. Tak larat nk buat wish list. Tapi pengajaran paling berharga yg sy dpt tahun ni...bila semua ahli keluarga sihat, that is more than suffice...and is my definition of happiness. Saya x kaya harta benda...tapi apa yg Allah bagi setakat ini mmg dah cukup membahagiakan saya. Punya keluarga dan rakan2 tersayang yg sentiasa di sisi during my ups n downs.
Terima kasih Ya Allah.

I can see 2016 will be more challenging. Its idlan's big year, and of course lots of unexpected things accompany our journey with Irfan, which i dare not to say or think right now. I just hope we can embrace it together with full strengths n positive minds, believing that whatever happens is the best thing that Allah has planned for us.

Title psl pb tapi jauh dh melalut.
I should've become a full time blogger instead of keje ofis kan hikss

Photobooking with love

Ewahh with love la sangat, padahal nk siapkn sebiji pun dh keluh kesah dan stress amats.

Mcm buat assignment mba dulu2, bila ada deadlines (in tis case voucher expiry) dan sendiri nekad nk siapkan before masuk keja, dudukla mengadap benda ni siang mlm. Semlm stay up smpi kol 1am. Pagi ni 3 jam straight, then 11.45am baru masak lunch. Sakit pinggang duk lama x bergerak. Extra komited gitu!

1 dh berjaya upload. Rasanya pb terpantas pernah dihasilkan seumur hidup kikiki. So ada lagi 1 buku (part 2) dan 50pcs 4R prints utk disiapkan.

Berusahalah!

Day 2: Great Ocean Road (GOR) - Mel CBD

Our routes for today: 
Port Campbell - Melbourne airport via coastal route along the GOR
The route is longer than the inland scenic route via Colac, a little bit winding and buat members pening kepala but the view along the GOR is really breathtaking. Memang tak boleh bawak laju, so kuar awal pagi, lewat ptg baru sampai Mel CBD padahal tak sampai 300km pun.

Pit stops:
Port Campbell - London Arch (formerly London Bridge) - few other scenic spot in PC which i forgot to jot down their names - Apollo Bay - Aireys Inlet park - Split Point Lighthouse - return car rental at Apex office - Melbourne Tullamarine Airport

Brekkie: Nasi goreng Adabi
Lunch: Nasi putih + kari ayam yeos @ Apollo Bay
Dinner: Nandos, Melbourne Airport

We couldn't find koala at the Kennett River. Pasrah jela, dulu dah penah jumpa koala kat Perth kan :)
Nevertheless we spotted 4 wild kangaroos at the Aireys Inlet playground area.

21 Nov 2015 @ 00:15 - took our connecting flight to CHC via Jetstar Airways.

Ok dah malas nk tulis panjang2...layan gambar jela yer :)

Summers Rest Unit, PC

Port Campbell

London Arch (formerly London Bridge before it collapsed)

Apollo Bay

Split Point Lighthouse

The 'what's in your bag' game

Mommy punyer:
Handphone
Maybeline compact powder
Laneige Cc cream
Nature republic eco crayon botanical lipstick
Eye liner
Laneige multicleanser & gel cream (sbb once sampai airport terus jln seharian, mlm baru check in hotel)
Pen hitam
Minyak cap kapak
Vicks inhaler
Sunny
Duit syiling oz
Ponstan - wajib ada spare sentiasa!
Ubat selsema
Hand socks - utk solat n extra coverage kalo sejuk sgt!

Si tecik punyer:
Baju n suar spare sepasang
Baby wipes
Pampers 2
Tisu
Bib - budak ni air liur byk x hingat
Cap
Favourite toys - boboiboy, fish, rattle

Thanks to cik abe yg sgt understanding. Dlm pada mama tgh survey sling bag Kipling senyap2, tiba2 dia bwk blk Adidas pink ni. Sgt memahami, some more pink is my favourite color. Tq babah :)

Sling ni x besar and x kecik sgt. Just nice utk bwk travel. Kali ni purposely takmo bwk sling besar, nnt byk plak muatan. Nk carry si tecik dlm Ergobaby lagi..mau cramp bahu hoho. Yang syiok beg ni ada 2 main zippered compartment, 2 open pockets n 1 zippered pocket inside and 2 zippered pockets outside. Material mcm water resistant, kain x nmpk kotor, letak atas jln raya pon x nmpk comot :p Paling penting, rege mampu milik hikss

Bila penat sgt, cik abe n Idlan bergilir bwk sling ni walaupun kaler pink hehe

Day 1: 19 Nov 2015 (Mel - GOR)

Parked our car at Putrajaya Sentral (RM7/day) and later took an ERL to KLIA2. 

Flight time: 2230 on 18th Nov (kids ponteng sekolah)
Arrived Tullamarine Airport at 0920 on the 19th next morning. I couldnt slept well during the 8hr journey. Both hands and legs were cramped, penangan riba si tecik nih, plus sejuk yg amat dlm flight.

Immigration process was such a nightmare. Very long queue. It took ages before the counter officer let us go bec of confusion with our name/surname btwn the ETA and passports. Nama org melayu kn pelik sket, they shud hv gotten themselves familiarize with M'sian! Food langsung x check. Alhamdulillah.

Took a shuttle van to Apex car rental office. Another dreaded hours of waiting before we could finally get our car. Hubby wished we could get an Estima instead of Imax, but surprisingly driving Imax was much better according to him. Rent a Gps, 1 car seat and 1 booster as well. However Irfan didnt use the car seat at all, nk melekap je ini budak, mujur takde polis hikss

Our route:
Mel airport - Great Ocean Road (234km) via inland route, lalu Colac (ladang lembu jawa)

Pit stops - Westfield Geelong for lunch, the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, Gibson Steps

Brekkie: in flight AA meals
Lunch: beriyani & nan set ($12) and kebab & chips set ($16-18, super large and sedappp sgt malangnye x amik pic) at westfield mall food court. Big portion for 1 meal, can be shared with 2 person.
Solat: the Twelve Apostles i center (solat kt luar tu jer)

Notes: minyak isi penuh siap2 kt Mel CBD, sila beli ice coffee n chips..sumer sedap bangat!

My favourite attraction sudah semestinya Loch Ard Gorge. Truly amazing. Wajib pegi.

Checked in hotel around Maghrib. Sgt penat. Hence we had maggi kari and leftover kebab je for dinner. Alhamdulillah.

Our hotel in Melbourne and South Island New Zealand

Below is our hotel/motel list in Mel and NZ for reference. All hotels in NZ comes with kitchen and complete utensils as we wanted to minimize eating out as much possible.

Day 1: Summers Rest Unit, Port Campbell, Melbourne - 3 Bedroom House, AUD210
Day 2: Nil. In a flight to Chc.
Day 3: High Country Lodge, Twizel - 2 Bedroom Suite, NZD195
Day 4 & 5: Caples Court, Queenstown - 1 Bedroom Apartment, NZD420
Day 6: Alpine View Motel, Te Anau - Family Apartment, NZD177.50
Day 7 & 8: Beach Lodge Motel, Dunedin - 2 Bedroom Apartment, NZD340
Day 9: Ferry Motel, Christchurch - 1 Bedroom Apartment, NZD150
Day 10: Ibis Budget Melbourne CBD - Quadruple Room, AUD179

I will post some of the hotel pics in the upcoming entries together with our itinerary & activities. All hotels were booked from booking.com with 'free cancellation' policies except Ibis Budget, which was booked last minute, paid full and non-refundable. Ibis Budget doesnt have in-room kitchen facilities, as we didnt plan to cook on our last day. We were lucky for our room was upgraded from 2 sets of bunk beds to 2 bunk beds + 1 queen. Probably the owner was pity seeing all of us arrived to check in at 1am, i bet we were his last guests for that day!

My favourite picks amongst all - Caples Court and Beach Lodge Motel. These 2 are highly recommended. Beach Lodge is very spacious, comfy beds, nice deco, free wifi and yes it has a bath tub which the kids enjoyed it to the fullest including Irfan! Near St Kilda beach as advertised by the property, but not that near actually as u need to drive to the beach. Jalan kaki mau semput haha. The owner was kind enough to put our washed clothes into his big dryer and had it settled for 20 min only, as the other two in the guest laundry room took ages to finish haha

Caples Court is very expensive (well majority hotels in Queenstown is expensive since it is a top spot among tourist in South Island), but worth paying. Kids loved its sofabed very much, which can be transformed into a huge queen bed. Good location, nice deco, comfy beds, owner was very friendly and helpful. But parking space was so limited and parking your car was a big challenge. And oh free wifi up to 5Gb per day. Menarik kan! If you want to save a little, go stay at Arrowtown as it is only half an hour drive from Queenstown.

Summers Rest Unit - Very huge and spacious. Super large kitchen and bathroom. Nevertheless we were too tired already and arrived quite late, hence no time to enjoy all the good things about this hotel.

High Country Lodge - Spacious. The main bedroom is too large even for the 4 of us. Sgt selesa kesimpulannya. Large bathroom. Very ample parking space. Close to High Country Salmon.

Paling nampak tak cantik sbb deco agak old fashion rasanya Ferry Motel dan Alpine View Motel. Harga pun murah kan tp ada free wifi hikss. Wifi kat Alpine View agak semput, maybe due to its geographical constraint. Owner muka agak grunge dan garang mcm dlm citer koboi, siap pesan kalo masak dan ada bau yg agak extreme cth macam kari, dia akan charge kita! Lucky our dinner menu for that night was grilled chicken burger hikss

Ibis Budget even though is a budget hotel, surprisingly its toilet is huge and the beds are super comfy. Mmg recommended. Further its main plus point is that you can store all your bags at its storage room for AUD6 only. Sgt murah okey! Sempat jugak kami tumpang solat dekat kitchen area ptg tu before naik tram to Southern Cross Station utk naik Skybus ke Tullamarine airport.

We paid cash for all the hotels, except High Country Lodge since we arrived outside the checking in hours and Ibis Budget (since the reservation made is non-refundable). Why cash and not cc? Maybank cc is charging 2.25% for overseas transaction fees (pls use Bank Islam cc as it offers ZERO transaction fees!!) A budget traveller like us surely wanted to save as much as possible, further a big chunk of our total cost goes to accommodations (i'll share the cost breakdown maybe on my last entry). So why pay extra unnecessarily when u can save a little and route that money to shopping instead? :)

And pls pls pls book early. Trust me the savings can be really significant. Tapi kalau rela nak bayar mahal silakanlah haha

Next action - prepare the itinerary and book the accomodations

The toughest n most challenging part in any vacation is drafting the itinerary. It took months before we can finalize our iti, and yet there were still changes few days before the travel date.

Our iti was mostly based on references made fr the official nz/oz site, bloggers, n cari forum. I said 'our' because it was a shared iti, based on shared input fr the NZ gals (it was our whatsapp group name involving the girls only). I sometimes referred to trip advisor for certain attractions, just to get ideas whether those places are worth going/paying or not.

Once we came out with a solid iti, we then started hunting for accomodations. All of my hotels were booked fr booking.com, simply because of its 'free cancellation' policy. As such, we can always change and cancel our hotel as n when there are changes to our iti, which happened so many times with lots of version n options haha

Pls book early if u want to enjoy good prices. I started doing the reservation somewhere early this yr, however i cancelled all the bookings when Irfan was warded in the hospital and going to NZ seems to stay as a dream only.

Nevertheless, Allah is the best of planner. When Irfan's condition seems to be improving, i started to put hopes n envisioned us, going to nz.

So in late July-August, i rebooked all the accomodations, again. All the hotel prices have increased quite a lot fr the 1st time i made the booking. Pasrah jela. The fact that we made it to the trip is good enough already, alhamdulillah.

So where did we stay in Mel and NZ and how much did it costs us?

Till my nx entry, stay tuned peeps.

Cheap tickets to New Zealand

First n foremost, our trip is called a budget trip. Hence as budget travellers, opting for a direct flight to Auckland via MAS is a big no-no for the 6 of us (2 adults, 3 kids, 1 infant).

We bought our tickets on Nov last yr during AA free seats promo (see as budget travellers we also need to wait for a year to materialize our dream! Bertabahlaaa). We chose to transit via Melbourne, Australia for 1 day before taking the next flight to Christchurch (CHC). Alternatively you can also opt to transit at Gold Coast/Sydney/Perth, whichever is giving you the best promo price :)

Our ticket for Kul-Mel is as below:

Ticket for 5pax - RM687/pax (incl processing fees of RM80)
Infant tix return - RM250
Luggage 30kg return - RM258
Meals for 5pax - RM75
*flight duration: approx 8hrs

Once our tix for Mel is secured, the hunting for a connecting flight to NZ begins! I subscribed to Jetstar and its price watch, so that i'll be keep updated with its promo. Jetstar always has promo on Friday, so on one fine Friday somewhere in Feb 2015 we grabbed a cheap tix for Mel-Chc at Aud195/pax. Infant tix is foc :) 1 month before the travelling date i bought the luggage. Flight duration is 3hrs++.

Tips: pls buy the luggage when u book the tix as it is cheaper than buying it later. Lesson learnt for me :(

Summary for the all-in tix Kul-Mel-Chc-Mel-Kul as below:

Kul-Mel return: Rm3435.29
Infant tix AA: Rm250
AA luggage 30kg return : Rm258
AA meals 5 pax : Rm75
Mel-Chc return: Aud977.20
Luggage 30kg return: Aud154

* I didnt buy seats for both AA and Jetstar, and we were lucky to be seated in 1 row for all flights :) For ref AA seat selection is rm39, jetstar Aud5. Giler mahal AA kan!

Total tix for 6 of us = RM7353.15

Super cheap isnt it :)

Now go n sign up for AA and Jetstar member. For those travelling outside the school holidays, am sure u can catch a better bargain for both flights. Untung la korang yg single2 tuh :)

Oh another thing, Jetstar is also a budget airline. If u're looking for comfort n wants to travel in style, jetstar is definitely not for u. Anyway, AA is way better than Jetstar. Jetstar is super sempit, sape2 yg tinggi sgt tu mahu cramp kaki sepjg flight haha. Other flights option to NZ are Air NewZealand (kul-auckland via MAS -queenstown), China Airlines, and many others which i couldnt recall.

Melbourne-New Zealand Trip Nov 2015

Alhamdulillah, we were back, safe and sound. Kids are healthy, no so-called bad experiences occured, and we came back with lots of beautiful memories that we shall treasured all the time.

I think i'll need so many separate entries to record our 12 days journey, meanwhile these are some teasers for you to enjoy.