Buddha Day Festival @ Melbourne

Headed to the Buddha's Day & Multicultural Festival at Federation Square on a beautiful day with the sun out at 19 degrees. Doubt we will get many days as beautiful as this in the coming weeks as gloomy and cold winter is approaching.

So today was the day that Buddha gets bathed. A symbol of inner purification, the tradition is said to assist with the purgation of sins.. A universal message that "It's simple to wash away physical dirt but it's much more difficult to cleanse one's inner dirt of greed, anger and ignorance". I learned something new today

Bathing the Buddha

Even performers had to take advantage of this weather


It's all about Vegetarian food today

Going WAHHHH! at New Zealand South Island

It was a spontaneous trip which we decided in 3 days. Was deciding on South or North island and thanks to Sim, Jason, Victor, Julian and other friends which gave us some solid suggestions, we made our decision to tour around South Island in 11 days. Just an advice, if you would like to travel to South Island, please make sure you have at least 16 days to tour around as 11 days was just not enough to see and explore.

Without hesitating with such limited time, we booked tickets with Pacific Blue, 10 days car rental and our 1st night at Christcurch.. The rest is history!

Spectacular views from the plane. When I first looked outside, was wondering what's that. After a second I went "WAHHH!!!". Justin laughed at me..hahaha..

Our pad for the 1st night at YHA Hostel in Christchurch .. Here's the common kitchen with full facilities

Punting at Christchurch. I was just amazed at how freshly green their leaves and grass are as compared to Melbourne. Check out the different shades of green.

ANZ Bank Chambers

The City of Christchurch.. Errr.. this was on Friday evening. Where's everyone??!!

We left Christchurch the following day and headed to Lake Tekapo. This was caught at one of our toilet stops on the way. So colourful!

The views while driving. How to sleep?! I went "WAHHHH WAHHHHH WAHHH!" Can you see the snowy mountains? My pictures don't do much justice, you have got to buy your air ticket and see for yourselves.

Another "WAHHHHHH!! SO BLUEE".. We have arrived at Lake Tekapo!! This is just a glimpse

Lake Tekapo turquoise-blue glacier lake. I couldn't believe my eyes how blue this lake is. The water is derived from ground glacial rock suspended in the water. and it's very very cold. When we were there, the water was 6 degrees celsius. If you fall in there, you only have 10 minutes to get out of the water as hypothermia would be a major concern. BRRRR!
This was where part of the Lord of the Rings battle was filmed.
Why is the water of Lake Tekapo turquoise?
The majority of water flowing into the headwaters of Lake Tekapo comes from large river systems that extend right back into the valleys of the Southern Alps. Feeding these rivers are large glaciers. Glaciers are slow moving rivers of ice.
Glaciers start as fallen snow high on the mountain plateaus of the Alps. As more and more snow falls, the weight of the new snow compresses the older layers until it becomes a thick, heavy layer of ice.
Gravity draws the ice from where it formed and down the slopes of the mountains.
Just like water, the ice collects in valleys and pushes its way down the valley, ripping loose rock from the valley walls and trapping it in the moving ice.
Any rock trapped against the sides of the ice flow is ground, with huge force, along the solid rock of the valley floor and walls. Such is the force, the grinding action of rock against rock results in a powder as fine as flour. It is often referred to as glacial flour.
The fine flour is carried with the ice down the valley until the warmth of the lower altitude reduces the ice to water.
In the case of Lake Tekapo, the glacial flour continues its journey in the river waters of the Godley, Cass and Macaulay rivers until it flows into the lake where the majority remains suspended within the water. This results in the turquoise colour.(Extracted from http://www.laketekapo.net.nz/info/index.html)

WAHHHHH!

Just so beautiful

Situated on the shores of Lake Tekapo, the Church of the Good Shepherd was the first church built in 1935. It has breathtaking views and weddings are held here pretty often. 

 View from the top, Lake Tekapo town with approximately 300 residents.  

Viewing Lake Tekapo from the top
On the road. They say there are more sheeps than humans in New Zealand.


 Hot springs next to our hostel. 


View of Lake Tekapo from the car. 





 OH WHAT A FEELING!

OK more pictures to come.. Hang on! Am trying to organise my 1500 pictures and show 2% of it. :P

The Next Bracket

A little update ... I went back to KL for almost 3 weeks, ate like I have never eaten before over the last 7 months and yumcha with friends to cover up the last gossips and updates for the last 7 months that I have missed. Even with 3 weeks, I found that I didn't have enough time to do much.

Went back for my sister's wedding, Ronnie and Eleana's wedding, Azareen's Raya Open House, a failed trekking up to Broga Hill (rained halfway), Full Moon Party (baby party, not rave party)...and of course some shopping filled in.. Didn't take many photos as I was too lazy lugging my camera around.

I celebrated my 30th Birthday in KL with friends, no photos as it's with Lena and Gia Min. Also had a mini celebration here in Melbourne too. Gosh.. Can't believe 30 years has passed by so fast! When you fill in forms, you tick your age either at 20-29, 30 - 39. Am officially in the new bracket!!

Some rundown of photos that I have..

Baby Ashley... so cute

At the bottom of Broga Hill. All semangat, wake up at 6.30am. Unfortunately it rained while we were halfway to the top.

Back in Melb I had a mini b'day celebration bbq at Shaun's apartment. This was the view we had at the bbq pit. Gorgeous!

Masterchef in action. We had King crab, steaks, gourmet sausages, potato salads, salmon and chicken. We went to Costco to buy the food and in the end we bought so much that we stretched our bbq throughout lunch to dinner. Clocked in time = 8 hours of bbq!

accompanied with some poker and beers

love the reflection of the sky on the glass. Thanks for the pic Shaun.


Xie Lynn and I with monkeys at the back

yummy trampoline ice cream cake with 4 flavours from hubby

tengah debating on my wish

At Dainty Szechuan. Had dinner there on my actual birthday night at their new restaurant on Toorak Road. Verdict? It still tastes as good, plus with an enriched new menu and a cleaner restaurant. This is one of their new dish, barbeque chicken with heaps of chilli.

My delicious fruit Cake from Gia Min.

Group picture.. Thanks for the wonderful presents, cakes and dinner guys!

And we have booked to go New Zealand South Island and will be departing tomorrow. It's a spontaneous trip and tickets were just booked 2 days prior to departure. It's an adventure!!We booked our 1st night accommodation and will go from there with our car booked for the rest of the 10 days.. Wish us luck! :) I can't WAIT! 12 hours to depart.. WOO HOO!

My Saturday Weekend

Everyone is out today! The sun is shining and even the dogs are enjoying the sun. I love spring!! And it's the weekend!! Woo hooo

Mr HSL all the way from KL. Reaches here at 5pm instead of 4pm. Typical Malaysian timing

Welcome to Little Creatures @ Fitzroy. I reckon it's one of the best places to hang in the afternoon. Love the food and people say their beer's da bomb.

At little creatures.. Why can't we get bars like this in KL? Not noisy, smoky, can bring kids.. Or am I getting old??? oh nooo

That's right. Go get your ride

2 Bright ales

My kind of drink, no alcohol. Another alternative to a "healthier" version of Coca Cola

Cutie waiting patiently for his owner to get drunk

This is their "book for the bill". How cute