Kencing by Himself

So happy today - after he got up from his nap, I put him on the potty. And this is

what he did! am so happy! hahah! But after that, he did on his mattress - pengsan..! I still dont understand why sometimes he does it and sometimes he does not.

Potty Time?

Sigh, I have been trying to get him to go to potty - to save money, etc...unfortunately no luck. Until last Friday at my mother house. Mum took out the potty and tried to get him to do his business inside. He refused and instead run off. Then mum went about doing her chores while I sat back and read papers. Suddenly from the corner of my eye, I saw him sitting on his potty on his own and tah dah! he kencing!!!! Walau - without even us telling him to do son. Unfortunately I have to report that until today, he has not repeat his success back at home. However yesterday at my Mum house, he again managed to do it...I wonder why only at Mum house......Took this pict just to show the date. Did not take the actual scene as camera was not with me.

Chocolate Ice-Cream

See how my little boy attack the chocolate ice-cream. Now if only he will attack his porridge like that as well!

Pressies from Cindy!

Meant to blog about this quite some time ago, Cindy. But things just got into way. Anyway just to inform you that all your pressies are well used! He He....as you can see, he is playing with the Bob the Builder tractors and stuff. When he see tractor on his book, he will show to his toy tractor. And Ralph...aiyohhh! the Dog is totally well used!!!!! He has been carried in the pram...bitten, hug, salivated all over...hehe...you get the idea. Thanks so much Cindy!

7th day - Waitomo

On the way back to Auckland, I wanted to drop by Waitomo to see the famous glowworm caves. It was really cold and I was really feeling miserable.

However I was impressed by the limestone caves were really impressive. The limestone was formed by the remains of marine animals, then boosted to the surface by tectonic activity. Can you imagine how old some of these limestone caves must be? Must be millions of years! Towards the end, it was a boat ride to look at the glowworms sticking all aound the cave. This part, I will have to say that our fireflies in Kuala Selangor was better as the flies twinkles! Jack had a wonderful time yodelling away on the boat ride as he could hear his own echo bouncing back from the caves!

For pictures of the glowworm caves, here is the website.

http://www.waitomo.com/glowworm-caves-information.aspx

After that, it was off to Auckland and our final day in Auckland was quite relaxing. First we off for some ice-cream at Mission Bay - the infamous Movenpick ice-cream. Actually I found ice-cream in New Zealand pretty good - not as sweet as back in KL. Since this was by the beachside, we had a walk down the beach. Jack had a wonderful time chasing birds! And after that we took a ride around Auckland, see the local museum and visited the Winter Garden.

And we were all packed up then to return home the following day!

5th and 6th day - Rotorua

My photos have all turned upside down. It it too much of a lengthy process to turn it the other way round.

This was the day that we will be taking a drive to Rotorua. On the way we saw many scenaries of rolling mountains and many sheeps and cows....it was really beautiful. It sort of reminded me of the out-skirts scenaries in Italy as well....but in Italy, there will be many castles on top of mountains.

Unfortunately as it was rainy most of the time, I did not get an opportunity to stop at one of the nearby sheep farm to take pictures. Maybe one day, I will return there with Ben and husband to do so!

On the way we stop at this place for its ham, bacon and sausages - Pokeno...Yummy, again, I will let the pictures do its work. Generally meat is superb in New Zealand, not just this place.

Then we made another pit stop at this place called Tirau which has corrugated iron buildings in many shapes ...so you can see that how they have created this big huge dog which actually house its local tourism centre. The other one is of Jesus Christ in front of their local church.

By the time we reach Rotorua, it was quite late. It took us about 3-4 hours as it was quite a distance. The unique thing about Rotorua which many people will have know is the smell! It smell like someone shitted...haha! At first, we kept checking on Jack!...But of course, it is not ALL the time the smell is there. It is only when the wind blows. Another unique thing about the town is that at the Government Garden, there was steam (smelly of course) blowing out from bubbling geothermal pools. This is truly one unique experience. However the tulips and flowers were out in full bloom (albeit the smell!) so we took opportunity to take more photos.

Next morning, brother took us to (where else?) a thermal pool park where there were many pools of colourful water due to the volcano activities. It was a walk around a park to see those colourful thermals and heated pools.

After lunch, we took a gondola ride up to Mt Ngongataha and sat this thing got luge. It is really one of a kind experience (not cheap though). Haha.....

That basically ends the day...but wait! brother has another surprise for us.

After dinner, we went to a spa! - The Polynesian spa....it was quite an interesting place as well. There were 5 pools which had different levels of temperature. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed! Entrance fees were charged based on the number of pools that we wanted to go. For the swimming pool, it was the cheapest rate. If we wanted access to the other 4 pools, it was a higher rate and of course the most expensive will be a private pool. We paid for access to the 5 pools which overlooked the Rotorua Lake. It was beautiful.

How was the experience? Well at first it was quite relaxing but as time passed, I was not feeling so great already. My stomach was getting queasy and I was feeling a bit faint. It seemed this was due to too much blood rushing to the brains as we were dipping in the hot hot water.

Check it out at its website. http://www.polynesianspa.co.nz/Polynesian_Spa/Lake_Spa_(deluxe)_IDL=5_IDT=1656_ID=10377_.html

However once we got out of the pool and clean, etc....the after-effect was quite nice....! Slept like a baby that night as well.

3rd Day in Auckland

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This will be the day of the wedding. As you can see from the earlier pictures of the church, etc, it was quite a busy day for all of us. So instead I have put pictures of the dinner (plus the food, of course!). I will let the photos do the talking instead. I have also put in the cake cutting (a real cake!) and also their dance for the night. It was a really nice cosy place.

Could not resist putting in the wishing well - a place for angpows and gifts....isnt it cute??

2nd day in Auckland

On this day, we went to the church for practice. Yes, yours truly here had to read 1 Cor 13, 4-13 from the Bible. So we ran through the whole programme for the church. Everything went smoothly except that it was quite a cold day with the wind blowing. It was only the first day of spring, you see.

Then brother dropped us off on Queen Street as he had to run some errants.

We walked down the street and did some window shopping (everything is really so expensive!). Had lunch at this Asian food court (well, with our weak currency that was all that we could afford!). It was quite a smoky place but servings were quite large and food was nice.

By the time we had finished shopping, it was late afternoon. We had ice-cream (yes, in the cold weather!) and retired to our apartment. Dinner time - brother took us to a nearby Chinese restaurant which was quite nice. The thing about Chinese restaurant here is there is a popular dish of mapo tow-foo! As a result of this, brother actually bought some mapo quick cook for me to take back to Malaysia. Must try one of these days and then blog about it.

1st Day in Auckland

Since many people ask about my trip to new zealand, better to write it down on my blog.

Anyway on arrival, the first impression was small airport. The lady who sat next to me mentioned that hey, it reminds us of the Kota Kinabalu airport...but of course the KK airport now is much bigger arleady! When we arrive there, brother and sister in law was there to pick us up. I found that the custom was much easier to pass through than Australia. In Australia, even though we declare, we still had to open up our suitcases to show. Over here, they just let it go through the X-ray machine to verify what I declared. I brough 4 packets of Nescafe 3-1, 1 box of Kopi-O and 10 boxes of tooth paste! yah! when the box when through the x-ray machine, the officer ask what were those small boxes where. I said toothpaste and he could not comprehend what I said (maybe my malaysian slang??)....then I made a motion of brushing my teeth! Haha.

Bro rented a big big van....must post the pict later.

Then it was off for tim sum lunch as the race course restaurant. Yum Yum......

And then retire to our Hilton Apartments (yes, nothing but the best from my brother!)....the apartment was nice as it overlook the port.

Brother Wedding in Auckland - September 2008

Here are some picts of the wedding in Auckland. It was really a beautiful church wedding and Yih Jia really look pretty in her white wedding gown which looked like a princess's wedding gown. I had the honor of reading a verse from the Bible. It was a really windy day and if you look properly we were all trying to look good without our coats! Haha...Dinner was another beautiful sit-down event with a few course Western dinner. The dinner venue was a beautiful cosy little house with real fireplaces. All in all, it was a perfect wedding.