Part 1: Holiday to South Island of New Zealand (28 Nov-13 Dec 2012) - 28-30 Nov 2012

A bit too late but like to share our wonderful trips to South Island of NZ on 28 Nov to 13 Dec 2012.
We took British Airways and/or Qantas Airways *booking BA by some flights were operated by QF).

28 November 2012: from Changi Airport, at 8.15PM we flew to Sydney, transit about 1.5 hrs then proceeded to Christchurch, NZ. After 12hrs 15 min, at 13.30PM we arrived safely and happily at Christchurch Int'l Airport.

Beautiful snow-capped mountain, taking from the aeroplane

Singapore-Sydney-Christchurch

Inside Christchurch's Int'l Airport, after immigration clearance

Neighbourhood @ Hounslow St.

29 November 2012: Sis. Lily and some saints came to pick us up and brought us back to their respective home for hospitality .. Our host, sis. Jess Ting advised us not to take a nap because of the time difference between Singapore and NZ (NZ is 5 hrs ahead of Sgpr). Then 4 of us (Patrick/Grace and 2 of us) went out to take a look at the neighbourhood area.. The weather was cold (about 8-10 degree C).. but we are happily walked around to see many beautiful houses and flowers ..

 

About 6.30PM we went to Bro. Hong/Sis. Lily's house @ Northcote Rd. for love feast with the saints from Christchurch, NZ. And then we back to our host's home and have a good sleep after long day travelling from Singapore to Christchurch .. 

*It was SUMMER time when we went to NZ but the weather for many days were cold and nice.. only few days hot and raining during 15 days of our visit. Also the UV in NZ is very high .. need a good sunglasses to protect our eyes.. Many of our photos were with black sunglasses .. Cool .. *


Lily's kitchen

@BEE HEALTHY, buy manuka honey

30 November 2012: After breakfast, we went to buy Manuka honey and some health food. The price is cheaper than the price in Singapore.. and also 'fresher' as it come direct from the farm.

 Then we went to Christchurch Botanic Garden ..

 The Christchurch Botanic Gardens, located in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand are botanical gardens founded in 1863.The Christchurch Botanic Gardens have a variety of collection of exotic and local plants of New Zealand. For this visit, we only visited and enjoyed The ROSE GARDEN, which has more than 250 varities of roses.


Yellow rose with Mr. Yellow ( 黃) 

Everybody jumped for joy .. As HE is the source of our Joy

We only walked around about 1 hour as the weather suddenly changed to cloudy and drizzling ..
(On last day, 13 Dec 13, some of us visited Botanic Garden again at the other part of the garden before departed to airport.)
We went for lunch @ South City Mall .. I tried the Indian chicken butter curry.


Sisters in action .. HE makes me lie down in green pastures

After a break at Lily's house, we drove to New Brighton Pier a coastal suburb about 8 km from Christchurch. There is a library by coast. And we took a walk along the coastal and enjoy the beautiful scenery and birds..

New Brighton Pier



Love the blue sky, clear blue water .. erase all the blue feelings

From here we went back to Lily's house for a rest. Then we went to Br. Wu's house farm, The GRACIOUS GOODLAND @ Clarkville, about 30min drive from Lily's house.

Chestnut Tree-Castanea sp.

Bro. Wu is a Taiwanese who migrated to NZ many years ago and started his own farm of Hazelnut, chestnut, walnut and some others.. We walked around the farm and took some photo with the little goat ..



We had a love feast prepared by the saints @ Christchurch and then blending-fellowships ..

Have a tight sleep, reserve energy for the following days ... *see the map of our route during this trip*

Some informations about NZ:

Why is New Zealand called New Zealand?
Answer: The name New Zealand originated with Dutch cartographers, who named the islands Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The name was later anglicized to New Zealand by British explorer James Cook.   New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North Island and South Islands ‒ and numerous...