My life, My memory, My dream: Activities

Just a week back from Vietnam, here I am on the go again. This time to Sabah, The Land of Borneo to visit long time friends and relatives, also as a short getaway to detoxify myself.

Though there’s nothing too special about Sabah, I try to make each trip meaningful by doing something different / new. And this time around, I joined a leisure dive by myself. It wasn’t an easy decision as I’ve always been timid. To venture into the vast blue sea by myself with a bunch of strangers took a lot of courage in me. At this time, I’m missing my adventurous girls. Being with them, I know I’m in safe hands. But one shouldn’t be too dependent all the time, no?

Though’ the dive experience wasn’t an impressive one as the dive sites were mostly sandy bottoms with limited visibility and not many sea creatures to see, but I still find serenity under the water listening to my own breath sounds. I find myself doing better each time I dive, less panic and more buoyancy control. And that’s a good thing to know.

On a dive alone

Other than diving searching for some bravery within, main purpose here is to visit old friends. Friends who were there throughout the past one decade, lifting each other if we fell too hard to the ground, and still do. Being with them (and their babies) for the past few days made me realize we really are grown ups now and we had long move on to different stages of life. Our topics of conversations have changed, our point of view towards life no longer the same as university days.

Meeting baby Spencer for the first time 💗

We had fun being together everyday, waking up in the same house - going places together, doing things in a group just like the olden days. The parents have mini breaks from their babies cause’ me and another friend who came to visit helped out to carry / play with them. Then, we have our private time to do some drinking and long talks at night when the babies are settled down.

I have to admit that I sometimes still miss our younger carefree days, but I guess we have all reach this stage of life where we understand that life is a movement forward. There’s not much time to even juggle the current days, let alone reminiscing the past.

Most friends only stay for a period of time, and when we move on, or priorities change, so do our friends. I’m glad that this group still sticks around, and hopefully always will. And one day, when we finally look back - we can say to each other “Ahhh, we’ve come this far”.

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I've never thought that dreams could come true.

~~Bungee jump~~
~~Skydiving~~
~~Scuba diving~~

Crossing off my bucket list one by one on this amazing crazy trip w my adventurous bunch proves to be the most worth-it thing I've ever done in my life, so far. New Zealand trip is probably that one trip that I've had my many "first-times", and also pushed myself out of the comfort zone again, and again.

These girls here seems to possess the magic power to persuade me to do stuff I've not done before, and prolly' will never do again in the future. So, if not now, when? We weren't on any serious planning until a couple of months before we fly. While our plan might not be perfect, but the trip itself was.

All ready for boarding!

Day 1
Arrival at Auckland and was welcomed warmly by MC's sister, who was very hospitable to us 💛
She had a luggage full of honey, toothpaste, soaps and drinkssss to last us throughout the whole trip. First night here and we tried the famous "Velvet Burger" shop. We were lucky enough to be the last customers before it closes at 10pm. We brought our late dinner and had a mini picnic to ourselves overlooking the pier and took some photos at the night tower.

Flying above clouds overlooking this amazing ice mountain tops #wawawawawa

First dinner - picnic by the pier

Day 2

Auckland - Queenstown. Starting our real first day of New Zealand adventures, we went for the Kawarau 43m bungee jump. Before I was here, I said to them i'm not gonna do the jump. I'll be standing somewhere else to watch and record them. Never I thought I’ll be able to pull off such act and actually was the first one to jump among us. The countdown began "3..2..1.." and with a deep breath I took the leap of faith before “Bungeeee!” was heard. When i was on the boat, the girl was complimenting on how brave I was and jumped without hesitation. Fact was I was too scared and was already shaking up there, with my heart pounding and I knew I had to jump before I chicken out.
Tips to those of you who want to try bungy: Do not play with the edge of the bridge, do not look down for too long. The longer you stay up there, the more courage lost and you won't be able to jump.

Once in a lifetime experience - not gonna do this again 🥶

The edge that I'm talking about

Yasssss! We did it 43m Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump

Day 3
Began the day with a hearty breakfast at Mrs Ferg - a famous breakie place, and when we thought everything was smooth and happy, we were informed that our skydive was cancelled due to bad weather. Disappointed and left with nothing much to do for the rest of the day we went for the Queenstown gondola ride and each of us had 5 times of Luge ride. Though' this wasn't in the plan, but we did had some fun. Changed our skydive date to the second last day of our trip and left for Franz Josef.

Breakfast at Mrs Ferg

The street belongs to us 😂

Before 5x of Luge ✌

Look at that amazing view!

Day 4
We were greeted with another bad news, our highlight of the trip - glacier heli hike had been cancelled too due to bad weather. With the pouring rain, we slept in and had a good brunch at The Landing. Us being us, not willing to just stay in all day, we decided to drive out to the next town and explore Lake Matheson. However, as if our luck weren't bad enough - we were trapped at Fox Glacier upon arrival as we were told by the local officers that the road we came by will be closed due to landslides and heavy rain. We had nothing on us, only a sweater each and some money. We were informed to find a place to stay for the night as soon as we can as all visitors to this town were trapped like us and everyone is looking for a night's stay. We rushed to get us checked in at a motel, and went to the nearest convenience store to get instant noodles (for dinner) and basic toiletries to survive the night. Talk about adventure, well this could serve as a lifetime memory. Things were a little tensed, but we overcame it and slept through the cold night together.

Probably the only decent photo of the day

Day 5
Rain finally stopped this morning. We were hopeful and went right back to the road, but to our dismay it was still closed. We tried to ward off our filthy mood by driving to Lake Matheson to search for the perfect reflection. We had coffee and breakfast to kick start the day at Matheson cafe. Despite the drizzle, we went for a short trail hike to calm ourselves with the beautiful nature. During the hike, we received updates that the road is finally open and so we rushed right back to our lodge. The owner was really kind and considerate to let us have shower and late checkout without any extra charges. With utter disappointment, we had to continue on with our journey to Hokitika - wishing the next time we come we will be able to do the heli hike. Once we arrived at Hokitika we went for another short trail hike at Hokitika Gorge and feed ourselves with the famous whitefish pizza at Fat Pipi.
Finally, it's time to check into our guest house. We were welcomed by our friendly host and stayed at the coziest, prettiest room for the night.