from christchurch to queenstown

You know it's bad when writing an opening paragraph for something on your own blog feels like the strangest thing to do. Anyway, I figured I'd at least try to blog about my NZ trip, instead of hoping my memories don't give out 25 years later or something.

So yes! New Zealand. Denise and I headed for a 6-day trip to the South Island almost a month ago, and we went on a "self-guided tour", which basically means that your accommodation and transportation are arranged, but there's no one tour guide to shepherd you around. It's not necessarily a bad thing to travel this way as opposed to the DIY self-discovery long drives that NZ seems to be built for, because if you only have a short time there, getting someplace fast is a good thing - there's a looooot of ground to cover if you wanna see everything. Plus, you learn things from the bus drivers who take you around that you wouldn't probably have known if you travel yourself.

We landed in Christchurch but our time there was short; it was almost sunset by the time we checked in and stopped groaning about the 10-hour flight.



Dorset House was our home for the night, and yes, it's a really pretty place :) The only thing about it is that it is a bit of distance from the city centre (which we never got to see wtf). Otherwise, they pretty much have everything you need and D loved it because of the 100MB complimentary wifi that they provided -.-

First impressions of New Zealand:



It's a really lonely place.

Well okay fine this was taken along one of the highways, but still. I'd expected Christchurch to be bigger and more populated, but any building higher than 2 storeys there kinda stuck out. And the suburbs looked something like this:



This is actually Geraldine, one of the towns where we stopped for a while but most of the small towns there looked somewhat like this. And I couldn't comprehend it when we passed by the TINY town of Tarras, which would probably fit comfortably into one floor in Pavilion, because I'd never understood what a "small town" meant until then.

One of the most popular routes to take if you're heading south from Christchurch is to pass by Lake Tekapo and Aoraki Mount Cook, both of which are great for photos (yes, I'm a nerd). One of the most photographed things at Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd...



... and it is hands down, the church with the best view in the world :)



Seriously. I've had my fair share of chapels and cathedrals during my '09 summer in Europe, and lavish splendour à la Rome's St. Peter's is one thing, but never have I seen a church with a view at the altar overlooking a lake.

Speaking of lakes, another thing I noticed was the insane colouring of some of the many lakes we saw during the trip:





This is Lake Pukaki, another lake we stopped at shortly after Lake Tekapo, and the water in both lakes are a solid turquoise shade. WHY. WHAT SORCERY IS THIS. It's only much later that I realised that it was probably due to minerals, but I sure was stressing for a bit trying to figure out why the water looked like it was coloured with some kindergartener's crayon.

After about half a day's driving we arrived at Mount Cook, where lunch came with a view at the Edmund Hilary Alpine Centre:



There's a Hermitage Hotel there too, which is cleverly built right at the bottom of these massive mountains:



I think there are trails for people who wanna take walks/hikes around that area, but sadly we only had enough time to make manic squirrel runs to take a few photos before we had to get on the bus again. Still wasn't too bad though, because with landscapes like Mount Cook's, even a 10 minute walk will give you pretty awesome photos...







(I'm using the last one as my wallpaper now :P)

And that's it for the first part of the trip; next up, my favourite place - Queenstown!

hello, world

Yup, it's that time again where I fuss about blog layouts and whatnot.



So I'm trying this because Blogger's dynamic views are weird and stuff and I just want a wiiiiiide space for photos. Testing, testing.

marvel's the avengers

I can't believe The Avengers will be premiering so soon - I still remember everybody getting uber buzzed over the trailers last year!

So NuffnangMY asks: what superhero would you be if you could create a new member for The Avenger’s team, and how would you save the world?

Took me a while to think of something that wasn't "stopping time" or "invisible woman" or some totally common superpower for the plebeians like that; Yuen kindly suggested an superhero named "Grammar Nazi" (She'll stop you with one swing of the banhammer!) but nah. I've decided that my contribution to The Avengers would be the Dubstep Dude.

What? Dubstep is damn power okay. Just look at this video, behold the epic power of dubstep starting at 47 seconds in:



It works on all levels. During fights, Dubstep Dude could emanate sound waves so powerful he'd blast the bad guys in The Hulk's direction, where the big green guy would just proceed to crush them into dust. Or Dubstep Dude could use the sound waves to help propel Thor's hammer way further than it would've normally reached.

And besides, there's the point where everybody hates dubstep, so it could help irritate the hell out of the villains ("WAAARRGHHH WHAT IS THAT NOISE WHERE'S THE BEAT??") and make it easier for The Avengers to take them out while they're bleeding from their ears.

"But what if The Avengers hate dubstep too? I think Thor is more of a trance guy."

Aha! I knew you'd say that. The Avengers would all be inoculated against the effects of dubstep, so instead of being annoyed, they would enjoy a good dose of Skrillex while they go to battle.

C'mon, with that, even if Dubstep Dude wasn't the most valuable Avenger in battle, at least the movie would have an awesome soundtrack :P

Of all the flaws that come with being human, the fact that we are born to be emotional beings, tied to other emotional beings, has to be the worst.

Because when the anchor that keeps everything in place is gone, everything else is like a furious thunderstorm which will smash you up against the jagged rocks and reduce you to little pine splinters.

And it hurts, so much, when the thunderstorms don't stop.

stay hungry, stay foolish

"At the end of the day, what are we but the sum of the people who'd mourn their loss if we were gone?"

I still remember writing this almost a year ago, and I've never quite been as forcibly reminded of it as much as today, when we all woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had passed on.

By this time of the day, everyone has said what they needed to say about Steve, but I just feel compelled to... I dunno, say something, somehow.

I've always been lusting after Apple products ever since I first laid eyes on the bondi blue iMac, and the only thing stopping me was, well, the lack of dollar bills which still stop me from getting a Mac today. And I'd always been fascinated with how Steve, with his personal backstory worthy of a summer blockbuster, managed to turn an electronics-manufacturing company into a cult with a global following.

One of the things about Steve Jobs that remember reading about the most was his approach to design - his need for a product he was creating to be simple, intuitive, and just work. And that inspired me to try to think that way about my work as well whenever possible - not that I'm designing anything earth-shattering lah - but for things to make sense, and fit together to tell a story.

It's strange to feel sad about the passing of someone you've never even met before, but it's not so strange anymore when you see all the tweets, Facebook updates and zillions of articles online paying tribute to Steve. My personal favourites were this Wired article on Steve's life story and how he came to be, and Brian Lam of Gizmodo's account of hard choices and regrets over the iPhone 4 leak a year ago.

RIP Steve :(

black is back with arthur's day 2011

This tune was looping endlessly on my iPod not too long ago, and I can't believe that in less than a week I'll be able to say, "Well hello there Taio Cruz. Fancy seeing you around this part of the globe ;)"

Yes yes yes Arthur's Day is back! A pint (or three) of Guinness + a night of club hits from Taio Cruz is totally FTW, and I wouldn't miss it for anything :D For you Amish people who haven't heard, Arthur's Day 2011 is happening on:

Date: 23 September 2011 (Friday)
Time: 7 pm onwards
Venue: Speed City KL, Selangor Turf Club

Apart from being massively excited about Taio Cruz performing that night, I think it's pretty cool too that you get to choose 2 of your favourite local acts to open at Arthur's Day at the Guinness Malaysia FB page here. Personally, I'd love for Rosevelt and James Baum to be opening, but well... I'm just biased like that :P Looks like Dragon Red and Prema Yin are in the lead at the moment!

If you haven't got your Arthur's Day passes yet (why???), check out this link to see how you can get yourself a pair! See you there! :D

a mirage of happiness

Because Elmo's happy all the time.