Home in Te Puke, Part II

Yeah, I'm still going to blog about New Zealand.

I guess my heart & soul didn't really hop on to the plane, LOL!

And of course, one of the best medicine for my stress brain machine.

Well, after moving out from Cabin, we found a place introduced by my ex-manager, Ms. Tan (She's on working holiday too with her hubby!). 

Situated at Dunlop Road, just 5 minutes walk to the town centre.
It's near winter, so the rent is NZD$ 100 per pax & week including utilities, internet. Two rooms available.

Visited this lovely cozy house! And agreed to move in immediately after a couple moving out to do their travelling down south.

Here, let's the pictures do the talking (:


Exterior of the place:

Front part of the house

The carpark area at the shed. SPOT my favourite cherry blossom tree behind!

Interior of the place:

The common room

The dining & kitchen together. We all spent the most time here.

A built in cupboard, actually looks like a wardrobe. For utensils, containers storage beside the kitchen.

One corner of the common area.

The Laundry area. A dryer, basin & washing machine. Too cold in winter, so we are encouraged to use the dryer.

Landlady have their own bathroom at the other side of the house. So this  bathroom is for us, renting the place (:
I actually felt relieve while taking my 1st shower there, clean and uninterrupted, of course PRIVACY!

The toilet. The thick white rugs compliments the dark tiles. Simple.

Our room at the top of stairs: 

View from Our room

Our room.

Cute toys at the chest box.

Pardon me the ugly side.  Okay, I blamed on morning & night shift that we totally don't have time to tidy everything. And I spent most time sitting there surfing & folding clothes.

The other side, filled up with luggages & backpackers. OMG!!

We've spend more than 3 months here. So, living with Kiwi family, we are treated with traditional Kiwi or Maori cooking and we take turns to cook Asian ways which they adore!


Tania, just like a mother to me. Sometimes, both of us stay up late in the night, sipping wine and chat the night away. She loves my cooking! Cottage pie, bailey cheesecake, chicken mee sua soup, hainanese chicken rice and CURRY & LAKSA is her favourite!


Even Uncle Peter, Tania's uncle came to stay in for a month, a friendly big guy who taught us alot about fishing and he even taught me SLOW DANCE! cool enough :) He paints alot too. One of his works is hanging at the dining & kitchen area for Jorja. If you don't mind to scroll back to have a look! Cute Giraffes with blue background! 


Jorja's, the youngest daughter of Tania, she's adorable! and naughty too! She loves my scrambled eggs with chilli & tomato sauce and my hubby's William hot milo with condensed milk! I still remembered, how cute of her telling her mum this:


Jorja: Mummy, William mix sticky milky something in to Milo!
Tania: What's that actually?
Jorja: I don't know. But its yummy!! Unlike what you make for me every morning.


Hahahaha, all of us are laughing away.
Then, she turned to William,


Jorja: William, I love this! Can you make me this before I go to school everyday??

Awwwww... Such a cutie pie. And she's turning 8 soon. I miss her lots. She even gave me her few art works for me to bring back to Malaysia as memories.


The eldest daughter, Leah spent most of her time at Hamilton because she's studying high school there and staying with grandma Judy. They only come back to Te Puke fortnightly or sometimes its during school holidays. I miss chatting with them!


And the rest of the members in the family are Jess, Priscilla & Saffron.

This is Jess. She love to pitch! Everytime we're back from work, she will greet us and want to play pitch. She loves William massage her too! How spoilt!

Arrogant Priscilla! She loves to show her grumpy looks and  cuddle at the sofa with faux fur. She can be really mean sometimes! One day I accidentally lock her up in store room not knowing she's following behind me to store. =X

As for Saffron, she is a blonde cat. I never get a chance to take any pics of her because she's so afraid of us, even her owner. Or should I say, she's afraid of humans.

Time flies.
It's already been a year since we left Tania's place to continue travel down south.
Before we left, it's near Mid Autumn Festival,
Lucky us managed to pick up some mooncakes from Asian shop in Tauranga.
We wanted to make lantern for Jorja, but our lantern mission failed.
Ended up, we bought lanterns for them!

The Lantern we bought for the family and wrote message on it! Pardon my ugly chinese writing.

Our Message to the family.

For Jorja.

Tang Yuan we made for the celebration.

 I believe, someday, we will be back again, to visit this lovely family. I miss you guys lots! xx

Home in Te Puke, Part I

From the Hairy Berry Backpacker, the worst accomodation in Te Puke, 

We moved to a cozy Cabin in an orchard.

Cabin at $90 per pax & week including water & electricity. 

This is our Cozy cabin

Pros:

1) Cabin can fits up to 4 pax but we allowed to have the whole place ourselves, so its more than enough. By the way, they provide two bunk beds. 

2) Surrounded by Orchard, we can pick up any fruits like avocados, lemons, apples, oranges, kiwis, etc.

3) A gas heater provided to us that can warm up the small cabin during cold winter.

Cons:

1) Shared kitchen & bathroom. Imagined the chill during the night if you want to use the washroom.

2) Too dark and quiet. No extra lightings or lampost in the Orchard. Another log cabin house is opposite us but blocked by tall pine trees. And another cabin next to us fits in 6 pax.

3) Wireless internet connection is poor to max! Even you have broadband! because we are in the middle of Orchard!

Didn't took any interior of the Cabin, basic with bunk beds & drawers dressing table. 

We managed to grab a huge carpet for the stone cold wood flooring, electric kettle and low table from a garage sale to furnish the Cabin.

Me with pines trees behind.

Autumn.

Staying at KIWI360 Orchard.

A stroll to the Orchard.

The fruits plants.

Fruits plants along the way.

Me with Kiwi plants.

The perfect round Green Kiwis.

Shed at far end.

A Dragon maze in the Orchard.

Avocados plant.

Me with Giant kiwi bird in the Orchard.

A CASTLE IN ORCHARD?!

Outside the Cabin & Kitchen.

Sadly, we only stayed in this Cabin for a month. 

As I often visit washroom during the middle of the night, not even safe to bath alone because the door lock is only a HOOK, anyone can push the door open anytime. 

Cooking in the kitchen after work hours is quite scary actually & too cold! We even encountered weird incidents.

I remembered there's one night, I was on the phone with Mum outside the kitchen while hubby is cooking around 11pm. A creature, I don't even get a chance to see clearly what it is because its too dark in the Orchard. I only know its fury and shinning eyes staring at me. A possum perhaps? I can confirmed it's not a dog because I don't see any around. That creature, after starred at me for 5 minutes and sensed my uneasy feeling, it ran out from the bush and towards my direction!!!! MY HEART RACING & I ran as fast as lighting to the kitchen and SHUT THE DOOR! Damn.

Another incident, we back from twilight shift at work & headed to kitchen to have dinner. We saw rubbish bag is torn and the LAMB BONES lying around with rubbish. I never seen LAMB BONES can be eaten so  "clean", not even a bit of meat stuck on the bones. Quite scary indeed! We never found out what kind of creature lurking out there in the dark.

Sometimes, my hubby worked twilight shift while I don't have any job assigned. I'll be alone at Cabin, alone in the Orchard. Twice when I was taking bath alone, someone tried to push open the door too!! THANK GOD I'm still alive and unhurt!

After much complaints from me, weird incidents & winter is drawing near, the Orchard will be more chilly than usual, my hubby decided we moved out from the cabin and to another place that we call Home. 

I'm very thankful that we managed to find a place in the shortest time and call it Home. An unique experience staying in Cabin surrounded by Orchard!

From vibrant city to small town

One of the biggest changes in life.


A week in Auckland, my hubby and I started our unplanned road trip to Te Puke.


We have nothing much in mind that particular time, and all we need badly is a JOB.
Yeah, without a job, how to survive the whole travelling plans with Ringgit Malaysia? 


Got a few advices from friends who been to/are in New Zealand, if you can't find any good jobs around the City, you can always find something there in Te Puke for kiwifruit. Otherwise further down the south for vineyard.


I've actually pronounced the word "Te Puke" wrongly when I first ask the local for directions and they have no idea what I was talking about. How embarrassed I am!


Well, it should actually sounds like this "Teh-pooh-eh" and it means "the hill".


3 hours drive all the way from Auckland.


Our first road trip is exciting though.


Thanks "Google map" for helping us a lot in the roads to use to get us reach our destination.


Travelled in gloomy weather actually affected my mood too.

Auckland highways. I wish Malaysia roads condition is this GOOD! Driving at least at 90km/hour!

No more highrise buildings here.

Passing the Karangahake Gorge

Passing KatiKati

You know you're in Te Puke when you see rows and rows of high pines trees!

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We've finally reach the small town.

And I was so surprised that I saw only two rows of shops!!!

I must admitted that I never see anything like that except in movies like the House of Wax or the Vacancy. Blame me for not reading much enough!

Row of shops in Te Puke

This is the place I stayed for almost 6 months!

A friendly small town can handle all your basic needs. A library, post shop, cinema, Countdown & New World supermarkets, few casual dining & Chinese takeaways, groceries shops, second hand shops & gifts shops. And everyone greets you when you walk down the streets, you feel the warmth. I miss here badly!

The only bad about Te Puke is the backpacker!

Hairy Berry Backpacker Hostel is the only backpacker here other than the Te Puke Hotel which the price is reasonable for a night stay.

It's the worst stay I ever had in New Zealand!

I said before, the whole road trip is unplanned, so we left out the place to stay for the period. As the sky turned darker when we arrived, the backpacker at the Road No. 1 caught our attention.

The rate for double room per night is NZD30 per person!!! The MOST EXPENSIVE backpackers in NZ and not listed in BBH (World Travellers Accomodation New Zealand) and poorly rated by anyone who been there before.

The owner actually told us he can get us jobs if we signed up for a week stay at the backpacker. After we both calculated, NZD30 per pax per night will cost us NZD420 = RM1,008 for a week in backpacker ??!!

My hubby told him that we only want to stay for 2 nights, because we believe we can get a cheaper and better accomodation than this. The owner didn't say anything about it and handed us the keys, bedsheets & linen and showed us the room which is just behind the reception.

To my horror, the double room is actually cramp room with bunk bed, double lower bed, single on the upper! Since he handed us the sheets/linens, we had to make our own bed!! My hubby was shocked too, but he said nothing and went to the car to get our stuff.

I stood there for few minutes, and the wind blew strongly. A pile of hair strands, pieces of rubbish just blew into the room passing beneath the door. I was more shocked then! 

Immediately got my phone and called my Mum. I almost cried while talking to her because I was such a baby at home and I never stay in such horrible place before. I told Mum that the whole place made me feel like I'm in the movie, Vacancy. My sisters even laughed and commented I watched too much of horror movies.

We both did get back to the Owner about the jobs. He told us, he have no JOBS for us after we signed up for only 2 days! How unhelpful is that guy!!!

UGH! the whole place is disgusting. Kitchen wares is dirty and the bathroom with attached toilet like they never been washed EVER!! Unfortunately, I found not much pictures of the place and I didn't take any. I'm sure everyone else stayed there don't wish it will be part memories.

I even wrote my review on the Tripadvisor, you can read it here: http://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Hotel_Review-g255114-d1203844-Reviews-Hairy_Berry_Backpacker_Hostel-Tauranga_Bay_of_Plenty_North_Island.html

We are lucky to find a comfortable & reasonable place for the rest of the month and MOVED OUT from there the next day! PHEW!!!!

Anyone looking for a hostel to stay, BBH NZ (http://www.bbh.co.nz/) is the place you can find accomodations with ratings and rates. 

XoXo

Syl