New Zealand | Part 3 : Day trip to Wanaka

click here if you wanna read about part 2

before i proceed, may i warn you that this post will be heavily loaded with pictures.

on the second day of our stay in South Island NZ, we decided to go for a daytrip to wanaka. fyi, wanaka is about two hours drive from queenstown. but trust me, the journey was totally worth it cause the views maaan. the views is insanely stunning!!

initially, my one and only reason for including wanaka in our itinerary was to find the instagram famous 'that wanaka tree'. sebab tu je. hahah sangat takde kerja. i've been following countless instas of digital travel nomad in new zealand since three/four years ago and you know what, almost all of them featured this perfect scenic picture of 'that wanaka tree' in their feed. so when i finally got the chance to explore this country of course i made a mission to find it. 

the question is... do i managed to find it?

dun dun dun

i'll get back to this later ya?

that morning after having our breakfast, we set for wanaka. about an hour drive from queenstown we stopped at lake county council lookout. how picturesque is this..? ni pun the photo doesn't do justice to the view. luckily i was not driving at that time. cause if i were, silap haribulan kereta boleh melencong sebab asyik tengok tepi je. heheh. oh before i forgot, nak tahu tak, sebab terlalu overexcited dan terkesima with the view, me being a clumsy person jatuh dua/tiga kali sebab mata asyik tengok benda lain je, ahahah

this is the first time when i almost fall backwards. kononnya, nak ambil gambar duduk atas palang ni. sekali haaa almost nak tergolek kebelakang. ahahah

since safety is first. kita berdiri je lah. ahahah

we then continued our journey to wanaka via the crown range road. the drive was incredibly wonderful since we get to see different landscapes along the way. at first i didn't expect to see snow in the mountains cause we came here during late winter time. but hey surprise suprise, ada rezeki nak tengok real snow even kat tepi jalan. 

casually freezing my bum off sebab jakun first time jumpa snow

after driving for about two hours, we finally arrived at our destination, Wanaka. btw, do you guys remember bout my 'that wanaka tree' plan? you know what? i totally forgot about that after seeing this...

MasyaAllah, look at the magnificent vista..

upon arriving we headed towards lake wanaka front. we didn't plan any adventurous activities ke apa. just free and easy 'lepak' session in front the lake while enjoying fresh local fruits. i could happily sit here and stare at this magnificent view for hours while contemplating about life. i lived for this kind of pleasure. hehe

i am so so thankful that i manage to explore and see Wanaka in person. the post that i usually see in my instagram feed did not do justice for this place. MasyaAllah, Wanaka is so amazing and the view is insanely gorgeous. By the way, the tourist crowd is not too huge so you can simply enjoy the view all to yourself. I enjoyed every single moment here in Wanaka. it kinds of make you feel calm and at ease and forget about all the crap happening in your life. hahah. i did not want to leave this place. seriously. it kinda feels like homeee. although technically my actual home is in Chenor.

there was this sinking feeling i had when leaving Wanaka,  because i'll never know when will i return again. half of my heart was left in this place. *cries a river* even after a year, i can still remember the feeling and vibe of this place every time i close my eyes. let's just hope and pray that i'll be able to visit Wanaka in the future insyaAllah. 

so these are my sincere thoughts and review after exploring Wanaka.  See you all i the next post

Zafirah xx

Gunung Senyum

heyya

i'm in my mid semester break right now, so i got to spend a week potato-ing and lazying my ass. this midsem break is sure a bliss cause this semester left me so undone. sheeeeeesh. 

now, forget about my uni life cause i want to share with you guys about one of my activities during my short break. i went to Gunung Senyum yesterday with my aunt and cousin. we (my aunt and i) planned this trip like many many times before but due to some things, our plan got canceled. thankfully, we managed to go there this time. 

Gunung Senyum is 1549 metres mountain located in felda jengka 25 (an oil palm dominated area). the journey took about 45 minutes drive from bandar temerloh. gunung senyum consist of at least 20 caves. we only managed to explore like three or four caves since 1)some of route to the caves are close during that time 2)we go there by ourselves without the guides 

we started off at 9-ish a.m, so here it goes

lo and behold, the smiling mountain

en route to gua silat. from my reading, this cave is said to be the place fro practicing silat( malaysian martial arts).

the stairs are quite steep i tell you, just be extremely careful

this is the gua silat's  entrance

yeah, honestly saying, we were quite dissapointed as the information board was broken. such a bummer.

off we went to the next cave, gua makam tok long. this cave contain the tomb of tok long. it iis believed that tok long was a kind hearted man who married an elven princess. he also cured the villagers back at that time. things gone bad when broken his promise to return to his elven wife. as a result his elven wife left him and he then decided to engage in meditation in the cave till the end of his days.

gua danau impian is located near to gua makam tok long. im not very sure about where the cave got it's name though. 

this cave got badass rocks. maaaaan, at that time i do wish that i have some piece of knowledge in geology, it would be great to know the formation and other kind of stuffs about the rocks. i bet this sort of place would be really cool to geology enthusiast. 

this picture was taken en route to gua makam tok long if i am not mistaken. 

we continued our adventure to explore the rest of the caves. sadly, as i mentioned earlier during that day the entrance to the caves was closed so our journey were cut short. 

this is the connecting bridge. i don't know how to say this properly but to me the condition is very bad and sad. there were big holes in the middle of the wooden bridge and it can lead to accidents if  we're not careful enough. i do hope that the people in charge will took appropriate measures soon. 

sooo, that's all. the total time taken exploring the three caves took almost an hour. it was indeed a very fun and enjoyable adventure. i'll be coming back to explore the rest of the caves later. 

p/s : 

-this is my new bad boy. his name is J. 

-I'll introduce him to you guys later in the upcoming post

-i'll be exploring another new place tomorrow, can't wait to share it with you guys.

Sabah 2015- Post Kinabalu

my walk to timpohon gate was quite hellish. both my legs were stiff as dua batang kayu. i don't have any cramps. thankfully. but ya tuhan the muscle strained was quite unbearable. to me lah. after almost two days of walking, nak pijak pun sakit time tu. lutut sakit. ahh semua sakit senang citer. memang nak bergolek sampai ke bawah ah bila ingat semula. heh. i walk alone in the drizzle for like 2km kut before meeting my other three team mates. pity to those who accompanied me  during the walk as i was rude, not in the mood to talk and all that. gahahah. sorry guys. it was late in the evening when we arrived at the gate.

we stayed the night in pusat latihan JAKIM cawangan kundasang if i was not mistaken. quite a lovely place though. that night, most of us jalan macam ketam. heh. to even get off the bus itself was a challenge. haa, lagi satu, i never thought that i would despise turun tangga so much like i did during that time. a small part of me died inside everytime i saw  tangga. the muscle ache doubled or should i said tripled when i woke up on the very next morning. i had to practically dragged my feet out of bed. sheeeesh. dia punya sakit kaki lepas turun gunung memang ya tuhan aku taktau nak cakap macam mana.

The time left were spent on jalan jalan around kundasang ranau and kota kinabalu itself. We went to tea plantation site, poring hot springs and few other places.

this was from pusat latihan jakim

we went to the famous desa cattle first thing in the morning. though it was my second time here i could never get tired of witnessing those vast green land and the majestic mountain behind. could hardly believe that we just got down from that mountain yesterday. took a few days for me to finally realize the fact that i effing climb the mountain.

the tea plantation in ranau. to me yang kat cameron lagi cantik kut

During my first trip to poring hot spring last october i haven't had the time to explore the small waterfall as most of my time was spent on canopy walking. This time i managed to go there with few of my friends. The waterfall was located slightly deep into the rainforest. But it was  a well paid journey. I was gutted that i hadn't bring any extra clothes. Sheessh. Tengok je lah the boys terjun sambil celup celup kaki.

spent our last day at KK before going back to semanjung later that night. we held a short bowling match at the local arena before buying all those souvenir stuffs.

sedap berurut kakak abang sekalian??

me and my partner azim during the match. we got lucky and win the second place!! lol terror jugak rupanya

that's all i guess

till then