Saturday, April 11, 2009
Photoblog: Chapter 2 of New Zealand
Day 3
Woke up at 7am to get ready for that day's events. According to the itinerary, it should be quite fun. heh. Every morning, my two room mates had to do this, so they had to wake up slightly earlier than me and all of us still had to wait for them in the end.
Hopped onto the coach and we were on our way to take a gondola ride (basically a cable car) to ascend to the top of Mt Ngongotaha to admire the surrounding panoramic views and also to indulge in an exclusive champagne breakfast.
Moreover, in the midst of the beautiful views of Rotorua at Skyline Skyrides, we would have a chance to experience an exhilarating ride on the luge and chairlift.
Tour guide speaking
Ascending to the top
Some random horses loitering around
We had our breakfast first. We were welcomed by the champagne at the door and then we proceed to our food! Our tour guide had warned us that the food was average so I'm prepared not to exceed my expectations in case I got very disappointed. lol. Nevertheless, it was edible and I went for two rounds to fill my tummy! heh
As expected, it was American breakfast. So it was pretty thrilling initially. Subsequently, when the food presented to you didnt have much changes and you have it consectively for nine days, you would definitely wanna get rid of it. lol
Orange juice for the underage.
My pick! Very eggyfied!
After eating, I went out of the restaurant/ bar to take photos of the views in the area. heh. It's beautifuuuuuuuuuuuuul. Everything seems so microscopic and minute while I stood tall and high.
Rockstar wannabes! 3 kids (Julia, Ryan, Tricia)) liven up the entire trip
The luge is a fun-filled 1km long gravity ride on a cart. It's a very different one from the one we have in Sentosa. There are 3 routes - Scenic (Beginner), Intermediate and Advanced. Scenic was having maintance that fateful day so we had a ride on the intermediate. The track was hell fun and thrilling, going downwards around the mountain with slopes and windy curves; bumpy at times. But it was kickassed and we dun seem to be able to finish it.
At a point, we were at a junction, dunno which route to take but heck la, we just went ahead with our choices. Little did we realised, it was just another route to the finishing line. dots. After finished the whole course, we concluded that Sentosa's was nothing!
However, the luge would stall at times (not me) due to poor handling of the cart. haha. I could see some dodos using their legs to nagviate the luge till it started to move again. Looked like some insects struggling to get away =/
After choosing our helmets
Waited quite awhile for the adults to get down -_-
Chairlift back
We went for a second round at the advanced track. It was more of downhills and curves as compared to the previous ones. You can F1 here, going at a very fast speed, so fast that it was quite hard to grip onto the handle. The pressure on my hands against the grip was quite overwhelming. I din manage to take any photos there as they zoomed off very fast :(
I believed they share the same thoughts as me that the intermediate one would be a better and entertaining route. heh
While we were playing, the adults were having fun taking photos. hahah. I regretted playing so much that I dun have enough time to take more photos :( And it was chilly on top because the wind kept blowing, so much so that I had to put on a jacket. ahhhh~ Shiokness!
Making our way down
Next, we visited Agrodome Farm and watch sheep dogs and 19 breeds of sheep performing. I din know there are so many different breeds of sheep.
Anyway, it was super smelly. While standing at the entrance, you can literally smell the whole place full of sheep/ milk smell. Yikes. And we had to spend quite awhile in there, like omg! I felt really uncomfortable in the beginning but soon, it was alright!
We were introduced to the breeds of sheep and some were very lazy, they kept lying down to sleep after finished their food. I managed to spot one breed of sheeps very cute! hahah. He/she is called Drysdale =D
One by one going on stage
The emcee whose accent I could hardly understand =/
After the introduction of the sheeps, we saw the sheep shearing. The emcee had to fight with the sheep when he wanted to shave his 'hair'. The scene was quite chaotic and violent and he had to be stronger than the sheep as it was trying very hard to struggle. It was my first time, so I found it quite interesting.
Eh. The difference in colour of the photos were because I changed the aperture and shuttle speed of the camera halfway. Some of the photos were blurry as there were too much movements from the objects. heh
See the pile of wool. It was being passed around later and I touched it. It was very soft and fluffy with a tad of dirtyness. The smell wasnt that strong though.
Then, we had the cow on stage. It was a huge brown one. The emcee wanted to demo how to extract milk out of it. However, being irritating, he went to touch the untouchable and almost got a back kick from the cow.
A few volunteers were asked to go up to stage to try. Firstly, they had to practise it without the cow. They had to stand in a row, with their hands out and also to move from top to bottom - That's the movement of squeezing to extract the milk out of the cow. hahah. The actions and movements looked funny loh. CMI! =P
Next, the sheep dogs came into the pictures. They came from behind and kept on barking non-stop! They were used to tame the sheep and to chase them back home after they had gazed the grass. A demonstration was shown on how the sheep dogs did their jobs and from there, could notice the sheeps were scared of them.
The dogs were running on top of them
The lambs were brought up to the stage too. Kids were also welcomed onto the stage. One of the kids got conned by the emcee. The milk bottles filled with milk were supposed to feed the little lambs but he told the kids it's for them. So a not-very smart kid really put the bottle into her mouth -_-
The little lambs finished the bottle of milk in a flash. I guessed they were too hunger??? Or is it their normal speed?
With that, marked the end of the show and we were invited up on stage to take pictures with the sheeps and dogs while there was another performance outside by the lambs. Couldnt split myself, so I went up to the stage and take photos with them..
Unknown plant outside the toilet
Cattle of lambs at the roadside.
We travelled to Te Puke.
To be continued..
Labels: Agrodome Farm, Mt Ngongotaha, New Zealand
12:20 AM
