Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, here we are!

We are in KL at the moment. I am typing this from the convenience of our hotel room at Jalan Imbi. We've been here 2 days and been busy touring the place. Not that we havent been here before, its just the same old place but still we went to places and buy things. Its Year End Sales at the moment and the place is bustling. The festivities are in the air. Its holiday seasons here, christmas trees and christmas lights are every where. We took lots of pictures and its coming soon...

KL Malaysia!

Two weeks to go before our next holiday to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. We will be spending 2009 year end over there. Just want to be away from home and see the lights in a bigger city. Not that we celebrate the new year but need the time to unwind and do a little bit of shopping!

Our Makan di NZ

Before we went off to NZ, we were really worried on how we are going to eat. So we had done a lot of research on where to find halal restaurants or at least a grocery store to buy something to eat. We also opted to stay in a service apartment where there would be some kitchen facilities for us to cook simple meals.

In the end its all worth it. We found a few good and delicious muslim restaurants all around NZ, in fact we did find a few in Auckland, christchurch and even Queenstown. Kebab sold by middle eastern Arabs are scattered all over NZ, its very easy to find although we just couldnt eat kebab all day long.

So its all good and we were happy since we didnt have any problem with food.

The halal Thai food restaurant we found in Auckland. Alot of muslims eating here, we saw alot of Malaysian students too who had their meals here, and some Arabs. The food were quite good, although a bit expensive but we didnt have much choice, did we?

We also tried Sushi which was nice, alot of sea food around so no problem.
Or we looked for fruit cake where ever we can find.
This is a middle east halal restaurant in Christchurch, I think from Tunisia. And the food was really tasty. I was skeptical at first since I never came across middle east food that I liked but here it was diferent. It was really delicious. The building is called "The Crossing". Need to put that down here so I can refer back if I forgotten in case we drop by in Christchurch in the future.

This is during our ski trip to Coronet Peak. There were no muslims restaurant at the ski resort, so we packed some kebab with rice and brought them over to the mountain, and had our lunch at the resort near the snow-capped mountain. A very extra ordinary experience so someone like us who never been to a ski resort.

But most of the time, we shopped for grocery at this big grocery store, called The Foodtown. It looked like our Supasave, but much bigger and alot more, I mean alot more choices! So many seafood, lots of vegetables and other stuff on sale, so its very good. This store was just 5 minutes walk to our hotel in Auckland. Thats what I called convenience, hubby found this store when he searched the internet on where to stay. He is just simply brilliant and very resourceful!

Us doing our grocery shopping at Foodtown.

And most of the time, I did the cooking. Only simple meals like telur masak merah, vegetables, or some sea food. But they were just simply delicious although I didnt have enough ingredients to work on.

Ok thats it, till next time!

Memorable pictures of NZ - sights you dont see everyday!

All these pictures were taken while we were in Auckland, hubby took these pictures from the balcony of our hotel, the Quest on Nelson at around 8.00am. It showed how the bridge of Auckland was covered by the morning mist or fog. Bit by bit the whole bridge dissapeared from view and it stayed like this for more than 10 minutes. Amazing pictures!

Another beautiful pictures below. How Auckland looked like at dusk, at around 7pm. Well, it didnt look like this everyday, though. Maybe only on some clear nights. The colours were just amazing and we were so impressed and so lucky to be able to witness this with our very own eyes. All taken from our balcony.

We also witnessed one phenomenon which was so undescribable. It was when we went back to Auckland after the trip to Rotorua. It happened around 7pm, my girl first noticed it. We saw there were so many, I mean alot, of stars in the sky. Its breath taking, the sky was full of stars! We never seen anything like it anyway. So unfortunate that we couldnt took pictures of it because it was so dark. But it was simply awesome. You wont believe me until you see it for yourself!

The place we stayed in - Scenic Hotel Queenstown

These are pictures of our hotel in Queenstown, South Island. The hotel is like a resort and some rooms are chalet style. We were given a chalet room with 2 stories. Love this hotel too, its a semi apartment with kitchen. There were 2 rooms, again another bonus. But the best of all, was the view. Its the best view of all the hotels we ever stayed in. We can see the snow capped mountain meeting the sea, and the pretty small town of Queenstown. It really was a view to remember. Not forgetting the long white clouds where New Zealand has the nick name for. Amazing and simply stunning.

Below first two pictures are views from our room. Very beautiful, especially in the morning.

The place we stayed in - Stadium Waldorf Auckland

We stayed in this service apartment for 15 days. Its a brand new hotel and I dont think anyone ever live in our room. Everything is so new, (the apartment was opened in February I think). Love the setup and the furniture, the colour concept is black and white. The room was spacious and very trendy. The apartment was all you need to feel at home, it had everything, fully equipped kitchen, flat screen tv, dish washer, washing machine and dryer. It even had a balcony! The security was also a plus at this hotel. It used a card system not only for the room but the moment you used the lift, you need to insert your room card. So you dont expect to see uninvited guests, only those you know would be allowed to come. There was also intercom system outside the hotel where your guests could let you know they are coming over from outside the hotel. Very convenient. What more could you want? We were so very comfortable here. Another bonus point was the apartment is very near to Foodtown, a big grocery store, just round the corner. So it was very handy to get your food supply.

Here is another catch. Hubby booked for a one room apartment but the receptionist was kind enough to give us 2 bedrooms apartment! What a generous gesture. My girl was so happy that she got her own room with an internet connection! Oh, the internet connection was cheap too. We were charged NZD50 for a week, 24/7. Not bad.

The place we stayed in - Quest on Nelson Auckland

Sailing on Ted Ashby, Auckland New Zealand

We went sailing at Auckland harbour then went on to visit Maritime Museum. This was also a first for us. We joined the sail on a boat called Ted Ashby.

A little background of Ted Ashby:

Big Rig of the Gulf - has taken 10 years to complete. Ted Ashby was a new scow built for the New Zealand National Maritime Museum in Auckland. The New Zealand trading scow's history and Ted Ashby's story is told by the people involved - the designers, builders, sailmakers, historians and the people whose vision made the project possible. Ted Ashby was the first new scow to be built for many years and there is unlikely to be another with the same authenticity.