The great migration Part II "Return of the Migrants" - Singapore

We arrived in Singapore! We are going to spend a week here before flying to Los Angeles, transiting in Tokyo. The main purpose of coming to Singapore was to catch up with my family, and of course, not forgetting Alfred :)

We arrived at Changi International Airport at around 6am in the morning, and without hesitation, I joined a long queue of people and bought our first kopi and toast. There would definitely be more kopi in the days to come :)

We didn't got the chance to visit the Gardens by the Bay during our last visit (which was ages ago), so this time we were determined to check it out. Besides, walking around in a air-conditioned dome sounded like a great idea when it is 33degC out! The place was very beautiful and it happened to be the tulip exhibition, thus we got to see exhibitions of different species of tulips from around the world.

We went for a couple of short runs early in the morning along the Singapore/ Kallang river. We had to run early in the morning (around 6am) because it started to get really warm by about 7am. It feels good to stretch our legs, and the great sunrise shots at the end of our run was definitely a bonus!

Besides the the Garden by the Bay, we also managed to visit the National Museum of Singapore, walked along the riverside, and window shop along the new, hippy Arab Street. Mom and Meow Lan also took us to a very old temple in the Central Business District to pray for our safe journey to USA, as well as a smooth sailing in our careers.

We met Alfred, Cheryl, Olivia and Kimberly. Alfred took us and Olivia to visit his old estate (Kim Keat Estate), and took pics of the old and momentous water spitting dragon.

We definitely didn't forget about the delicious food in Singapore. Hannah had cravings for "Chiu Kui", and my mom bought us to the Kallang market for their famous delicious, the one-and-only-best "Chui Kui". We had breakfast with my dad at the local market on a couple of occasions, and he bought Hannah fish and chicken for breakfast! Of course, it was a bit weird for Hannah to be eating fish and chicken for breakfast, but I think she does love the good food and the attention showered on her by my parents and sisters.

We had the chance to go out with Meow Lan for modern vegan food. It was quite tasty, but was a bit too modern for my taste. I think I am more a hawker center/ coffee shop kind of guy :) However, the tim sum lunch with my mom, Meow Lan, Yin-Kai was very tasty. It had the usual Hong Kong style tim sum atmosphere - everyone talks loudly, everything was fast and all the food was delicious.

My youngest aunt paid us a visit during the weekend, and together with my mom, we went to visit Gek Lan and took a look at her new apartment. After that, we went for delicious dessert (which was welcoming in Singapore super hot, humid weather) before heading over to visit my eldest aunt.

Hannah and I were very thankful to Meow Lan for splurging on wonderful seafood dinner at No Name Seafood Restaurant. We had chilli crab, pepper crab, cereal crayfish (I can only remember these items due to extreme food comatose!) and lots of other delicious food. This seafood dinner definitely made the most legendary food sampling for this trip!

Alfred brought us to Whampoa Market for the famous duck rice and rojak. We literally had to queue up for nearly 30mins before we ordered for our food. However, the duck rice and rojak were definitely worth the wait.

We had a simple fish steamboat at a coffee shop near my mom's apartment the evening we are leaving. It was a simple dinner, but it was very nice and good to catch up with family. Hannah and I hoped to be back home again maybe around Chinese New Year.

The great migration Part II "Return of the Migrants" - Auckland

We are back in Auckland! We spend two days at Pras's house. Pras is going to look after the dogs for 10 days, and helped to coordinate with the shipper to send the dogs to USA. It was great to spend the two days with Pras just talking about dogs, training etc. He loves dog training and everything about dogs in general, and he really really likes Jet! Well, he likes Lilith as well, but Lilith treats him like a stranger :P

Reluctantly, we sold Fawkes to a wrecker. We tried selling it to a backpacker but he was worried about the rust, and we ran out of time and energy to continue meeting people. And the wrecker agreed to pay us more than we asked for. Goodbye Fawkes... you are a good van.

After we sold the van, we were staying with Selena and Lois for a couple of days before our flight to Singapore. We were excited and nervous... our time in New Zealand is almost up. We had lots of fond and some not some nice memories of New Zealand. We had lived in New Zealand for 6 years and 10 months, and now we are leaving.

Till we meet again, New Zealand. Poroporoaki.

Road Trip Day 28/29 - Kaitoke Regional Park & Taupo De Brett's Thermal Holiday Park

In the morning, we took a quick detour back because Hannah had learnt about the presence of baby seals at a nearby waterfall (Ohau waterfall)! We were greeted by tons (at least sixty!) of baby seals playing in the waterfall. The adult seals had treated this place like a "baby seal care centre". They travel about 500m from the coast towards the park, and leave their baby seals here while they are out hunting for food. They would come back for them every few days. The baby seals were cute and friendly, and some of them were way too friendly! They would approached the tourists who were eagerly taking photos of them, and some idiotic tourist would pet them or even attempt to kiss them (Hannah and I were secretly hoping they would get bitten by the seals!). We took a few nice photographs and quickly leave the park before we lost our patience.

Finally, we are on the InterIslander Ferry back to Wellington. On the ferry, there were a couple of very excellent performers who sang and played various instruments very well. Besides the performers, old drunken men also never hesitated to show off their vocal (or lack of) talents :). Amidst enjoying the show, Hannah and I were also busy with advertising the van for sale on Trademe. There were inquiries about the van minutes after the advertisement went live (we were sure that we might have put the price of the van too low :/ )

It was late when we arrived at the Kaitoke Regional Park. The park would have been close when we arrived if not for the great ranger. Hannah had called ahead and told him that we would be late, and he left the gate open for us so that we could get into the park and camp for the night.

The next night we camped at De Brett's Thermal Holiday Park. Due to my healing tattoo wounds, I could not go to the thermal pool, but that didn't stop Hannah from rejuvenating herself by soaking in the thermal pool for an hour!

Day 29 marks the end of our road trip and the start of "The Great Migration Part II - The Return of the Migrants". It will be the beginning of our trip back to USA.