NZ South Island Itinerary for 20 days on budget

Hello!

Since AirAsia started the KUL-AKL route, I think the number of Malaysian going to NZ increased tremendously. I guess this will be a very helpful post to help you answer the following questions:
1. How long do I need to travel around South Island?
Ideally, you will need at least two weeks to have a decent trip. Honestly, you will need more time if you are into hiking. We did one hike (short/long) every two days and I have to admit that our east coast trip was pretty intense. We tried to fit everything into one week in order to make it to Milford Sound before the stormy week.

2. How much do I need for travelling in New Zealand?
It really depends on what you want to do. Accommodation is the most expensive cost for our trip. We stayed in hostel every day because I insisted on showering everyday. LOL
Use Wikicamps, booking.com and YHA website to look for deals. A YHA/BBH card would be very useful. For Malaysians, I would suggest you to apply for YHA card in Malaysia.

To save even more, you should try to cook everyday especially when you travel in groups. One carbonara dish (~$2/pax) with heaps of bacons can last you for two meals. Besides that, you have to exercise perfect self-control (I'm so bad at this) at the supermarket. My travel mate spent $885 for 16 days vs me who spent $1137 for 20 days because I couldn't say no to ice-cream or chocolates.

3. Should I use bus pass (Kiwi Experience/Stray) or drive?

If you are travelling alone/you don't want to drive, you can stick with the bus pass. If you have one friend with you, you can consider renting a car. However, the road can be pretty narrow and winding. We planned our trip in a way that we don't exceed 5 hours of driving every day.

So, to help you plan your trip better, I'm going to share my 20 days itinerary, hostels, things-to-do and expenses breakdown for the trip. This will be a very simple post as I will go into the details later.

First, let me run through the itinerary with you.
Day 1 to 4 - Christchurch and Springfield
Activities
Christchurch CBD, Botanical Garden, Museum, Art Gallery, Mount Pleasant

Hostel
YHA Christchurch

Day 5 - Christchurch-Lake Tekapo-Omarama
Activities
Lake Pukaki & Good Shepherd Church

Hostel
Omarama Buscot Station BBH

Day 6  - Hooker Valley Track-Lake Benmore-Oamaru
Activities
Hooker Valley Track Hike (3 hrs return), Lake Benmore, Blue penguin watching (FREE)

Hostel
YHA Red Kettle, Oamaru

Day 7 - Oamaru-Moeraki Boulders- Dunedin
Activities
Oamaru Art Gallery
Oamaru self-guided walking tour
Moeraki Boulders (check for tide times- only go during low tides)
Dunedin (Baldwin Street & self-guided walking tour)

Hostel
Manor Backpackers Place

Day 8 - The Catlins- Bluff- Invercargill
Activities
McLean Falls
Nugget Point Lighthouse
Cathedral Cave (check for tide times- only go during low tides)
The Lost Gypsy Caravan (It was closed during winter season)
Bluff
Invercargill
P/s: I would recommend a minimum of two days for this route but we were in a rush as we wanted to be at Milford Sound for the good weather.

Day 9 - Invercargill- Te Anau
Activities
Te Anau & Manapouri Lake
P/s: Best place to do Kepler Track day hike but we didn't have enough time

Hostel
Manapouri Freestone Backpacker

Day 10 - Milford Sound
Activities
Milford Sound Cruise by Go Orange! ($45)
Key Summit Track, The Divide
Mirror Lake

Hostel
Manapouri Freestone Backpacker

Day 11 - Queenstown-Wanaka-Lake Hawea
Activities
Queenstown
Lunch at Fergburger and dessert at Mrs. Ferg
QT Sunday Market & Botanical Garden
Lake Wanaka for Wanaka Tree
P/s: Would do Rob Roy Glacier & Black Diamond Lake Track if we had sufficient time. Check out Roy's Peak's lambing season

Hostel
Lake Hawea Hostel

Day 12 - Isthmus Peak Hike
Activities
Isthmus Peak Track (6 hrs return)
P/s: Did this instead of Roy's Peak because Roy's Peak was closed for lambing season. You can see both Lake Wanaka & Lake Hawea from Isthmus Peak. Bring gloves to keep warm!

Hostel
Lake Hawea Hostel

Day 13 - Fox Glacier-Hokitika
Activities
Fox Glacier Walk (2 hrs return - FREE)
Drove past westcoast due to bad weather
P/s: Fox Glacier walk was not worth it IMHO. Too much effort needed for the view. LOL

Hostel
Mountain Jade Backpackers Hokitika

Day 14 - Hokitika -Westport
Activities
Hokitika Beach
Hokitika Gorge
Punaikaki Pancake Rocks
Westport

Hostel
The Arthouse Hostel Westport

Day 15 - Westport-Nelson
Activities
Nelson Lake National Park
P/s: The I-site recommended us Buller Gorge but we found out that the place is a bit run down and poorly managed. And also, it was raining when we were there and we decided to skip it.

Hostel
The Bug Backpackers, Nelson

Day 16 - Abel Tasman
Activities
Abel Tasman Hike (Torrent Bay- Marahau)
P/s: I would suggest you to take the watertaxi from Marahau instead. We used Aquataxi for the trip.

Hostel
Annies Nirvana Lodge, YHA

Day 17 - Golden Bay
Activities
Wairariki Beach
Cape Farewell
Te Waikoropupu Spring
Grove Scenic Reserve

Hostel
The Bug Backpackers, Nelson

Day 18 - Picton
Activities
Shelly Bay Track
Bob's Bay Track
Picton Waterfront

Hostel
Pacific Coast Lodge, YHA/BBH

Day 19 - Picton-Christchurch
Activities
Blenheim
Kaikoura for Fish and Chips

Hostel
Kiwi House Hostel

Day 20 - Castle Hill
Activities
Castle Hill (Filming place for Narnia)

Hostel
YHA Rolleston House

As you can see from the itinerary, my friends and I weren't into any touristy activities. Oh well,  except for Fergburger and Milford Sound Cruise but we wanted them badly. 
Hence, if you are into Skydiving or glacier tour, you will need to add that expenses onto the budget. :)

As mentioned earlier, I have spent $1137 or RM 3,500 (RM3.07= 1$ as per Dec 2016) for this 20 days trip. Whee!

As shown by the pie chart above, accommodation and fuel are the most expensive cost for this trip.
Car Rental & Fuel - We rented a Fiat Punto for 16 days from Jucy and the rental (including full insurance) were shared among 3 people. Fuel price was around $1.76/L-$2.08/L.
Groceries - Daily meal & dine-out. We cooked most of our nutritious meals.
Activities - Milford Sound Cruise and Aqua Taxi ride for Abel Tasman.
Personal Spending -  Snacks, chocolates and postcards

I guess that's about it and I hope that it is a helpful post for all of you. =)

Feel free to leave a comment or email us if you need any clarification from me.

Kansai 10D9N Itinerary 关西十天行程

Hello readers!

Going to Kansai but don't know where to start?

You will be pleased to know that we are sharing our Kansai 10D9N itinerary!

We've covered 4 places namely Osaka, Kyoto, Mount Koya and Kurama. It might look simple but we have spent a lot of our time on our research. We can tell you what to do in Kansai if you have 10 days, where to go in Kansai and how we saved on our transportation.

If you love what you are reading, please help us to share our love around ;) 

Day 1

Arrive at Kansai International Airport (KIX). Got my Osaka Unlimited Pass & Kansai Thru Pass at the visitor counter.

Checked in at Osaka Hana Hostel.

The main idea was to travel around Osaka, using Osaka Unlimited Pass (OUP) on the first 2 days as I have to use the pass for 2 days consecutively. Due to time constrain, I only went to places with free admission:

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

Cruise Ship Santa Maria

Tempozan Ferris Wheel

HEP 5 Ferries Wheel

Floating Garden Observatory

Tombori River Cruise

Day 2

Osaka Castle Museum

Osaka Castle Nishinomaru Garden

Osaka Museum of History
Shintennoji Temple
Tennoji Zoo
Natural Hot Spring Naniwa no Yu

Tsutenkaku Tower*

Additional place: Shinseikai and Shinsaibashi (Not included in OUP)

Day 3

Traveled out of the city for two interesting museum:

Instant Ramen Museum- you can make your own cup noodle for 300Y.

Asahi Beer Museum- you will be introduced to the whole beer process making and get 3 free drinks (alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages) at the end of the visit.

Explored Nanba Area

Day 4

Arashiyama & Takao

Tenjinbashisuji Walking Street

Day5

Mount Koya

Then traveled to Kyoto for the following 2 days.

Day 6

Fushimi Inari ,Tofukuji, Kiyomizudera Temple, Higashiyama Walking Tour, Gion

Day7

Philosopher Path Walking Tour, Nishiki Market,  Imohe Temple

Day 8

Back in Osaka

Kurama & Kibune

Day 9

Kuramon Market

Minoo Park

Shinseikai & Shinsaibashi area

Day 10
Back to Malaysia


*Didn't managed to go up as the queue was very long and the waiting time was 1 hour. You should make Tsutenkaku Tower the first thing to do in Osaka during weekends.

Details will be up soon!

Medan 5D4N transportation guide!

Hi peeps !
Sorry to keep you waiting.
Here's the guide for the 3rd largest city in Indonesia -Medan.
I realize that there's not much guides about how to get to one place from another. So, let me help! I'll be doing reviews about the places later.

Day 1
Update: The new airport is at Kuala Namu which is 45 minutes away from the city center.

Arrive at Polonia Airport. Note: They are going to shift the airport to a new place which is located an hour away from the city center.
Our friend fetch us to the Padang Bulan Bus Station but generally you can get a taxi at the Petronas Petrol Station which is located opposite the airport. The airport is so small and you don't have to walk that much. From Padang Bulan Bus Station, you can get to Berastagi at Rp 10,000 only in a minibus (2 hours ride). The best seat is located next to the driver. At Berastagi (B), you can walk around the tugu Berastagi or use their angkot service. We went to Gundaling (G) by "Bintang Karo" angkot at the fee of Rp 3000 (B-G) and Rp 2000 (G-B). I've no idea why the fee is cheaper when we travel from Gundaling to Berastagi.

Day 2
We left Berastagi by local transportation again. Someone quote us Rp 450,000 for a car but we didn't take the deal as we think it is expensive as there's only 3 of us travelling together. Instead of a private car, we travelled from Berastagi to Kebanjahe (Karya Transport -Yellow van; Rp 3000- 30 mins) & from Kebanjahe to Siantar (Sepadan-blue van; Rp 20,000 -3 hrs). From Siantar, you can either travel by local minibus (Rp 10,000 -30 mins) or a shared taxi (Rp 15,000) to Parapat. We chose the later one as we are tired of smoking secondhand smoke.
From Parapat, we took the ferry (Rp 7000) to  Tuktuk.
You can also travel from Siantar to Parapat by "Sejahtera bus".

Day 3
We rented a private van with driver at Rp 450,000 (RM 50) near Liberta Homestay as we don't know how to ride a motorbike. Motorbike rental is available at Rp80,000 or Rp 200,000 with driver. But make sure that you tell your driver where you want to go and make sure that he promise that he will take you the places you wish to go. It's good to survey about the places first & know where you want to go first before talking to the driver.

Day 4
We left Tuktuk for Parapat by the ferry. (Rp 7000) and shared the taxi from PT Bagus (near the Jetty) at only Rp 65,000 per person for a 5 hours journey. We didn't ask the minibus/local bus as sitting in the bus for few hours is not so comfortable.

Day 5
We travelled mostly by becak around the city. Price should be around Rp15,000 to Rp 20,000. If they charge more, take the bluebird taxi instead! The town is very very small and you can reach most places by foot. Don't let the map fools you.

That's all from Medan and hope you enjoy your stay there! I'll do a review about the places there! :)

Off to Japan soon

Hey ya! My Japan trip is in 3 days and I have yet to finish planning yet cause I wanna make the most out of my trip, trying to fit in as many places as possible. I ll be going for eight days, though its seems long but I still feel that I can't covered the places I wanna go.

So here's a brief itinerary:

Day 1:
Arrival at Kansai International Airport
I'll be heading to Sakai for the famous tomb stone and also Sumiyoshi to visit the Sumiyoshi Tashi Temple via the Nankai Line, then back to Rinku Town for the night.

Day 2:
Leaving Rinku Town and heading to Osaka via the Nankai Line to Namba Station. From there, I'll be changing to the Midosuji Line to Shinsaibashi Station. Our hotel for 7 nights will be at Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi Osaka. It's pretty reasonable for only RM 1400 for that 7 night, and it's close to the Station making sight seeing very easier.

After Check-in, I'll be using the Osaka Unlimited Pass as it provide free admission to most of the popular tourist attraction in Osaka and unlimited ride on public transport for the day.

Day 3:
Will be spending the whole day in Universal Studio Osaka. Universal Studio is only accessible via the JR line. I'll be taking the JR line from Osaka Station to Universal Studio Station

Day 4:
Will be visiting Kobe half the day,hopefully there's ample time to visit the Himeji-jo in Himeji.

Day 5:
Heading over to Kyoto. Most probably will be covering the UNESCO Herritage Sites in Northern Kyoto as well as going up the Kyoto tower and catching a glimpse of geisha in Gion District

Day 6:
Will be taking a relaxing day in Osaka visiting the Osaka Castle which was closed on Monday in the morning and then heading to Namba district and Dotombori to dine and shop.

Day 7:
Back for another day in Kyoto, covering the eastern side of Kyoto or heading to Nara. Pretty unsure yet. We will see how it goes.

Day 8:
The Gion Matsuri Festival will be held in Kyoto on this day (17July) and I guess this will be the highlight of the trip. Hopefully slight sight seeing in between.

Day 9:
Catching the early train back to KIX to fly back to Malaysia.

Ciao! Off to finish my planning. Hope all goes well!