R for Rotorua

Most famous of the pungent sulphur smell, but you will stop noticing it after a while. With so many exciting things to see and do, from facial at Hell’s Gates geothermal spa to zorbing, from quadbiking in paddock to taking a luge down a hill. The last thing in your head is the smell.

S for Sounds

Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound are actually Fjords. NZ most photographed location is the famous Mitre Peak at Milford Sound. Yes, it is that gorgeous to see it by foot, bus, cruise and flight. They probably miss out the fact that this place is also full of sand flies and insect repellent is a necessity.

T for Taupo

The town is famous for extreme sports in North Island, while the lake is the largest in New Zealand. It is only slightly smaller than Singapore in surface area, Lake Taupo is 616 sq km and Singapore is 700 sq km. Strategically located along State Highway 1, it is one of my fave stopover point.

U for yoU

Travelling is all about the traveller, not so much on the destination. It is easy to differentiate between a traveller and non-traveller. One is open-minded, accepting, humble, gracious, imaginative, spontaneous and fun-loving. The other is neither.

V for Vineyard

For people who love wine, New Zealand has heaps of winery, and wine tasting is a norm everywhere. Not an alcohol lover, but the wine culture grew on me. Now I drink a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc a few times a year. Prefer this over cocktails, beers and liquors.

W for Wellington

Not only is it the capital of New Zealand, it is also the southernmost capital in the world. Heaps of iconic structures here – from the famous beehive (Parliament House) to Te Papa Museum (NZ’s best museum in my opinion). The lesser known ones are Weta Museum and Cable Car.

X for Xtreme sports

According to those who love adventure, they said New Zealand is the place. It offers most of the extreme sports without the extreme environment and weather conditions. A guide told me that out of all the extreme sports in the world, NZ offers half of them right here.

Y for Youth hostels

Cheap, comfortable and cosy. Might not be a 5-star hotel with room service, but the price for a twin room with ensuite bathroom is more than enough. After all, we are not in New Zealand to stay in the room. Having lived in some really good youth hostels, this is my preferred option in NZ.

Z for Zoo

I have been to Auckland Zoo and it was really not bad since I am more of a plant lover than animal lover. Some of my friends said the NZ zoos are must-visit destinations. In my opinion, Kelly Tarlton’s and New Zealand National Aquarium are worth checking out too.

This list is based on my personal experiences and honest opinions. I hope they inspire you to check out some of the highlights in New Zealand too. There is nothing better than experiencing them yourself. Stories and sharing cannot justify how awesome they truly are until you try them out.

Tweet

I for Intercity

What are we going to do without the InterCity buses in New Zealand? Yes, there is Naked bus, but I love InterCity buses. Simply because they usually have multiple good timings daily, decent pricing, comfy chairs and cool stopping points. Great for both long and short distance from cities to towns.

J for Jobs

There are heaps of jobs in NZ, especially nature-related ones. There are even more of such jobs during summer – from fruit picking and gardener. Pay might not be fantastic, but with somewhat a minimal wage policy, it is definitely sufficient to live and play in NZ with a summer job.

K for Kaikoura

Whale-watching, not common everywhere but is located here. Plus get to see dolphins and seals along the way. Sounds all spectacular, but all we see was a floating dark patch, which suddenly flipped and the tail stuck up (photo opportunity) and disappeared into the water. That’s the gist.

L for LOTR

No visit to NZ is completed without checking out at least 1 film site of Lord of the Rings. My personal favourite is Kaitoke Regional Park which is the set for Rivendell. The place looks magical in lighter shade of green, even without any computer effects. Gotta see it in real life to feel it.

M for Mount Cook

Highest Mountain in NZ at 3,754m. There are heaps of walks around to see the snow-capped peaks, valleys, rivers and glaciers from the Mount Cook village. Even though all mountains look similar, guess it makes some difference when it is the highest peak in the country.

N for New Zealand

This is not meant to be a “duh” point. Every country has their beautiful history, culture and legends that are story worthy. After the initial physical attraction (scenery and landscape), I fell in love with NZ coz of the story (Maori and European stories) and personality (people and culture).

O for Organic food

I used to dislike veggies, but I love them now. Organic cherry tomatoes taste like chocolates! A freshly plucked apple is so sweet and crunchy! Organic kiwifruit tastes different from those in supermarket. Home-grown lettuces taste of health and wellness. I have converted since.

P for People

A country is beautiful because of her amazing people.  I love how Kiwis smile and have small talks with one another everywhere. People help one another with no racial discrimination. Most people are giving and trusting. And it is such a relaxed and laidback culture. Great place for retirement!

Q for Queenstown

The strategically located resort town is surrounded by gorgeous scenery, from mountains range to lake. Most major attractions are just a few hours bus ride away, from Milford Sound to the first commercialised bungee jump, A J Hackett. Parachutes and para-sails are part of the scenery too.

Tweet

A for Auckland

Everyone knows about Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, also known as City of Sails. The part I love most about Auckland is that although it is very city-ish in terms of convenience, the suburbs still retain some of its countryside qualities (e.g. good community of people and home gardens).

B for Beaches

Ninety mile beach is so endless that it amazes me even though it is only 55 miles. And the first time I saw black sand was at Himatangi Beach. For a first impression, it was not all that inviting. But it kinda grows on you, and I look forward to see more volcanic sand beaches in the future.

C for Christchurch

It is a beautiful garden city with English influences and a gateway to Antarctic. The city centre was once a gorgeous place with heaps of old stone buildings. According to my friends who went there after the quake, it was still in a pretty bad state. Hope the city recovers soon.

D for Driving

In my opinion, I think New Zealand is a fantastic place to drive in. The roads are broad, easy to read signage, large number of parking space, spacious parking lots and heaps of friendly drivers. Somehow, I don’t have the confidence to drive anywhere else except in New Zealand.

E for Earthquakes

The February 2011 earthquake at Christchurch was a scary catastrophe. The whole country is located on top of the boundary of Pacific and Australian plates, with heaps of fault lines all around. Minor earthquakes are happening daily. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that major quakes don’t strike again.

F for Franz Josef glacier

It is amazing to learn how glaciers are formed, and even more exciting to hike up a real glacier. Personally, I thought it looked the best from the bottom; it looks like glowing in a blue light and sort of ‘flowing’ towards you. The glacier is constantly flowing and changes every few days.

G for Glowworm

The Arachnocampa species are endemic to New Zealand and Australia. The glowworms are not worms, but the luminescent larval stage of the beetle. Can be spotted in many places, but more popularly found around Waitomo and Te Ana-au Caves, in North and South Island respectively.

H for Hangi and Haka

Hangi is the traditional Maori way of cooking using heated rocks buried in a pit oven. The meat taste kinda like a combination of smoked and grilled. Haka is traditional Maori war dance. The most famous one is by All Blacks. The Haka war dance looks really fierce and kinda scary in real life.

Tweet

Inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s Guide to World Domination manifesto from his Art of Non-Conformity blog, I decided to try writing my own. Been thinking about it for a couple of months since I read his manifesto, it is still in the midst of refinement.

In Chris’ manifesto, he asked 2 questions: “What do I really want?” and “What can I really offer?” This is somewhat similar to a segment of Daren Hardy’s Design the Best 10 Years of Your Life.

My personal mission statement is “To appreciate and enjoy the quality of life by having an abundance of love, happiness and wisdom”. And my vision in life is “To bring love and happiness to the people around me”. That’s pretty much “What I really want”.

When I was around 16, I came up with this mantra/quote: “Today is the best day in my entire life, For I live only in the present. My past ended when I fell asleep last night, My future will start when I wake up tomorrow.” And my days, weeks and years are always getting better and better.

Now, “What can I really offer?” is a more complex question. As women, we have so many roles to play daily. It requires a conscious effort to focus on myself sometimes, can be simply remembering to have regular meals, sufficient sleep and going for facials.

Our bigger purpose in life is to make the world a better place coz we came by, not just to our immediate family and friends, but include strangers whom we might never meet. When we fulfil the purpose we are on earth for, that makes our lives worth living.

My intention is to make a positive difference to women and girls, so every woman/girl can pay itforward to the next generation of women/girls. Currently, there are several good causes that are doing it; one of them that I am following more closely is Girl Up.

Currently, I am still developing my ‘how’. We need to start somewhere, so I started by mentoring two 7-year-old girls under Singapore Children Society. I aim for a consistent 1-2 hour session/week,and never skip it for more than 3 weeks.

Sometimes, I go after a day of work, but just seeing the lively girls, I know the time spent with them is truly worth it. Both of them have great potential to be contributing members to our future society, making a difference to the world. One of them wants to be a doctor and the other wants to work with animals. As of yesterday, both wanted to be teachers!

If I need to answer “What can I really offer?” today, my answer will be “to inspire people by my way of living”. How else I can better inspire people other than leading by example? One of my ‘manifesto’ for this year is my 30 before 30 list. It was inspired by some friends, but by keeping to these goals, I achieved so much more via this journey than I ever expected. And it is not even June!

I am not perfect, but I am constantly trying to improve myself, bit by bit. After all, we are actually “work in progress” all our lives. We just keep learning, growing, developing, adapting and changing. We are either moving forward or backward in life, never staying stationary. And that’s why life is such an exciting journey!

Tweet

I am not a financial guru, but am considered financially savvy among my peers. I have insurance for life, health and liability. Especially since unpredictable things can happen when travelling, you never know when you need it.

On top of the usual student insurance in New Zealand, I bought extra travel insurance duringthe 3 summers I was travelling, as well as for my 2 South Island holidays and 1 Australia holiday. Thankfully, I never use the insurance at all during my 3 holidays.

During my last semester, our little city had a gastrointestinal virus epidemic. Fortunately, I was okay during the semester till exams. However, my close friend caught it at the start of the holidays and Idrove her to the hospital. I must have gotten the nosocomial infection there.

The bug attacked within a week and my summer flatmate drove me to A&E at night as there were no 24-hour clinics around. To cut a long story short, the bill came up to NZD$400+ which I managed to claim successfully with my travel insurance. Can’t really remember, but the policy probably costs about NZD$160 for 10 weeks.

During my 2nd and 3rd summer in New Zealand, I was looking after my friends’ car as they returned home for holidays. As their cars were manufactured before year 2000, car insurance was expensive. Hence, I got the AA membership instead.

Think it was a sign that I should not drive, I met 7 car accidents in a span of 10 weeks. Out of those, I was in the car 3 times – drove into middle of roundabout during heavy rain, knocked on the curb and punctured a tyre, and kissed the butt of a van coz I accidentally release the foot brake.

Thankfully with AA membership of NZD$100++, I claimed tow truck twice and got someone came to change tyre for me for free. Heard the tow truck service is really expensive in NZ. Mechanics are expensive too, about NZD$60 per hour.

Since I did not have car insurance, I paid my friend NZD$3,000 for all the dents and bumps on his Toyota Trueno. As the Chinese saying ‘Lose money just to avoid misfortune’, I am thankful that I am healthy, intact and fine today.

In my recent holiday to Phuket, Thailand, I was down with food poisoning during the trip. When I came back, I went straight to see the doctor at Changi airport at 2.30am. The bill came up toSGD$120+. Managed to claim promptly with my Chartis Travel Guard insurance under Jetstar which costsSGD$30+.

Currently, the longest travel insurance coverage is by DBS/POSB for 1 year at SGD382.50 worldwide. Guess it is a sign of keeping it to a 1-year timeline per trip. Who knows, maybe there are 3-year insurance policies in the near future!

I first came across the word lifestyle design in 2011, from Timothy Ferriss’ The Four Hour Work Week. I have also utilised Daren Hardy’s Design the Best 10 Years of Your Life in 2010. But I guess the actual conceptualisation stage came during the 3 months of 3 summers when I was alone.

For the 3 summers spent in New Zealand, I chose to go to a faraway town/city from Palmerston North. In fact, I barely know anyone in those areas who are within 1 hour drive from my place. It was really pack my bag and go to a foreign location kind of feeling.

During these 9 months of being really alone, I learnt to enjoy the peacefulness and calmness in solitary. Since there are no internet connections where I stayed, I spent a good number of weekends staying in to read, reflect upon my life, give thanks and meditate.

Guess this is where I refined on my lifestyle design plans, or whatever terms it was called then. Since New Zealand summer was from December to February, it falls nicely during the time where I write my gratitude list, New Year goals, long term plans, bucket list, etc.

New Zealand is the perfect location for coming up with such plans for a few reasons. Other than the cities, the towns are more laid back and slow pace. By slowing down our movement, and regaining our consciousness (that are sometimes lost to busy-ness), we gain focus and time.

Here are some of my personal recommendations on how to do your lifestyle design plan in New Zealand:

• Stay in a town or suburbs away from main city. Enjoy the peace and serenity of a quiet area where you don’t know anyone. It can get to quiet at night that it gets spooky.

• Go for a bush or nature walk to immerse you in greenery. I go to public parks or botanic gardens as they are safer, and just sit there, not focusing on anything except enjoying the silence and greenery.

• At certain moments, there will be inspiration on what you really want and need to do, what makes you happy, what’s your calling and purpose in life. It just comes and you know it is a must-do or your life isn’t really worth living. Write them down, they will get clear and more defined as you go along.

As I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert last month, I could really relate on her experiences in India and Indonesia. Probably not as complex, but definitely some random insights did pop up like light bulbs. Guess that was how I dealt with the famous quarter-life crisis, without actually entering any.

Lifestyle Design is a flexible plan that includes new changes and refinements annually. But the ultimate goal is to fulfil our purpose on Earth in this lifetime.

Tweet

Have shared some of my personal travel tips last year on ‘How to Spend Less and See More‘, ‘How to Pack Smart and Travel Light‘ and ‘How to Travel Smart and Look Good‘. These are my girly girl opinions, take it with a pinch of salt.

In the case if it is your first time to New Zealand, it is good to take note of these 10 things. In my opinion, I think New Zealand is a fantastic place for backpacking. But then again, I carry my backpack whenever I travel.

Personally, I like compartmentalising my items using washable cloth bags, and ziplock bags for toiletries. Of course it is handy to carry a few plastic bags, to put dirty clothes and wet socks or something. Bundle packing is a good idea, but I am quite particular with the smell on my clothes, and don’t like them to smell like supermarket plastic bags.

If I have to keep to the 3 must-have items in to pack in luggage for New Zealand, I will say sweatshirt/hoody, trekking shoes and quick dry pants (probably jeans). Having said that, the other must-have items for all travel are obviously included, i.e. undergarments, toiletries, camera, etc. Obviously thermals and warm clothing are necessity for temperate countries too.

When I was travelling in NZ, especially South Island, I wore my hoody on most days, especially from evening onwards and sometimes even to bed. A good hoody makes all the difference.

For all my 2-week trips, I wore my waterproof trekking shoes almost every day. Track shoes are not cut out for New Zealand travelling, but they are okay too. They are for back-up in case the trekking shoes are wet, after crossing a river during day trek (my personal account).

Quick dry pants are great for outdoors. The odds of getting wet is quite high considering New Zealand can have 4 seasons in a day. I wore mine for trekking and glacier walks (Mount Cook tracks and Franz Josef), and also comfy for wearing in backpackers. It is not comfy to wear jeans, and legs can get a little cold for shorts.

Good luck with your packing for the big New Zealand trip. Since it is nearing winter, do remember to invest in good thermals, for they really make all the difference! A good set of thermals under hoody and quick dry pants can be ultra comfy for various activities.

Tweet

I wrote the Kiwis’ Guide to Healthy Lifestyle in New Zealand last year to share why their lifestyle is so much healthier than here. Another factor that applies to me is definitely home-cooked food, the preparation process in particular. When eating outside, most of the veggies are not thoroughly cleaned (if it is even washed), as compared to cooking at home.

With most of our days spent outside, it is really hard to find time to prepare meals at home. Sometimes, I wash my organic tomatoes and bring them along and eat with my meals outside, or even just a snack. Usually I soak them in unprocessed Himalayan salt + filtered water for at least 30 minutes before rubbing it, and rinsing with filtered water again.

A few weeks ago, I ate some tomatoes and lettuce from a meal at the food court and had stomachache shortly after. My friend who ate the lettuce, but not the tomatoes was okay. I am pretty sure the tomatoes are not organic, and probably not even washed. Kinda yucky come to think about it.

Went for a 2-hour walk today, and spent about 45 minutes sitting on a rock and immersing myself in nature. Despite that Singapore is green and all, it is hard to be completely in nature. The distant sounds of vehicles and building beyond the greenery kinda remind us we are still in the city. Nevertheless, it was really therapeutic and I felt so much better!

Tweet

As part of my 30 before 30 plan, I decided to do a Project 365 (+1) for 2012, which is also my last year of being in the 20s before hitting my big 3. Honestly, the 19 to 20 phase did not felt like 10 years ago. Not that I am in denial, but I am still feeling like my 21-year-old self, probably with a lot more wisdom.

Thanks to modern technology, I have taken a fair bit of photos in the last 10 years to remind my twenties life. A part of me is quite excited about being 30, coz 30 is the new 20, with more wisdom, more time, more energy and more money. My next 10 years will definitely be better, and still feeling like in my 20s all the way!

If you are keen, feel free to view the photos from my Facebook profile or Project 365 website. Decided to upload them via different platforms, just in case. Initially, was intending to write a blog post on it daily, but I decided to stop it after Day 14 as it didn’t really value add to you or me.

Having said that, I do urge you to start a Project 365. Some people take artistic shots, while others go for creative photography, I take photo of the biggest highlight of my day. That’s why I gave it the tagline ‘A happy photo a day brightens up every day’. These photos bring smiles to me, and I hope they do the same to you too.

Every now and then, whenever I look back at the old photos, I can still remember the actual day event as though it was yesterday. These photos are there to remind me of the little things in life that makes me happy. These photos are like memory triggers and bring back the happy and positive feelings of the day.

Granted, there are days when there are absolutely nothing new/exciting/value-adding things happening. Hence, there is a need to prepare back-up items. This is when I share my personal shoes, perfume, essential oil collection. Sometimes, ideas on what to post and write also just pop up in my head during the day. That’s the fun bit!

I certainly encourage you to start your Project 365. Find a theme close to your heart, and you can be sure you won’t give it up halfway. The sense of satisfaction and achievement seeing the photos accumulate gradually, with people liking and commenting positively on them, make it all worthwhile. Have fun with your Project 365!

Tweet