Epic first road trip!

Well well well, the invitation to join the trip was really last minute at close to midnight of 30th December. My first spontaneous Road trip starts at 8am on the eve of new year.

Before departing, I had a big breakfast at The Coffee Club.
Brioche Burger
Mocha

Finally starting the journey at 9am for 3 hours straight to Wairakei to stop and rest for around 20 minutes.
Lemonade fizz for the rest of the journey!
Then in another 2 hours or so we arrived in Hawkes Bay~ wine tasting time! Hawkes Bay is New Zealand second largest wine region and the largest premium red wine producing in the country due to good weather and climate. It was hot and sunny at that time so it was perfect for photo taking!
Went to church road winery first to check out the place.
Picnic ground
I like the classic wooden look and feel here,


Then we went to Mission Winery to have wine tasting. 
 There's a chapel by the side in Mission Winery.

 Traditional wine brewer
 We had 6 different wines to sip on for just NZD 5 with a free glass.
Grapes! 

While waiting for the others to come to Napier from Auckland, we went to have our high tea since we did not eat lunch.
The town is pretty small and walking around is convenient.

After that we went to our homestay at a wineyard! The house itself is huge with many rooms but only 2 bathrooms. Houses here are designed with just 2 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms and inside the bedrooms there's even bunk beds or at least 3 beds - I wonder if those people really seldom need the bathrooms/toilets.
The entrance via laundry/fridge lane.
The rooms in the house, can accomodate quite a number of people.
They chose a room for me with lock( inside can lock, outside also can unlock) but I went to chose another room instead. Sorry for not taking that room.


This was the room with lock. XD
Kitchen

Once everyone settles in their own chosen rooms - we proceed to prepare dinner! The girls cooked with stove and oven while the guys grill and BBQ outside.

 beef !
 Roast Chicken in oven
 Lettuce
 Salad

Table full of food for dinner.

Beer times with many different fun drinking games. Games that test your mind yet you are getting drunk along the way.

After a few hours of playing, countdown to 1st January of 2017 begins! Champagne pops!


She's so strong to carry him =P 
Toast to a great 2017 ahead!
Beer all night long with dice games
Spicy ramen for supper! 
I took one last look around the winery and cycle around.
 Vast land for grape plantation.

Second day - Road trip to Rotorua
The mountain that looks animated if you can see it far away. 3D like mountain.
Sunroof! Quite fun to have sun roof to experience the sun and wind outside.
Most people take their wedding photo here. XD 
Detour to Hawkes bay because another group of friends wanted to have wine tasting session - so we went back to Mission Winery.
Each winery has their own design for the wine cellar door - this one is from Mission Winery.
2 hours and a half drive from the wineyard homestay.

On our way there, my friend went over the speed limit while overtaking cars - so the police car was chasing us and flag the car down. Summons was issued and demerit - 175 NZD. The officer is friendly but also quite strict. 123 km/h -speeding due to the speed limit on motorways is 100km/h. The lesson learnt is to follow the law strictly because later on .. I also got fined for speeding. TwT

After another few hours, we reached Rotorua and have lunch/dinner at Chong Qing restaurant. I like the food there because it's authentic chinese food. xD




As our food supplies were running low, we went to PaknSave to buy groceries. Bought lamb, salmon, pork, sausages and etc. Then, one of the cars (friend A's car) unable to start. 1st of January is public holiday, even road service also not open. So we left the car there in the carpark and went back to homestay.





Dinner / Supper - BBQ all the meat!
Thank you for the BBQ meat all night long!
Lamb! <3
Beef
Some greens
3 layer pork meat - nice and crispy
Salmon with lots of lemon/lime -first time eating salmon from NZ

My team lost the beer pong game T_T - had to drink all the beer 

Beer drinking games - beer pong, flip the cup, card games. I really think I drank a lot that night up to the part when my face is totally red. Normally it not easy to drink until my cheeks and face flushed, but I think I drank a lot.
Next day we have a walk in Rotorua town before taking bus back to Auckland.

 My first Starbucks in New Zealand. Opted for Xmas Toffee Nut Frappucino

Christmas tree still here 




 Interesting mural along the road

 Lunch at the same place =D
 Pass by Matamata with Hobbiton tours on the way down Auckland - someday I'll be back!

 We really arrive at 8pm and near to SkyCity
Dinner at Guangzhou Soup shop - Century egg pork porridge - my favourite.

That's how my trip became epic all of a sudden. Till next time. Happy Chinese New Year !

Comments

  1. One word to conclude this post: LIFE. Hehehe

    Time to blog more !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I should. Next one should be quick. Hehe

      Delete
  2. Write more!!!! I so wanted to be there!!

    ReplyDelete

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