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Singapore and New Zealand 2018

December 2018 - January 2019
A 28-day adventure by Ruben Read more
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  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 2

    manchester airport

    December 13, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    Today we leave the UK on my first ever long haul flight and trip outside of Europe. We stayed the night at grandma and grandads and in the morning we at 6:50 to catch the train at Mossley- Manchester piccadilly- Manchester airport. We had an easy check in and the lady who checked us in said that our suitcases were smaller than her handbag aha. When we went through security I got a bit worried because my bag needed to be searched by hand however it was all fine because I had just forgotten to take out my water bottle. We caught our flight which was at 11AM on Singapore airlines with ease and then settled down for our 13 hour flight.

    Figure 1: bag sticker
    Figure 2: label for hand luggage
    Figure 3: Mums boarding pass ( she threw mine away :"(
    Figure 4: flight path
    Figure 5: mountains in eastern Europe
    Figure 6: view from airport cafe    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 3

    Singapore, Singapore

    December 14, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We arrived earlier than expected in Singapore at 7:35 instead of 7:50. We went through customs and had our fingerprints scanned. We collected out bags and went to find the MRT, Mass Rapid Transit. When buying the tickets at a machine I saw the panic in dads face when only one ticket came out instead of three, he calmed down after I pointed out that it said it is was 1 of 3 and the other would be printed out now. We went on the East West line to Expo where we changed to the downtown line and got off at bendemeer station. We walked the last 5 minutes to the hostel and when dad pointed it out mine and mums face dropped as we were looking at a small, squat, grey 2 story building amongst massive apartments blocks ( it turned out to be very nice and I would highly recommend). We dropped off our bags as we couldn't check in until 3 and headed towards little India. We didn't find little India in the end but had good fun wondering around the streets and ended up getting lunch at a small corner street food place. We had "famous" boneless duck rice which was in fact very nice. During our small exploration we spotted a small and on our way back we went inside to get food for tea. We found a small supermarket inside where I found 5kg bags of rice much to my enjoyment. We ended up buying a cooked chicken and a 1kg bag of rice and ate it back at the hostel.

    Figure 1: some traditional buildings infront if new ones
    Figure 2: the little red dot chill out area
    Figure 3: view from the plane as we flew in
    Figure 4: MRT station bendemeer
    Figure 5: MRT ticket
    Figure 6: notice from customs warning is not to smuggle drugs.    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 4

    Singapore, Singapore

    December 15, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Today we woke up at 10:30 am and went for a morning swim in a local pool. We then ventured to downtown Singapore and it was completely different to where we had explored the day before, lots of massive skyscrapers. We walked along the front to merlins park and across the jubilee 50 years independence bridge (quite ironic). As we continued we ended up on a race track right by the bay which was used for the Singapore grand prix. We then walked around and over another bridge to get to the Marina bay sands which is where we got access to gardens by the bay. We walked around the mall at the bottom of the hotel (mainly to get a bit cool from the AC) I will finish the day in the next post.

    Figure 1: mum and dad infront of marina bay sands
    Figure 2: dad spitting on some poor tourists head much to his disgust
    Figure 3: marina bay sands and the famous Merlion.
    Figure 4: Singapore skyline
    Figure 5: lightning warning
    Figure 6: Singapore arts and science museum    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 4

    Singapore, Singapore

    December 15, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After the mall we walked into the gardens by the bay and decided to do the two domes as we didn't have time to do the domes and the Skywalk. We walked through marina bay sands and when we got through to the other side we saw the gardens and ships out in the bay. The flower dome was first on the list which we recognised quite a few of the plants from our back garden ahaha. There were also many Christmas trees and big cartoon animals which didn't quite fit with the aesthetics.... cloud forest was much more to my liking but not so much to mums. There were walks that were suspended 20-30m above the floor and held only by wires. We left cloud forest in the dark and headed towards some of the trees which were lit up by this point however the heavens decided to open and the famous monsoon rain hit. We pretty much ran all the way back to the marina bay sands mall with drenched feet to look for somewhere to eat. Many other people had come to the same conclusion and we had to hover like vultures in the food court waiting for some seats to come free. As soon as they did we pounced and sat down much to our relief. The food was delicious and I had rice, chicken, watermelon and a fish fillet. When you placed your order you were given a buzz that would buzz when your food was ready which I thought was quite nifty. When we left the mall the rain had calmed down and it was quite a pleasant walk back to the MRT station in the dark with Singapore skyline lit up for the world to see.

    Figure 1: plants in the flower dome
    Figure 2: " "
    Figure 3: cloud forest walkway
    Figure 4: trees lit up
    Figure 5: dad holding the top of marina bay sands
    Figure 6: the Olympic park sign in the dark and rain with the Singapore skyline the background    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 5

    Gardens by the bay

    December 16, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today we woke up and had another swim in the morning at the local pool, which according to dad is 50m but I dont believe him. Also forgot to mention dad bought some sandals yesterday on the way back from the pool. The pool is very cheap at $1.30 each!! After the pool we headed back into town but this time went to the raffles on our way to try the Singapore sling. As dad put it "very cheesy music...not really fitting with the venue. Could be missed from the Singapore itinerary" which I think is quite fitting. We then walked to the gardens by the bay trees which I'm just going to do a separate post about with the pictures. We passed a memorial park on our way for the second world war. When we got to the trees we were told that we needed another ticket to get in because of the winter wonderland, outrageous!! We bought the tickets because we new that we couldn't leave without doing the skyway and headed in. The view from the trees was amazing being able to the ships and the immense size of the garden. Also some kites flying by the waterfront. We stayed until it was dark so that we could see the trees lit up and ate tea in a restraunt next to them. I had chicken and rice. The show was amazing with lots of different colours and also a so called blizzard because of the winter wonderland which was quite strange in 30°C heat. We also bought tickets for the skypark which meant we could go up and look across the whole of Singapore 56 stories high. The view was amazing especially at night when Singapore was all lit up. The heavens opened again tonight but we didn't get as wet as last night because it rained the most when were eating.

    Figure 1: the swimming pool
    Figure 2: skypark ticket
    Figure 3: skywalk ticket
    Figure 4: view from the trees
    Figure 5: WW2 memorial
    Figure 6: view of the ships and garden from the skywalk    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 6

    Botanic gardens and flight

    December 17, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Today was our last (half) day in Singapore and we decided to go to the botanic gardens and go to the airport later because our flight wasnt until 22:00. The flight was ten hours and we were expected to arrive in Christchurch at 12:50. We packed in the morning and left our suitcases at the hostel so that we wouldn't have to lug them around the gardens. In the gardens we looked at a few different sections but spent most of our time in the ethno botany section, the building especially due to the lovely AC. The ethnobotany was obviously very interesting as well. We headed back and ended up leaving the hostel at roughly 4ish and arrived at the airport with plenty of time, which we actually needed. The check in for luggage in Singapore is all automated where you pur in your ticket/flight details into a small machine that then prints your label for your bag and you have to put it on a conveyor belt. Xbox sensors used for kinect (even had the xbox logo) read the label and then must program a route for it because it ended up on the plane. But it took us a while to get the label because it kept on rejecting any information that we put in. Thankfully the guy there was very helpful and thankful to mum who had brought all the flight details we managed to find out that we needed a 16digit code that was only on the printed out documents. We boarded the plane fine and took off leaving the Singapore skyline behind us and the twinkle of all the trillions of lights in the city.

    Figure 1: turtles in the gardens
    Figure 2:" "
    Figure 3: ginger flower from the gardens
    Figure 4: our shadows as we were leaving the hostel
    Figure 5: the view before we took if from the airplane window
    Figure 6: more turtles    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 7

    Landing in Christchurch

    December 18, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We landed early at roughly 12:30ish and got a great view of the mountains as we came over from the west coast and the Canterbury plains. We got to see the Antarctic c-130/ Hercules from the USAF that's used to fly people to the Antarctic. It was easy to get through the check out because we were from the UK we could just scan our passports meaning we could skip the queue. Customs only checked our boots and luckily didnt care about my wasabi peas...... We met Ali just out of customs and she drove us back to the motel where jill was waiting. We all had a catch up before heading down into Christchurch where the damage of the earthquake was still evident. Ali and jill showed us a small little restaurant that was the old bank and uses tubes to send you your food which was very cool. I had fish and chips.

    Figure 1: my order
    Figure 2: spot the fish
    Figure 3: found it!
    Figure 4:c-130
    Figure 5: our plane
    Figure 6: the Canterbury plains    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 8

    First day in Christchurch

    December 19, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Our first day in Christchurch we decided to go to the international Antarctic centre which is opposite the airport. The centre was really good and interesting and I would highly recommend it. We saw some little blue penguins that have been rescued because they all have some disability that would mean that they couldn't survive in the wild. We then went on a hagglund ride which was also fun. They can travel up to 56kmh in snow and travel at a 30° angle on the side. We also gapped a 1m crevasse in hagglund which was also pretty cool. Oh yeah we also experienced a Antarctic storm that was coooold. After tha hagglund ride we went to see some rescue Huskies before going back to the penguins to see them getting fed. After the centre we just went back to the hostel and had a game of cluedo.

    Figure 1: mum, dad and I sitting in the hagglund
    Figure 2: on of the hagglunds
    Figure 3:penguins
    Figure 4:" "
    Figure 5: a hagglund    Read more

  • TravelerSingapore and New Zealand 2018
    Day 9

    Travelling to twizel

    December 20, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Today we travelled to twizel because we are going to mount cook tomorrow, we stopped at a few places to get cheese and to have a look at lake tekapo. Here are a few photos.

    Figure 1: lake tekapo
    Figure 2: a nice rock sculpture before dad accidentally knocked it down
    Figure 3: some fish in the lake
    Figure 4: a dam at the end of the lake
    Figure 5: all of us infront of the lake
    Figure 6: some black ducks    Read more

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