There are certain day on your weekend - that you might probably felt like doing nothing at all - no outing, shopping and juz stay at home. It never happen to me in Msia, where i slept till noon - without setting my alarm and had a good night sleep for 14hours. Waking up not bcoz of noise, too much sleep or anything, but too hungry to sleep any further.

Walking out from my room, boil some water and start up the laptop for MP3, then head straight to the washroom to have a hot shower. Having instant noodles with bacons and egg (as taken on the pic above) and online screen through my email. Few hours later, i picked up my book and start continue the chapter that i've stop since weeks ago. Time really flies before i realized that it's evening and my friend text me to have dinner at their home. I've been a while since i have home cook food, not counting the food i cook on my own. Menu that we're goin to have is poridge with some chinese style dished. As shown in the photos.

The other photos was nachos meat balls (home made snack) & Salmons Island (which we had for breakfast on the following day).

Evening Walk..... around Auckland

- City of Sails

The fine weather had mesmerized me to take an evening walk after work. Immediately after i've changed from my office attire to a khakis pant and a polo shirt, I grab the camera burst of from the apartment to catch on with the nice weather before it's sunset. As summer is just few weeks to go, the day time here, seems to be longer than the night... yeah much longer!

On a narrow strip of land between two scenic habours, Auckland is surrounded by more sandy beaches and attractive islands than probably any other city in the world. This is why it's well-known as the "City of Sails". In less than 10 minutes walk i've reached to this stunning place, Viaduct Harbour. AwWw... i just cant wait to on my camera and start taking snapshot at the surroundings.

This is a good place to sit down and relax after a hectic work in the city centre. It's serene, peaceful and awesome... calm sea water with plenty of yatchs parked parallel along the long stretch harbour. Every corner you can find Cafe & Bar Restaurant, which crowded with working preofession who normally catch up a drink right after work. Just behind me was the backgroud of the busy city with the great view of the Sky Tower, which famous for its Bungy Jump & Casino.

Positive Psychology

Recently, I read an article by Dr. Martin Seligman, a former president of the American Psychological Association. In his article, he shared some valuable insights from his latest research. The objective of this research was to discover, based on empirical data collected from around the world, fulfillment in life. He was able to identified the three main sources of fulfillment.

• The first, is living a pleasant life - Hedonic Happiness.
• The second, is using one's higest strengths and virtues in one's various spheres of activity and relationships with others.
• The third one is deploying one's highest strengths in the service of something larger than oneself.

From this three, you will notice the second and the third source of fulfillment provide much deeper and more spriritual feeling of fulfillment than the first one. What i would like to stress here is, happiness is not determined by materials or econimic wealth or social life. The key to leading a fulfilled life, free of regrets, is to dedicate ourself to a cause, a goal that is lager that us. If you are practising it, then you are leading the greatest of all possible lives - lives of unsurpassed value-creation.

ICE Cream time...!

Last Sunday, seem like a boring day to us... my friends decided to go for a beach walk at Mission Bay. Being new to the place, i deperately tag along. Seem like everyone talking bout the Winning Scope - The famous ice cream by "Movenpick" at Mission Bay. I give it a try and i really fallen in love with it! Hei, juz have a look at the ice cream cone i'm holding.... phew... with 2 jumbo scope of flavoured ice cream of your choice and the topping on it. Indeed a good way to indulge after a whole week of stressful work. If any of you coming to NZ one day... I will for sure bring you there!

Feel free to view the site.... I'm sure you will be tempted from here on:

http://www.icecream.co.nz/html/movenpickflavours.htm

At night my friend drop by my apartment for dinner and suppose to be a light dinner but end up having a heavy meals together. Most of us just sitting on the floor and some lay-back on the couch (juz lazy to move around).

Saturday morning... the wonderful weather had caught my interest to explore further around Auckland City. Around the city there are several parks where lots of local when for a jogging, hang-out, or having a evening walk with their friend and their love one. Reached to the end of the Queen Street (one of the busiest & popular streets in the city center), i came across this calm and peaceful park, known as Albert Park (near to Auckland University). This is the place where lots of people hang around sitting on the green ground esp during the Spring & Summer seasons.

Weekend Hanging out - Shopping Spree!

After a few weeks of savings, I'm thinking getting myself a pair of jeans. With a few friend, we met up at Newmarket (a busy street full of boutiques, cafes, and shopping departmetal stores i.e. Farmers, The Warehouse, Two Double Seven & Supree).

We had our lunch at one of the Japanese restaurant, lots of people tough and we just wait to be seated. The meal come in set and it doesn't seem to be so tempting, but the moment i have a taste of it... Hm, i would say there's none any other Jap Restaurant in Msia can beat the taste. It's just marvelous



Late afternoon, we stop by a coffee shop for their famous cappuccino.

Weather juz not right for swim wear... Plenty of Bay !
After a few rainy days in Auckland, my house-mate and a few other friends praying hard to a clear day today. It's the end of Winter, the weather seem to be colder and chilling, even though it's not snowing in Auckland.
A journey of two and a half hours from Auckland, we reached Tauranga, located along the "Bay of Plenty", which has everthing we need for a ultimate holiday. From the sun, surf and seaside, hiking through magnificient native bush and the heart of Tauranga Town.

Along the journey, me and my housemates we amazed by the idyllic scenery and beautiful country side. Being a nature lover like me, this is mesmerizing... you will never seen this in Malaysia (farms, hills, rivers and fruits plantation everywhere).
But to the New Zealanders, you will never Malaysia's scenery here too.

Tauranga is one of the largest/busiest export port in NZ and it's the centre of NZ's principal kiwi fruit region. The kiwi season is normally between May to June, and too bad that we've missed it this time!

After we've checked-in for our accomodation, we head our way to Fernland Hot Spring. We immediately start up the fire and prepare our BBQ Lunch as we hardly bear the hunger although we had our breakfast before we starts our journey. All the marination was prepared by Janice & Nelson (they're really nice couple), this time our menu will be all meat, yes we wanna be carnivores this time. All I could said is "Perfect", the taste, the environment and the weather... Once we finished with the BBQ I cant wait to change to my trunks soak myself into the hot springs pool.

The following day, everyone woke up so early and pack-up things. By 10.30am we started our journey and stop by the tourist spot along the way back from Tauranga. Kiwiland at Te Puke, KatiKati (thinking of going to the Bird Garden but the luck wasn't on our side coz, it was closed), Ngatea & Paeroa (the small town that produce L&P, one of the famous Lemonade softdrink in NZ).



Mt Maunganui (the name means "Large Mountain")

It's a volcanic formation, stands at the foot of the 232m hill NZ "Surf City".It affords views of Tauranga and the surrounding area. Near the foot of the hill are fine beaches and saltwater pools. (The above photos, Left : view of the Mount from Moturiki Island, Right : view from the top of Mt Maunganui.)

Waihi Beach.....

Along the way back to Auckland we made several stops. One of it is the Waihi town, which sparkles with 100km of white sand, an enticing blue ocen and this place has held irresistible charm for us.

For more info check out this site:

• http://www.tauranga.co.nz/
• http://www.bayofplentynz.com/

Peace & Plenty - Devonport.

15 minutes of excitement in the ferry... not bcoz i've not been to ferry b4, but i'm heading my way to discover Devonport - a seaside village of historic architecture, volcanoes and landmarks as well as galleries and cafes, shops and restaurants. Oh yeah... talking bout food, we had a try of the most famous Fish & Chip in this island.

We trek our way up to Mt Victoria (maori called it Tauranguu), which gives us unobstructed views of downtown Auckland an across the harbour to the eastern bays. I was told there a tunnel in Devonport which can link to the other North Head (located less than 5km away). Sometime ago it was open for tourist to visit, several haunted experience was claimed and due to the high maintainance it was close there after. Almost reaching the top of Mt Victoria, the sky doesn't show a good sign to us, however we've almost reached to the peak so we thought must as well carry on with a few more foot steps.

It was so windy and chilling with drizzling weather, as normal reaction we just look for someplace for a shade. Guess what we saw??? A small solid steel gate which have a spiral stair case... right away silent between us! This might be the eerie tunnel which everyone been talking about. A minute later we just left and made our way down from the hill.

The peak and upper slopes have housed a signal station for shipping, artillery emplacements and various concrete army bunkers. One bunker now serves as the venue for the Devonport Folk Club.

North from Devonport coastline is an endless procession of sheltered coves and white-sand beaches which start out as suburban and become steadily more spectacular all the way to the tip of the North Island.

For more details, please visit: http://www.devonport.co.nz/

30th August - Let's Maungawhau.....

Maungawhau/Mount Eden is the highest of the volcanoes in Auckland City, 196 metres high. Being centrally located, it is both a prominent feature of the Auckland scene and a suitable vantage point from which to view the city and the other cones.
The Maori name for the mountain, "Maungawhau", means "Mountain of the Whau tree". Whau (entelea arborescens) is a small tree which occurs in coastal forests. Mount Eden Domain is protected from damage, as an archaeological site, by the Historic Places Act 1980. One significant feature is the large, well preserved crater, some 50 metres deep, contained within the summit cone.