New Zealand Day 4 Part 1 - Te Puia

07 Jun - Today will be a packed day exploring the volcanic region of the North Island. First off the list will be Te Puia, with their famous geothermal valleys, geysers and mud pools. We have booked a package which will end our day with a Māori Cultural Performance and a dinner cooked using the traditional hot stone steam method. Inside Te Puia, there is also a Kiwi House which housed 2 kiwis which visitor can try to sneak a peek. These kiwis are shy creatures which usually come out during the night to look for food.

 Good weather to start the day

 Welcome to Te Puia

 Active vents giving out steam smelling of sulfur

 How do you pronounce this name again?

 Mud Pools

 Geyser

Māori performance Hall 

 Māori house used for storing food

Māori Cooking Pools, with water reaching 80 degree Celsius which the Māori used for cooking in the past

New Zealand Day 3 - Waitomo Glowworm Caves & Ruakuri Cave

06 Jun - We woke up early the next morning to start our drive towards the famous Waitomo Glowworm Caves. According to Wikipedia, these glowworm are exclusively found in New Zealand. The adults are around the size of an average mosquito. But for their young, they are worms that attached onto the walls of the cave. They feed by secreting a thin threadlike substances from their mouth to catch small insects that flew into the cave. In the dark, these thin thread glow luminous, creating a sky of living lights, hence the name of glowworm caves.

Waitomo Glowworm Caves Entrance

Glowworm under visible light

Glowworm in the cave

(Above picture is grabbed off the Internet as no photos allowed in cave)

After the guided tour, we proceed to our next destination which is the Ruakuri Cave. This cave features stalactites and stalagmites limestone formation created over millions of years. The opening cave entrance let visitor walk down a spiral walkway deep underground into the cave.

(Above picture is grabbed off the Internet as well)

New Zealand Day 2 - Sky Tower and Hobbiton

05 Jun - Woke up early in the morning to visit the Sky Tower, a major attraction for the city of Auckland. At the top of the tower, visitors can have a magnificent view of the surrounding landmarks, which nonetheless, is awesome.

As we do not have much time to spare for the day, we need to move on to start our drive to Hobbiton Movie Set, which we had booked several months ago. Its interesting to see the actual place where they filmed the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Along the way, we pass by rolling hills full of cows and sheep. It is indeed that New Zealand has more cows than humans.

Welcome to The Shire 

Do remember to try the Ginger Beer they offered at the Tavern. It is the best ginger beer I have ever tasted in my whole New Zealand trip!

New Zealand Day 1 - Auckland Airport

04 Jun - After a 10 hours direct flight, we landed into Auckland Airport late in the night (+4 hours difference in time). By the time we past the security check and got out of the airport, it was almost midnight. Expecting a good accommodation waiting for us near the airport, to our horror, we have to squeeze 3 people into a small room with limited space to move. I shall remember never to stay at Ibis again....By the way, the accommodation we chose was Hotel ibis budget Auckland Airport.

Tight squeeze for 3 pax =(

X-Men: Apocalypse

Synopsis: Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel's X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction. [Source: Golden Village]

In summary: Boring, unexciting and dull. I don't really enjoy the whole movie which was set in the beginning days of X-men with a new generation of casts. Halfway through, I have lost interest and was contemplating should I doze off instead in the theater. Avoid catching this movie at all cost.

Rate: 2/10

Disney Conquered

USA Orlando Disney World (Magic Kingdom, Epcot) - 2007
Japan Tokyo Disney Sea - 2012
Hong Kong Disney Land - 2016

JB Staycation

To celebrate our wedding anniversary (Time really flies, its 1 year already!), I decided to bring *mds* over to Johor Bahru for a stay-cation. First of all, we wasted no time in trying out the savory food around our hotel area.

Kong Bao Frog

Malaysia Style Wontoon Noodle

Since we have not visited Legoland before, we took this stay-cation opportunity to spend a whole day in the theme park. Truthfully, Legoland is built more for kids than adult, it was fun to go there for experience the first time, but I doubt I will want to return again.

Albert Einstein

Dragons built from Lego Bricks

Star Wars Lego

Mini Scenes around the world built  from Lego Bricks

KL International Airport

Singapore Riverside

More Star Wars - The theme for May

What is stay-cation without a good hotel to relax and chill? =)

Marvel's Captain America: Civil War

Synopsis: Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War picks up where “Avengers: Age of Ultron” left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain. [Source: Golden Village]

A successful movie pitting the good superheroes against each other. On one side we have the mild mannered Captain America, and the other, we have the egoistic Iron Man. When super powers clashed, expect lots of park and humour, and casualty too. Overall, not a bad movie though.

Rate: 7/10

Disney's The Jungle Book

Synopsis: “The Jungle Book” is an all-new live-action epic adventure about Mowgli (newcomer Neel Sethi), a man-cub raised in the jungle by a family of wolves, who embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery when he’s forced to abandon the only home he’s ever known. [Source: Golden Village]

Not a bad movie, with stunningly realistic graphics of the animals that they seem real, setting a new standard for CGI. The pace was captivating, with adventures after adventures of the child. I am really impressed with the acting skill of someone so young in front of the blue screen. A must watch for the week.

Rate: 8/10

Disney's Zootopia

Synopsis: The modern mammal metropolis of Zootopia is a city like no other. Comprised of habitat neighborhoods like ritzy Sahara Square and frigid Tundratown, it’s a melting pot where animals from every environment live together—a place where no matter what you are, from the biggest elephant to the smallest shrew, you can be anything. But when rookie officer Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) arrives, she discovers that being the first bunny on a police force of big, tough animals isn’t so easy. Determined to prove herself, she jumps at the opportunity to crack a case, even if it means partnering with a fast-talking, scam-artist fox, Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman), to solve the mystery. [Source: Golden Village]

This is so much better than my last movie "Batman Vs Superman". Highly entertaining, engaging with deep family values. No wonder it attains 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fully recommended. The song "Try Everything" by Shakira is nice too!

Rate: 9.0/10

Memories

Daily work is really suffocating. I miss the holidays in 2015. Looking forward to... June 2016 =)

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Synopsis: Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day saviour, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before. [Source: Golden Village]

This movie is beyond any of my words. This is indeed the most confusing, boring and worst of the super heroes movie I had ever seen. I made no head or tail why would batman harbor ill feelings towards superman at the start. I made no head or tail why the world is debating do we need a superman. I made no head or tail how did Wonder Women fits into the story. The bad guy is just plain irritating in this movie. Scriptwriter, please do not ever attempt to make good superheroes pit against each other ever again. This is just so wrong.

Rate: 1/10

Deadpool

Synopsis: Based upon Marvel Comics' most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life. [Source: Golden Village]

If you want me to describe my feeling after watching the movie, I will sum it up as completely boring, nonsense, unhero-like, nothing in the plot except seeing people being chop off, vaguer languages and some x-rated stuffs. I seriously don't understand what is the hype about this movie. I will recommend putting this movie off your watch list.

Rate: 3/10

No Longer Heroine

Synopsis: Hatori Matsuzaki (Mirei Kiritani) is a female high school student. She has a crush on her childhood friend Rita Terasaka (Kento Yamazaki) and believes he will eventually choose her as her heroine, but Rita Terasaka begins dating Miho Adachi. Meanwhile, the most popular male student, Kosuke Hiromitsu (Kentaro Sakaguchi) takes an interest in Hatori Matsuzaki. [Source: Golden Village]

A light-hearted comedy based on the Japanese manga "Heroine Shikkaku" (ヒロイン失格). According to review, this movie top another famous movie "Attack on Titan: End of the World" during its second week of release. I must say the feat attained speak for itself. While Attack on Titan movie was poorly done, this "Heroine" was fun to watch, humorous at times and keep audiences on the edge guessing what is this "heroine" up to next. Definitely a good movie not to be miss.

Rate: 7.5/10

Wisdom Tooth Removal

Went to a routine visit last month to have my annual scaling and polishing of teeth and was advised by the dentist that my wisdom tooth is growing inwards and I should consider removing it. So after considering for a month, I decided to go ahead with the removal procedure. Initially, I only planned on 1 tooth removal, however, after seeing my teeth x-ray, I changed my mind. As you can guess, my lower wisdom teeth looks like this:

So without a doubt, I have to under go a simple surgery to have it removed. Luckily, this can be covered by Medisave, so I do not need to fork out the $1000 procedure. Had a lifetime of an operation as the dentist drilled my teeth for close to 45 mins, breaking my teeth into... erm... several pieces. Luckily, he gave me enough anesthesia to not feel the pain. Well, this is only part 1... next year...will have to undergo part 2. Haiz...Really, the drilling noise is pretty irritating and the smell of calcium burning by the drill......

Snoopy And Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

Synopsis: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the beloved “Peanuts” gang make their big-screen debut, like they’ve never been seen before, in state-of-the-art 3D animation. Snoopy, the world’s most lovable beagle—and flying ace—embarks upon his greatest mission as he takes to the skies to pursue his arch-nemesis The Red Baron, while his best pal, Charlie Brown, begins his own epic quest. From the imagination of Charles M. Schulz and the creators of the ICE AGE films, THE PEANUTS MOVIE will prove that every underdog has his day. [Source: Golden Village]

Started the year watching Snoopy, the movie, which happened to be our wedding day icon =). The movie is not too bad, pretty funny at times and be amazed hoe this cute little dog is able to communicate without speaking a word! A good movie to bring your children to.

Rate: 7/10