Day 2 - 8/12/08

Ah... Woke up bright and early this morning... Around 6 a.m. That's just cause the damn sun was in my eyes... 

Hold up, what sun?! Oh damn... NZ's sun rises at 6... What the hell... Back in Malaysia, our day isn't bright until 7:15 a.m.

Anyways, we went up Stanford's hill today. Got another spectacular view of the city again. Snapped more shots... Got more rollercoaster-like action downhill...

After savouring the fantastic view, we headed to Makara hill where we met 2 other Lions - Gary and Peter. Along the way up Makara hill, we came across tons of horses, cows and cute, fluffy sheep. I wanted to jump off the car and run up to the sheep and touch them... THEY WERE SO CUTE!!!

Anyways, enough about cute, fluffy sheep... Rex and I helped the 2 Lions dudes with a Lions Service Project. The project was splitting wood for other people so that they can burn it in their little stoves. It was FUN watching huge, big-ass logs turn into firewood. It gave us a sense of undeniable power and a burning confidence that we could turn logs the diameters of car tires int wood no bigger than a pencil box... 

For about 10 minutes... Then, it was repetitive to the point of boredom... There were times when we found a giant worm in between the barks and ate them... Nah, just joking. Other than that... It was really a doing-the-same-damn-thing-over-and-over-again type thing... It could only be describe as the job that you should do if, and only if, you have nothing better to do. 

The only "fun" part of the whole process was watching the wood splitting machine which , basically was an axe going up and down...

We wanted to "look" like good and obedient, well-mannered Malaysians, so we helped out. It was for a good cause, anyway...

During that time, we got to take tons of pictures of NZ's country scenery. 

I also found out something when interacting with other kiwis (New Zealanders) - They love to use the word "Yea" a lot... When I say a lot, I mean holy cow-like A LOT!!!

Their conversations sounded a lot like this :

A: " So yea, I told Billy, yea, I told Billy that we would... "

B: " Yea, Billy from R&D? "

A: " Yea, that Billy, yea. Yea, he said that he would do it, yea. "

B: " Yea , yea, yea, yea... "

And it goes on like that...

And it went on and on like that for the next 10 to 15 minutes. :D  It was really funny and fun, counting the number of times they said that word... Yea...

Damn it... Became a habit for me too...

Surprisingly, we didn't even break a sweat after working so hard for so long! The weather was fantastic. We headed back downhill again... (Argh!! Rollercoaster!!) And ate a fantastic dinner courtesy of Anne.

After dinner, I found out that in NZ, there are a few TV shows that are not shown in Malaysia. My favourite, which i just found out, airs on channel E! is... Drum roll please...

"The Girls Of The Playboy Mansion"!!!

Woohoo!! The god damn name says it all!!! 

Here's the picture to prove it. Hahahaha

But the sad thing is that it airs for only half an hour... Ahh... Damn... But it airs daily (Yay!!!) at 4 p.m. AND at 9 p.m. (Woohoo!!)

Hot girls on TV, NZ IS PERFECT!!

Oh yea, By the way, IT'S NOT CENSORED!!! (So now you guys might get what type of show I'm talking bout here *winks* )

OK, OK... I'm calm... Phew...

Before we slept, Rex and i promised each other that we would go jogging the next day since we were getting fat. (On account of the wonderful food provided by Anne :D)

Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow...

Day 1 - 7/12/08

It was around 12 a.m. (Malaysian time). and my back is killing me...

Damn… I’m seriously not used to flying in economy seats... Damn freaking small!!! No wonder obese people get like another free seat… They would need 3 for the flight I was on...

The worst thing, is that we were gonna be in these seat for at least 10 hours... Holy crap. And it was starting to get boring. The only guy i could have talked to (Rex) was half dead beside me. My only companion was the tiny TV in front of me... And the free headsets they give you during flights. I'll go into "emo mode" for about 5 minutes...

OK, done...

So anyways, I ended up watching about 5 movies throughout the entire flight - all of which, I have forgotten what they were... Rex only woke up to eat... And Lai Sim was addicted to the in-flight games... I think it was Tetras or Donkey Kong or something like that...

And then Rex said something that would... -- Hey!! We had landed in Auckland already!! We touched down at Auckland International Airport at 12:50 p.m. Waitaminute... That means we were on that plane for... one... two... three... *counting off fingers - and toes...* -- 15 FREAKING HOURS!!! Argh... How could they? Lying to us like that!! Why, i oughta...

Hold up... My mistake, I forgot that we were now on another side of the globe... That means... Minus 5 hours... Yup... 10 hours. Oh well, honest mistake, people. *blush*

So, we met up with George (our Lions representative in Auckland and President of the Onehunga - Ellerslie Lions), who made sure we were going to the right gates and didn't end up in South Africa... Or worse, on another 10-freaking-hour flight BACK to Malaysia...

At this point, we (Rex and I) had to saparate with the four other girls -- NOOOOO!!! As we were going to Wellington, and the girls were going to... Somewhere else in NZ which it's name escaped me... I'll get it sooner or later.... 

Or not...

At 4:10 p.m. (yes, 4 hours later...), we finally boarded the smallest plane I've ever seen in my entire 17 year of living. It was so damn small that if Rex and I held hands and stretched... We could have touched both the opposite walls. Just to give you a picture of how small it was.. We didn't actually do it... Duh...

I never knew it was possible, but the seats in there were SMALLER than the seats on the flight to NZ

Omfg... Oh my god... The plane actually shakes when it was trying 2 get off the ground... *Saying a silent prayer... :"Omg... God, if u let me die.... I'll kill you!!" *

We reached Wellington from Auckland at 5:30 p.m. (thank you, god) I didn't notice my host parent, Tom until he was in my face, grabbing my arm, and saying :" Hello, Ben, Rex. " Which was really weird as he was wearing a bright red shirt and was probably close to 6 feet in height... Oh well...

The first thing I noticed about NZ when I stepped out of the airport - and i really have to tell you guys this, whether you know it or not - was that NZ's Sun was really, freakishly, unbearably painful. It was so damn harsh, that i couldn't stand even 10 seconds of it on my face!! It hurt as much as putting your face an inch away from the mouth of a toaster oven and turning the oven up to its maximum.

Tom took us up to the peak of Mount Victoria - if you're thinking that Mount Victoria is a snow-capped mountain which needed a 2 mile hike to get up it, think again... It may not be tall enough to give us frozen eyebrows and nutsacks, but it was tall enough to give us a fantastic, breath-taking view of the city of Wellington. 

We headed back to Tom's house after snapping a few shots (top), and this brings me to the second thing I noticed in NZ. 

KIWIS DRIVE DAMN FUCKING FAST!!! 

Tom ACCELERATED at a turning going DOWN-FREAKING-HILL!!! What the hell!! It was like ridding a damn roller coaster - without the safety harness!! AND.... It was also really, freaking FUN!!!

Thankfully, we reached Tom's house safe and sound physically - but not mentally. With adrenaline still pumping in our veins, we entered his house and almost instantly met up with Tom's wife - Anne. We settled down fairly quickly and I helped Anne with dinner. (when i said "helped" , i meant staying out of her way and eating the dinner afterwards)

With our stomachs full, and the fact that the stupid jet lag had caught up with us, we finally went to bed at 10+

Introduction - 6/12/08

Myself: The year is 2008.  A boy named Benjami...

A Voice At The Back Of My Head: Hold it, hold it!!!

Myself: *Drones on and on...*

A Voice At The Back Of My Head: Oi!! Shut up!!

Myself: Huh?! Are you my concience?

A Voice At The Back Of My Head: What the hell are u trying to do?! Scare off all the nice readers?! People came here for an interesting story... Not the piece of history shit you're doing... Sheesh!!

Myself: OK, scary voice... Here goes nothing...

As planned, since the beginning of this year, i was on my way to the lang of the kiwis - New Zealand (NZ)!!!

For obvious reasons, this part of the story is written in the introductory page. One of the reasons is that - I'M STILL IN MALAYSIA!!!

Anyways... My family and I reached Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 6:30 p.m. sharp. The actual time i got from the Lions Club was 6:30 p.m. but i heard news that some people were coming at 7 p.m. ... or something like that... Anyways, i thought everyone would be coming later than that....

Damn it.... When i got there, everyone was waiting for me. Talk about a good first impression... Now they're gonna think :" What the hell are we sending this guy to be our junior ambassador for?! He'll be late for everything!! " 

Ah... Who cares, if they actually did say that, i would be like... :" Up yours, bitch!!! You can't cancel my flight... "

So anyway, I met the other members of our six man team going to New Zealand: Lai Sim and Wan Qi were our group leaders, Rex (the only other male member), Yee June (she looks so familiar...), and Sze Ting. All of us were post-SPM (some major exam like O-levels) students except for Lai Sim, who was a post-STPM (another major exam like A-levels) student.

Our Lions representative was also there to help us check in our luggage and remind us to be evil. We were forbidden to help anyone, especially old ladies, with their luggage or help the old  lady across the road. Just in case sweet ol' grandma tried to put drugs in our luggage or something like that... Personally, I would thank the old lady if she actually put some Coke in my bag... Free drugs, dude!! Party, party, party!!

But that's just me... And I would be jeopardizing our chances of getting to NZ. Being a sensitive-towards-other-people's-feelings and a very, very kind hearted kind of guy (lols), I remained evil towards strangers, as anyone of them could be a sneaky drug dealer trying to give me free drug... Even that little boy in the corner with his evil grin, evil lollipop and evil tiny baseball cap of death .... 

Anyways, the Lion didn't have to tell us that... 'Cause I was already thoroughly informed - by my parents at least 164 times today...

As we were walking towards plane MH131, Lai Sim told us something that would shock the living world...

Lai Sim:" You guys have to tell me where to go, OK? 'Cause... This is my first time taking a plane.."

HOLYCRAP!!! All this while i thought she was leading us in the right direction... Shit, shit, shit... A leader who can't even lead (in the airport, at least).

AHHHH!!! We're utterly lost!! Lost in the biggest airport in South-east asia!!! Lost, i say, lost becau... Oh wait... there the gate was... Right... In front... Of us...

Sorry, false alarm... * blush *

In our confusion (and amazement), we got there 10 minutes before boarding time... Wow, imagine if we didn't get lost... We would have been half an hour early... That would have ment we would be bored out of our minds for thirty minutes... Shit, thats a scary thought...

Anyways... It was finally the time to get onto the plane at 9 p.m. The plane took of at 9:30 p.m. on the dot and i learned something new. Rex showed me that the headrest on the seats can be bent and the sides so that it fits the curve of our heads. I was like :" Wow!! That's so cool!!"

I think its safe to inform u guys now that its been a really long while since i've been on a plane. A lot has changed since then... And I mean a lot!! For one thing, the onboard movies don't start at the beginning at the flight so that you would miss the front part when you tune in... Now, the movies actually start when u wanted them to! OMFG!! Total FREEDOME!!!

Bong... x12 

Damn it... its midnight already. Oh well, better leave the rest for tomorrow or else there wont be anything to write about tomorrow...