For the demonstration, since it was a small stage, the dog herded a bunch of ducks and geese instead of sheep. He would round them up onto the stage, all the time keeping total control by keeping his head low and ears flat, and never uttering a bark. He looked real fierce. Obviously, all the ducks thought so as they were being cornered by him. Next, the other dog would get the ducks and geese running by chasing after them, barking all the time. I loved the show!
Robert and I decided to buy a nice piece of sheepskin after the show. I had always wanted one, and since the price was pretty competitive, we decided that it would be a nice gesture to buy it from this family-run business. Much better than buying it from a big department store. The woman at the shop helped us select a nice Autumn Lamb. When we first brought it home, the cats didn't like the sheepskin, but now Teddy discovered how soft and luxurious it was to lay on it. He actually slobbered on it the other day while he was kneading away on the sheepskin, contemplating about laying down. Yuk! Talk about the kiss of death!
After we bought the sheepskin, the owner brought us out to the field where some newborn lambs were grazing. He let me hold one of them. That was definitely the highlight of my trip! The little lamb was SOOOOO soft and cuddly, and he felt just like a stuffed animal. I could have held onto him forever, but I didn't want to over-traumatize the poor thing. When I let him go, he immediately ran back to his mother, hid behind her, then peeked at us. This guy told us that an average sheep costed about NZ$50 (US$30). Gee... wonder if I could arrange to keep some sheep in the backyard! They could keep the grass down so Robert wouldn't have to mow the lawn anymore.
It was time to drive back to Christchurch so we could catch the flight to Sydney the next day. This time, we stayed at the ParkRoyal Hotel, just for a change of pace. It wasn't as quaint as Noah's Hotel, but it was quite nice. They were having some Thai food festival at the hotel. But having Asian food was on the last thing on our mind! We had to maximize our Western food intake while we still had the chance. It was quite a cold evening, so we asked the Hotel Concierge for some nearby restaurants. He directed us to this part of town which must be quite popular with the locals. After looking around, we selected this VERY quiet French restaurant since we saw this nice fire burning in the fireplace. We later figured out that the fireplace was fake... The restaurant was very nice anyhow. We were really wondering if the food was going to be terrible. You see, it was Friday night at 7:15 pm, and the restaurant was deserted. So we had our choice of tables. We selected one by the window so we could watch the people go by. It was great! People would walk by, and stare at us, and we would stare right back. Hee Hee!
Since this was to be our last dinner in New Zealand, we decided to live it up and ordered a bottle of French champagne! The waitress recommended this one called Grandin, which was only NZ$29 (US$17)! Quite a good deal considering the extraordinary high prices of alcohol in Singapore. I nearly broke out in laughter when the waitress told us that the taste of the champagne would be sweet at first, then it would have this complex aftertaste. It was like the typical comments you would find in a yuppy cocktail party....'Oh yes, this champagne is simple, yet complex!'..... 'Yes, you're right....the occasion is happy, yet sad.'...But it turned out that the waitress was right about the champagne. It was excellent, considering its relatively low price. We liked it so much that we bought another bottle in Singapore just in case we wanted to celebrate any special occasions.
Saturday....our last day in New Zealand. Our flight wasn't till some time in the late afternoon, so we had plenty of time to do some last minute shopping, not that Christchurch was any shopping paradise. We even checked out a Harley Davidson motorcycle store, just for fun. Since it was a nice balmy day, we decided to drive out to the Pacific Ocean. The suburbs of Christchurch had some nice beaches. We stopped the car to watch the people and their dogs running and playing on the beach. We then drove up to this one residential area perched atop the beach cliffs. It was a nice, small, winding road with pretty little houses. The early Spring flowers were already in bloom. What a pretty place to live! It really reminded us of Sausalito, California.
Just about 3 miles from the Airport was this Antarctic Exhibition Center. Since Christchurch was the stopover point for all of the Antarctic Explorations, the City decided to set up this exhibition hall. We spent almost two hours at the exhibition. It was really interesting, and I could understand a bit as to how the workers there must feel to be in such a cold, isolated place! We also checked out the daily temperatures at the different bases there, and at that day, it was -70C (-94F) at the US Base. I could not even imagine how cold that would be!!! It would be so cool to go on an exploration in the Antarctic, but since I could neither afford nor survive such a trip, I guess that day we were as close to the Antarctic as we would ever be.
When we arrived at Sydney that evening, we decided to catch the airport shuttle bus to the Park Hyatt Hotel where we would be staying for two nights before heading home to Singapore. I supposed that rich people would never dream of taking the shuttle to the Park Hyatt Hotel, so the shuttle person took us to the wrong Hyatt. The Park Hyatt was quite an expensive hotel, but we got 50% off with our United Mileage Plus coupons. Hee Hee! The hotel was situated at the Rocks (a historic part of town), and was right across the harbor from the Opera House. What a fantastic view! Unfortunately, our 'superior' room only offered a very small window overlooking a bit of the harbor and part of a park, and we certainly couldn't see the Opera House from our room. Oh well, what could you expect for 50% off the standard rates?
Our hotel room came equipped with remote control curtains, a VCR, a stereo set, a walk-in closet (I hadn't seen one ever since we moved to Singapore!), and a GORGEOUS bathroom with wood trimming. I could have spent hours in that bathroom (taking a bath, that is)! You could even pipe music into the bathroom, and my favorite part was that there was this tray where you could put your books and things while you take a bath in the tub. Robert's favorite was the remote control curtains, and we had already decided on getting that for our dream house in the future!
Sunday morning. After having a very good breakfast at the hotel (Robert had this waffle filled with cream...yummy), we strolled over to the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade for some shopping. The Strand Arcade was an old-styled shopping mall. It was pretty, but the merchandise was designed for tourists. The Queen Victoria Building was touted to the 'most beautiful shopping mall in the World' by Pierre Cardin. It was a very nice old-style building indeed, but since I wasn't much into architecture, I headed straight for the stores. It was nice to be see that size Small clothes would fit me once again. In Singapore, I could barely fit into their Large sizes. Sick!
In the afternoon, we went for a cruise around the Sydney Harbor on the Captain Cook Cruise Line. Even though the day was a bit cold still, the sun did start breaking through the clouds. It turned out to be a nice day for the cruise after all. It was a nice, relaxing cruise around the cozy harbor. Many of Sydney's houses had great views of the harbor, and some of the exclusive residences even had views of both the harbor and the ocean! Since much of the coastline was very rocky and steep, houses would actually have these contraptions like elevators that you would take from your main house to your boat house. Rough life! Robert and I posed for several pictures when we passed by the Opera House. It was a very beautiful and grand structure indeed.
For dinner, we went to this restaurant called Bilson's that was situated in a tower-like building, right across from the Opera House. We had yet another bottle of champagne (have we become 'alkies'?) for the last evening of our vacation. As you can already tell, we look for any occasion to call for a celebration. Poor Robert had this fish that was served undercooked at first, and by the time they brought it out from the kitchen again, he had lost most of his appetite. I, on the other hand, had this great big Queensland mudcrab! It was the largest crab that I had ever had in my entire life. It weighed a whole Kilogram (that's 2.2 lbs)! And it was served with this very delicious garlic sauce. I must have spent two whole hours working on that crab, prying out every delicious morsel. Even my hands got tired!
Our last day of our vacation was here! Fortunately, we had an afternoon flight, which meant that we still had an entire morning to enjoy our last day in Sydney. For breakfast, we decided on this small cafe that we spotted the day before. For A$6.50 (US$5), you got this humungous breakfast set! We each had two eggs and two huge sausages. That was served with toast, fries and a broiled tomato. We also got this nice big glass of orange juice, and tea or coffee. Burp! How could they afford to serve such large quantities of good food at such a low price? After munching on yet another HEAVY meal, Robert and I figured that we must go on a diet when we got home. That shouldn't be too hard for Robert to lose weight fast, all he has to do was to go work in Manila on that horrible imaging project. Our coworker Li Mei called that the Manila Diet...guaranteed to work!
We spent a few hours wandering around the shopping malls, desperately trying to burn off some of those calories before lunchtime. Since it was such a nice day, we selected this nice outdoor cafe called Wolfi's for lunch. It was situated right next to our hotel, and yes, it also had this great view of the Opera House. Wouldn't you think that we would be tired of this view already? What a wonderful Spring day! Gee...I wished that Singapore could have days like that where you could sit outside and bask in the sun! Sigh...it was finally the end of our vacation. We were both really glad to go home to the kitties. Besides, I didn't think that our stomachs could take any more stretching anyway...
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