twisted hop

having drinks at twisted hop, a cool little restaurant that serves freshly brewed beer. there is a honey dew flavoured one which was light, sweet and interesting. should make a reservation if going there for a meal otherwise quite impossible to get a seat and you will have to sit outside in the cold.















i was overdressed in a woollen trench coat. brought it to nz thinking it would be cold in winter. but the weather condition here is quite mild, and the kiwis don't really bother to dress up. and you complained about singaporeans being so dress down we wear t-shirt, shorts and flip flops down orchard road. here, the kiwis don't even bother about the flip flops ok! they can shop barefeet and sometimes, even barechested.













anyways, back to the drinks session. after twisted hop, we adjourned to a pathetic little bar, vespa room for some warmth. the place was quite stinky. the kind of sweaty, musty smell of rooms with poor ventilation. but it is very warm and we made ourselves comfortable in a corner with sofas. after a margarita, mei started playing with candles.


















me and my gun.



















ron - the new double-O-7? with my gun...


















eunice smiling for the camera


















noriz looking a bit delirious after a mad mexican shot.

spring in winter

what better thing to do than soak in the hot springs during winter.....

maruia hot springs is about 2.5 hours away from Christchurch. the outdoor pools have good views of the mountains. water temperature is variable. on the day we were there, water temperature was slightly lower than 40 deg celcius, which was quite disappointing. also, there was a lot of black algae floating in the pool! very grosssss.... this is typical of nz... the kiwis care so much about nature that it will be a sin to remove these naturally occurring, harmless algae...















the mountain tops were covered with snow. thank God we managed to get to the hot spring before the roads were closed a few days later due to snowfall. (yes, i suspect that it is also a sin to clear the snow from the roads.....)