New Zealand 2012 Ramblings: Day 12 - Aquarium; Opossum World; dinner with the Stewarts

-3 September, Monday-

Photo of the day - Closest thing I got to Chinese food on this trip just when I was really starting to miss Chinese and Japanese food - STEAMBOAT:

The day began with a usual breakfast, then aunty Joy took me and Indie to the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier.

We made sure to reach the aquarium by 10am to see the diver feed the fish.

After feeding the fish, to entertain the many kids who were there watching, the diver did some interesting moves and it was quite funny:

At one point, when Indie was still standing very close to the glass, the diver came towards her and gestured that they exchange mouth pieces - he would give her his mouth piece, and she would give him her 'dum-dum'. But she got so frightened probably because she didn't understand what he was trying to do and this weird person was just making actions at her, she ran backwards towards aunty Joy and me and aunty Joy had to carry her after that.

One of the fish that caught my attention was this giant freshwater prawn. It is huge! I took a photo of the sign that has more information of this giant freshwater prawn:

In this video, you will see Indie riding the Nemo machine, and in the beginning of the video, you will notice aunty Joy turning the lever of some machine that tries to give you an idea of how much air a diver needs in the water (if you click on the photos immediately below this video clip, you can read more about this diving machine thingy aunty Joy was having a hand at):

We then went into an exhibit that showed us 2 kiwi birds. They are nocturnal animals and are very sensitive to light and sound, so I couldn't see a flash in the dimly-lit exhibit and therefore was unable to get a photo of the cute Kiwi bird. Left with no choice, I took a photo of this model of the Kiwi bird together with its big egg:

Another creature that got my attention was the seahorse. Why? Because every time I see or read about the seahorse, I am intrigued by how it is the male seahorse that carries the babies, and I always wish it was possible for men to carry babies for 9 months instead of us women having to carry the babies in our wombs:D Anyway, it is quite interesting how they twist their long tails around the branches, with the little ear-like flaps fanning away super quickly such that you only see a blur of movement:

From the aquarium, we drove the short distance down to Opossum World:

Possums are actually considered a pest here in NZ and can be killed. This is in comparison to Australia, where possums cannot be shot down or killed in any other way. Possum fur is soft, so only when the pest is killed does it become likeable because of its fur.

The 3 of us then headed home for a simple lunch. Indie wanted to watch the teletubbies DVD so I ended up watching it with her in the living room as I had my simple lunch.

It was somewhat comforting to know that kids these days still watch/like/enjoy shows I watched when I was a young kid. But I must have looked really childish when I started singing along to the opening song and saying "uh-oh" (i.e. hello) whenever the teletubbies said it on the TV.

One interesting fact I learnt about Po, my favourite teletubby out of the lot - she is Asian! The creators made her bilingual and she speaks a mixture of English and Cantonese! I didn't know that. Did you?:)

Indie got tired so aunty Joy had her go upstairs to one of the rooms to sleep. But I think all this while, being the youngest in David's family, she always slept with her parents or with either one of her sisters (being Jorja or Maddie), so she wasn't used to sleeping in a bed in a room all by herself and she got very scared and would cry. Before aunty Joy left for her pastoral visits, she lay beside Indie for awhile until Indie fell asleep. Then aunty Joy got up and left for her pastoral visits, leaving me and uncle Mike at home, with little Indie sleeping upstairs.

After an hour or so of quiet, I suddenly heard Indie crying. Uncle Mike was in his office, doors closed, and I didn't want to bother him. So I tried my luck with children and went upstairs. She continued crying when she was with me, saying she wanted her mummy. I told her she just needed to close her eyes, sleep a little bit more, and before she knew it her mummy would be here to pick her up. She continued crying. Out of desperation, I started singing "Jesus loves me this I know", and she stopped crying! I then got my phone and read the bible by her bed, telling her she could fall asleep and I would be by her side.

Thankfully, she fell asleep. About 20 minutes later, she got up and said she didn't want to sleep anymore. So we got her out of bed and as she was walking down the stairs, her mummy, Kate, CAME! OH MY GOSH all of me went "THANK YOU JESUS!!" I tell you. It really was quite interesting, haha.

At 5pm, a couple from church, Graham and Mabel, came to pick me up to fetch me to their house for dinner. Get this. Mabel is a Singaporean who has stayed many years in New Zealand. She knows Kelly Leung from LSBC because they were flatmates when they were both studying in NZ! I had a GREAT time having steamboat dinner with them and just talking about all kinds of things, not having to worry about accidentally slipping into singlish or not having my sentence structure correct... I had a FUN-TASTIC night with them! We took a group shot but it was with Graham's camera on the tripod. I will definitely post up the photo when they email it to me:)

I posted the photo of the steamboat ingredients because you cannot imagine how excited and happy I was to have steamboat. I was JUST starting to REALLY miss Chinese and Japanese food. I looked at the crayfish on display at the aquarium and instantly thought about EATING it... It made me realise that I was starting to miss and crave for Asian food!

I think God is preparing me to head back to Singapore...

-Signing off on 4 Sep at 10:30pm NZ time (6:30pm SG time)-