Heinz's Gate: The Long March

If you know your history, you would know what I mean by The Long March…of course at that time there were no jet aircrafts for Mao and his posy. I had to endure 8 hours flight from LCCT to Melbourne and had to spent roughly 6 hours in Melbourne and another 6 hours in Auckland airport, not to mention almost 4 hours going there. But I have no complain coming to Dunedin because I slept all the way there so I didn’t feel anything. So, im gonna start from my last day in my home…Malaysia

My last day in my beloved country was quite busy, packing and repacking to get under the airline weight limit. The Australian and New Zealand are very fussy little pricks. Especially the New Zealand and their Biosecurity crew. Here are some of the restricted things;

1. Strictly no food allowed, even food manufactured from NZ.
2. No animal, dead or alive. Kalau ada serangga keluar dari luggage you will be fined
3. No foreign soil, if they found any soil under your shoes they will hold you, and of course kena denda.
4. etc

The New Zealanders are fighting to preserved their ecosystem from unwanted species intro, I think I can understand that. This country relies heavily on agriculture as source of economy, so any species introduction might devastate that.

If in doubt, declare. If not they will assume you smuggle and you will be fine $200 up to $100K or they will sent your ass to prison.

To taste Malaysian food for one last time, my dad bought me nasi briyani kurma to enjoy, dengan ayam madu kut…it was damn good. Tukang masak tu memang gila rempah. I know its not really Malaysian food, but I consider it as one.

FAST FORWARD TO THE AIRPORT…

We arrived at the LCCT about 2215, my friends already arrived there 15minutes earlier, and my sis brought along some of my cousins along in a separate car, they arrived much later. At the check in counter, kita dengan selamba pi potong line, and other passengers queuing up behind us, haha. Syed Mahdi also lined up behind us…he didn’t recognize me because we haven’t officially met, I found his blogspot, that’s how I recognized his face. This guy wanted to tag along with me all the way to Otago University, he’s taking accounting there, and its his first year too.

After I got my boarding pass, I chat with my friends that came. Hazwan commandeered his company’s car and brought along Umai, Masri, and Shahiran…thanks guys for coming, I know you guys are busy with your practical, except for Masri…he's on holiday, haha. My cousins came, Ikram finally took my advise to wear that cloth at night, Irshad and Ilman were there as well.

I spent my last few minutes talking to my friends, and spent my final few minutes with beloved family and cousins. At 0030, its time to say goodbye. I passed the security and waved my last goodbye to my mom. Finally I got into the plane, and I got the window side on the right side of the plane. (have some photos of Australia from the sky)

FAREWELL MALAYSIA!!!

Of course it was late at night, so there was nothing much to look at out there, but I can tell we were flying over the selat Melaka because I can see a lot fishing trawler’s lights way from up there. Note: Airasia X does not has any on board entertainment. Kalau nak, you need to rent a movie player from them, its like a portable DVD player for about RM30. But I brought my MP4, so need for that crap. But the food was good…nasi lemak with rendang ayam, so that was my last Malaysian food on some nine thousand meters above sea level.

Three hours before reaching Melbourne, I can see we’re flying on Australian airspace, because I saw red dunes and some rocky hills, plus, the sun was rising at that time, and the view was spectacular. Here are some photos…

Before dawn in Northern Territory

Morning

View of that famous Australian red big rock, The Uluru- I think, looks like it

Ada sama???

Outskirt of Melbourne

Melbourne

I don’t have any picture of Melbourne Airport, lupa nak tangkap.

IN MELBOURNE

Its my first time in Australia!!! Its 7 Celsius in Melbourne. Just outside the arrival terminal where I met Syed Mahdi in person. He has his long distance relative studying in Melbourne University. She and her two friends came to greet us at the arrival terminal, and one of her friend really looked alike like one of my Diploma in Science classmate in UiTM Arau. These girls taking medic there and they are just 22. Depa tinggal satu tahun je lagi nak habis. They were nice enough to show us around the airport, and brought us to Nandos. Note: if anyone stops in Melbourne Tullamarine airport and want to eat halal food, this would be the place, they have halal certificate from Australian Islamic Council. But me and Syed didn’t eat any of their chicken. I only ate their chocolate moose, also ada tanda halal. Syed had same. But the girls seems to be offended by our actions, because we were skeptical about the halal. For me, if in doubt, avoid it…especially about food. So the girls ordered a large fries…a very large fries. Banyak gila, a whole bowl, as big as a salad bowl filled with fries and paper on it. Sedap gak. Situ semua besar, burger besar gila…macam orang kat situ ar, all big. The guys kat situ macam juggernaut.

One of the girls ada sister kat Otago Uni, also doing medic, and she gave Syed her contact. Syed contacted her and she passed some other senior’s contact to Syed. They all have an entire network of contacts. The girls led us to the prayers room in the airport, quite cozy ada banyak sejadah and tempat ambik wuduk. In that prayers room ada buku pasal agama islam, left there by some Malaysian…ada tulis kat depan buku tu quoting “buku ini sedekah dari keluarga ----(nama tak ingat, im not good with names)”. and there also a bible. From there the girls had to leave us, they had to go somewhere else.

After solat jamak, freshen up and got ready to check in our bag and get our boarding pass. While waiting for the check in counter to open, we sat next to a baggage wrapping station and I’ve noticed a women manning it…she doesn’t look like a local, but her Australian accent sounded way too over. First first tak boleh nak cam origin mak cik ni until la ada group Indonesian mai nak balut beg depa…time tu la dia cakap indon…laaa dia ni indon rupanya…haha, its funny sebab dia nak imitates Australian punya accent tapi haram bunyi pelik gila.

After we check in our heavy load, and got our boarding pass…and kena bayar AUD40 for excess baggage. If I didn’t argue with that strict bitch yang jaga check in counter tu, we have to pay AUD100... WTF! That bitch even questioned si Syed punya NZ student visa, siap ambik passport dia pi tunjuk kat officer dia. Dengan rasa terhina, I went to see another person yang jaga counter and asked him about baggage policy, and I even showed him the new baggage policy, pastu dia macam terkejut la bila baca policy tu. He called his officer and the officer confirmed about the new policy. Yang laki jaga counter to ok ja, tapi si bitch yang tengah process Syed punya boarding pass tu still tak puas hati and questioned the new baggage policy…annoying gila…hope she die a violent death

Info: The new baggage policy stated that the maximum weight limit is 23kg, tapi kalau excess is must not be more than 32kg. But if the weight betul betul kat kat 32kg, we just need to pay AUD40 je, if within 23kg-32kg, the passenger need to pay AUD10 per kilo, so its better to get it around 32kg.

Yang si Syed tu dah nak bayar dah AUD100 tu… beza banyak tu 40 and 100.

Later we boarded our plane, and departed 1930 to Auckland… oh yes, after the x-ray and metal detector scan, they took me aside an ran a bomb-tracing scan on me and my stuff, and asked me some random question, orang lain tak kena pun… im not a terrorist, bitch… atleast not yet, haha

HELLO NEW ZEALAND

We arrived in Auckland International Airport by Air NZ around 0040 hours, due to flight delay. The flight crew announced its 3 Celsius outside. Now this plane has in-flight entertainment with each has their own LCD and headphone. I watched Date Night, and Zombieland. Dua dua best, and funny…padahal plan nak tido. Confirm lepas ni mengantuk.

We passed through their immigration smoothly, and finally their Biosecurity…first first cam suspense gak, the Biosecurity officer asked me some questions and that’s it…pass camtu ja …laa tak ada la strict sangat. Buat gempak je lebih. Takda lak nak check tapak kasut aku ka, or open my bags. Security depa ngantuk kut, tak pun tension sebab miss FIFA punya match.

The airport was quite big, maybe bigger than LCCT and a lot more nicer. We took a shower, and its free and very comfortable + hot water. Syed mandi lama gila…

We were looking for a place to pray since there were no signs showing to one. So we found a secluded area and pray there…by some payphone. Syed sembahyang dulu while I guarded our stuff. Lapas tu aku punya turn lak,, time aku solat, ada airport security bagi tau kat Syed yang ada tenpat solat kat level atas…mmm, tak pa ah, tinggal satu rakaat je pun…

After solat, we headed to the only food place that still hasn’t closed…McD. Makan pancake je la, since breakfast menu banyak dengan bacon (makanan favorite Hazwan, haha)…

Pas makan, tido… atas kerusi…but barely asleep, risau miss shuttle bus. We need to ride the airport shuttle bus to domestic terminal which is quite far away, plus it was raining and freaking cold outside, and its still dark. The bus operating hour starts at 5am.

But before we ride the bus, we need to check-in our luggage at the international terminal, through their domestic transfer counter, so we don’t have to lug our heavy baggage all the way to the domestic terminal. Of course we need to pay extra for excess baggage, and for some reason I didn’t have to pay any, tapi Syed kena bayar…baik gila lady tu.

Then, we took the shuttle bus to the domestic terminal, and boarded our final leg of our journey to our intended destination…DUNEDIN, finally. On the flight, kita tido…

Oh yes, Imam Muda punya show ada masuk dalam New Zealand Herald news paper…haha, didn’t expect that ada dalam news depa.

DUNEDIN at last

I was woken up by a rough bang…damn, ingatkan crash tadi… rupanya KITA DAH SAMPAI!!! Rasa cam 10minutes ja tido tadi, memang letih ar maksudnya tu.

We got off the plane quite late, nak bagi orang lain bla dulu. Keluar keluar je kapal terbang tu…holy shit sejuk gila babi…although there wasn’t any snow, but its still cold, colder than Auckland( of course Dunedin is much further south, actually almost at the southern tip of New Zealand, and closest to Antarctica ), tapi tak ada snow, tu pelik…but Dunedin is in winter season. Syed dah mengigil dah badan dia. So we took some time to add another layer of thick clothing. Time Syed nak pi toilet, ada airport announcement calling our names…so Syed cancel hajat dia tuk pi toilet and we headed directly to the reception. Rupa rupa nya depa panggil kita sebab Taxi shuttle yang kita book tu was looking for us, and now Taxi tu dah bla, padahal kita lambat dalam 15 minit je. Fortunately for us, the airport staff called the taxi back and the driver came back and picked us up in his van.

Now, we’re on our way to Otago University

I took some pictures of the beautiful landscape along the way there….lawa gila siot. No wonder director Lord of The Ring choose this country for his film.

Sorry, my phone cam only has 3.2MP, later la cari camera.

Pics of Dunedin outskirts…