New Zealand Day Zero.

Okay I am finally going to start blogging about New Zealand! =) The trip was a lot of firsts for me. Like, first time travelling alone with friends, first time away from Singapore for so long, first time being to New Zealand, first time travelling overseas with my camera. New Zealand's the third country I've ever been to, besides Australia and Malaysia, and the second time I've ever taken a plane. And I've always been taking planes without my parents hahaha, since the trip to Australia was a school trip.

Anyways pictures of me (like the one above) are taken by either Ryan or Lenson. Since you know, they went to New Zealand with me as well. I dunno maybe. Spilt the first day into before the flight and after the flight, since I have like 95 pictures for the first day alone.

Anyways, went Church in the Morning, then went for lunch with my family, then went to pick Ryan up from his house, and went to the airport to meet Lenson. At the airport, Lenson was with his relatives, and after the initial formalities of meeting them, I decided to strike up a silly conversation.

Minghui: "Hey you know, I found this bag near the taxi stand."

*points at his bag*

Lenson's Aunt: "Seriously?"

Everyone stops talking and turns to look at me in what must have been the most epic awkward silence of the day.

Minghui: "Err haha no la it's my bag. Ha. Ha."

Everyone resumes their conversations as if nothing happened.

Ryan and I left pretty quickly after that to go upstairs to the check-in counter first.

I got the window seat! Nyeh.

Our bag packs. Mine was the lightest hah. Although my carry-on bag was the heaviest thanks to my macbook/two cameras.

Waited around to enter the transit mall.

f1.4 is awesome.

Koon Tat came some time after that to pass me my camera remote. Haha. Unfortunately the batteries for the remote were flat. So I didn't use it at all during the trip. Imagine the star trails I could have taken if I did. =(

Haha. I saw this composition by a wedding photographer once and we tried to emulate it.

Deon and Russell came some time after to celebrate the start of their "15 days of Minghui-free holiday" They started making plans and deciding which party to head to after I left.

Lenson and Ryan went into the transit mall first whilst I waited outside because someone was late. Someone. =P

And Deon and Russell were talking about how she was probably hiding behind the pillar waiting for me to leave so she could meet them.

Deon and Russell jumping for joy as I left.

Went into the transit mall and met up with Ryan and Lenson.

This is Ryan.

And this is Lenson.

I think Terminal 3's transit mall is really huge. Haha. Like, did you know there's a butterfly garden! =O And lots and lots of shops. The viewing mall was really nice compared to the public one as well.

My bag on the floor after Ryan executed a turn poorly. =P

End Result. Haha. I wanted to take the rim light on Lenson. Need spot metering.

Lenson with his tripod trolley.

The walk to the boarding gate was really long. Haha. And I started practicing my tourist accents and irritating the two.

We were probably the only Singaporeans on that flight. Excluding the pilot and stewards la.

Lenson with his passport. =)

Pretending to be scared.

The flight was okay. Haha we made friends with this air steward and he gave us lots of chips, cookies and biscuits. I think it was probably cause we really were the only Singaporeans around, haha and we were students as well. He started talking to us about New Zealand and telling us that skydiving there was cheaper than in some places. But we didn't skydive in the end la. Oh and we got Crunch ice-cream as well. =D

The flight was 10 hours long though. Watched two movies, Top Gear, and other random shows. And I slept as well. Haha.

Sitting next to Ryan was this Chinese lady:

Quite freaky ah. Hahaha. Especially if you watched 4bia.

Saw the Sunrise from my window, but it wasn't very nice as we were flying into the Sunrise.

Film.

Digital. I think digital is nicer. If only because of the wider angle. Haha.

View from the window as we neared Christchurch. =D

The flight was quite turbulent as we neared, like a roller-coaster with all the swoops and whoops. Unfortunately many people couldn't use the lavatory as a result. Me not being one of them hah.

Frost forming on the window.