In transit…

In the past, we could fly from Sibu and catch the night flight to New Zealand, arriving there the very next day but these days, that is no longer possible. We had to take the sole MAS flight from Sibu arriving at KLIA at around 1.30 in the afternoon and our flight to Auckland would be at 8.50 the following morning.

Thus, we had to spend the night at this transit hotel where I have stayed a number of times before. Upon check-in, I was told that retired pensioners would no longer be eligible for the special government rate and I would need to pay around RM100.00 more per night. I did not bother to argue but later, I posted something about this on the hotel’s page on Facebook…and the next morning when I went to settle the bill, I found that I was given that discounted rate after all. Probably the receptionists, all trainees from Indonesia, were all wet behind the ears and would just follow the management’s orders to the letter…and when the manager-on-duty saw what had transpired on Facebook, he quickly made the adjustment accordingly. Talk about the power of the internet, eh?

smallkucing and his father met us upon arrival and since they had not had their lunch yet (we had lunch on the flight), we dropped by this place near the hotel called Downtown KLIA for a bite. There are quite a number of eating places around but I think there is only one or at the most, two Chinese shops. We went to one that seemed to enjoy pretty good business even though it was way past lunch hour and I had the wanton mee…

…which wasn’t that great. Ok, I would say it was edible – it did not taste awful…but of course, it did not come anywhere near the kampua noodles that we have in Sibu. Hehehehehehe!!!!

My missus and papakucing had rice with this plate of pork belly…

and braised shitake mushrooms…

…both of which were very nice, that I must admit. Even though the pork belly was kind of fat, the meat was tender and very tasty.

Papakucing also gave us some of the celebrated cakes from Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia…

The kek lapis  (layer cake) was very well done, soft and moist but I thought the smell of the spice used in the making, cinnamon, I think, was a bit too strong for my liking. The green-coloured pandan-flavoured  sarang semut (ants’ nest) or what is usually called bee hive or honeycomb cake, was the best – very lemak (rich) and nice. The blueberry kek gulung (swiss roll) was good but preety much like what we can get quite easily here but I would not say the same about those with cheese or minced meat floss…

I felt they were somewhat mismatched or perhaps, I was not that accustomed to the taste so I did not really enjoy those.

Later that afternoon. my very good friend, Mandy, dropped by the hotel and brought along with her these lovely cakes…

…and cream puffs…

…and one whole vanilla chiffon…

…from someplace called the RT Pastry House. All of them were indeed very good, I would say…but the cream puffs in Sibu are a little bit nicer. Hehehehehe!!!

She also got these very cute soft toys for Melissa on her graduation…

That’s Mandy for you – always so sweet and ever so generous.

We got up early the next morning and yet another great friend of mine, Ivan, came to the hotel at 5.00 a.m. to give us a ride to KLIA for our 8.50 flight – it was an international flight so we had to check in around 2-3 hours before the scheduled time of departure. He brought along these for me…

…as he felt the padlock would come in handy. How very nice and  thoughtful of him really! Our flight was a little bit delayed by 45 minutes till 9.35 a.m. owing to bad weather in Auckland – there was a tornado there the day prior to our arrival and all flights going in and out of the city were affected!

We landed in Auckland at around 1.00 a.m. in the morning, New Zealand time (7.00 p.m. in Malaysia) and my very dear and awesome friend and her family were all waiting patiently at the airport to give us a warm welcome despite it being the time when all good people should be in bed. LOL!!! We went to their breathtakingly-beautiful house that was as warm as its owners and were served this “supper” of these lovely fruit and cream tarts…

…and these quiches and mini meat pies…

…and it was around 4.00 a.m, I think, before we managed to go to bed and get a little bit of sleep.

The next morning, they cooked us an absolutely fabulous breakfast of the most delicious sausages and bacon, scrambled eggs (Yes! My friend did it perfectly well, so nice and creamy…exactly the way I love it!), hash browns and baked beans and toast. Cripes! I was so excited and so very anxious to sink my teeth into that most alluring breakfast that I forgot to take the photos!!!

After the sumptuous and absolutely filling breakfast, we were whisked off to the domestic terminal in Auckland before 9.00 a.m. to catch our 10.00 a.m. flight to our destination – Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand.