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The highlight for the last of our two days in Disneyland was breakfast at the other hotel (i.e. the more expensive one) with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto. The novelty of being able to take pictures with these classic Disney characters aside, the food was also pretty decent, with my favourite being the hash browns that looked and tasted a lot like the Burger King ones. Ah, there’s no comfort food like familiar fast food.

I think both Alicia and Ashley were slightly scared of this over sized dog.

After breakfast, it was back to the park to continue where we left off. But before that, some customary queuing for photos.

You won’t believe how long Ashley and I queued for this one. I counted 2-3 toilet breaks from the mice.

Prior to going on this trip, a number of friends had told me that the Space Mountain ride was a must-go. The only real adult ride in the whole park they said. I’m glad they warned me in advance so I had a number of excuses prepared by the time we got there on why it was more important for me to babysit the kids while my wife went for the ride alone. I much prefer rides like the one below where chances of you dislodging from your seat and being catapulted 50 meters into the air are close to zero.

Ashley in the driver’s seat, as always.

Sadly, we could not spend as much time at Disneyland as the day before because we had to check into a new hotel that evening. We were probably too tired by then anyway, but I am really glad that we had managed to visit most of the attractions over the two days. If all goes well, I would certainly like to plan another trip to one of the other Disneylands in 2011!

Farewell, for now.

View the full gallery here.

I must admit, I had doubts when Zhiyi first brought up the idea of visiting Hong Kong Disneyland and had preferred instead to go to Tokyo Disneyland. I didn’t fancy the thought of having to spend half the time queuing with hordes of unruly tourists from the mainland, negative accounts which I have heard from many a friend who had gone before. Thankfully, all my fears were unfounded and the experience was a total opposite of what I had anticipated. While crowded, it wasn’t overly so and everyone was on their best behavior. Queues were long but things still moved briskly. The sun was hot but the cool temperature (it averaged 22 degrees C when we were there) and relatively drier air made walking around the whole day pleasant.

I can’t for the life of me remember which princess that famous castle, which has become Disney’s icon, belongs to.

Speaking of hot, I feel for the poor guys who have to walk or stand around in costumes of Disney characters the whole day. Having seen how damp Merv got on his wedding day after spending an agonizing 30 mins in his Gingerbread Man costume, these chipmunks could not have fared any better. Those thick layers of cloth and fur, devoid of any ventilation holes, must have also made it very challenging for them to go to the toilet, something these guys did almost every hour. Yes, I was actually in the queue(s) long enough to notice this happening.

Strangely, the longest queues were not for the exciting rides but for photo ops with various Disney characters.

Disneyland Hong Kong is divided into a few themed areas – Main Street USA, Adventureland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. As with any theme park, the rides are the attraction; and thankfully, for someone coasterphobic like me, the more child oriented rides were perfect. Rides that simply go round and round and occasionally up and down in either a gentle or controlled manner are the best. They help keep my stomach inside where it belongs. Rides like these…

The Dumbo Ride (not to be confused with what my wife calls my cab rides to work in the morning)

The Cinderella Carousel (can you believe that carousels were invented over 100 years ago?)

Mad Hatter Tea Cups (the girls love getting giddy, the mum, not so much)

Another great thing about Disneyland, something which will appeal to adults a lot, are the shows. You’ll be forgiven for wanting to stand up and sing along when theme songs from the hit cartoon movies you used to love when growing up are performed live in front of you.

The Golden Mickeys – a celebration of songs from Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Lilo and Stich, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan.

The Lion King – I loved the ingenious use of animal costumes in this one!

There also outdoor parades at specific times of the day so it pays to study the schedule carefully.

We ended this really awesome day by shopping for souvenirs at Main Street USA while it snowed foam outside (how I wished for the real thing!) and watching the closing fireworks show in front of the princess castle. Despite covering only slightly over half of the park, we were exhausted and happy knowing that there was more to look forward to the next day.

One day, she’ll be able to see the real thing!

View the full gallery here.

Despite having visited Universal Studios Singapore twice already this year, the kids just can’t get enough of theme parks. In light of that, Hong Kong Disneyland was the natural choice for our annual family holiday destination this year due to its relatively short distance from Singapore (“only” 5 hours by plane) and the recent attractiveness of the currency exchange rate (almost 1 SGD to 6 HKD!).

Day 1, of course, was mainly about getting there and checking into a hotel. Hong Kong Disneyland has 2 hotels, and it’s a good idea to stay in one of them if you are going to be visiting for more than a day. Knowing that we would be spending most of our time at the park and little of it in the room, we settled on Hollywood Hotel Disneyland, the cheaper of the two. This art-deco hotel has a regular shuttle bus that takes guests from the hotel to the park and back every 15 minutes or so.

After dropping off all our stuff and spending an hour at the hotel playground, we took a train to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner and some shopping. Like Singapore, a lot of busy shopping areas/buildings in Hong Kong get decorated and lit up weeks before Christmas. The festive mood was definitely in the air as we spent an hour or two walking around Harbour City. I also managed to pick up a Sony laptop for almost SGD1000 cheaper than what I would have had to pay in Singapore. What a good start to the trip!

Christmas lights and decorations outside Harbour City.

Full day 1 gallery available here.

Ashley celebrated her 4 year old birthday last Friday (22 Jan) and the first thing we did that morning was to stand side-by-side in front of the mirror to see how much she had grown over the year. She’s only an eighth of my age but turns out that she is over half my height already. I remember that when I was around 12, and about a foot taller than my mum, people used to mistake me as her brother. Not sure if my mum felt flattered (for looking so young) or insulted (for being short), but I imagine the same thing happening between us and Ashley one day. Zhiyi, on the other hand, is trying to delay the inevitable by constantly reminding me to control her food intake.

But back to last Friday, and the weekend for that matter, it was cake and food all the way. On Friday morning, the teachers were kind enough to let us celebrate her birthday at school with her classmates during recess. Ashley had a “princess cake” from Bengawan Solo which, as expected, was pink in colour.

Ashley and the girls in her class, looking very eager for me to get the photo taking over and done with.

And, another with the boys. Didn’t realize that there were two of them hiding behind!

After the cake (and more photos), the kids were allowed half an hour of playtime in the school gym. The school gym was pretty awesome compared to what I had when I was a kid with all manner of slides, see-saws, a foam-rubber-ish running track and other contraptions for the kids to flex their legs and get into fights over (some things never change). And when gym was over, Ashley did another thing that I couldn’t do at my age, wear her own socks and shoes. If her shoes had shoelaces, I bet that she would know how to tie those herself too!

To continue our fun filed Friday, we then brought Ashley to Wild Wild Wet at Pasir Ris, a water-based theme park. Wasn’t expecting much to be honest, but to our pleasant surprise, the park was pretty huge and there were tons of slides for us to try out.

The attraction in the background is called the Professor’s Playground. We spent most of our time there.

That was until we discovered this humongous slide, starting from about 50m off the ground, the Ular-lah, which turned out in the end to be Ashley’s favourite!

Simply looking up at it makes me weak in the knees. That kid really knows no fear!

On Saturday, we had a family lunch at Swensen’s at Vivo City. This time, Ashley had a nice ice cream cake from Angie The Choice. We didn’t realize when we arrived that Swensen’s doesn’t normally allow you to bring in cakes from elsewhere as they sell cakes too, but kudos to the manager for being flexible and making an exception for us!

Whoosh!

To distract Alicia from the cake, Zhiyi resorted to letting her play with her sunglasses.

After the lunch, Ashley opened her presents and received 2 new dresses from her grandparents and Zaccheus’ family. You should see her wardrobe now – I think she has more dresses than her mum!

Nothing like some exercise after a big lunch!

Check out the rest of the photos here.

Lake Tekapo

Almost didn’t shoot this (tired, too early in the morning, foggy, etc) but for wifey’s incessant reminders that "we made it this far". We were just about done shooting when the gorgeous sun came out from behind the clouds, and thankfully dad-in-law was on hand to hold my huge reflector, filling the shadow’s nicely.

On the image, I received a few comments that the scenery looks almost unreal. Yes, New Zealand is that gorgeous. With the right equipment (an ultra-wide angle lens) and enthusiastic subject, it all simply came together.

Wanaka

Received a wonderful tip from the hair stylist, Debbie, on where to take pictures around Wanaka and it’s almost certain that I wouldn’t have found this place otherwise. The hills were filled with tussock or snow grass (their equivalent of our lalang, except much nicer). If Zhiyi looks extra elegant in this photo, it’s thanks to the wonderful makeup and hair services of Carla Lucas and Debbie Forrest respectively. You can contact them here if you’re ever thinking of doing a shoot around Queenstown or Wanaka.

Note: See the larger version by clicking on the image, and going to “All Sizes” in the next page, as the facial details just look mashed in the thumbnail.

Opotiki

It was dreadfully overcast when we decided to shoot on our 2nd day in Opotiki, but as we were about to wrap up, the sun miraculously decided to poke through the clouds just as a flock of seagulls entered my frame. And to top it off, we wouldn’t have returned to the beach for a second round had we not discovered that Zhiyi had dropped her earrings at the very spot she is standing in the photo above when we were there earlier. Serendipity!

More to come!

I’m now typing this post from the room of our hotel in Christchurch where Internet access is going for $10 for 2 hours. In this day and age, I’d thought that free wireless Internet was almost a given in “branded” hotels or tourist hot spots but I guess some things still take time.

Anyway, we’re now a third through our holiday in New Zealand and having loads of fun so far. More than half of the time has been spent on the road driving from town to town so it’ll be an understatement to say that we’re pretty tired. E.g. the drive yesterday from Queenstown to Christchurch took almost 8 hours! And tomorrow, it’ll be another 4 hour drive from Christchurch to Blenheim. Better get some much needed rest tonight!

Here’s one picture from our trip so far that pretty much summarizes Project New Zealand. Been getting many lovely shots so far of all the 3 girls in the family (wifey, Ashley and Alicia) though I must say, the real star has been none other than my long suffering wife who agreed to model a stunning wedding gown for this particular shoot.

As to how I managed to haul this humongous gown all the way from Singapore, drive hundreds of kilometers with it together with 5 suitcases and other bags, convince my wife to model for pictures in between taking care of 9 month old Alicia, find a make up artist and hair stylist on Christmas Day and end up at this picturesque location is quite another story! Now just praying that the weather continues to stay on my side…

This was taken right outside our room at the Pemberton Best Western Motel.

The most notable thing about our trip home to Singapore was how we were stranded at Perth International Airport for close to 10 hours, after 2 delays. The delays caused many passengers to cancel their New Year Eve plans, but what made it worse was that no one who had already entered the check-in area of the airport was allowed to leave until a few hours later in line with "immigration clearance laws". Needless to say, there were many many irate passengers that day.

See this calm and serene picture of a lone tree on top of a hill? Everyone was feeling the exact opposite!

According to the captain, who was very transparent about the whole thing, there was damage on the valve of an oxygen tank that supplies the masks that drop down from the overhead compartments in the event of cabin depressurization. As they didn’t have spare parts on hand, they had to fly one in from Sydney. After a few hours of waiting, to our dismay, we were told that the initial fix had failed, so they had to try again with another spare part that was to be flown in from Melbourne. Another few hours of waiting, and much to our relief, the fix worked and we were on our way back.

When bored at the airport, spend the time taking long exposure shots of planes landing, while practicing holding your breath at the same time…

We counted down to the new year over the Indian Ocean.

Pemberton, a few hours drive south east of Margaret River, is home to the majestic karri tree, the 3rd largest hardwood tree in the world. Not for the feint of heart, there are 3 climbable kerri trees that are over 60m tall which were formerly used as fire lookout posts. Only 20% of visitors ever make it to the top, with a majority turning back after reaching the halfway point. I tried climbing 5m, looked at the huge gaps between the makeshift steps made out of metal pikes and decided that I wasn’t so brave after all…

The tallest of the 3 remaining climbable kerri trees, the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree is 71m tall.

I was really really really worried when taking this shot… Look at how much space there is between steps and nothing to catch you if you were to slip.

Pemberton is a very small town and it is possible to drive from one end to the other in less than 5 minutes. It is a pretty popular tourist destination for Western Australians due to the fact that it is surrounded by 5 national parks. Unfortunately, due to Zhiyi’s size, any thoughts of trekking were quickly put on hold!

One of four remaining V Class 2-8-2 Mikado type Steam Locomotives left in service. This one operates from Easter to the end of October on tourist trains to Eastbrook Siding on Saturdays, and to Lyall Siding on Sundays.

Waiting at the Pemberton Station

Dunsborough is a small seaside town about a 2 hours drive from Margaret River and is one of the more popular holiday destinations for Perthites due to its beautiful surrounding beaches that face north towards the Indian Ocean.

Along the way, there is this “must-visit” place for ice cream lovers called Simmo’s Ice Creamery. It’s got ice cream flavours that can rival Ben and Jerry’s like Swiss Choc, Whisky Prune and Orange Choc Chip. There’s also a large lawn at the store where families can have picnics and a small playground nearby with an antique carousel. Good fun for the kids!

It was here that I also bumped into an old friend from Kuching. I must admit, I was slightly envious to learn that she migrated there not so long ago. Sun and surf, what’s not to like?

Just south of Dunsborough lies the town of Yallingup, which has bred many of the regions best surfers. We would have spent more time here but not for the fact that it was getting dark and we wanted to avoid driving after sundown.

One of the "must see" regions in Western Australia is Margaret River, about a 4 to 5 hours drive south of Perth. The Margaret River region, also known as wine country, is home to 200 vineyards and 90 wineries. It’s also famous for its many award wining eateries, sadly none of which we could try as they were all booked out every single day of the week!

Below are pictures taken around the grounds of The Voyager, one of the premium wineries cum restaurants in the area. And no, we didn’t get to eat here either.

View the full Margaret River gallery here.