Easter break day 2: Christchurch

Christchurch name is taken from the Christ Church of the University of Oxford, which the building and rooms have been used for the Harry Porter movie set. It's such a religious name for a city. Does it represent the spirit of the city? the people?

After having breakfast at the motel, we started the day around 9 am headed to Christchurch Botanic Gardens. We parked our car at Armagh St car park. It's free admission. We spent an hour walking around the garden and taking photos. It's kind of quiet garden (early morning of course) with big trees and beautiful rose garden. Kezia picked up a flower that she is not supposed to do that in a city garden.




From Botanic Gardens, we continued to Antartic Centre, which is located next to the Airport. We paid $60 for 2 adults and Kezia is free. The most interesting experience was the little blue penguin watch. Kezia really enjoyed it as she was so close enough with the penguins unintendedly stepping out to the penguin area. Then, the chilling -5 degrees Celcius room and the experience of the Antartic Storm when the temperatur was reduced to -18! I also spent a moment looking at the Scott Base photos.




We left Antartic Centre going back to motel for having a quick lunch. After lunch, we went to the Cathedral Square. We parked our car somewhere on Worcester St CBD area. We found that the public toilet is a two level building with a sliding door at the entrance! We went into the Cathedral and coming to the prayer spot where Nina and Kezia were praying together. We then took the tram circling the city square. Kezia's stroller is put just in front of the tram. Around 3 pm, we stopped by a cafe inside the Cathedral Junction to have a Flat White and a Hot Chocolate. Nina bought some souvenirs at the shop next to the cafe. It's a good spot to take photos with a passing tram in the background.




Last place we visited was the Christchurch Gondola. We paid $60 for 2 adults including the tram ride before. The gondola ride is exactly the same with one in Rotorua so I wasn't really excited. Except for Kezia. At the top almost 500m above sea level, we could see the Christchurch City and Lyttleton Harbour and the Pacific Ocean. Because it's cloudy we couldn't see the Southern Alps.




The next day, Easter Sunday, we checked out around 5 am. I parked the car and returned the car key at the Avis counter. We flew back to Wellington with 7.15 flight.




Arriving at Wellington airport, we went to the long term car park using a free shuttle. We're back to our "blue car" as Kezia saying and "no more white car". We went straightaway to the market for Nina's shopping and then church for Easter Sunday service. In the afternoon, we have an Easter Dinner with Indonesians of our church.




HAPPY EASTER

Easter break day 1: Mt Cook

We had a two-day break going to South Island, specifically to Mt Cook and Christchurch. In the midst of NZ recession outlook, we still however continued with our plan to have a costly holiday. Do we have to avoid that? No. We need to live our life to the full, yet with a help from one important economic tool, i.e., saving. Our next holiday should be Christmas considering that we need to save some money again after spending quite much on this Easter Holiday.

We started from home around 5 am on Good Friday to Wellington Airport and parked our car at the long term car park. It costs $41 for 2 nights. We booked the flight two months ago, so we could get the cheapest available fare from Air NZ. Our flight to Christchurch boarded on 6.30 am. The flying time from Wellington to Christchurch is normally 45 minutes. Kezia really enjoyed the flight.

Arriving at Christchurch Airport around 7.30 am, I then went to Avis Rental Cars counter to pick up the car key reserved and sign some papers. The base rental fee for 2 days is $110 ($55/day) plus airport fee $30. For the sake of "no-hassle trip", I also added a GPS costing $20 for 2 days ($10/day). Putting the GPS into practice, I could save lots of time wondering where to go using a map, particularly in the urban area. Bear in mind, I've never been in South Island or Christchurch before even after 8 years living in NZ.

Finding the car is a small nice new car (2007), we became overwhelmed since our car is 12 years older. I loaded all of our stuff in to the car including Kezia's carseat and stroller. Kezia seemed happy as she thought the white car was our new car. After setting the GPS, we drove to the City Worcester Motel to check-in. The motel is located in the city centre area and the rate is quite cheap compared to the other motels, costing $200 for 2 nights. It's clean but with old furniture. I met some Japanese and Dutch tourists staying next door and downstair.




After getting the room key, we straightaway drove to Lake Pukaki. I set the GPS to Lake Pukaki Visitor Centre. It's a 4 hours drive departing around 9 am and arriving at Pukaki around 13 pm. We then had our lunch there. Nina prepared nasi goreng and tuna croissant for our lunch. We spent time enjoying the scenery and taking photos.






We then decided to drive to Mt Cook village as it's not really part of the plan. But Alison, my boss, suggested me to visit Mt Cook because it's worth coming by after driving a long way from Christchurch. The route is a dead end road, easy drive as not so much traffic, the best scenic drive in NZ and it's only 30 minutes from Pukaki. We enjoyed the scenery of the green Lake Pukaki on the right, Ben Ohau Range on the left and The Southern Alps on the front. It's an amazing beautiful scene. Thanks Ally. A bit tear in my eyes for someone who had been waiting for 8 years to enjoy the beauty of South Island. Next tear would be Queenstown! (I have the plan in my mind and pocket)






After walking around the Mt Cook village and taking photos, we realised that The Church of Good Shepperd, Lake Tekapo, is our main plan. Then, we drove back to Lake Tekapo as we actually just passed through it on the way to Pukaki. The view from the church is amazing. The church has a glass window behind the altar so that the congregation can enjoy the scenery while having the service. We had a big while having a good time taking photos and lying down on the grass enjoying the scenery of the lake, Southern Alps and Two Thumb Range.




We left Lake Tekapo around 6 pm headed back to Christchurch. The next day we had our Christchurch time.

Good Friday is good, thank be to God for the safe flight and drive.

Top 10 Indonesian Managed Funds (Reksa Dana)

"Reksa Dana or Reksadana" is an Indonesian term for managed funds. The total number of managed funds in Indonesia is 475. It's amazing! And, the highest real return is around 70%!! Seeing the high return of Indonesia market, who cares about standard deviation...

Fixed Income
168
Shares 58
Mixed 111
Money market 32
Protected 103
Index 1
Listed 2
TOTAL 475


TOP Performers as of 29 March 2008 (in %)

SHARES funds
(Rp) 30 days 1 year 1 year real
Makinta Mantap 3.713,76 -16.76 66.27 62.19
Fortis Ekuitas 9.005,18 -12.42 57.97 51.83
Pratama Saham 2.118,94 -13.2 52.08 50.57
Fortis Infrastruktur Plus 1.557,37 -11.64 54.2 49.29
Optima Saham 1.578,07 -8.16 53.57 48.3
Bahana Dana Prima 8.163,82 -12.05 51.93 47.44
Schroder Dana Istimewa 2.677,91 -8.53 46.77 46.04
Danareksa Mawar 4.715,90 -11.8 47.52 45.33
Mandiri Investa Atraktif 2.757,80 -13.65 46.86 45.21
Reksa Dana Dana Ekuitas Prima 2.320,73 -11.58 53.53 43.7


MIXED funds
(Rp) 30 days 1 year 1 year real
Prospera Balance 2.788,39 -11.37 59.5 53.25
Bahana Dana Infrastruktur 4.997,78 -11.91 56.33 51.71
Fortis Pesona 11.610,89 -11.24 50.22 46.87
TRIM Syariah Berimbang 1.441,77 -9.95 43.37 43.37
Mandiri Investa Syariah Berimbang 2.136,52 -4.25 44.52 41.65
Reksadana Mega Dana Syariah 1.533,92 -6.92 42.78 39.95
Star Balanced 1.778,10 -6.06 42.03 39.9
Danareksa Anggrek Fleksibel 1.895,27 -8.04 44.53 39.62
Schroder Dana Prestasi 12.447,40 -10.69 41.64 38.49
Mega Dana Campuran 1.538,57 -8.55 40.61 37.15

Which Market do you prefer?



"IHSG" is the Jakarta Market. Isn't it way too high? The mean and also the stdev.

"NZXall" is the the good one I think. It has a considerably high mean and low stdev.

Weekend di Taupo

Tulisan ini dikutip dari Keziawatch... ditulis oleh Nina.

Diajak sama keluarga Panggabean ke taupo yang kebetulan dapet jatah nempatin holiday home kantornya om Arthur. Gak cuma kita sekeluarga aja yang diajak, tapi keluarga Achmadi juga diajak. Jadilah 3 keluarga menghabiskan weekend sama-sama, makan minum sama-sama, barbeque sama-sama, gila juga sama-sama deh. ;p

Di Taupo selama 3 hari 2 malam, kita sempet ke Huka Falls dan The Honey hive, maksudnya sih nyoba madu gratis yang akhirnya gak nyoba madunya sama sekali tapi mommy & daddy malah nyobain Chocolate Mints dan Butterscotch-nya berkali-kali. Hahaha...suka atau doyan ? Abis enak rasanya seperti Baileys...finally Daddy beli butterscotch buat malamnya
sambil barbeque !!!
Cerita lainnya bisa diliat di blognya Tante Imelda dan blognya Tante Erika.


Ini beberapa photonya yang ada (baik dari cameranya tante erika atau dari camera kita sendiri) :

The Liandos, The Panggabeans, The Achmadis...

Mommy, daddy & kezia di tepi Huka Falls...


Kezia and Will....

Will, kezia and Nickolas di rumah lebah.....;p

Gak lupa bawa teleskop, hobby baru mommy & daddy....*_^



Sebelum pulang sempet kabur duluan dari 2 keluarga yang lain tuk nikmatin
Lake Taupo....dan photo-photo dong ;D




Mampir di Chateau Tongariro, Whakapapa tuk lunch...hmmm dah lama juga nih kita gak ke whakapapa, jadi kangen. Liat deh bagaimana borjunya makanan kita, setimpal dengan harganya. huahahaha....



Photo dulu di depan Chateau, sebelum lanjutin perjalanan....

Daddy sempet2nya photo sebelum nyetir lanjutin perjalanan....


Mampir ke Whanganui yang ternyata karena ada whanganui river-nya menjadikan mirip sekali dengan Hamilton (kota kesayangan kita) dengan Waikato river-nya....cuma kalo hamilton kota jauh lebih besar kali yee....



Pulang deh kerumah masing-masing....thanks a lot ya om Arthur udah ngajak kami walaupun cuaca kurang mendukung karena hujan dan adanya Triathlon tapi tidak mengurangi kebersamaan dan kekompakkan kita. Thanks guys for the lovely time....love you all ;D

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