Wednesday, August 13, 2014

mackenzie's, lake tekapo, new zealand

we were on our way to mt.cook, and it was a long journey, so we were quite late for lunch at lake tekapo. actually, we were planning to have lunch at gohan, japanese restaurant, but unfortunately, it was closed at 2 pm. it only opened from 12-2pm for lunch. *sigh* i was drooling over their pictures at tripadvisor when i was searching for a dining place, and i had to swallow it back. and we were lucky we found mackenzie's was still open for business.

the place: it has outdoor seating which will be great when the weather is great. and it has access to the lake. so my son was excited to finish his meal and then running around toward the lake.
the menu: they have kid's menu, which was a relief.. and it had pizza! it was what my son wanted for lunch that day.. fiuhh.. for the rest of us, we managed to order burgers and steaks.. some were great, but some were not.
the service: well, mostly you have to pick the menu yourself, and then when you're ready, you can order at the cashier. and then, after waiting for a few minutes, they will serve your food. we got the cashier officer to serve us, but i noticed there was this one blonde waiter, who seemed sour, and wasn't that friendly. and when i read at tripadvisor, someone else also complained about the blonde waiter. i guess it's a habit..
the price: well, since we were starving and we needed place to eat, it was decent, but for a comeback, a no-no.. it was a bit pricey..

advice: just order the steak, but not the trio grill (just pass the pork-chicken-beef combination).

and since i forgot to take picture of the food, let me show you the view that you can enjoy from the back of the restaurant. it's the beautiful lake tekapo.



Thursday, August 7, 2014

amross court motor lodge

okay.. it's our first day in christchurch. thankfully, this time it was raining. so it wasn't that cold. but i was worried since this was the first winter trip for our son. but, watching him so excited playing around at the rental car office earlier, i was relieved. i hoped it would last until the trip ended. our first motel was amross court motor lodge. it was similar to our last motel in christchurch, small, quiet but comfy. we booked two kind of rooms. the family type for david's big family, and the regular one for us. the family one had 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a living room connected to the dining room and kitchen. they put extra bed in the living room since there were 5 people.

okay..let's discuss ours first. it was a one bedroom apartment. the bedroom was connected to dining room and kitchen, the bathroom was in separate room, and they also separated the toilet and the shower place. we had two heaters in the room, and it was hot enough to keep us warm. the heater in the bathroom also quite hot. it was a nice start for us to adapt to the winter climate. the kitchen utencils were complete so we could cook our dinner and breakfast ourselves. and the motel was close to merrivale mall, where we could shop groceries.

the family room on the other hand, they said they didn't get enough heat for everyone, except for the one in the living room. well, i guess you were supposed to keep the door open in the family room so the heat spreaded. i don't know.. all i know we could get a good night sleep here. though it wasn't big, but it was comfy.. and clean and nice. and quiet, remembering it was at the roadside.

well, it's just the beginning of our trip.. more reviews later..

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

winter holiday: NZ again

yep.. we're spending another idul fitri day in new zealand again. last time was two years ago. this time we brought my hubby's whole family plus our little one. i was worried that he might get sick due to the weather changes, but he was alright except for a couple of days.. so it was a huge relief. but his appetite dropped a lot, so he was skinny again.. hiksss...

this time, the route was christchurch - mt.cook - te anau - wanaka - queenstown - christchurch. originally, between queenstown and christchurch there was wakatiki (or something like that.. i forgot the city's name), but since my bro in law was tired and wanted to go back to christchurch by plane, we dropped it. but again, due to weather condition, the plane was cancelled and we had to hurry back to christchurch by car again... and we made a quick stop at twizel for a night before heading to christchurch again.

i might say that though at the beginning of the trip the weather was okay, our last trip was better. this one, half of the trip were not so good since it was rainy almost whole day long. we couldn't see the nice view and took picture. and the worst part is, we couldn't visit the zoo since we ran out time due to travel sudden changes. let's just say this is not our most joyous trip.

but then again, i'm quite happy since my son enjoyed most of the trip. he loved playing with the snow and excited jumping around the campervans. but most, he loved travelling by plane.. and now, even when we're home already, he kept asking "where are we going today?" hahaha.. he's still in holiday mode apparently..

though we made some return visit to some hotel and dinner, there are couples new accomodation and dinner to try.. so i'll review them separately. hopefully, we can go back there again someday and the weather will be good so we can enjoy all the view the whole trip long.

food review: ron's laboratory

okay.. ron's doesn't sell food, so it's supposed to be ice cream review. which is odd. what's special about it? ron's claims it's molecular gastronomy, something that has been hyped around the world. and this time in ice cream mode. all i know from watching masterchef and stuff, molecular gastronomy in ice cream means nitrogen. and i was right. they made the ice cream from scratch and then poured liquid nitrogen over it to make it solid. okayyy..so let's get onto it!

the place: so far, in surabaya, there are two places to enjoy ron's, one in ciputra world, and the other in galaxy mall. the setting is a small cafe, but you have to order in line, not like the other ice cream cafe where you can sit down and have the waiter take your order.
the price: hmmm.. for something hype, it's quite fair to pay that amount of money.
the flavour: ron's doesn't offer too much flavour like other ice cream parlour. so far i count only 5 flavours, but i don't know if the dates one only for ramadhan season. there is one funny flavours, the chocolate windproof flavour, which in indonesia translated into "tolak angin". i never drink tolak angin so i have no idea what tolak angin should taste like, so i give it a go. i choose the rocky something, which is a sea-salt chocolate and peanut butter.
the presentation: another unique thing in ron's is they have several flavours that have syringe in presentation. the syringe contains more syrup to pour over your ice cream.

many people attracted to the syringe and i have to say that indonesian are lazy to read the board. they have the flavours plus the notes under the ice cream names and give the syringe sign beside the flavour name, so you can figure out yourself which one gets the syringe and which one doesn't. unfortunately, when i bought them, many people in front of me just came to the cashier and asked "which one has the syringe on it?" ohhhh.. mannn.. no wonder the line is quite long! if only they take the time to read the sign!!! come on peopleee!!!

okay.. back to the ice cream. probably it was me who order the ordinary stuff, so i have to rate this one just so-so. nothing extraordinary, just something exciting to looked at while you are waiting for your ice cream. looking at the "scientist" mixing your ice cream and then pouring the liquid nitrogen, plus the syringe. for me, syringe is not extraordinary, so i don't get it why people so excited playing with syringe.