Reminiscence

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—- photo taken on a nice sunny day while on a roadtrip down New Zealand’s South Island.

A few days back, this photo came up in my Newsfeed when Facebook did it’s thing where it reminds you about certain ‘memories’ and how much time has exactly passed since you posted a particular photo. This one was captioned “We were just there together.. and that was enough.”

That was exactly how I felt two years ago when this photo was taken and uploaded. All just seemed right in the world while I was out exploring new places with two of my very close friends while we were on a five day roadtrip down south with this route: Christchurch-Lake Tekapo-Mt.Cook-Otago-Invercargill-Dunedin.

It was my very first time exploring the southern part of New Zealand and I was pretty amazed. The scenery was absolutely beautiful… and because I was with good company as well, that made the trip even more awesome.

The breathtaking places we visited… the long drives (with me mostly sleeping at the back and the two taking photos when I had my mouth open. Haha.)… the new friends I made along the way… the experience was trully wonderful and one that I will never forget.

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Sta. Fe Beach Club: Philippines 🌏

These are some photos that I took while we were in the resort that we stayed in on a trip to Bantayan Island Cebu, Phillipines. It had been three long years that I wasn’t able to spend time with my family so when I went back home ( finally ) for a two week vacation, I thought it a good idea to go on a short out of town trip with them.

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There are a lot of resorts beside the beach to choose from in Bantayan Island. I had been to a couple of them way back when I was still in highschool and early college. Generally all resorts are good and most of them are just dotted right beside the shore. I ended up choosing Sta. Fe Beach club for us to stay in just because I haven’t been before and their room rates were well within my budget.

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We were there during non-peak season and we arrived on a Friday so we pretty much had the resort to ourselves on our very first day. ( Peak season is during summer time, around March to May or during Holy Week which coincides with the annual fiesta in Bantayan Island. There are a bit more people during the weekends as well. )

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We rented out three rooms during our stay. One of them was right in front of the shoreline exactly where I stood while taking this photo.

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That’s our room right there, included in the photo 🙂

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The second one a bit to the back. That’s the one right behind the coconut tree 🙂

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Our third room was on the second floor of this building. The first floor is the dining area for all guests. For photos of the inside of the rooms and their rates click here: http://www.stafebeach.com/rooms.html

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You can see local fishermen dock their boats early in the morning just to the side of the resort.

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A panorama shot that I was able to take one late afternoon when the tide was very low.

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Another panorama shot taken during sunset. That’s my brother sitting in one of the chairs. Hehe 😀

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Sta. Fe beach club is no fancy hotel type or waterpark themed resort. It’s small and modest BUT because of that, it makes it really ideal if you’re looking for some quite downtime from all the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We had a nice, fun, relaxing time during our stay here. I’ve always been a beach girl and so three days of sun, sand and sea really lifted up my spirits and made my soul very happy!

P.S. This is NOT a paid write up but just wanted to share our experience during our stay. If you do end up coming here, I hope you have as much of a good time as we did. xoxo

 

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Staglands Wildlife Reserve NZ

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Deer running down the hill for feed time — Staglands Wildlife Reserve

It was the Queen’s birthday long weekend and we ( me, my boyfriend and our close friend and flatmate) were thinking up stuff to do as we had another friend who was visiting us from out of town. I had been to Staglands Wildlife Reserve before and had enjoyed the experience so I brought that up with them as they haven’t been there yet and they all agreed to check it out.

On the day that we went, it took us about an hour by car from Wellington CBD to get to the reserve and we had to pass through some really windy and narrow (and a bit risky in my opinion) roads to get there… but the drive was worth it.

We payed 20NZD each to enter the reserve and we also bought a bag of Animal food for 2.50NZD. For more details on pricing, click this link: http://www.staglands.co.nz/wellington-attractions/hours-prices

The lovely lady at the counter also gave us a map of the place before we went in so that it was easier to walk our way through the reserve.

The first spot on the map just behind the entrance way was the picnic area. Here we could already see some ducks, geese and peacocks just milling around. We fed the ducks and geese some food and then continued on our way.

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We then passed by some swans — they reminded me of the Ugly Duckling story. There were also black swans in another section of the reserve but I was just not able to take any photos of them. They’re quite more mean too those black ones. Ha.

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There is a section in the reserve where the Kune Kune pigs are. The big ones are inside an enclosure… but we found some baby kune kune pigs just walking around freely.

This is a photo of our friend with one of the baby pigs.

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This one is a photo of me 2 years earlier with some baby kune kune pigs as well during my first visit to Staglands.

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Another old photo of me at the stables 🙂

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Across the barn area of the reserve is this beautiful view… ❤ The barn area is where people can have picnics and use the bbq during summer time.

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Another highlight of Staglands is their trout pool which has both the brown and rainbow trouts.

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The fishes here are HUGE!!!

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Staglands also has different Aviaries spread out around the area where you can get to see birds of different kinds. Just like these ones at the bottom!

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And then… there’s the SECRET GARDEN, which is one of my favorite spots here. It just feels a bit like you’re entering a different world when you’re in here.

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There are some pretty cute bunnies in here too!

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We also had a bit of fun in the Old Bush Settlement where you get to see and experience how people lived in the past.

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This is me and the boyfriend playing around with some stuff :p

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And at the end… is the croft and the deer park.

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This little cow over here is a darling… cuddles up to you to get some food! Haha!

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The deer were freely roaming around in the deer park. They were quite shy animals though and generally moved away when we tried get quite close.

Within the deer farm, we noticed that there was a little path where we can hike up the hill a little bit. We went up there to get a little bit closer to the deer who were up the hill and also to have a good view of the ground below just like the photo at the bottom!

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Finding Inspiration

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Have been feeling a bit stressed and worn down by everyday life as of late that on some days I feel like I’m just dragging myself along merely to exist. Looking at this photo seems to give me a bit of temporary peace and has made me reflect that I should be grateful for all that I have and for all that I am right at this very moment.

*Photo taken in Mt. Victoria, Wellington NZ

Wellington Waterfront: Day and Night

I was browsing through old photos for my next blog post when I stumbled upon these and thought that I would post them instead.

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These are photos that I took from the viewing deck of Te Papa Museum Wellington. They’re not the best of quality as I only took them with my Iphone at the time but I just find it amusing that I was able to take a “day photo” and an “evening photo” of more or less the same angle on totally different days without even realizing until now. I guess that just shows how much I like coming here!

The viewing deck is located on the top most floor of the museum. Go to the lifts located near the information area and then head up to the sixth floor. When you go out the glass doors, you will be greeted with a fantastic view of the waterfront.

This place is one of my few favorite spots here in Wellington. The view from up here is beautiful and whenever I’m showing a friend around who’s in the city for the first time, I always bring them up here when doing the mandatory trip to Te Papa Museum.

What about you? Any special spots in your city you want to share?😊