Nikoi Island, Indonesia

First off, let me just say that this place was AMAZING in every way and you really don’t need to know much except that you will need to book months in advance because alot of other people apparently know how awesome it is too. I would say it’s a little pricey but for a special occasion, it’s definitely worth it.

My cousin, Alicia, and I went to Nikoi for two nights and almost 3 days – Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon. It was a perfect amount of time and we just couldn’t get over how beautiful and relaxing it was. The owners have done a knock out job of creating an eco-friendly, peaceful, 5 star, luxurious camping type experience. Everything is open air but covered. The food was delicious and the staff was incredibly friendly and on the ready to take care of anything you need. The “huts” were all right on the beach so you get a cool breeze and the relaxing sound of ocean waves to put you to sleep at night – or during the day.

So now that you’ve made your reservations, you have made them right???, plan to pack light. You can easily live in your swimsuit and the atmosphere is very casual. There’s no shopping on Nikoi and the food is all prepared for you so you really don’t need much.

From Singapore, you ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Bintan and then take about an hour car drive (set up by Nikoi) to the Nikoi private dock and a 15 minute fast boat ride later you are there. You make your own ferry reservations but the link is on the Nikoi website. The Nikoi staff set up the other arrangements.

Q.B. Foods Showroom Closed

Update: We have since placed an order online (well via email since their website was down) and all went pretty well. Since we ordered ice cream, my husband stopped by to pick up our order after work. This way the ice cream would not melt if we weren’t first on the route. It worked out and we have enjoyed having a freezer full of beef once again. And salmon. And ice cream.

I just received an email from QB Foods, since I’m a “valued customer” and all…  and this news just makes me so sad. I’ve written before about QB and what a great place it is for wholesale priced meat and more fresh than what we probably get in the grocery stores. At least we can still order online. I just like to see, touch and smell my meat before I buy so I’m not sure about how the ordering online thing will work for me. I guess the URA didn’t realize how much we enjoyed eating those delicious hunks of beef we got there. I’m sure if they’d known it would have made a difference. Oh well. It’s too late I suppose. 

Dear Valued Customers,
 
Effective immediately, our showroom will be closed from the public due to URA regulations.
 
For future purchases, you can visit our website @ www.qbfood.com.sg to place your order.  For internet purchases we offer the options of self-collection at our premises OR free delivery for purchases valued at SGD$200 and above.
 
For further clarifications, you can call our office at +65 62616120.
 
We thank you for your continued support,
Q. B. Food Trading Pte Ltd

Ho Ho Ho? or Ha Ha Ha?

Anna and I met some friends at Tanglin Mall today for lunch. We saw this in a store front and I literally laughed out loud and immediately dug out my camera. Remember where we live…..

The Tanglin Mall and the Orchard Road Christmas Elves are wasting no time this year trying to get us in the spirit of Christmas. Decorations are already going up along the streets. It’s October 20th! Maybe they start earlier because it might take a little longer for us to get in the holiday mood with 90F heat and 75-100% humidity. Nah….. I’m sure it’s all about cash flow.

November “To Do” List

After getting back from our summer Texas trip in late August, the Stunz house has been a whirlwind of activity. I’ve spent most of my September getting into the homeschool routine and trying to get used to this lifestyle again of not having much “me” time. Although, I’m thoroughly enjoying my time with Anna!. We’ve also done a bit of traveling. So far, a weekend in Malaysia and a week in New Zealand. Tomorrow, I leave for Nikoi Island with my cousin, Alicia, and then on Monday, Anna, Alicia and I head to Vietnam for a few days. So that pretty much takes care of October. It’s crazy how the months just disappear.

There are some things on my list that I have wanted to get out and do for weeks or even months now but I suppose they will have to wait until November. So, aside from my normal daily activities like cooking, cleaning, homeschooling and such, here is my November “To Do” list. If anyone would like to join me, let me know.

Try to get “the girls” together for a lunch date. It’s been too long.

Go to Arab Street and buy some gorgeous fabric. I want to have a skirt made and maybe a pair of slacks and a top.

Eat some good hummus and flat bread while there.

Go to Little India to a tailor that I hear good things about to have the above made.

Eat lunch at Komala’s while there.

Start and finish our photo trip book for Sibu and New Zealand and Tori’s Beijing trip.

Go to Pottery Jungle. Several of my friends have been there and I want to go.

Go to Just Anthony‘s furniture store. I’m looking for a buffet/storage/serving cabinet to match our dining table.

Go to the URA bldg. I’ve been wanting to go here for a year. I’m going in November.

Clear out closets and organize paper piles. We have too much unnecessary stuff!

Paint some of the walls in my house. We need some color in this place! The all white everything is starting to really drive me crazy.

Clean out my “wanna be” herb garden. The lemon grass and rosemary are doing ok but the rest looks pretty sad. I might try again but I can get what I need at the market for dirt cheap (no pun intended) and not have to worry about keeping it alive.

Do some online Christmas shopping. Pretty much everyone on our list is getting something very thoughtful from Amazon.com this year since we’re going home for Christmas and will only arrive a few days before. No one in our family needs anything else from Singapore so we won’t be taking much back, if anything, from here.

And then of course, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. YAY!! My favorite holiday. Not about gifts or materialism and all about being thankful to God for His provisions and spending time with family, friends and eating good food. AND!!! I get to start playing Christmas music. Yipee!!!

So this about takes care of November. Then it will be December and almost time to go to our heart home in South Texas. Can 2011 really be this close? Insane!

New Zealand – Part 4

Part 1 - overview

Part 2 - memorable moments

Part 3 - just photos

Part 4 – details, details, details.

In this post, I will list the particulars of where we stayed, ate and such in case anyone wants to copy us. It was certainly worth copying.

We flew straight from Singapore to Christchurch on Singapore Air, a little over 10 hours flight time. The flight to NZ was overnight which was good. That time flew by. Coming back was a day time flight and seemed to take forever. Might have been because we didn’t want to leave.  We chose Sing Air since it was the only direct flight option. All cheaper options go through Australia and you end up dealing with potentially long layovers. Somethings are worth a little extra change.

We rented a Toyota Highlander from Budget. We had unlimited miles, thank goodness, and took it back with a full tank of gas and a couple of inches of dirt outside and layer of cheerio crumbs inside. They didn’t seem to mind at all. Driving on the roads in NZ is like in Singapore. Driver on the right, car on the left but the roads are very open and we had no problems navigating our way around using maps. There was no shortage of places to stop for “rest” breaks and snacks along the way.

These are the places we stayed. We had no complaints and would not have done anything differently. Locations were terrific, we thought the prices were and accommodations were a good fit for our family.

Night 1  – The Hermitage, Mt. Cook

Night 2 -4 – Crowne Plaza, Queenstown

Night 5 - Alpine Glacier Motel, Franz Josef

Night 6 – 7 – Grand Chancellor, Christchurch (we used some points we had to “pay” for this one)

Here’s the rundown on the ground we covered each day.

Day 1 – Christchurch to Mt. Cook. Stopped for lunch in Ashburton and frequent photo ops and drove through to Mt. Cook.

Day 2 – Mt. Cook to Queenstown. Stopped for lunch in Cromwell and visited three wineries, the Big Picture, Gippston Valley and Chard Farm. Then we stopped for a quick walk through Arrowtown and to get pictures of the place where Jakeb is going to live one day. Then a short drive left to Queenstown.

Day 3 – We hung out and enjoyed Queenstown.

Day 4 – Left at 5am to head to Milford Sound for a 3 hour cruise through the sound. Lunch in Te Anau and then back to Queenstown in time for dinner at the Speights Ale House.

Day 5 – Headed out to drive up the West Coast. Stopped off again for an early lunch in Arrowtown  and to see the river that was in one of the scenes in Lord of the Rings and a scenic drive down Crown Range Rd. We drove past more beauty than we could believe and stopped often for sight-seeing and photos before calling it a night in Franz Josef.

Day 6 – After breakfast we left Franz Josef and headed to Arthur’s Pass for lunch at the Wobbly Kea and then on to Christchurch.

Day 7 – Spent a wonderful day Christchurch.

Day 8 – Left at 8am for the airport.

Tips:

Tommy’s – Don’t speed

Andrea’s – Copy us on this trip, it was perfect.

General – Eat Venison Pie, drink a Long Black (like a Starbucks Americano) or a Mochaccino, enjoy some kiwi fudge and chocolate marshmallow fish (shape), be ok with stopping and taking time to walk around. We really enjoyed the spontaneity of this trip and our “driver” was just great about finding a place to pull over for the photographer junkies in the family.

I guess I’ll add here that one thing that surprised us was the cost of our meals. Since we live in Singapore, we had committed to not eating Asian food while in NZ which was not a problem except that the “local” food is salmon, steaks and such and a little more expensive than Asian food. It was worth it but the meals cost us more than we’d planned on. Also, our “kid” who is no longer eats like a “kid”  orders from the adult menu now so that is something we’ll have to get used to from now on. The guy in the restaurant in Franz Josef asked her if she had a hollow leg.

Who knows if we’ll make it back to New Zealand or not. I sure hope we do but we lived out this trip as if it would be our only one. It’s not so easy to get to New Zealand from the US, it’s like the other side of the world. But if you can make it work, it’s definitely worth it. We hope to go to the North Island but we would do this same trip again in a heartbeat. Maybe in the winter time though. I would love to see all of those mountains covered in snow.

New Zealand – Part 3

Part 1 – overview

Part 2 - memorable moments

Part 3 – just photos….. I think I’ve used enough words already.

 (I’m pretty sure that you can click on the image to enlarge it.)

So one more “part” to come, I think.

New Zealand Part 2

Part 1

Memorable moments…… There were more than I could post here but the highlights that I have photos for are here below. Here are a few photoless memorable moments for you, though.

* The word “warning” spoken by a passenger on a road trip in a confined space causes an immediate and simultaneous opening of all four windows. I will not name names but it wasn’t me.

* We found a great way to listen to music and keep everyone happy. With everyone having ipods now, we went around in a circle and took turns choosing songs. Worked out great and my kids now know that their mother is cool and listens to awesome music!

* Rocks from the Tasman Sea do make it through customs. They are also a free souvenier.

* Taking naps on the road in NZ is near impossible for fear you might miss something beautiful.

* Two pairs of jeans can get you through 7 days – in cold weather. Would never happen in Singapore for sure. Would not likely be wearing jeans in Singapore to begin with.

* Being woken up by a strong earthquake aftershock in a rocking and swaying 24th floor hotel room is zero fun and makes for an almost sleepless night.

* When spoken with a New Zealand accent, 2410 (twenty four ten) sounds just like 2014 (twenty fourteen). Luckily it was printed on the room key.

* Kiwi’s know how to make some good Pinot Noir.

Now for my pick of the top photo memories from each town we hung out in. It’s a hard choice, though, because there were so many great memories!

Ashburton – Smoked Salmon Omelet

Lake Tekapo – beautiful old church, Church of the Good Shepherd. We actually witnessed a wedding taking place there.

Mt. Cook – imagine eating dinner by a fireplace with this view!!!

Cromwell – Wineries and vineyards were plentiful. The owner of this one, Phil, was super friendly and makes some pretty decent Pinot Noir, IWI.

Arrowtown – one of our top favorite places. A beautiful small town with some Lord of the Rings history. Arrowtown gets two pics cause it was one of the highlight towns of our trip.

We all resisted the urge to lick our plates after this lunch. It was SOOO good! This was my salmon steak with salad.

This river was in one of the scenes from Lord of the Rings.

Queenstown – we loved this town as well and spent three nights there. It’s a beautiful city full of things to do for adrenaline junkies and the shoppers and hot chocolate drinkers that come with them. Our hotel is down there somewhere.

 

Milford Sound - This place gave me a similar feeling as when we climbed all over the Great Wall of China. What a once in a lifetime experience and incredible blessing to see God’s amazing creation!

The captain of the boat drove us into a waterfall and they filled glasses with water for everyone. It was cold and delicious and definitely a highlight.

Te Anau – after Milford Sound, we stopped here and ate lunch. Deer wrapped in dough, aka venison pies, by the lake. It doesn’t get much better than that!

 

Tasman Sea (not a town but I think an ocean should qualify to make the list)

Fox Glacier – one of the many places in New Zealand we skipped rocks.

Franz Josef – a couple of good meals, a good bed and really friendly people.

Arthur’s Pass – we went through this town specifically to eat at the Wobbly Kea. It was worth it!

Christchurch – an evening and a day in this great place. So much activity going on here. Both above ground and underground. Never a dull moment in the city square and the aftershocks from the September 4th earthquake were still very active.

Mr. Codley got his bum washed on this day. Even statues need a bath.

“I am the master of the world!!!”

Tommy, aka Mr. Texas, was chosen to be part of this show by Mullet Man.

We had lousy internet, and pricey, during our entire journey. I guess New Zealanders have better things to do in the beautiful outdoors than to be concerned with quality internet. Once we got to Christchurch, we were finally able to Skype with Tori back in Texas for about 10 minutes for a cost of $30 NZD. it was worth it. We missed her, as we always do, but we really wish she could have taken this trip with us. We’re just better as the Stunz Family 5. We thought it was ironic that she and Tommy both had on their Kathmandu shirts so we had to get a photo. In this moment, we connected Texas, New Zealand and Nepal, probably our three most favorite places in the world. So far…

Not sure what the Part 3 will be but I know there’s more to share so stay tuned.

New Zealand Part 1

I have no idea how many “parts” there will be to this New Zealand trip. Maybe only one. I’m shootin’ from the hip here so we’ll see what happens….

The trip was more than amazing!! We had more “wow!” and “stop here!” moments than we could count. New Zealand is an incredibly gorgeous country and we are so blessed to have been able to experience it, even if just the South Island. God certainly outdid himself when He put New Zealand together.

We spent 7 full days in the South Island and left on the morning of the 8th to return to Singapore. We crammed as much in as we possibly could which is how we roll but we still savored every moment and breathed in every breath of cool Spring air. We left exhausted but wanting more. I think that’s a perfect way to end a vacation. 

We landed on a Saturday morning in Christchurch and immediately got in our rental car and hit the road. Christchurch would be our final destination so knowing we would spend the last few days here, we didn’t waste any time heading out on the open road.

We headed for Mt. Cook for our first night’s stay. This is the only reservation we had made in advance. All other places we just waited to see where we ended up. You can do that when you visit a country that speaks your language and the people are friendly. We stopped off for lunch at a quaint cafe and gift shop in Ashburton and just drove down the streets and highways wide eyed trying to soak it all in. We felt at home. Not like we feel at home in Texas but like it was a place where we felt like we belonged, where we fit in. Our souls were content as was our skin. It was cold and we were loving every second of the break from Singapore’s typical oppressive heat and humidity. Our skin, however, was chapped and dry by the end of the trip so it was looking forward to getting back to the humidity. My taste buds were particularly happy after finding REAL Diet Coke, not Coke Light or Coke Zero, and really good strong coffee.

Our New Zealand road trip pretty much took us through and around the lower 2/3rds of the South Island. We sort of made an unusual shaped circle from Christchurch to Christchurch stopping of in places like Ashburton, Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Cromwell, Arrowtown, Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Tasman Sea (not a town but I think an ocean should qualify to make the list), Fox Glacier, Franz Josef, Arthur’s Pass and back to Christchurch. I can highly recommend ALL of them and there is at least one unique memory that we took away from each of these places. We didn’t stop in Twizel Town but if we go back we’re definitely going to have to. I just loved that name! Twizel Town. So fun!! I’m sure there’s a carnival or something exciting there and they serve fried Twizel sticks and they have Twizel eating contests and Twizel clowns. It just has that strangely fun Johnny Dep feeling to it, don’t you think?

Ok, so I think Part 2 will be a photo post of one or two unique memories from each town we stopped in. Yep, that will work. I’ll go work on that right after I eat a bite of kiwi fudge that we brought back.

New Zealand Itinerary

- maxi cab picks up at our door at 4:45pm TODAY!!

- land in Christchurch, NZ after a 10 hour flight and a time difference on Saturday morning  …put on our jackets

- pick up our rental car  …I think we have a classy station wagon waiting for us.

- drive in dazed wonder through mountains and by lakes to The Hermitage, a lodge at the base of Mt. Cook

- drink good coffee for pleasure and the purpose of warming us up. ahhh…….

- enjoy a wonderful, relaxing dinner with a gorgeous mountain view and then sleep in winter pj’s with the heater on!

- drive to Queenstown, stopping wherever the wind blows along the way

- hopefully stop off at a vineyard/winery or two or three. This one, Akarua, looks like a good one.

- continue our journey to Milford Sound

- take a day cruise through the Milford Sound

- turn around and make our way back to Christchurch stopping wherever our hearts desire

- head back to Singapore on Saturday after a week of some great Stunz Family 4 memories, glorious cool weather and breathtaking mountain views.

- post pictures and blog posts

It’s sure to be a spectacular and unforgettable trip of a lifetime. Not perfect, though, since Tori is not with us. Would someone please invent that time travel machine already!!??!!

What do you want?

That phrase can mean so many different things depending how the tone of your voice and to whom you are saying it to, huh?

This time, though, it simply means “what do we want from the U.S.?”. When we go home we stock up. It’s always fun to talk to others who go to their homes to see what they have on their shopping list. My list is a little different each time depending on what we’re out of and what we’ve been fortunate to find since our last trip home.

My cousin is coming next week from Dallas to visit and do some traveling. She told me she’s only bringing one suitcase for herself and the other checked bag was mine. 50 whole pounds of American goodness heading our way. THANK YOU, ALICIA!!! AND TORI, for putting it all together for us. We just got back from our summer trip not too long ago so there’s not much that we really need but I’m certainly not wasting the opportunity.

We can get pretty much whatever we need and alot that we want here but if it’s something from the U.S., it’s about triple the price if not more. But believe me, we’re surviving just fine and have managed to find some things here that we’re definitely going to miss when we move back to the U.S.

So, headed our way will be these items:
Some books that I had to leave behind last trip because our luggage seriously exceeded the weight limit.
A sports watch for Anna. $30 in the U.S. and $115 SGD here. No brainer.
Fall/Halloween candies. I can find some of our favorites or a suitable replacement here but again, triple the price if not more.
Powdered coffee cream – holiday flavors
A couple big bags of pecan halves
iTunes cards
4 cans of those crunchy onions that go on top of green bean casserole
Stash Green Tea
Peach Tea mix
Fiesta brand fajita seasoning
Coffee beans (Sumatra, Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.)
Dark chocolate peanut m&m’s x 2 or 3 – this is just to satisfy a craving. Singapore has no shortage of good chocolates.
Movies – The Prestige and any others that Tori thought we might “need”
Fritos – WHY can we not find Frito’s here????? That baffles me.
Games that I ordered online and wouldn’t ship to Singapore
Mosquito Spray
Bounty Papertowels – these were for stuffing mostly. This is my favorite sweat rag. They are $6/roll here so this just saves us a few bucks.

The things that we cannot get here that we really miss when we run out are:
Some of the candies and snacks that transport us back home.
Good coffee beans are always on the top of our shopping list when we go home. We prefer Medium Roast from Land of a Thousand Hills and Guatemala Fair Trade from HEB Central Market in case you wanted to know.
iTunes cards – I know we could pay with a cc but we’d get carried away and go broke.
Gebhardts Chili Powder – Chili powder is different over here. Gebhardts might be available but we haven’t found it yet. No Gebhardts means no enchiladas. And that is a sad day indeed.

We are often asked what we’d like in a care package. That’s really sooo sweet and of course, we’ll not refuse it if you must. But it’s so darn expensive to mail anything over here and we really are surviving just fine. I do not mean to sound ungrateful, but so much more good could be done with $50-$100 that would literally help people survive one more day as opposed to sending us candy or coffee or whatever.

On the other hand, if you’re coming to Singapore and you have some spare cargo space, please refer to the list above. My motto when we travel back to Singapore from the US is “I will not waste an ounce or an inch!”. And believe me, we don’t. And sometimes we pay more for extra ounces and inches.