I am back to town.

As much as I love traveling, there is still no place better than home.

I was back on Friday night and had a me-time for the past 2 days. Fiuhhh.... So good to be home.

Time for the report...

New Zealand is okay, at least the north island is.

I am not sure about South, but people always say the South is better which I think it's true.

My friend from Indonesia also went to NZ at the same time as me but he went to the South one and his pictures look amazing, not like mine ;p

Dammit!

The north one... hmm... what can I say? It's kinda boring.

Only few attractions, mostly are outdoor activities in which if you won't do it there is nothing much to do left. Not that I am not an outdoor person, it's just not the time. We did not go there aiming for the outdoor things; besides I have done skydiving before in Melbourne.

First, Auckland is just another city. I would like to say metropolitan city but it's not that metro as well.

It's big but the city is small. If you don't rent a car, you're screwed.

It's quiet, not that a lot of people (even) compared to Melbourne.

We visited Sky Tower which I admit the city view is amazing especially in sunset. But that's all about it!

We also went to Bay of Islands to see Hole in the Rock and 'dolphin' supposedly.

In fact, no dolphin which I was really really disappointed. The hole in the rock? Well..... for me it's not attractive at all.

The Hobbiton in Matamata is the nicest one of all places we visited in NZ.

At least it's unique, special and beautiful.

Rotorua and Wellington are even worse. There is not many things there.

Polynesian Spa and OGO in Rotorua are the only one I like.

I am sure NZ is popular for the view and nature but I did not see this in North Island.

Ohh... by the way, the food sucks and it's expensive too.

The food I had that I considered good in NZ was only the steak from The Grill by Sean Connolly in Auckland.

So, if you are going to NZ, make sure you go to the South instead of North and hope that you are outdoor activities person (ski, bungee jumping, skydive, rafting, diving, etc).

*PS: more pics in my Instagram

I am so sad sad sad and mad mad mad.

I don't know which one to blame, Indo or Aussie.

Okay, let me explain the problem here.

My boyfriend planned to come to Melbourne next week for holiday for about 7 - 10 days.

Well, Thanks to Australia Immigration in Jakarta that successfully ruined our sweet, short and romantic holiday plan.

They refused my bf's visa application. Yes, it is a Visitor Visa only.

Why? Because they said:

Did he provide all documents required? Yes.

Did I sponsor him? Yes, I did!

Does not make any difference apparently.

In my experience applying a Tourist Visa, you can actually explain or even give argument when something is not right. At least you can actually speak to the officer and go through the documents together and if they need additional documents to support the application then they will tell us and we will provide it happily. Apparently, this does not happen in Indonesia or for Australia Visa. Sighhhh! 

So once the decision has been made, it is a dead sentence, checkmate and we need to accept with open hands and minds. You can't even request for re-appeal?

Don't ask if we tried to contact the department or not. Many times! And only 1 person replied to our email, maybe there is only 1 person working as a support there. And as expected, the answer is not helpful at all, it's just like an automatic answer based on the template they agree on.

What happen now? No more holiday plan as he can just come here next week, not the week after, not next month or not even the next 2-3 months. Why? Because he needs to work and do his project in Indonesia. See, how sincere he is to go back to Indonesia? I wonder if this kind of issue happens to a lot of people or not.