Majority who made to national team is under the High Performance Training program at Singapore Gymnastics. More information on the selection trials can be found on its website. http://www.singaporegymnastics.org.sg/sg/

Am also curious about the quality of individual piano teaching at Edvox. Nearest branch will be Parkway Parade for us, would appreciate any information or review on its curriculum or teachers.

For NZ walking tracks, http://www.doc.govt.nz provides reliable information on length, time and difficulty.


Arthurs' Pass: You can stop wherever you please. There are picnic areas, the Arthur's Village and its surrounding walks.

You shall probably need about 3-4hr to traverse the Haast Pass with stopping at the following: Thunder Creek Falls (10min track), Gates of Hasst, Fantail Falls (roadside), Blue Pools Walk (30min return).

Duntroon is just a small farming town which houses the Vanished World Museum. Frankly, the stretch from Oamaru to Mt Cook is quite dull, except for some lakes.

1. Rotorua's Sulphur Smell - we didn't smell anything.

2. Rainbow Springs is undergoing Project Big Splash http://projectbigsplash.com/page/2/ which won't be ready until early 2012. When that opens, things should be different.

Fodor's Australia and Pacific Forum is great for information on NZ. Do take a look at it, I hope you find it useful.

Hi JR. If you have any specific question, I can help within my knowledge.

We have travelled with 2 children below 6 during the September holidays to Auckland - Rotorua - Tauranga. 6 years ago, we travelled around the South Island for our honeymoon. Both trips were self-drive. Soth Island trip, we stayed in hostels and cooked almost every night. For our recent trip, we stayed in self-contained motel units, and cooked our dinners too. Instant noodles and rice (available in small packs of 500g or 1kg, long-grained or basmati) are easy to find in supermarkets, as well soya sauce. Countdown supermarket has housebrand Asian condiments like oyster sauce. At the customs, we saw a family of Singaporeans with a rice cooker (packed/wrapped nicely in a box). They declared they have some rice in the rice cooker. The officer let them pass. Whatever you bring, just declare. They are strict but the list of consumables allowed into the country has expanded compared to years ago so it’s now ok to bring in bottled chilli sauce too. Note that they don’t have chilli sauce at their KFC or MacDonalds. Definite NO : dairy products and eggs.

We just came back from CH. We were in Ipoh, so we travelled up via Simpang-Pulai and returned down to Tapah.


Coming from Singapore, going by the Simpang-Pulai exit (new road) is a slightly longer drive but is wider and takes you to Kea Farm and Brinchang first. It may be faster than going from Tapah on a peak day since the Tapah road is narrow and winding so if you get stuck behind a slower vehicle (lorry), it is not easy to overtake. On our way down, we tailgated another Singapore car and a lorry for most of the journey but a few KL cars overtook us (3 vehicles 1 shot) at the slighest opportunity - they were damn fast, confident and very familiar with the turns. We departed Tanah Rata at 9.30am and reached Singapore 2nd link checkpoint at 5pm including a 40min lunch break and 2 toilet stops for the kids.

Stayed at Pines Century Resort at Tanah Rata (booked on agoda.com), duluxe room has a superking size bed just nice for 2 adults and 2 kids. Simple, clean hotel and nice view facing the open carpark. Nearby mosque broadcasts prayer in the early morning but is inaudible if the balcony doors are shut. There’s a trail that leads to the Parit Falls. It’s only 15min walk but certain parts of the path is covered with overgrown grass and quite difficult for young children. You can instead drive to the carpark near the falls, and from there is only a 5min walk (along the left hand side path). The bridge on the right will lead round behind the waterfalls and back onto the path - a much longer walk if you intend to erxercise a bit.

We were there on two weekdays, so the market was less busy and no pasar malam. There were some changes since our last trip 8 years ago, but the core activities remain very much the same. We picked a good tray of sweet strawberries at EQ (we later visited Big Strawberry and saw that the strawberries there were very small and mostly unripe). We know that the butterfly garden and bee farm are nothing spectacular, but what else is there to do?

We drove to the BOH plantation (road is just a turnoff opposite the Eee Feng bee farm), as mentioned it was winding and single lane … do honk as you navigate to warn oncoming vehicles around the bends. Reaching the plantation guardhouse, there is a left turnoff which leads to Mt Brinchang and the Mountain Strawberry Farm. It advertised farm animal petting but there’s only a handful of chickens, ducks and rabbits in cages. The fun part of this farm is that you get to harvest your own tomatoes (they have the typical tomatoes and cherry tomatoes), carrots and strawberries. They have also cabbages, long chinese cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli for sale - for these, the worker will cut for you.

Restaurants: We researched beforehand and remembered some names to avoid (they axe the tourists) - Fong Lum / Silverstar / Kowloon … if u are not sure, avoid the red tableclothed restaurants. We found Restoran Highlands- the original charcoal steamboat (RM16 per pax and a pot of tea RM5) at 36 Bandar Baru Brinchang, it’s on the row of shops behind Hotel Chua Gin/Silverstar. Other recommended steamboat restaurants include GoldenWin at Hotel Chua Gin and Mayflower.

We wanted to have 煮炒 at 友和 but they rest in the afternoon, so we went a few doors away to 真美园. Food is ok and price reasonable. I realised that in Ipoh and CH, they are better at cooking hor fun than noodles, so just order 滑蛋河 (egg horfun) and you can’t be wrong. Another recommended restaurant is 荣华 near Star Regency Hotel.

In Tanah Rata, there’s fewer restaurants and mostly Malay food.