Home Again

The next stop on our journey took us to Dunedin.  This was by far my favorite city on the South Island.  We got into town early so we filled up the rest of our day with two tours. The first of these tours being a self-guided tour of the Lancaster Castle.  The history of the castle is a very depressing one but the castle itself was pretty cool. Googling the castle will bring up the torrid history as well as the haunted stories that people have experienced "paranormal activity".  I felt no chills and saw no specters so it must have been the ghost's day off. It was smaller than I was anticipating but the gardens were spectacular as well as the view.  I didn't take many pictures inside of the castle due to poor lighting (and I could have used my flash but we weren't supposed to even be taking pictures so I was being a rebel as it was).

There's a lot of pictures of flowers on request for Mom.  She's thinking about possibly using some of my photographs for decorating her house.  

The next tour we went on was a brewery tour of Speights brewery.  It was a quick but interesting tour where we met fellow Coloradean's who were living in Dunedin at the moment.  

The next day was our first full day of sunshine and no chance of rain.  So we drove up to Timaru and spent a few hours trying to soak up all the rays we could get on the beach.  The plan was to do two days of beach time and the weather was nice the next day but pretty cloudy.  So we skipped the beach and drove up to Akaroa, which was a cute little town that was sold out of every hotel room in the entire town (we we're hoping for a bed since Mom was having some back troubles).  So we camped again and walked down into town to enjoy poking through a few shops and eating dinner down by the water. The view from our campsite was the best of the whole trip by far. 

The next day, we drove up to Christchurch to spend our last two days there.  The first of these two days we went to the mall for some shopping, pedicures, and a movie. The movie we went to was August: Osage County which if you like a movie that doesn't happily end and you get no closure then this might be the movie for you, otherwise save yourself the $12. 

The next day, for our last day in Christchurch, we went to the city centre to a little shopping area that had been put together after the earthquake.  The shopping area was right in the middle of the earthquake damaged buildings but was made entirely of shipping containers.  I wished I had brought my camera because they did quite a nice job with the whole shipping container idea.  So after wandering around that area for a little bit we headed back to the hotel and did last minute laundry and cleaned out the camper van.  

And that's really the end of the journey.  A full day of traveling later and we were back into Denver just in time for the NFL Playoff madness that is happening.  The trip went by so fast I feel like I never left but honestly it was my favorite trip I have ever taken.  Every moment, even the riding in the car from point A to point B, was breath taking.  I can now watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies and recognize the landscapes.  It was spectacular and I can easily see myself going back again someday.  

Last year at the end of our Australia trip, I knew that New Zealand was in my future.  Now I end this blog with no plans of travel but every intent to travel the world more.  Who knows where life's going to take me next but I can't say I'm too afraid of the journey to get there. Goodbye Middle Earth, until next time...

Where Did The Time Go?

January 2nd-  The plan for the day was to go on a Lord of the Rings horseback riding tour in Glenorchy.  Our tour got canceled due to rain (much to Mom's disappointment since she really wanted to do a horse riding tour).  So instead we went on a 4X4 off roading tour that went to a few Lord of the Rings locations.  The tour was okay.  It didn't have much to do with Lord of the Rings but the off roading bits were fun and our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the area and how the landscape was formed.  She wasn't very knowledgeable about Lord of the Rings however.

Here was where they filmed for the pillars of the kings scene from the Fellowship of the Ring.  The fellowship paddled down this river and then they later added in the big statues on either side of the river. 

Here we have the Remarkable Mountains.  They were used in the background for a lot of the Rohan scenes.  The area that they filmed on though has been closed to the public for a few years now though so we didn't get to see that. 

Overall not a bad tour, just not great or fantastic like the others. 

The next day, January 3rd, we planned on catching a jet boat tour before leaving Queenstown and heading toward Milford Sound.  As it turns out, the rain struck again! The tour was delayed so we decided to pack up and head out to our next destination Te Anau.  Once we got there, we learned that there was a jet boat tour that operated in the area so we booked that and it (surprise) went to a few Lord of the Rings locations. The tour was fun (we love boats so we're biased) and did a few donuts but other than that it was a pretty mellow and fun ride up the river and to the lake. 

The birds were chasing a hawk out of their territory.  The tour guide said he had never seen them that riled up before. 

Here was where the filmed the canoeing down the river in the Fellowship of the Ring where the orcs are chasing them.  This part leads into the pillars of the kings part of the scene so obviously two very different rivers. 

Also we got our own personal tour since no one else felt like braving the rain.  It wasn't a downpour but more like a sprinkle. 

So, today we drove from Te Anau and headed up to Milford Sound to go on our cruise.  The weather was cooperating (for once) and due to the heavy rainfall in the past few days there were hundreds of waterfalls.  I won't upload all the pictures since there are so many but here's a few of the favorites. 

This would have been a great pictures if the damn tourists would have gotten out of the way.  I find myself disliking tourists when I'm trying to take pictures. 

Both of the pictures above were taken on the drive into Milford Sound.

This lovely picture was taken on the boat.  Photo Credit goes to Mom using my camera while I was getting us food. So proud. 

The above two pictures are ones that I took of the wind effecting the waterfalls.  In the bottom one, the wind was strong enough that the water never made it to the ground.  It simply drifted away. 

Last year on our trip to Australia, I got to swim with Australian fur seals and fell in love.  I think they are some of the cutest animals to inhabit our planet.  My love for them didn't change upon seeing them again.  These guys are New Zealand fur seals and they don't get much bigger than this.  So smaller than the Australian ones and we all know what that means...they will always be in the cute puppy stage. 

This last one was taken at a viewpoint on the way out.  The picture doesn't do the scenery justice.  It was spectacular.  

It's hard to believe that there's only five more days left on our trip.  I'm sure we will make the most of them.  Stay tuned for more. 

Welcome to 2014!

December 31st was spent hiking (or tramping as they call it down here) to two different areas.  The first was the hike to the Franz Josef glacier.  Since it was my first time seeing a glacier, I was pretty impressed even though you couldn't really go near it without a guide.  What amazed me the most though was the dramatic change in landscapes.  If you turned your back to the glacier and looked out at the valley you saw this view.

Lush greenery and forest areas were the view all around and then you turned the other way and wham-o! 

You had a glacier.  I think that's been the most impressive part of New Zealand to me thus far is the fact that no matter where you are, you can look 360 degrees around you and everything is spectacular.  There's thousands of pictures opportunities and I don't know where to even start or point my camera half of the time because it's so incredible.  This valley in particular was filled with waterfalls.  Some big and some small but there were so many of them you loose count eventually. Here was one of the more impressive ones.

 After Franz Josef we drove south towards our camping destination at Wanaka but stopped for another small hike down to Monro Beach.  It's an area where if you come at the right time of day you can see penguins and seals.  Alas we were not there at the right time of day but the beach was stunningly beautiful and the hike was pretty amazing as well.  The sandflies are not amazing though. 

These guys were along the hiking trail.  There weren't very many of them though so you had to be paying close attention otherwise you would have missed them.

So we left Monro beach and finished the drive to Wanaka.  Apparently this was a big party area for New Years but we were camped too far out of town to check it out.  So we hung out and played cards and rang in the New Years by just hanging out.

So today, January 1st, we woke up late and made the drive down to Queenstown. The drive there was amazing and the roads were just lined with thousands of wildflowers.  It was so amazing we had to stop and take pictures.

 A pretty amazing start to 2014 if I don't say so myself.  Let's make it an amazing year everyone. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Bear With Me This Is A Long One....

Okay so time to play catch up again. 

December 27th- We had planned to hike part of the all day Tongariro Alpine Crossing but woke up to rain.  Deciding that would not be very fun we decided to drive down to Wellington instead.  So we only got to see Mt. Doom from afar and I did not take pictures before we drove past since we were planning on hiking by it. So upon getting down to Wellington the rain had not let up and we decided to get a room instead of spending 10 hours or so sitting in our van.  So we relaxed and did not much of anything. 

December 28th- This was the day that we went on an all day Ultimate Movie tour.  From 10 AM to 6:30 PM we drove around the Wellington area and saw all the local Lord of the Rings locations while getting information about facts about the locations and filming in the location.  None of the sets still exist but the tour guides had pictures from the scenes to help our imaginations a bit. What was amazing to me was the amount of work that went into protecting the environment and ensuring it was exactly the same as they found it. They also had some props for people to pose and re-create the famous scenes.

So here is the quarry where the sets on Helms Deep and Minas Tirith were built.  We weren't allowed inside but really this was all there was to see anyway since the valley has filled in mostly since filming took place almost 14 years ago now. 

Here at a local park is where they filmed the scenes of Isengard.  In this one there built the path way in this field and had Gandalf's stunt rider ride up to this blue wall which is where they later placed the Isengard tower there. 

And here was our Isengard gardens.  The park bench was made into a CG bush and here was our first scene recreated. 

So the Hutt River is where the filmed the second half of the scene where Aragorn washes ashore in the Two Towers.  The first half of the scene was filmed on the South Island and then they imported a bunch of sand and picked up the scene from the river bank.  One thing that I'll have to look for the next time I watch the Two Towers is the fact that the two rivers used flow in opposite directions.  The scene is being re-created above with one person playing Aragorn and the other his horse. They were both good sports about it. 

It was during this area that I got distracted by a bee.  New Zealand is well known for their honey and you can find it at almost every souvenir shop and along the side of the road you can see a lot of bee hive boxes. 

Next stop: Rivendell.  This was set in a national park.  The area was beautiful and hard to imagine a set being there.  This was because before filming, they came through and took photographs of the area and uprooted many plants to make a big enough clearing to build the set and film there.  They kept all the plants in a nearby greenhouse and once filming was done and the set was torn down they replaced all the plants back where they found them.  Pretty neat stuff.

This tree in the Rivendell forest was used for a promotional poster for Legolas as our Asian Legolas demonstrates here. 

And here's Mom on the swing bridge in the Rivendell forest area. 

Next we went to another National Park area where they filmed many things for the hobbits leaving the Shire in the Fellowship of the Ring.  Here is where they filmed the hobbits falling off a hill into a pile on the road. The scene was hilariously re-created but I never got a good picture because of the damn tourists in the way. 

In the same area is where they filmed the famous Nazgul trying to get the ring.  You'll have to imagine a large tree where they are hiding in the roots. 

And this hill in the same area is where they filmed the Nazgul on the hill as they are trying to get to the ferry.  Our recreation was three boys and they were all once again good sports as they stood on this hill in that position for a very long time. 

Next stop: The Weta Cave.  Now Weta is the company that did all the special effects and CG for the Lord of the Rings but they are now one of the biggest special effects companies in the world.  Their resume includes Avatar, King Kong, Man of Steel, The Avengers, The Chronicles of Narnia and the list goes on and on.  So their cave had some really cool stuff in it but alas it was very dark inside of there so most of my pictures were blurry so I chose to just post the better ones. 

That last picture was forced upon me due to our tour guide stealing my camera and forcing me to get into one of my pictures.  He was quite a funny guy and a good tour guide despite the torture he inflicted on his tourists. 

Also if anyone has a few hundred dollars laying around feel free to buy me Tauriel's bow and knives because they were awesome. 

After that we drove down to the Stone Street Studios, which is where all the in-studio stuff is shot.  I didn't take a picture because honestly it didn't look like anything but plain warehouses which was the point.  To anyone driving by they would have no idea that there were movies being filmed inside of those buildings.  It's more low key then Hollywood.  In fact they jokingly call Wellington Wellywood due to the fact more and more movies are being filmed here. 

So that was our all day tour of the Lord of the Rings areas around Wellington.  I had a blast as a super fan, can't really vouch for Mom who stuck it out and humored me. 

December 29th - Was the day we caught the ferry down to the South Island.  Our ferry was a four hour ride but there was a small theater on board so we watched the movie "Gravity".  It was quite good but very intense.  Once we landed in Picton we drove 3 1/2 hours down to our campsite in Westport.  We hung out and didn't really do too much since we were both tired from the early morning. 

December 30th (TODAY)- Okay so today we drove down the costal highway 6.  Which today it was quite rainy and stormy out on the sea but the drive was still breathtakingly beautiful.  We stopped at the pancake rocks which are these interesting rock formations that scientists cannot explain how they were formed. 

It was a nice little walk around and it was raining but not too badly but once we finished the track the skies opened up and it downpoured.  So we hightailed it out of there and drove to our next campsite in Franz Josef.  Tomorrow we check out the glaciers. Stay tuned for more!