NDBT

First up and most importantly – I’m ranked 47th out of 2119 in the fall box office challenge!!! I FUCKING ROCK!!!! I got 96th for last weekend. In my defense, I thought Awake was actually Jumper. Stupid one word Hayden Christensen movies. This is what happens when I’m not around US marketing campaigns. Also, I didn’t think Bee movie would drop off so much, or that Fred Claus would jump back up.

Right, so. Since leaving Franz Josef, lots has happened. I’ll do my best to remember it all. We continued down the west coast, which had tons of gorgeous scenery. We stopped at Lake Matheson, which is surrounded by hills, so it gets very little wind, and ends up with a perfect reflection. We also had a great shot of the mountains, including Mt. Cook before the day became overcast. We did a couple of short walks, including out to roaring Billy falls and the blue pools.

Most of the rivers and pools are a really beautiful light blue color because they come from glacial waters. The color comes from rock dust that’s been ground up by the glaciers and reflects the light differently.

That night we stayed at Makarora in Mount Aspiring National Park, which was right on a lake and surrounded by more mountains.

The next day we drove inland through the Southern alps. We passed lake Wanaka, which was gorgeous. Then we stopped at puzzling world in Wanaka. I did the world’s first 2 story maze and completed the whole thing in about 40 minutes!! Most of the group had to use an exit door to make it out in time. Puzzling world also had some tricky perspective rooms, a room with famous faces that seem to follow you, and lots of holographic pictures. It was kind of weird.

Then we stopped in Crawford, known for its fruit and its fruit ice cream. Yummm…. Finally, we stopped at the world’s first commercial bungy site while a few members of our bus tossed themselves off.

Spent the night in Queenstown. Got Fergburgers for dinner, which were very good for hamburgers, but I think I can honestly say I never need to eat another hamburger in my life. I just don’t really like them anymore and I’m happy to be going back to being veggie. Well, pescatarian for a little, then back to veggie.

Left super-early the next morning on a new bus to head to Milford Sound. The drive down to the sound was some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve ever been through. It was really, really gorgeous. We drove by lake Wakatipu and through the Homer tunnel, which is the steepest tunnel in the southern hemisphere. Then we did a cruise out through Milford sound, which was really amazing. It has one of the tallest sea cliffs in the world. And we saw a bunch of seals and a fjordland penguin! Then we passed Te Anau and drove to tuatapere. There, we visited a local sheep farm where we got to bottle feed lambs, watch sheep dogs at work, watch some shearing, and had dinner.

The next day we drove to Bluff where we caught the ferry to Stewart island. I saw an albatross on the way out. I went to Ulva island by myself in the afternoon, which is a bird sanctuary offshore. There I saw robins, tui, kaka (which are really pretty parrots), 2 species of parakeet, weak (flightless birds), oystercatchers, and a saddleback, which were reintroduced a few years ago after having gone locally extinct. I took about 3 hours walking around the island, which was very gorgeous.

The next day we caught the ferry back and drove through the Caitlin’s wilderness area. It was fairly uninhabited, but unfortunately most of the land had been cleared for sheep and deer grazing and it wasn’t very forested. We did stop at a few places for the local wildlife though, and I saw some seals, an elephant seal, and one yellow-eyed penguin, which is the rarest penguin in the world. Lots of pretty coastline.

We stayed that night in Dunedin, which is a very pretty Scottish town, largely inhabited by students. It had some great architecture. The rest of the day was spent getting back to Queenstown. Then yesterday we went from Queenstown back to Chch. We went over the Lindis Pass through to the MacKenzie country (a local sheep stealer). We also stopped in a little town with a local eccentric. I can’t really say more about that until after Christmas, as it involves a Christmas gift for someone. Then we stopped by Lake Tekapo, and finally back here! I’m staying at Vagabond again, and it’s been a very odd feeling of homecoming.

Today has been really lovely, albeit really hot and muggy. But it’s been great to be back in Chch. I had brunch at yellow rocket, wandered around the arts gallery, got a couple new books at Scorpio (I’ve been unable to start in on Middlemarch since finishing Owls do Cry, and they had 2 murder mysteries I’ve been wanting to read for ages. Ooh – and! The new Sue Grafton is out, but I’m resisting till I get home.) Hmmm… met up with Herdis and May. Wandered around. Got a mocha at the Java café. Uploaded photos! They’re here. Lots of really pretty ones.

That’s about it. I have to go do laundry. Here’s some linkspam I’ve collected over the last week or so;

First up, the SF Critics picks Assassination as best film.  I wonder if my vote influenced them at all?

This is amazing.

Inside the boston film critics vote.  My mom got to see the Diving Bell and the Butterfly presented by Julian Schnabel this week in Boston (jealous!!) Oh my god – the BFCS is having an awards ceremony. I want to go!!!

In Bruges trailer

Oh my god. I don’t want to watch too many film clips (I’d rather have most of the film be a surprise in the theatre) but these are awesome! Yay Johnny!

From Cleolinda;

Morgan and Butler Talk Watchmen.

What Would ‘Potter’ Have Been Like With Tim Roth As Snape?

L.A. Film Critics pick ‘There Will Be Blood’; NYFCO (New York Film Critics Online) Loves Blood; National Board of Review goes with ‘No Country for Old Men’ (Best Director: Tim Burton!); ‘Walk to Beautiful’ Beats ‘Sicko’ at Documentary Awards; Beowulf Eligible For Animation Oscar.

NYFCO’s Top 11 Pictures
1 Atonement (Focus Features)
2 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (THINKFilm)
3 The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight)
4 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)
5 I’m Not There (The Weinstein Company)
6 Juno (Fox Searchlight)
7 Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)
8 No Country for Old Men (Miramax)
9 Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics)
10 Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks)
11 There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)

[Ed; Ummm – need to make oscar spreadsheet now, mmmkay?]

 

NBR:

Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Top Ten Films:
(In alphabetical order)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bucket List
Into the Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Sweeney Todd

Top Ten Independent Films:
(In alphabetical order)
Away From Her
Great World of Sound
Honeydripper
In the Valley of Elah
A Mighty Heart
The Namesake
Once
The Savages
Starting Out in the Evening
Waitress

Hybrid Blanchett-Britney Monster Unleashed.

CineLive Debuts New Dark Knight, Iron Man Pics.

Lost Answers Offered. [Ed: Having such a hard time avoiding Heroes spoilers!!!]

musica; miseria cantare/ leaving song pt 2 (live at Hard Rock) – AFI, Do you wanna touch me (live Warped Tour) – Joan Jett, Cherry lips (remix) – Garbage, runaway – iio, concertina – Tori, lightning crashes – live, here’s to the nights – Eve 6, minor thing – RHCP, Pretender – Foo Fighters, oh my god – Mark ronson ft. Lily Allen

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.