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Ring Things

Monday, March 16th, 2009

NZ is not just the home of rugby and bungy jumping. It also has an alter ego as Middle Earth. I’ve received quite a few questions about what locations we’ve seen. Up until now it hasn’t been much with the exception of Mt. Doom.

Arriving in Queenstown, it’s not hard to understand why many sites in this area were chosen. After an exciting jet boat ride (we had to do some kind of touristy adventure activity!), we headed off to seek out some filming locations. We started in Glenorchy, where Eric spent a morning fishing in the shadows of the mountains that stood in for Isengard, minus the tower that was digitally inserted. Here’s the spot.

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Back in Qtown, there is a farm with goats, llamas, deer, and other exotic game that was the site of many of the scenes of Rohan. It’s on private property, but you can pay about US$10 per car to drive and walk through it. The most famous spot here is the rock where Aragorn plunged over while battling the Warg in the 2nd movie. Yes, I know how geeky this all sounds, but in my defense we were far from alone at these sites, so I’m not the only one.

The next stop was my favorite. We hiked up to the top of the Remarkables (a mountain range) Ski Field to the Dimrill Dale. This is the spot where, at the end of the 1st film, the fellowship is recovering from the shock the Gandalf’s death. Unlike many of the other places which were heavily altered with special effects, this one looks exactly like the movie. It’s beautiful and luckily we had some great weather too.

The final stop on the way out of town was near a bridge where they bungy jump. Just behind it is a river in a sharp gorge where the “Pillars of the Kings” would have been. You have to really use your imagination for that one.

There are quite a few other locations here, but in the words of our favorite wizard, “All you have to do is to decide what to do with the time that is given you.”

Postcard from EnZed

Friday, March 13th, 2009

We spent the last few days in the Fiordland National Park and felt as if we had been teleported into a travel brochure for New Zealand. This area has the stuff of postcards or movie backdrops. We thoroughly enjoyed an overnight cruise through Milford Sound (and it was a nice break from the campervan too). The best way to see the fiords are on the water, and we got up close and personal in kayaks. The sheer walls of mountains make you feel very tiny.

Our next stop was a walk on part of the Routeburn track to Key Summit with great views of the peaks and alpine lakes. Here’s the picture that the NZ Tourism Board wants you to see:

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House of Pain

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

We arrived in Dunedin to some nicer weather and spent a few days taking in the local sights.  The Otago peninsula provided a nice walk and good views, but the big atttraction for me in the city was Cadbury World.  Some of you may know about my addiction to Crunchies.  They are generally not available in the US, so whenever I’m in a “Commonwealth country,” I stock up on bags of them.  Here I visited the mothership and took a tour of the factory, complete with lots of free samples.  My chocolate cravings are satisfied for a while at least.

On another note, we’ve tried to attend a sporting event in each country.  The obvious choice for NZ is rugby, and the Super 14 season is happening now.  We got tickets to the Highlanders (Dunedin) vs. Crusaders (Christchurch) match on Saturday night.  I can’t say that I understood everything that was happening, but it’s pretty easy to just follow the ball.  The game was good, but the activities before were even more entertaining.  This picture is not a Braveheart re-enactment – it’s the Highlander mascot doing his best to intimidate the opposing team. (Would have scared me.)

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Lady and the Tramp(er)

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

The activity otherwise known as hiking or trekking elsewhere in the world is called tramping here in NZ. We’ve been doing our fair share of it too, although technically anything less than a full day is not really considered a tramp, just a walk.

After being foiled by the weather again (apparently you can’t kayak in gale force winds), we went south to Christchurch and spent a nice evening wandering around the city. The sunshine here cooperated with us, so we took the Tranzalpine train to Arthur’s Pass National Park and tramped to some lovely lookouts and waterfalls under blue skies.

Here’s the mountain town of Arthur’s Pass Village:

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PS – I also learned that I’m not allergic to bee stings, but they are very irritating.

Amateur Meteorology

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

After hours spent pouring over guidebooks, brochures, and maps, we finally put together a plan that would fit our schedule for the South Island and enable us to see most of what we wanted.  With the plan in hand, we drove the campervan off the ferry at Picton and stopped by the information center to check the weather forecast.

Seeing a large front moving in, we had to ask ourselves “Is it better to hike in the rain or kayak in the rain?”  Instead, we threw out the plan and went wine tasting in the rain.  This has been our backup activity for bad weather and the good news is that we’ve really been enjoying some excellent wines.  The bad news is that we’ve run out of wine regions in NZ.  Malborough was very nice, so maybe we can come back if necessary.

Unlike SoCal where you can predict partly sunny and 70 deg to be right 90% of the time, the weather here is very complicated and constantly changing.  The winds blow across the ocean until the bump into the mountains on the west coast creating all sorts of micro climates and storm systems.  Everyone you ask seems to have an opinion about what will happen tomorrow and the TV weather even shows the isobar maps so you can draw your own conclusions and plan accordingly.

We actually did get a few nice days and managed to get in that hiking and kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park.  The temperature was perfect and the skies blue, but I keep hearing that conditions are “changing.”  Not sure what that means, but we’ll find out in the morning.

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