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Published: January 17th 2007
The Misty Mountains
This is one of the amazing views driving from Queenstown to Glenorchy along Lake Wakatipu. These mountains are the ones used for The Misty Mountains in LOTR! Pretty awesome!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! And welcome to my first blog of 2007. It's quite a full one because I have been super busy since my last entry and got up to all kinds of wonderful and amazing things. I am sorry it has taken me so long to get it published, but I was having a lot of trouble loading up the pictures. As it is, I have added only a fraction of them, because it was really just taking too long. So I have not put on anything from the Catlins Coast (Invercargill to Dunedin) or from Dunedin, like my pics from the Taieri Gorge Railway. Sorry about that! I might try adding these at a later date...
Anyway....Going way back to 2006 firstly...On Christmas Day I flew from Auckland on the north island to Queenstown at the bottom of the south island and it was definitely a low point. I got horribly homesick. But fortunately it was like a 24 hr stomach bug and I cheered right up again pretty quick. It was definitely an odd experience having my first ever Christmas entirely alone in a foreign country, and one that I am not sure I would care to
repeat. But I am glad I have experienced that now. 😱
I had a great time for a few days in Queenstown. It is in the most specatular location, right on Lake Wakatipu, and surrounded by huge dramatic, snow capped mountains. In the winter it is a ski resort, and in summer it is the home of extreme sports like bungy jumping, sky diving, white water rafting etc etc etc...the list is endless!!! It is somewhat touristy, but you can forgive it that due to the amazing location and scenery. Lots of Lord of Rings scenes were shot in and around Queenstown. And I can promise you that the scenery shown in the movie is a super accurate picture of how incredible the scenery really and truly is. And I wish I could bottle the air and send it home...because all the mountains are covered in pine trees, you can smell the scent of them all over the town which is such a lovely fresh smell when it is mixed with clean mountain air. I was sad I only got to spend a few days there, but I am hoping to return again when I come back to the
On top of Bob's Peak
With Lake Wakatipu behind me - the scenery IS real, I promise!! south island in a few weeks time. There is a lot I didn't see/do!
While I was there, I went up on the cable car to the top of Bob's Peak which was fun. You get fantastic views of the whole of the town (which is pretty small) and all the mountains for miles and miles around. I also went for a walk in the Queenstown Gardens (a park, basically) which were really beautiful. They are right on the Lake and there are tons of huge pine and sequioya (sp??) trees everywhere, and a big rose garden that smelled like heaven, especially when it was mixed with the pine and mountain air - a heady mixture! I loved walking around there.
One of the highlights of my time in Queenstown was going for a Lord of the Rings horse ride, which my darling family bought for me as my Christmas present. This started from a little town called Paradise (very aptly named!) which was about a 45 minute drive from Queenstown. The drive there was unbelievable. The road went right along Lake Wakatipu and the scenery was unebelievable. It felt like with every bend in the road the
View of Queenstown
From the top of Bob's Peak views got more and more amazing. There were snow capped mountains stretching into the distance as far as you could see, under a deep blue sky, and everything reflected in the still waters of the Lake. Pretty incredible. It was so stunning it looked fake - like a movie set (see the picture)!! The ride itself was really brilliant! I got to see the mountains used for the Misty Mountains, ride through Lothlorien forest, and saw the actual pathway where Boromir gets shot at the end of the first movie. It felt really real, and you could completely imagine Lady Galadriel just stepping out from behind one of the beech trees. It definitely had an exchanted atmosphere! It was a great ride. 😊
In my ignorance, I thought that not much could cap the glories of Queenstown. But then on 28 December, I left Queenstown and spent 5 days in heaven...Let me tell you - heaven is pretty amazing and I hope you guys all get there, because I definitely didn't want to leave. Now I know what it is like, the rest of my life is going to spent trying to get back there, as fast as possible!!!!
One end of Lake Waka Queenstown
The whole lake is 45 miles long! This is just a small bit of one end. 😊. To explain...heaven was walking the Milford Track, in Fiordland. I was overwhelmed. I have never ever seen anything as beautiful and awe-inspiring. I wish you could feel how breathtaking it is to walk through a valley filled with temperate rainforest, with all the trees coated in deep soft green moss that drapes itself over everything. To either side of you are 4000 feet sheer mountains towering above you with snow covering the tops, and thousands of crashing tumbling waterfalls cascading from the top all the way down to the emerald green river you are walking along. All you can here is running water from the streams and rivers and the falling waterfalls, continuous birdsong of all different kinds, and the more subtle sound of the trees dripping from all the rain. And the air just smells so clean and fresh and
green, like moss, especially when the sun shines and makes all the waterfalls and the rain drops hanging on the silvery ferns and the rushing river, shimmer and sparkle, and you can see the clouds and mist clinging to the tops of the snowy mountains above you. It is like walking through heaven and it makes you feel
Just a beautiful view
From the top of Bób's Peak. I liked the lupins (the flowers in the front of the pic) - you don't really get these in the UK anymore, but NZ has THOUSANDS. so small and insignificant and LUCKY to be alive and in heaven, all at once. I couldn't believe I was actually there.
The walk was not easy though. The first day was about 10 miles, which was not bad and it was so beautiful that the time/distance seemed irrelevant. The second day was very tough. We had to climb over the top of the Mackinnon Pass which is about 1000 feet up. It it a very steep climb up. But the views from the top are incredible!!! You can see 1000 feet down to the valley below and across the valley to all the other mountains that surround you. It really does feel like you are on top of the world. The climb down is pretty tough though...it took about 3 hours of continuously going downhill and it is a lot harder than going up! I was in quite a lot of pain by the time I got to the end...But it was
so worth it. The third day was also pretty tough, as we then had to walk 13 miles to the end of the track. However, the scenery was again spectacular, so it was possible to forget
Me, possibly...?
Something about this statue in Queens Park (Queenstown) reminded me of me! the sore feet and aching legs.
After having seen in new year in the company of my fellow walkers, and then basically passing out from exhaustion, we then got to take a cruise on Milford Sound. This was soooo fantastic. There were dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the boat and seals sunbathing on the rocks. And we got to ride right into a waterfall and out again. It was an incredible way to spend new years day and a brilliant finish to the walk. I was sooooo happy. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more, and alongside my first scuba diving experience, one of my best experiences in NZ (so far...) and without a doubt, also one of the best experiences of my life. The pictures really can't capture it, but I have a DVD about Fiordland that does a far better job. I will show it to anyone who will watch it with reverence...!
From the sublime to the ridiculous, I then travelled to Invercargill, which is right at the very bottom of the south island. What a dull town. It is extremely uninspiring and characterless - all the buildings are modern and
Sun catching The Remarkables
This was the view from outside my room in Queenstown (when it wasn't raining!) the whole town is laid out on a grid with completely straight roads. It reminded me a lot of the States actually. Not that the States is dull and boring (!!) but it does have an awful lot of modern buildings in grid formations! However, Invercargill does have one saving grace and that is a great park which I enjoyed spending a few hours in, but unfortunately forgot to take my camera. They had a brilliant aviary there with loads of parrots and other colourful and extremely noisy birds. It was really peaceful and there were big rose gardens there too, which I loved walking through. Well worth visiting the park!
I then took a bus from there to Dunedin which is on the east coast of the south island. The bus travelled through an area called The Catlins which were very pretty. Lots of golden sandy beaches and forests and a gorgeous headland called Nugget Point (see the pics below). I have to confess that it didn't quite match up to the wonders of Fiordland, but there is only one heaven, and that was it! I still really enjoyed it though, as we got to see lots of
On my LOTR trek!
Me, with my horse and the Misty Mountains behind me. It was a great ride! seals again, some really close up (about 10 mts).
In Dunedin, I was staying in a hostel called Hogwartz which was fantastic! Dunedin is NZ's "Scottish" town and so there are lots of places starting with Mc and lots of Stuart Streets, Burns Lanes and Angus Roads. 😊. It is not especially pretty, although it does have some attractive Victorian buildings. And it feels quite like you are in a Scottish town because many of the buildings are built of bricks or stone, rather than wood. It is extremely hilly too and is home to the world's steepest street (Baldwin Street) which I did not have a chance to visit, unfortunately. I did however, go to Olveston House (www.olveston.co.nz) which is a fantastic place built in 1900 and now a "show home" from that time. The family who build it left it in perfect condition and it is really amazing inside with loads of Victorian and Arts and Crafts ornaments and furniture, but done really well, so it doesn't feel staged or tacky. They don't allow photos inside unfortunately, but I did enjoy walking around it.
I also went on the Taierei Gorge Railway which was pretty amazing.
Lothlorien Forest!
This was soooo beautiful, and we rode through it. It really did feel enchanted. We also saw the exact spot in this forest that was used for the place Boromir gets shot in the first LOTR movie! It is a route that goes from Dunedin through really rugged mountains, crossing over ravines and through narrow tunnels. The trains were utterly cute and old fashioned and had lots of lovely wood panelling and quaint little touches.
From Dunedin I had a LONG journey back north to Rotorua on the North Island. I am still there now and having a great time. It is the active volcanic area of NZ so there are lots of hot mud pools, streaming lakes and spouting geysers. I will do a proper blog entry about it soon. The best bit about being here though is that I have met up with my dearest friend Vanessa and her boyfriend James who are also travelling the world and have FINALLY reached NZ, and we are spending a weeks or so in Rotorua together. It's fantastic to see them and we are having a great time so far. 😊 Vanessa and I are looking forward to a day at the Polynesion Spa here where we will be soaked in a hot mineral pool, scrubbed with manuka honey, wrapped in rotorua mud and then given a lovely remaxing massage, followed by more soaking in the pools.
I can't wait!!!! This is the life...
So....2007 has got off to a pretty amazing start, and I hope this bodes well for the remainder of the year. I am looking forward to it!!! I hope you are all too. More news soon from Rotorua 😊. Lots of love to you all xx
PS: did you know that NZers call flip flops "jandles"? How wierd is that?? And they call shopping trolleys "trundlers" and you leave your trundler in the "trundler park" when you are finished at the supermarket. They're a strange bunch out here...! 😊
PPS: Can I just put in a tiny plea for some news from you all?? I am half way around the world, after all, and it would be lovely to hear from you...
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Alice
non-member comment
Love u!!
I am so happy u have been horse riding :) you sound like your having fun!! The photos are amazing, it looks so beautiful there make sure u come home tho, i cant wait 2 give u a cuddle!! love u zillions xxxx