Tuesday Renee and I took a LOTR tour. Our guide picked us up a little after 8 and there was one other girl on our tour who was from London. She was spending the entire year traveling around and had come from South America, was going to Austrailia next and then Asia. Very interesting to talk with her about her travels! We drove around Queenstown first to view a Korean fort that was built for some Cold War movie. It was supposed to be a shell, but the director made an actual fort so you can still see it on a hill. Then we headed north to Glenorchy. There are lots of LOTR sites that we stopped at, but I have no idea what they were. I only know the scenery was amazing! Glenorchy is a tiny town and we stopped there before heading off on a gravel road into a forest. Our guide pretty much knew everyone so we got to meet Choppy the pig and a few brown sheep! In the forest area, he made us put on some kind of cloak and swing around swords. Renee found it to be exciting as she knew what the sword and dagger were for. We stopped back in Glenorchy for tea before heading back towards Queenstown. The road was pretty windy and I was glad to be a passenger for a change! The other girl was only along for half the day so we dropped her off back in Queenstown before heading out to see more sites. We stopped to watch some bungy jumpers. That is about the stupidest thing I have ever seen. I was getting sick just watching! We drove on another very windy, very gravely road to view something about the Pillars of the King. Then ate lunch in Arrowtown, which is an old gold mining town. It is along the Shotover River, which is the second highest gold bearing river after the Yukon. Lunch was delicious! Then we went up to Coronet Peak to see the ski field. There wasn't any snow and the ski season starts on the 6th. No idea what they will do when the hundreds of skiers show up! Our guide took us to see the only uninsured road in NZ. You have to have a special permit to drive on it and he did have that. But we did not go down the road as I would not have liked it at all! Then we headed back to our hotel and got back about 3:00. Renee and I decided to have dessert for dinner and so she had the Baked Alaska and I had the plum and apple crisp. Delicious!
Yesterday we walked through the Kiwi Birdlife Park here in Queenstown. Got to see Kiwi's up close and lots of other native birds. New Zealand does not have any native mammals other than 2 small bats. All other mammals have been introduced and are destroying the native birds. The Kiwi are especially threatened due to the stoats eating their eggs. At the park, they have 2 breeding pairs. The one pair are both 10 years old and will be released into the wild at the end of the year. The other pair is a 3 year old female and a 5 year old male. They haven't had any successful eggs yet, but one was in the incubator. We got to see a Kiwi feeding and listen to the conservation show. It was a really nice park. Then we took the gondola ride to the top of Ben's Peak. It was a pretty steep ride, but I did not have a problem with it. At the top is a cafe with a wonderful view of the city and was a perfect lunch spot. After the gondola, we walked around the gardens and watched some dogs playing in the water.
Today we decided to drive south for a bit as we didn't have anything else to do. Good thing we did because we came across a ton of sheep moving up the road. They were much more orderly than the cows that were on the road and moved pretty quick. Very cute! Stopped at a little town that has a steam engine, but it wasn't running. We came back to Queenstown to do some shopping and have lunch. The big place to go here is Fergberger and so that's where we went. It was delicious! The burgers were huge and I could only eat half. I had a regular burger with brie cheese and Renee had the same, only with blue cheese. Amazing! It had been closed for some renovations and just reopened on Wednesday so we had great timing! We got there when it wasn't busy, but by the time we left there was a huge crowd. Did some shopping and sat by the beach for a bit. Now it's time to repack the suitcases and rest up for our long day of travel tomorrow. Plane leaves Queenstown at 10:00 and we get back to Chicago at 3:30.
This has been an amazing trip and I will get pictures sent out soon. Only one hotel had free wi-fi and that was only available for 30 minutes so not much time to upload anything. I hope to be able to come back one day, but if not, at least we had a great sample of what New Zealand has to offer. I highly recommend it as a holiday destination for anyone who doesn't mind flying a long way!
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