Glaciers, Canyons and Hobbits

We stayed in Nelson overnight which is almost right at the north end of the South Island, if that makes sense. Most of the things in New Zealand have fairly basic names (ie. North Island, South Island) their one dollar coins are called one dollar coins and even a large bridge over a gorge with a tumbling river below is usually called Bridge 4208 or something plain like that. We then started a long drive down the west coast which is really spectacular between Westport and Greymouth with turquoise waters, high cliffs and pounding surf.


Our next stop was the Franz Josef glacier and we hiked a little ways up the river bed until we came across a rope barrier that was there to allow only guided tours to get closer to the ice wall. Apparently a few years ago two hikers were injured by falling ice so they are more careful now. If you look closely at the bottom right side of this picture there is a tiny line of people which gives some idea of scale since the peaks around the glacier are about 3000m high.

The next day we woke up in Queenstown, on the shores of beautiful lake Wakatipu , and the extreme sports capital of the world. This is where modern Bungy jumping was invented. We had the choice of whitewater rafting, skydiving, paragliding, jet boating, sledging, tramping and of course ten kinds of bungy jumps including swings. We decided on Jet Boating up the Shotover Canyon and only later read in the paper that a local driver has charges pending after someone had been killed in a jet boat accident (but with a different company than the one we used).

The ride was super exciting, especially when the boat comes within inches, at high speed, from smashing on the rocks.

(note, I tried to download a video into this spot but it got hung up so after 5 trys I have given up until we get somewhere with a faster internet connection)

The area around Queenstown was a major location for all three Lord of the Rings movies so we trekked up a hill called Deer Park Heights to see exactly where a number of scenes were filmed. The hill overlooks Queenstown and has great views of the “Remarkables” , a north south mountain range with rocky peaks. Here is the view from the hill with the Kawarau river in the foreground, which was also used throughout the movie as the “Anduin” in Pillars of the Kings.

This rock marked LOR 6 was the spot where the Rohans look over the cliff for Aragon and where in the battle with the Wargs he gets dragged off his horse, for all you LOTR junkies (I know this would make sense to you Lucia)!

The next spot marked LOR 2 is where Gimli falls off his horse.

This area was used for other movies and still had a fake Korean Prison which was built for the Disney movie “The Rescue”. It also had a number of animals running around that you could feed. Here is Jude feeding the Alpacas with the lake and Queenstown down below.

I even managed to make some friends here too! Funny how friendly they are when they think you are handing out food.

We are headed even further south to the famous Milford Sound to take a cruise through the fiord.