Chunninghams in Taupo: South Island Days 1-3

Hello, Tom here. As you probably know, New Zealand is made up of two really big islands and heaps of little ones. We live on the North Island, where Auckland and Wellington are. In Lord of the Rings terms, we live near Mount Doom and the Weta Workshop, where all the props were made and where all of the digital effects were created. We also live near Isengard and Helm's Deep.

The South Island is known for its especially dramatic scenery, particularly the Southern Alps, New Zealand's highest mountains and a very long range that covers the entire length of the island. The landscape is quite varied, as Christchurch lies in the Canterbury Plains to the east of the mountains in the north part of the island, the mountains themselves run along the ocean to the west for much of the range, creating amazingly dramatic sights, deep fjords cut into the mountains at the very southern tip of the island, and the Central Otago plains stretch out in vast prairies to the southeast. LOTR-wise, the Southern Alps are the Misty Mountains under which Gandalf battled the Balrog, the Canterbury Plains are the site of Edoras, and Otago is a whole lot of things, particularly the Westfold and Ithilien.

We hadn't visited the South Island before, but parents were visiting, so we planned two trips in January, one with each set. First it was the Chus, who we met in Queenstown before they flew out to Australia and we continued on our own through Fiordland and Otago.

As soon as we landed, I was taken by the remarkable mountains surrounding Queenstown. In typical British fashion, these remark-worthy peaks are named The Remarkables. I took this foolish photo in the parking lot of the airport:

Queenstown is a very cool little town. We stopped in what became my favorite coffee shop, Vudu, for a quick lunch. Here is Jasper at lunch, showing you that he believes in justice, but he does not believe in necks.

Queenstown is on the shore of Lake Wakatipu and the views of the mountains are simply beautiful. Here is proof:

Here is the view from our hotel window. That brown hill across the water is Kelvin Heights. Aragorn was dragged by a warg off the top off that hill.

Here is a nice photo of Evelyn enjoying the beautiful scenery:

Here is a crazy photo of daybreak on a cloudy day over the Remarkables. Feel free to make this your desktop.

A photo with Gong Gong and the boys. Jasper nailed it.

Another coolio mountain shot around Queenstown.

We took a gondola up to the top of a nearby peak so that we could look down on the lake and Queenstown. Here is a beautiful photo of mother and son. Jasper nailed it.

The view from the top. That's Queenstown at the bottom, the Remarkables at the top, and the place where Gimli was nearly crushed by two dead wargs in the middleground.

At the summit, there was luging. Here is Aidan and Gong Gong on the lift to the top of the luge paths. Fun for all!

At a museum in Arrowtown, a little gold-mining settlement near Queenstown, we found a giant piece of jasper. Jasper posed beside the jasper.

Another shot of the mountains and the lake. I took a lot of these.

And at sunset.

The next day, we decided to drive up the northern arm of the lake to a place called Glenorchy. The day was cloudy and a little rainy, so the mountains were hard to see, but there were still some beautiful views. The mountains just looked a bit more mysterious:

Here I am with Mrs. Chu out on a walk. See those beautiful mountains behind us?

They loomed out of the mist. It was pretty cool, actually, though not the picture-postcard scenes that most travel to Glenorchy for.

Slowly, the mist and clouds started to lift.

Bam! Suddenly, it was a beautiful day. We stopped in Kinloch for lunch and took this photo from the northernmost part of the lake.

Here is a cool photo of the clouds blowing over the mountains.

An arty photo of Aidan at lunch. I call this "Still Life with Water Glass, Boy, and Woman on Phone."

The mountains after lunch across the long dirt road we drove down.

A shot of Evelyn about halfway down the northern arm of the lake. The color of the water was really cool. The lake is glacier-formed and snowmelt-fed, so it is an odd shape and a fascinating color.