South Island Trip 2 Day 7 - Queenstown and Ithilien

Queenstown is the top tourist destination in New Zealand, understandably so.  It is in a stunning location on the edge of a lake and surrounded by mountains.  It also has a lot of amenities for tourists and so it tends to be very busy in the summertime.

We rode up the gondola again to see the view from the top with my parents and to ride the luges.  Here is Aidan, enjoying the ride up:

The view from the top is beautiful.  Here is a shot south down one arm of the lake.

And this is looking east, over Queenstown.  The small russet-colored hill just beyond the town and in front of the mountains was an important LOTR filming location, but it is closed to the public now.  Sad face.

Papa Tom and Aidan, holding on to the railing and each other:

Jasper is showing his love for group photos:

The gondola ride to the top is quite steep.  Here is a shot down the mountain:

And this photo is facing north.  We stayed in Arrowtown, which is a little town through that valley.

Of course, we did the luge.  Here are Evelyn and Jasper, riding to the summit:

And here are my father and Aidan!

Evelyn and Jasper tried not to hit these poor amateurs when they sped by in their luges:

Here is Aidan, zooming by:

And Papa Tom, bringing up the rear:

I also went up for the second trip down.  I take my luging very seriously.

Later, we went for a short hike a little to the west of Queenstown.  As is typical in New Zealand, it is easy to find quiet places without any other people by straying just a little bit from the touristy areas.  This hike took us through some cool bush and the mountains were never really out of sight over the tree tops.

Here is a wildflower photo for Halina:

A small river ran along the trail and eventually emptied out into the lake.  We spotted a fisherman near here, but he didn't seem to be catching anything.

Another cool mountain photo:

Here is a cool bluff.  We hiked up to the top of that bluff.

This flat place may look familiar to you.  When we got to the top of the bluff, I took a photo of this little clearing.  See next photo.

OMG.  This is so Ithilien.  In fact, I think this is exactly where Frodo and Sam crouched when the Haradrim and the oliphant went by.  Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREbDN9MjY8

The view of the lake from the bluff was also very pretty:

Another weird mushroom:

More shots of the mountains and the lake:

A nice photo of Evelyn at the edge of the lake.  It was a beautiful day and a great hike.  From here, we headed south to Te Anau and then up the coast again to see Milford Sound.  Stay tuned!

South Island Trip 2 Day 6 - Gates of Haast and Wanaka

Okay, back to the trip through the South Island.

We left the west coast in the morning and headed straight for the mountains, aiming for a mountain pass called The Gates of Haast.  Sounds like something from a fantasy novel.  We had a bit of a drive ahead of us, so I didn't want to stop too often, but we couldn't help but pull over a few times and snap some photos as the scenery was just as amazing as previous days.

Here are a few photos from the highway of the misty mountains:

We passed a sign for a waterfall, so we pulled over for a rest.  It turned out you needed to traverse a rock field to get within sight of the waterfall.  Here is a funny photo - parents on the left, family on the right, all trying to pick their way over the unstable terrain.

Aidan and Evelyn resting and enjoying the view, finally:

Once through the pass, we came out the other side of the Southern Alps and made our way south to a region of lakes and mountains.  Each lake was more beautiful than the last and the views were often literally jaw-dropping.  Here is one of my favorite views - the sight of Lake Hawea on the way down to Wanaka:

The vibrant colors of the land and sky stopped us in our tracks and I took a few too many photos.  Here are a few:

Thanks, Dad!  A photo of the two of us:

From Wanaka, you could look up Lake Wanaka and see the mountains as a backdrop to the lake.  Those mountains were used in several Lord of the Rings shots, especially when Gandalf escapes Orthanc on the back of the Great Eagle, Gwaihir the Windlord.

We played for a bit in Wanaka, a cool little town with lots of cool little cafes and eateries and ice cream shops.  I would have been happy to stay here for a few days.  We enjoyed the beach for an hour or so before heading on to Arrowtown and Queenstown where we were staying the night.  Here is Jasper, climbing a giant tree trunk in Wanaka:

Another shot of the lake:

Jasper and my folks strolling the beach:

One last shot of the boys and my folks before we left Wanaka:

On our way to Queenstown, everyone humored me and let me drive a little bit out of our way to a place called Maori Point Road.  Turned out, Maori Point Road isn't paved.  We bounced our way down the dirt path until we came to this forest.  Unfortunately, the forest is private land and so we couldn't go wander around, BUT - if you watch this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e7qhhLbAok) starting at 2:11, you will see The Flight to the Ford where Arwen is pursued by the Black Riders while she is trying to rescue Frodo and get him to Rivendell before he dies of his wounds.  The forest that she rides through is the forest we stopped at.

Pretty lame as far as touring filming sites goes, but they can't all be winners.  Sometimes, you drive down a dirt road 30 minutes out of your way with your entire family in the car and just take a picture of a forest that looks like any other forest out the car window because some people were somewhere near there ten years ago filming a fantasy movie.  We've all been there.

Some weekends around Taupo

Hi, it's Evelyn. My posts have become so infrequent that I feel I should identify myself when posting :) I wouldn't want Tom getting the credit for my amazing thoughts and commentary! 

Since we have finished our South Island adventures, we have spent some time continuing to explore the areas closer to home. The scenery is still amazing and we definitely don't want the boys to get out of the habit of hiking :)

We often pass, on the drive between Taupo and Rotorua, a sign for Rainbow Mountain. We've never been able to stop en route, so we decided to make a dedicated trip to visit and hike to the top. 

This is the view towards the beginning of the hike. Lots of bush and lots of ferns.

Here's a lovely crater pool we passed on our way. Yes, the area is volcanic, and the minerals here make the water such a pretty color.

Here and below you can see why it is called Rainbow Mountain. If you've been keeping up with your blog reading, you'll guess that this color on the rock is produced by lichen.

Here's a view from the top of the mountain. You can see the highway winding its way through the hills. These hillsides are yellow, as it is summer. I can't stop commenting on all the yellow, dry lawns we pass in our neighborhood. I love that - even though water is free in New Zealand, nobody wastes it watering their lawns in the summer!

Another view from the top. We met a forest ranger in the fire tower who let us come up and enjoy the views and showed us how he communicates with other rangers about the location of any smoke that he may see. You can see a photo of us on his facebook page: rainbowmountain lookout

The Ironman race in Taupo is a pretty big annual event. Lots of locals will volunteer for it and lots of locals actually race. It took place March 1st. Jasper and I were awake in the morning, around 7, and Jasper told me he saw a tornado in the water on the lake. We were actually just seeing the shadows of the swimmers - and we could see the kayaks in the lake as well. They looked like, well, like a tornado in the water. Here are some photos - it was an amazing sight.

See those tiny little swim-capped heads bobbing in the water?

We watched the elite racers come in around 3 pm. The female winner was American :) She ran in and Jasper got a high five from her! I volunteered at the medical tent after the race. The sweat laden, harrowing experience has confirmed for me that I will never compete in any endurance type race like this. Seriously, I never really had any doubts, but now I know for sure.

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There is a very pretty walk about ten minutes from our house in a very cool forest with lots of large trees. It reminded us of some hikes we do at home -- because we could hear the traffic from the highway sometimes :(

Amazing trees, right?

Aidan is so pleased with his selfie taking capabilities...

...but mom always does a better job capturing key moments with the camera

Turns out, like Winnie-the-Pooh, Jasper lives in a hollow tree.

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Tom and I spent a day without the kids visiting the buried village, a historical site, near the famous (in New Zealand) eruption of Tarawera that destroyed the pink and white terraces. It was great to spend some time just the two of us exploring.

The weather has gotten a bit cooler and our mountains got a little dusting! So pretty...

The nighttime views are pretty nice, too. This shot turned up mysteriously on our camera. My suspicion is that it was Aidan's doing.

This past weekend we went to a secret spot near the National Park to visit a very cool spring with some friends. Here are their children playing.

The pool is so deep, the color of the water is amazing - and you can see down to the bottom.

kids playing in the rocks around the pool

Here's the lot of us, hanging out

Later, those of us who wanted to went for a swim in the lake. This beach was awesome, the cliffs behind us were very dramatic. We had never been to this side of the lake before.

It was an awesome, lazy weekend day - with a perfect kiwi fish and chips ending! We feel lucky to have such amazing and generous friends.