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!