South Island Days 1-3 - Queenstown

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.

Another two at the edge of the lake on the way back to Queenstown:

Saying goodbye to Gong Gong and Po Po in Queenstown.  Jasper nailed it.

Taupo Interlude

We have been traveling a lot lately with friends and family and it has been wonderful and can be a little draining all at once. We recently took an afternoon just the four of us to go down to the lake so Tom could do some work on music and the rest of us could play a little bit. All the traveling and sightseeing can make one forget how beautiful the place 5 minutes down the road is. Then we're reminded and feel very lucky.

Here's Tom, really getting some serious work done. 

Jasper - quickly at one with the lake.

Aidan's a bit more circumspect

Hols in Brisbane

We were very lucky to be able to spend Christmas with lots of extended family in Brisbane.  My parents and our family of four stayed with my cousin, her husband and their two girls. We got to spend lots of quality time together and had a really wonderful visit experiencing our first summertime Christmas.

There were lots of fun bits, including special morning walks - quite early as often the daily temperatures rose higher than 100 degrees. During our walks around the neighborhood we saw lots of birds and lots of plant life that we just don't have where we live. One of my favorites was the mimosa plant, that closes its leaves when you touch them. I also got to see sugar cane, banana trees, and pomegranates.

Our boys loved playing with their new cousins. They were in the pool almost every day. They played lots of games on their iPads together. By the end of our visit, they were organizing performances for all the adults. Yes, the quality of these performances was likely exactly what you might imagine it to have been. The grandparents loved them anyway.

Below, a few photos from our adventures down under, captioned by Jasper:

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This is a picture of the Gold Coast. We called it "Gold Coust" because my daddy had a hat with "Gold Coust" written on it. (It was a tourist hat)

This is my dad when he's just finished fishing. He left the house at 2 o'clock in the morning. He was not very happy. You know my dad likes to sleep in.

They caught an octopus. Here it is in what looks like a plastic nest. My uncle Fred took it home and ate it!

This is us feeding kangaroos. After we were done feeding, we had kangaroo saliva all over our hands. We are at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but it's not all koalas.

They had photos on the wall of famous people who had visited.

This is a picture of a mama and joey kangaroo. This is the only one we could find that was holding a joey.

Here's a koala, in case you were wondering why it was called a koala sanctuary.

Here is my Uncle Fred holding his pizza with a bird on his shoulder hungrily staring at it. Eventually he had three birds. Some on his shoulder and some on his arms.

This is the very rickety bridge that my Popo did not want to go on, but she had to. You can see my cousin behind me. For me, it was not scary.

Back to National Park with Viggy and Meera

Hi-ho, Tom here.  We had a great visit with our two friends from the Garden State, Viggy and Meera!  Of course, what could we do but take them to National Park - you can see those mountains from our house and they draw you to them inexorably.  Better to give in and just go stand before them.

Here are Meera, Viggy, me, and a threatening Aidan:

We hiked the Taranaki Falls walk, a two-hour walk that we made three and a half hours due to many stops.  It is a spectacular hike with amazing scenery at the base of Ruapehu.  The views of Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom) are great, too.  Here is Jasper, perched on a little rock near the trail:

We stopped for snacks - super-special cocoa and mint Rice Krispie treats supplied by Meera.  I am undoubtedly dispensing essential fatherly wisdom.

Meera and Viggy are pondering my wisdom, certainly.  I am not sure if Viggy's hand leaped to cover his mouth as he realized the depth of my insight or if he is politely stifling a chortle.  I expect the former.

We made it to the top of the falls.  Here is Meera, relaxing beside the stream that plunges over the falls just off the bottom of this picture.

Here is Aidan pretending to slide into the stream.  This isn't as dangerous as it seems in this photo, I swear.

More wisdom, this time about the stream, likely.

Jasper and Meera, happy:

You can't really get enough of Taranaki Falls.  It is a beautiful plunge in a beautiful setting.  Here is one of about a thousand photos we've taken of the falls:

Jasper, displaying the muscles he is building through the steady consumption of cocoa Rice Krispie treats.

Mount Doom, always awesome, always threatening to unleash an unstoppable evil across the globe.  Don't look at it too long - it will look back and then you will clutch at the ring hanging around your neck and wince in pain with your incredibly soulful blue eyes.

Aidan, pondering the ancient evil:

Evelyn, trying in vain to comfort Jasper in the face of implacable evil:

I have to admit, my heart skipped a beat when he leaned over like this at the edge of this chasm, but that didn't stop me from taking a quick picture before spiriting him away from the edge.  It isn't as dangerous as it looks, I swear.

That's Evelyn and the boys down there.

A bunch of Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed in the park.  This falls and pool were used as the Forbidden Pool that hides the entrance to Faramir's secret lair.  Remember Gollum singing his silly fish song and Frodo saving him from being shot by Faramir's archers in the moonlight?  Surely, you do.  Admit it.  Or watch the movies again, for God's sake.  Why don't you have them memorized?

Here is a funny group shot.  Jasper nailed it.

I'll close with a portrait of Ruapehu.  That's an awesome mountain.  I could look at it all day.  Standing in its shadow makes you understand why early people considered mountains gods.  The Maori don't stand on top of mountains because it is disrespectful and disturbs the sacredness of the place.  I get that when I am looking at Ruapehu.