New Zealand

 I just returned from a whirlwind tour of the South Island of New Zealand.  I flew into Christchurch with my best friend from high school, Monica only to find that New Zealand is currently experiencing its earliest and coldest winter in about the last 10 years. We were expecting weather in the upper 40s and got weather in the lower 30's , with lows into the teens at night.  While we had some warm clothing, we dressed in layers and the same clothing practically all week.

After the 4 hour flight, It took forever to get through customs and border control, and to check out our rental car. We had a cute little rental car, a baby toyota hatchback in navy blue that saw a lot of miles.  Anyway, after we finally checked in we got to our hostel and then had an amazing italian dinner and some great red wine that night (including a white chocolate raspberry dessert pizza OMG so good).

Then next morning we woke up early and began the 6 hour drive to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Skydiving and bungee jumping are abundant there, but neither of us felt the desire to do that so instead we went hiking and horseback riding. Queenstown is also a site of where much of the filming of Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia took place. Along the way we stopped at 2 glacier lakes, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki both of which are gorgeous. Blue turquoise clear cold water set against the dramatic southern alps-- so pretty. All the while when we were driving around New Zealand we felt as though we were driving right through Middle Earth in LOTR- rolling green hills, snow capped mountains, and plenty of sheep and alpacas as well ;)   We drove through Lindis Pass, a mountain range on the way to Queenstown, and had steady snowfall for at least 35 minutes, the entire countryside was filled with white powder. We got anxious and started thinking about putting our chains on our tires (which would have been funny considering we're both from SC and neither of us in our lives have used snow chains, but we got them and learned how to use them nonetheless).

Lake Tekapo in New Zealand

Anyway, we didn't need them b/c the snow passed and we arrived in Queenstown that Evening. Our hostel was located next to another Glacier Lake, Lake Watikapo, and was gorgeous. From our bedroom window we had a  great view of the snowy mountains and blue water (such a great sight to wake up to!) We did some horseback riding the next day, which took us to Glenorchy where we went into the New Zealand Beach forest (very mossy and green), and up the mountain to get a great view of the river system where many LOTR scenes and Narnia scenes were shot.  It was freezing, but so worth it!   The following day we toured some wineries, notably the Gibbston Valley winery, which won best wine of the year in the pinot noir category in 2000. It is the oldest vineyard in New Zealand, and it also had a cheesery attatched so needless to say we enjoyed ourselves. Queenstown is located in the Central Otega wine region, so there are many many wineries and they are all well known for their Pinot Noir. (apparently the weather conditions are ideal for that type of grape).


Lake Watikapo and the Southern Alps in Glenorchy

Anyhow, after that we headed back to Christchurch (having to take a detour becuase of road closings due to snowfall!!) and had some more time to hang out in christchurch. We went out a little bit, and saw the Christchurch cathedral.  The following day we did a Lord of the Rings Tour, where they took us to Edoras to Mt. Sunday and Mt. Pots where the city of Rohan (from Two Towers and Return of the King) was built. They had some fun replicas of the movie weapons, and monica and I had a great time sword fighting... We also watched lots of interviews and commentaries and learned fun facts and myths about the movies and how they were made.  a very geeky, but entertaining day.
On our LOTR horesback tour, this river system they filmed scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring and Prince Caspian.