A blog recounting the adventures of Justin & Dana's 2017-2018 world-wide jaunt. With pictures!
Don't Be Hasty...
We thought two weeks would be plenty of time to see the sights on the south island, but it turns out you could easily spend two years exploring here. So we passed the days doing a lot of driving, trying to fit in all the sights we wanted to see. Our path took us from the beautiful high lake country in the center of the island, throught Queenstown, down to the fjords and rainforest of the Millford Sound area, and finally to the very southern tip of the island in the hopes of seeing some penguins. Mostly we spent our time driving and enjoying the scenery, or walking and enjoying the scenery, or hanging out in camp with a beer and enjoying the scenery. We don’t really have any exciting stories from this week, so we’ll let the photos do the talking!
Lupines beside a creek near one of our free campsites. The campsite itself was less idyllic, next to a busy highway and pretty crowded. But it was free, so we can't complain.Chilling in camp enjoying a cold one. Life doesn't get much better than this!Passing the Roaring Meg river on the way to Queenstown. According to local legend, it was named after a lovely lady back in the gold rush days who was carried home from a bar and protested mightily over being carried across the river. See all the dead pine trees on the slopes? They've been sprayed with a pesticide to kill them. They're invasive here, and the government is taking steps to eradicate them.A few scenes from LOTR were apparently shot in this park, though we never found the exact locations.The gold rush town of Arrowtown, now a tourist attraction, on the way to Queenstown.The bleakly beautiful scenery near Lake Wakatipu.We found a selfie stick someone had forgotten in the sand, and got some great pics with it! But we eventually got sick of lugging it around and left it at a hostel.The view from one of our most beautiful cammpsites, right on the bank of Lake Wakatipu. Unfortunately, it was infested with hungry sand flies, so we spent a lot of time hiding in the van! We braved the flies to take some sunset pics though.The clouds were really lovely that night.Queenstown on the bank of Lake Wakatipu. It was much smaller than we expected! Really just a town, with one small main street.We had to try the famous Fergbergers while we were in town. They were delicous! Not sure if they're the best burgers in the world, as many say, but since we'd been living on ramen (and the occasional trout) for the past week, they were absolutely amazing!If you didn't know, Justin is part python and can unhinge his jaw.We found a rusty old playground at one of the campsites we stayed at. It was run by an American hippy who 'escaped' the states in the 60's and came to live here. She was a hoot to talk to. Not a big fan of Trump, shockingly enough.We...um...may have had a bit too much wine.
We took a hike along the Waiau River, in the southwest of the island, in an attempt to find some LOTR film locations! We never found exact locations, that might be impossible given the size of these areas, but a lot of places seemed familiar.
The big suspension bridge over the Waiau River.Sadly we never saw any kiwis, since they're nocturnal and really shyArwen's stand at the ford against the Nazgul in the first movie was shot somewhere near here.The Dead Marshes were filmed here!We didn't see any lights or dead faces in the mist, thankfully...The beech forests felt like a forgotten remnant of a distant era. You kept expecting a four foot long millipede or maybe a dinosaur to come crawling out of the ferns.
After pretending to be hobbits lost in the Dead Marshes, we made our way up the glacial valley towards Millford Sound. A lot of people use Millford Sound as a launching point to take cruises of the fjords in the southern part of the island, but we had heard the drive to the Sound was impressive in its own right. We were not disappointed! This may have been one of our most beautiful drives yet, which is saying something in NZ.
The Mirror Lakes will live up to their namesake on a still day, reflecting the craigy peaks behind them. It was windy when we were there, and the clouds left dramatic shadows on the valley.One of our campsites on Department of Conservation land. We drove all up and down this valley looking for a campsite that wasn't packed to the gills with other campers. This one was mysteriously completely empty despite the stunning view and lack of sand flies. We were more than happy to have the place to ourselves.We've reached the end of the valley now, and the big granite peaks are looming right over our heads. You drive through a long tunnel that burrows through the mountainside to get to the valley on the other side, where Millford Sound is.Waterfalls trickling down the mountainside above us as we waited to drive through the tunnel.This is the view that greets you from the other side of the tunnel. Reminded us a bit of Yosemite.A waterfall gushing through a narrow canyon far below us.This little guy is a weka, one of the flightless birds of NZ. We met a few of them while we were there, always mooching for food and hamming it up for the camera! They seem pretty fearless, and have quite the personality, stalking around like tiny awkward dinosaurs looking for dropped crisps!Tiny awkward dinosaur, attack!The lovely Millford Sound. It was beautiful to see, but most of the fun was in getting there.The approach to the tunnel out of the valley.One of our favorite campsites; the valley where many of the scenes of Fangorn Forest, Rohan, and a few scenes from Fellowship of the Ring were shot.The kiwis sure like their suspension bridges.Yet another jaw-dropping sunset.The scene on the lakeshore where they're climbing out of the boats before Boromir gets shot by the orcs at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring was shot right here. In real life it's an atv track.
Before we started making our way up to the northernmost point of the South island to catch a ferry to the North island, we decided we absolutely had to see penguins. They were a little out of our way… 6 hours each way… but totally worth it! Ok in reality, probably not worth it. We had two days to make the drive there and back, and in the end we only saw one penguin about 500 feet away on the beach far below. Oh well, the scenery was pretty at least!
Roaring Bay, where penguins nest year-round. We saw one little guy heading out to the ocean, but he was so far away he just looked like a waddling speck.Looking out from Nugget Point Lighthouse. The land looks like it's slowly dissolving into the sea towards Antartica.It was time for the long drive back through the center of the country to the west coast. We had dinner in the van because it was pouring rain out, but as we were finishing eating another camper tapped on our window and pointed exitedly outside. We came stumbling out and saw this beautiful rainbow! Justin wanted a photo of the whole arc, so he started running up the road to get a better shot...forgetting that he wasn't wearing shoes. He stepped on a stick and got a nice slice in the bottom of his foot. And that's how Justin hurt himself chasing a rainbow.Our dramatic campsite near Wanaka, surrounded by knife-edged mountains, finally visible once the rain cleared.
More photos to come in our next post about the west coast of the South Island and its breathtaking glaciers!
