Alright! Story time, now that I've had a day to actually go home, recover, and take a shower. I actually looked forward to sleeping in my sleeping bag in my own bed, or mostly in a room by myself, haha, but I had an absolutely wonderful time.
Day one started with much eager anticipation, I was excited to go to the airport, to get on the plane, to go to the south island, everything was just excitement. I had my backpack packed and my food bag ready (to save money on eating out, I brought my own breakfast, powdered milk (surprisingly yummy), muesli bars, celery, apples, mangos, peanut butter, corn and sunflower seed crisps... a good amount of snacky foods) Airplane security laws here are much different, so I had no problem bringing all of this food plus normal-sized toothpaste and a water bottle - security did not mind.
I was out at the bus stop early to catch the bus to the airport, but it must have come even earlier because the time came and went and there was no bus. I could wait for the next one, but it would be pushing it a bit close to my check in time which HAD to be a half hour before my flight left at 8:55... The second bus was supposed to show up around 8 but did not so I started to get panicked... I was worried there was an accident on the motorway holding traffic up and knew that Jetstar, my airline, would have no remorse on me if I was late. With the prospects of my entire weekend being over before it even started, I left the bus stop and jogged up to Courtenay place where I knew the taxis were. I managed to get the only taxi around, jsut as he was pulling up. He must have thought I was a crazy person literally jumping into the backseat and explaining that I had only 20 minutes to make it to the airport to check in.
He was very nice and understanding, and got me to check in with 4 minutes to spare and didn't even charge me full fare, so sweet. Happily through security, I walked to the gate as the plane was boarding and made it on, calmly, to my set and was ready to go. I hoped the whole weekend would not be this exciting so early!
They say the plane ride into Queenstown is beautiful, but I had no idea just how amazing it would be. It was a beautiful sunny flight, and all these were taken from the plane.
I was so happy to get into town. Of all the places I visited, this would be the place I would want to go back to and live if I could, it is just breathtaking. Visas are hard to get in this area though, with it being so tourist heavy. I took the bus into town and walked through the city center to the lakefront where the YHA hostel was that I'd be staying at. I was a bit nervous about staying in dorm rooms the entire trip, and this would be my largest of all, a 7 share. Since I was early, I dropped off my pack and food then headed back into town to explore the shops and find some lunch before the afternoon. Its a pretty small town center, and it only took about a half hour to get around it, so I spent a lot of time in the touristy stores stocking up on souvenirs ^_^ I found the only mexican place in town for lunch, still fiercely craving a buritto. It was... alright. Acceptable may be the word for it.
"The Remarkables"
Looking across Lake Wakatipu with the old steam ship running,
The water was crystal clear
Some interesting cloud formations
mehh... the best mexican here so far at least
Town center
This guy
After lunch and shopping, I headed over to meet my horse riding group for the afternoon. We loaded in a van and drove out along Lake Wakatipu to get to the stables. Beautiful views as the rain was holding off, the mountains were keeping us protected at least for the moment. I took the "Ride of the Rings" tour, and the much more hardcore fans were quite upset that I had yet to see any of the movies or read the books (except the hobbit) But, they had also filmed The lovely Bones, Wolverine, and the Narnia movies here. I had at least seen the Narnia movies, ha, so that was acceptable. We drove out to this town called Paradise. It has a population of 6 and got plumbing in 1999, quite the happening place. Most of it is actually protected as a nature reserve by an old guy that had died and set up a trust to protect the land. Peter Jackson was originally not allowed to film here, so he decided to write a pretty generous check to the trust fund and get them plumbing. He was then permitted to film on the condition that he left the landscape in the exact same condition as he found it. Apparently, he had a large team of people collecting samples and cataloging every single tree in the area, then set up a green house acres long to grow native species there to replace anything that was disturbed. He held true to his promise, and after 2 years of filming when he left, tons of people flocked to the area looking for anything to sell on trademe (like ebay) but not a single prop, even arrowhead was found. This is why Peter Jackson has been allowed by the trust to continue filming here.
Looking out at Paradise
Another shot of Paradise, NZ
LOTR place - there was some sword fight here
LOTR - something important happened between these two trees, Haley felt the need to tell us about it.
This was the river the horses ran across in the opening scene of Prince Caspian
My horse, Presley, is a movie star. He was in Prince Caspian because he likes to run through the water. He is a retired race horse. A lot of the horses brought over from Australia for the movie wouldn't run through the water, so, embarrassed, the production crew had to ask a lot of local stables to borrow horses. They had to go through a pretty rigorous noise / distraction test running through a line of people, then had to come to a dead stop on command. 75% of the horses did not pass the test, and only about 250 were used for the actual filming, Presley being one of them. So, I got to ride a movie star :)
This is in the hobbit movie, they filmed Beorn's house in the field here.
K, so, at the end of the first LOTR movie I guess someone important dies here then Sam and Frodo hop into a boat. (I think it was really important) (Sorry these descriptions are terrible, haha)
Just at the end of our ride, the rain started. Good timing, so we headed back into Queenstown just ahead of the showers. I had asked Haley our horse guide what I had to eat in town, and she told me a Fergburger. So,
Yes, it was quite delicious. This place is known because they only use natural ingredients and make their own sourdough buns. Their burgers are also HUGE, and so so so so good. Onion rings with aioli sauce was a coma - inducing dinner, but soooooo good.
After dinner I headed back to the hostel along the lake, briefly considered going back out for the evening but it was dark and raining and a hot shower and sitting in a beanbag chair watching Bear Grills on the tv won out. Comically, I ended up being the only one in the 7 share room for the evening. So I had a giant room, private bathroom, a heater all to myself, all for $25. Not bad at all for the first day.
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