Safari of the Rings

First, Queenstown is beautiful. It is easy to see great scenery - just drive. If there is a paved road that goes up a hill, take it. If the road is unpaved and you have a 4 wheel drive, take it. You are guarenteed some arrive at some scenic vista!

I decided it would be fun to take a scenic tour and also visit a few sites Lord of the Rings was filmed at, so I went on a Lord of the Rings Safari, while Krisanne and Eric went wine tasting.

The tour started at the nearby Remarkables mountain range, which were used as background for various scenes. We had a view of Deer Park Heights, where the warg attack was filmed. Several other minor scenes were filmed there as well.

The Remarkables


Deer Park Heights


We visited a site near the Kawarau bridge (site of the first commercial bungie jumping company in the world) where the "Pillars of the Kings" scene was filmed. Of course, the background and statues were digitally added, but the site is fairly recognizable.

Kawarau River bungee site


Pillars of the Kings


Then, we went to nearby Arrowtown where the "Ford of Bruinen" (Ringwraiths got washed away by Arwen) and "Gladden Woods" (Isildur rides a horse after taking the ring) scenes were filmed.

Ford of Bruinen


Gladden Woods


After this, the tour climbed into some very rugged terrain, to Skippers Canyon. The road was a narrow one lane dirt road the wound along into steep valleys. I took lots of pictures and hope they give a proper sense of how beautiful it was!

Skippers Canyon


Remarkables

White Water Sledging

If you've ever gone white water rafting, and thought, hey I bet this would be more fun if we weren't in a pesky raft, then white water sledging is for you!

The van picked us up and dropped us off at the power station just above the "Roaring Meg" rapids we stopped at yesterday. We wore a two piece full wetsuit, booties, flippers, helmets, and life jackets. We also used something similar to a boogie board, which we lay on and grabbed onto bars at the top. After a brief introduction in what to do (don't let go of the board, various hand signals, enter and exit eddies at a 45 degree angle), we were off to raft three rapids: maneater, roller coaster, and dead cow.

Sledging was quite fun, but quite tiring as you had to kick furiously to enter and exit the drop-in and drop-off eddies. Actually, I wound up kicking for most of the second trip down the river as I got caught in various currents and would drift too far from the middle. The rapids were a bit easier (class 3) than the ones we've rafted (up to class 5), but being directly in the rapids instead of on top in a raft really added a lot to the experience! The scenery was beautiful but we were busy trying to steer and stay together.

Our tour involved two trips down the river, and the customary leap from a boulder before the final exit. Overall this was really fun and in the afternoon we were ready to take it a little easier.

Nevis Bluff rapids


We didn't sledge here - these rapids are considered class 6, very long (about 1.2 kilometers), and very rocky (they were created by pushing the rocks off a cliff when the nearby road was constructed).

Queenstown

Today was my turn to drive, as I mentioned in the Dunedin entry. Driving on the left isn't so bad - so far the trickiest thing is hitting the wipers instead of the turn signal. There is a huge amount of muscle memory to overcome reaching for the gear shift with your left hand instead of the right hand, and also looking to the left to see the rearview mirror instead of looking to the right. Other than that, all of us have each driven one day and it has been fine.

The New Zealand countryside, on the south island, is very rugged: farms and pastures near the highway, snow capped mountains on the horizon. I've noticed enormous hedges here, which must be grown for a reason, perhaps as a wind barrier. The hedges look like giant shipping containers or railroad cars just sitting in the middle of the landscape - some are 20 feet tall and 50 yards or more longer.

All of us we making animal noises when passing sheep or cows, but after the dozenth sheep farm we got tired of that pretty quick. ;)

Today's drive was another spectacular trip from Dunedin to Queenstown. The road was at times a windy road through the hills, passing through scenic gorges. We stopped at one spot on the way which offered a view of the "Roaring Meg" rapids on the Kawarau river. While there, we saw a group white water sledging, which was one of the activites we came to Queenstown for!

Roaring Meg sign


Roaring Meg rapids

Dunedin

We arrived in Dunedin (pronounced "done eden") last night and had a nice cafe-style dinner in the center of town, called the Octagon. New Zealand's first university was located here, and the city still has a very college-town feel. Coffee shops, cafes, tons of student, etc.

Dunedin


We walked around the center of the city a bit, and then drove north to see Baldwin Street, listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's steepest street. The google calculator tells me the slope is an amazing 38.3 degrees on average (1 foot rise, 1.266 foot run). Baldwin street is a dead end, so when you get to the top you have to turn around and descend. I happened to be driving today, and it was raining on top of that. Near the top of the hill I had to stop as another car was turning around, and I began to burn rubber... so I hit the brakes and then slowly crept to the top, where we took a few pictures. I rode the brakes on the way down, but the resident of the house at the top of the hill (who was turning around earlier), passed me on the way down.

Baldwin Street, world's steepest

Moeraki Boulders

On the way to Dunedin we stopped south of Oamaru to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are large spherical boulders on the beach. We took various pictures of us goofing around on these rocks.

Krisanne inside a Moeraki Boulder...

Rangitata Rafting

Eric, Krisanne, and I drove to raft on the Rangitata River, a few hours outside Christchurch. This was my fourth rafting trip (two in the U.S. and one in Canada).

First, the scenery was absolutely spectacular. At the start of the trip, we had a view of a mountain range that fed the river. The guides told us it takes about eight hours for the glacier melt to reach our start spot, so the water was quite cold. We bought a CD of the rafting pictures and later I will upload one showing the valley and steep tree-covered hills on both sides.

The rafting itself was extremely fun, and we finished with a 400 meter class 5 rapid. While that was exciting I think the highlight of the trip was the extra stuff they let us do: 1) jump in the river and float feet first for a few hundred yards, 2) jump in from 10 meters above, and 3) jump in and swim again around a turn.

After the trip we drove towards Dunedin.

Kaikora

We drove up to Kaikora, taking a beautiful windy highway. Krisanne drove this day, and all of us are on the rental agreement so we will all take turns. She said driving on the left isn't too hard, it just takes a little more concentration when turning.

We intended to go whale watching, but the tour operator had a wait list. Plus, it was $120 per person! We didn't feel like paying that much to not be guarenteed a spot and not be guarenteed seeing whales anyway. So we walked down to the beach and dipped into the Pacific really briefly, and then settled into a bar and had lunch before departing. On the way back we stopped at a park and looked for seals, but didn't see any.

Kaikora Beach