New Zealand: Week 1
Oh New Zealand, you beautiful, beautiful beast. One week in and you have already become one of my favourite destinations.
Christchurch
Christchurch is a city on the east coast of New Zealand's south island. We spent a pleasant day walking around, checking out some of the tourist hotpots like the Canterbury museum and the Botanical Gardens.
On our second day, we picked up our wagon and headed out on the open road!
Mt. Sunday (Edoras!)
What an introduction to the high country this was! From Christchurch, we drove Little LAD31 through the incredibly scenic Ashburton District and arrived at a little lodge a short drive from Mt. Sunday.
This was my first taste of Middle Earth and it did not disappoint. Mt. Sunday was the filming location for Edoras, the capital of Rohan in the second LOTR movie.
The views from the top were spectacular: verdant slopes climbing up to rocky summits, pebbled streams running softly through rolling fields, magnificent ice-peaked mountains peering down the valley. Amazing.
I loved every second we spent there; it was a perfect way to start our road trip.
Lake Tekapo
Further down the south island is Lake Tekapo.
Here, we followed a walking trail up to the top of Mt. John and were rewarded with a pretty cool view of the surrounding area.
Afterwards, we drove up to check out Mt. Cook, New Zealand's tallest mountain. Unfortunately, we were unable to fully appreciate its gradness as it was too cloudy to see it all.
Reaching a height of 3100m, Mt. Cook is three times taller than Snowdon, but still less than half the height of Everest.
Eglinton Valley (Misty Mountains)
On the road to Queenstown, we passed through the Eglinton Valley which appeared in The Fellowship of the Ring as parts of the Misty Mountains. Not as misty in real life.
Queenstown
We were back to hostels for our stay in Queenstown as the campsites were a bit too far from the centre. It is a pretty nice place, although very touristy. The streets are lined with lots of outdoorsy type shops (mountain warehouse, Kathmandu, etc.) as well as a variety of decent looking restaurants.
For dinner, we went to the famous Fergburger to see what all the fuss was about (we had read lots of gleaming reviews for this place). When we got there, the queue was out the door. Later, it would go on to extend down the road so it was lucky we got there when we did.
I thought my burger was absolutely delish but Siwan felt a bit indifferent towards hers (but then again, that's what happens when you order 'plain' anything).
During our visit, we had a look around some of the shops and trekked up Ben Lomond, the mountain which overlooks the town. The view was pretty good!
Milford Sound
This was our first and only trip to the Fjordlands down at the southern end of the South Island. Milford Sound is actually a fjord (glacially cut valley) and not a geographical sound as the name suggests. It was a 9 hour round trip to drive down there from Queenstown but there was plenty to look at on the way; the Fjordlands are a beautiful bit of country.
Shortly after arriving, we hopped on one of the cruise ships and headed out into the bay. The cruise, which lasted just under 2 hours, included guided commentary and a lot of photo ops. As with pretty much everywhere else we had been so far, the scenery was breathtaking.
Wanaka
A little way up the highway towards the west coast lies the town of Wanaka, a popular tourist destination. We began our day here with a stroll around the lake to have a look at the 'Wanaka tree'. This solitary willow tree is probably the most photographed in New Zealand.
Afterwards, we headed over to the blue pools. To get there, we drove north out of Wanaka and then took a short walking trail from the roadside. The area was a tranquil haven of deep, clear pools nestled within the forest. It was just a shame that we didn't bring our swimming stuff!
New Zealand has been keeping us extremely busy and we're loving every second of it. This is definitely a destination that should feature on everyone's travel itinerary :D
