Queenstown (land of the bungy)

I arrived in Queenstown just after midday, and gotoff the bus round the back of a street somewhere. Out came the lonely planet map of queenstown ...i eventually got my barings and headed towards the hostel, i saw the sign Aspen lodge...and saw a building just couple metres past it with backpackers on the side. cool i wandred in and started to check in though was a little strange as they had got my booking slightly wrong then as  my card was in the machine and the chap was telling me how much it was, we realised i was actually at the wrong hostel it was alpine. i had gone right past aspen and onto the next !!! nevermind he didn't seem to annoyed , though i was quite embarrassed. Anyhow checked ionto the right hostel which was very nice, a ten bed dorm but it was very big and had two bathrooms in it too. I ditched my stuff and walked into town in search of what the hell i was gonna do.

I'd decided i really didn't want to through myself of anyledges with a bit of elasticated string attached to me ...plus it was every expensive. ithough about one of the fast bpoat rides but they were a little extortionate too. I opted for a nice leisurely tour instead; called paradise found( explain more later ). 

For the rest of the afternoon I just pootled about the city and did some tinternet.. I thought the city was lovely, you didn’t feel like you were in a city at all. Its surrounded by beautiful scenery, with the lake and Remarkables mountain range( this mountain range is very unique in its orientation and when the sunsets has an amazing orange glow upon it which the LOTRs director used and reproduced several times for that amazing firey colour of Mordor) one side and an alpine forest up a steep slope the other. With the gondolas coming down it. There’s one main street but lots of little quaint streets too. It is extremely commercial but you don’t feel it has been spoilt .Then I wandered back to the hostel and cooked me self some dinner….whilst in the kitchen I bumped into Mai yet again, a girl from our dorm room in lemon tree( Blenheim) this was about the 5th  or 6th I’d bumped into her, was good to see another familiar face we chatted for a while that evening then both had early night s as the other youngsters( I have to say slightly chavy girls) went out for a night on the town. They were very considerate though and didn’t make a lot of noise when they got back. I really am turning into an old fart, but really didn’t have the money to go out anyhow.

The next day I had a leisurely morning just organising things ahead, then went on the paradise found trip in the afternoon. When I got there, it was just me and another lad, a little geeky well probably similar to me, he had mainly come on the trip as he is an avid LOTRs fan. We then picked up a couple who were on there honey moon bless ‘em, and that was it just the four of us and our tour guide/driver Sarah. She’d done quite a lot of travelling and was very interesting, and enthusiastic about the area. First stop was at twelve mile delta, one of the LORTs locations. We stood on the very ground that Froddo and Sam had laid in the scene where they over looked the Othilinths( elephant thingys) You could see very little had been changed for the scene, they had just dug up a few plants then replanted them. 

Next stop was Million dollar view, it was stunning looking across the lake upon islands and mountains and the valley that had been carved out by glaciers many moons ago. ( thpugh the Maori legend was slightly different, involving a giant capturing the chiefs daughter and then being slaughtered by a brave young man who was in love with the girl. As the giant fell to the ground his body created the lake….aahh beautiful) We then drove along the famous lakeside road to Glenorchy, which has been filmed for many car adverts even on the day we were there, we had to wait for couple mins. We then took a look at a couple more LOTRs sites including the stunning backdrop to Mordor which was hardly changed at all for the film. This was in Paradise, an area named for its beauty and tranquillity. At this spot there was also the reminants of a film camp; where they had been filming the next Narnia film. We then had a short walk around a lagoon/lake which had been the inspiration for the dead lake in the film. It was a beautiful lake with stunning black swans. Heading back we stopped briefly in the tiny town of Glenorchy to warm up with a hot choc then headed back to Queenstown.

I was very lazy and treated myself to fish and chips having a moosh around the town and buying myself a woolly hat too as it was getting pretty darn chilly now…roll on the English summer!!!