New Zealand Day 4: The Day I Became a Ringwraith & Went to an Ice Bar (3/25/08)

One of the rules of visiting New Zealand is going on a Lord of the Rings Tour. Okay, it might not be an office rule, but it sure is number one on Nicole’s Rules of New Zealand. While most people chose to go bungee jumping, sky diving and hang gliding (which I totally would have done if I had enough money), I went on a LotR tour via horseback. Now, anyone who knows me well enough also knows that I have a fear of horses – I find their ridiculously large eyes and equally massive legs very frightening. I figured with this tour it was a way to hit two birds with one stone: complete the tour AND quell my fear of horses.

I saw this on the way to my tour. too perfect

photo opportunity on the way to Paradise Reserve

The company, Dart Stables was about a 45 minute drive from downtown Queenstown. On the drive there we stopped a couple of times for classic photo opportunities. One of the spots that we took pictures was from a scene in the movie. The scene is where Frodo and Sam see the Oliphants for the first time and are then taken by Faramir.

This is what we saw, although the scene is shot looking up, not down like we were

what the shot looks like in the movie

The ride itself took place on a reserve called Paradise, which was exactly what it was – absolutely gorgeous. We mounted our horses and broke into groups of 6 each group accompanied with a leader. I rode a beautiful brown horse by the name of Pip (please note: this was the only horse with a LotR name. Clearly it was fate). The first LotR site we visisted on Paradise Reserve was Lothlorien. Our guide explain why the forest looked so different than how it is shown in the movie, which is due to the fact that half the forest in the movie was built as a set! Regardless it was still beautiful.

hello Lothlorien

Next we made our way to where the Tower of Isengard is set. Isengard itself is digitally placed onto this piece of land, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. You could completely recognize the area as well as the mountains in the background. Those mountains were the ones used as the Misty Mountains, a huge mountain range in Middle Earth. The mountain we saw was Methedras, which is the southernmost mountain in the range. At the base of the mountain, the Plains were used as the Golden Mile, where Gandolf rides Shadowfax to get help for the Battle of Helms Deep. I’ll stop here as to no show all my nerdiness.

Place Isengard here

The Misty Mountains

The last LotR filming place was another forest scene, one that I recognized right away. The forest was used as Amon Hen, where the Fellowship breaks up at the end of the first movie. The most notable part of Amon Hen is that it is where Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo and then is killed trying to protect him. It was amazing to be able to recognize a set of trees so vividly – it was crazy. In that same area there was a tree so large that you could actually hide a horse behind it. It’s the little things in life that we love. A little ways away our guide showed us there a scene from the not yet released Chronicles of Narnia movies was shot and then from the upcoming Wolverine movie.

Amon Hen

The whole ride which lasted about an hour and a half was beyond beautiful. It felt as though I was actually in Middle Earth, a land known for vivid colors and astounding views. I was completely lost in my surroundings and amazed that there is still a place like this, in a world filled with skyscrapers and automobiles. I feel bad for people who are too busy to not take notice of the world’s beauty. I hope that I have more time later in life to continue experiencing and taking in everything around me.

Fellow Ringwraiths

Our guide was a funny guy from England who said he left the country to explore the raw nature of New Zealand. When he found out I was from California he made a reference to how it was better that I was from northern California, not southern and that those girls wouldn’t be able to figure out the reins for the horse. True? You decide.I was very proud of myself for facing my fear of horses and doing well on my ride. I am so blessed to be able to do this tour – while the sets were gone, the ride was calming and worth wild for true fans.

Making our way along the trail

Pip and I played shadow puppets

and then I met the Hobbits!

Later that night we went to a bar called Minus 5, as it was minus 5 degrees Celsius. We were outfitted in uggs, giant fur lined parkas and gloves. We looked like Eskimos! Entrance fee was $22 which included 1 drink and then $5 drinks after that. The bar was sponsored by Absolute vodka, so all drinks included that. All of the glasses were made from ice and they had big ice sculptures lining the walls – it was unreal. We took tons of pictures even though our hands were completely numb.

as you can see everything was ice except the door separating us form the outside non-frozen world

the drinks looked pretty and tasted amazing

this is how Eskimos say hi

In other news, we went to another bar, drank too much and one of the girls in our group won a bar dancing contest. We try to keep it classy.

the guys and our tour leader, Shane, pose for a picture. too much

New Zealand Day 3: Glacier Hikes

I have never been one for hiking. After today, however, my mind has been changed! I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of beautiful things in my short time on this blessed planet, but seeing a Glacier close up was an experience unrivaled by anything else I have ever done.

We started the morning out by having breakfast in the presence of a gorgeous sunrise. That seems to be a trend here – the skies are always beautiful (side note, the clouds move REALLY fast here). Once we had our fill we went off to the guide center where we were outfitted with wool socks, huge boots and a rain jacket. I had taken it upon myself to bring gloves, a vest, scarf and a hat. It’s amazing that a girl from California even has all of that!

After a short drive we were at the base of a beautiful mountain that had a rainforest on either side and a Glacier smack in the middle. I felt as if I had been placed at the entrance of some magical and slightly backwards land. The mountain as I said, is squeezed in between two rainforests, making the Glacier 1 of the 2 worlds Temperate Glaciers. The only other one in the world is in Argentina.

Our group took a hike up the side of the mountain where it was safe to get onto the Glacier. While we were hiking it as though every breath I took was stolen from me by the remarkable views. Similarly, with each step I realized how wonderful the world is and how amazing God is. During the hike we were surrounded by waterfalls which we could drink from – we all stopped to fill up our water bottles with the fresh water the land supplied us. After about 40 minutes we were at the Glacier.

We strapped on spikes to the bottom of our boots (called crampons), grabbed ice poles and stepped onto the Glacier. I still can’t believe that I was walking on a frozen river! Everything about it inspired awe; I never wanted to leave. Our guide walked ahead of us, ice pick in hand, carving steps out for us to walk on.

Our time up there was far too short. We had a lot of fun stoping and posing for silly pictures. We played around with ice picks (very safe, very safe), and got to climb around in an ice cave! I hope that people got more out of it than that though. As corny as it sounds, I felt that I became emotionally attached to the land and had spiritual and physical transformations.

On the hike down I talked to one of the guides who had an amazing story. He was sent by UoW to work in Antarctica for a couple of months which blew my mind. We chatted about how it is so important to love everything that you do in life and that if you don’t love it, it’s not worth it. While I was on the hike and on the way down I thought how I would enjoy being a guide for a nature walk so I could share God’s world and wonder with everyone else. The glacier hike was the most relaxing and important part of my trip to the Southern hemisphere so far.

Following the hike we drove through one of the largest national parks in NZ, Westland National Park. We made a quick stop at Haast Pass which has the longest single land bridge in NZ (and there are about 150 of them). We then stopped at Thunder Creek falls, a massive waterfall that fell into a beautiful, calm stream. Besides the sandflies, it was absolutely prefect. Of course I happened to be wearing my Hello Kitty ‘Save Our Planet’ shirt, which was fantastic.

The last pit stop of the day was in a small town called Makarora which had delicious ice cream for $1 a scoop…which was around 75 cents $US. On the drive to our final destination we passed a town called Arrow Town, where I am fairly sure that I will live when I get older. It was at the base of a mountain and surrounded by vineyards. It doesn’t get any more perfect than that.

New Zealand Day 2: Hokitika & Fox Glacier (3/23/08)

Happy Easter! We woke up early today, packed our bags and headed downstairs to meet our group. It seemed as though there were about 50 college ages students waiting to get on board our coach (as well as 1 married couple – weird). Out of the 50 students, 17 of us were from Wollongong. I ended up meeting a kid from LA on the trip (from Westwood…you know the type) who of course has to say something about me being from Nor Cal. Everyone else on the trip seemed nice, although some of the girls seemed a little dumb, which happens to be an American trend over here, sadly. Most of the people on the trip were American, a few from Japan and a couple people from Mexico & German.

We started the trip driving through Caterbury, nothing too exciting however. After about an hour or so we saw our first great view – The Southern Alps! We stopped in a town called Authur’s Pass which has about 60-70 people living there. The town itself is nestled in the mountains adding to the old time feel. We then drove a tad bit more and stopped at a place called Death’s Corner. DC over looks a large part of the mountain range, but unfortunately it was very overcast that day and our views weren’t as good as they could be. Needless to say, it was still a beautiful view and a great first photo op.

For lunch we stopped in a town called Hokitika, where we first toured a Jade Factory. We went inside and one of the workers explained how they cut all of the Jade as well as the meaning of all of the shapes. There are four main shapes that they cut the Jade into which are:

-Fish Hook (Hei Matau): represents strength and determination, and brings peace, prosperity and good health. Also provides a safe journey over water
-Manaia: the carrier of supernatural powers. Traditionally depicted with the head of a bird, the body of a man and the tail of a fish- representing sky earth and sea, and the balance between them. Protects the wearer from evil
-Triple Twist (Crossover): Represents a bonding friendship, two lives becoming one for all eternity
-Spiral (Koru): Depicts new beginnings, growth and harmony.

There were tons of necklaces and charms all over the store that were beautiful. I was close to buying a pair of earring…until I saw that the price tag as well over $100.

After the tour of the Jade Factory three of my friends and I went to find some lunch, where I bought a Meat Pie – my new favourite food (please note that I am writing in Australia and they spell everything with ‘u’ hence favorite being spelled favourite). We ate lunch on the beach on a beautiful sunny day while looking out at the Tasmen Sea.

Our next stop was in another small town which had some of the most interesting bathrooms I have ever seen. In order to open or close the door you had to push a little button. If you wanted Toilet Paper – press a button; want soap – wave you hand under the dispenser; same with the water and paper towels and the dyer. In order to have the door open from the inside you have to go through the whole hand washing process – or it will open in 10 minutes. So if you take longer than 10 minutes…you’re in trouble. They also had great music in there; actually it was fantastic music.

Our last stop of the evening was Fox Glacier a fantastic town! When we first went there we went on a small hike through the rainforest and over a very, very wobbly suspension bridge. On of the guys on the tour kept making the suspension bridge swing back and forth which made everyone else in the group very upset. Grumble Grumble.

The hotel that we were staying in was very nice. The room I was in had it’s own shower & television set: perfect. After we had dinner we went on another hike to look for glow worms! They are such interesting creatures! It turns out that the glowing is actually them digesting their food and they only live 5-7 days.

I already feel as though I could stay in NZ forever. The air feels so clean and crisp, I would love to just stay out in nature more. In addition I am falling in love with traveling. I have never had the chance to do so before when I was younger, but I want to make a point of traveling more now.

New Zealand Day 1: Christchurch (3/22/08)

After leaving from the Sydney airport, we arrived in New Zealand around midnight and finally made it to our hostel (side note, people sleep in the airport; we should have done that to save some money!). The hostel that we stayed in was very nice but we only booked enough beds for 6 people…and we had 12. So the room which I stayed in which should have had only 2 people in it ended up with 5. We simply pushed the beds together and had 3 people sleep there and two on the floor

When we woke up we headed down to the city of Christchurch exploring the markets, fudge factory and other places that give free samples to munch on (clearly we’re poor college students). Following our bumming around, we visited the Botanical Gardens of Christchurch which were beautiful. We probably spent a good 2 hours there looking at all of the flowers, playing in the giant trees and gathering around the World Peace Bell. Beneath the World Peace Bell there were was the word PEACE written in different languages, including Sign Language. Holler at World Peace.

Once we had enough of the Gardens we headed over to the center of the city, the Cathedral. The Cathedral is over 150 years old and absolutely beautiful. I will write more about the it later, as I spent more time there on another day, but I do have one thing to point out. On several of the murals on the wall, there were hundreds of Swastikas, and I am a little confused as to their meaning. I thought that the symbol was Native American in origin, but I see that I am probably wrong. If anybody knows, please enlighten me.

For dinner that night the 12 of us went to an Asian restaurant which allowed us to have our own room. We sat at a large circular table that had a rotating circular plate in the middle. To pass the time we set a camera up on the plate, pressed the self timer and spun to camera around to see who it would land on – a great way to pass the time.

Then it was time to try out New Zealand’s night life. Somehow during the night the girls in the group ended up at a bar that was having a private 21^st birthday party for some guy named Jonno. When we were up there we found the birthday boy who insisted that we all take a tequila shot with him – who were we to say no? The party was fun, but it was winding down and towards the end it was just us and a couple of his friends (he had disappeared). We finally left to go back to the hostel to get some rest for our big trip.