Day 42 6.9.2011 – Kayaking Milford - Distance Travelled: 3163km

Milford Sound

Hello all,

Today we got up and headed out with a group to Kayak around Milford Sound, which is technically a fjord. We were in a group of about 15 and were all dressed up very silly in the thermals and other gear required so we didn’t freeze out on the water!

We had two guides who were good fun and pointed out to us the wildlife when it appears. Like seals just relaxing of the rocks just above the water, also areas where no wildlife can get to as it is completely cut off by water and mountains.

We were out for around 4 hours and during this all joined up as a big raft to just float in the middle of the water eating lunch and taking in the sights. There are sheer cliff faces surrounding us and huge waterfalls plunging into the water. 

It was good fun and great seeing around a different way to how most people view the Milford Sound (by a big cruise ferry). The waters got a bit choppier nearing the end of our voyage which made it good fun to paddle and trying not to tip the kayaks over!!

The rest of the afternoon we just sat in the lodge lounge in the sun playing games, as I was not up for driving back after all that paddling!

This is me signing off....J

Day 41 5.9.2011 – Down, along and up to Milford Sound - Distance Travelled: 3163km

Queenstown → Te Anua → Milford Sound

Hello all,

Rather a sedate day today, we left Queenstown (where I think I could live easily for a few years) and headed over to Milford Sound on the coast nestled in between some rather large mountains and tucked away in a fjord. We are staying in a new built lodge, well parked on a powered site but still. 

The road down had some amazing locations, such as a huge expanse of scrubland, a mirror lake and a hand excavated downwards tunnel through the mountain. It was a long drive but worth it as it was lots of fun again. Tomorrow morning we are not cruising around the Milford Sound (by the way a Sound is a feature of coastline over here) as most people do but Kayaking it for a few hours instead getting up close with the features around it!

This is me signing off...J

Day 40 4.9.2011 – LOTR tour!!! - Distance Travelled: 2872km

Queenstown

Hello all,

Today was amazing, we got a personal tour as no one else was on it today. We got picked up from the site and taken around all day to LOTR locations in and around Queenstown. We went from where Sam and Frodo saw the Oliphants to where Gollum was captured by Faramir and a few other places around there. Then onto the River Anduin and the Pillars of Argonath, where the fellowship pass under them from Lothlorien. Then onto lunch where we were shown the original scripts from all 3 movies!!!

After lunch we headed off back to Arrowtown and were actually shown the right locations where things were filmed, as I had got it completely wrong. We went to the trail where Isildur was attacked and killed in the river. We had some photos taken being the orcs firing the arrows into the river, also the location the black riders head through the water to get to Arwen. 

Finally we were given an hour with a huge assortment of props from the movie, so basically Mikey and I were running about with large weapons!!! But we did get some really good photos.

Our guide, Frances, was amazing, she had been an extra on the movies and was such a geek, it was great talking to her about random parts of the movies and the books. It was really good having someone else knowing what they were talking about. Also the Trevor, who was a guide in-training, was a really cool guy with lots of interesting ideas and jokes.

All in all one of the best days so far, of course that’s my personal view.

This is me signing off....J

Day 39 3.9.2011 – Luge, lunch and LOTR - Distance Travelled: 2872km

Queenstown

Hello all,

Today we stayed in Queenstown, we decided to go up the other skyline in New Zealand that is here, its much steeper to get up but again the view is amazing from up there. Of course as we were there it meant that we had to go on the Luge track there!!! There were only two courses but it was still just as fun racing down the courses again the guys. Again Steven was a terror! He really does try to drive you off the course him and Mikey were locked in a duel down part of the course and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and as I tried to get past Steven nearly took me out as well!! 

It is a lot of fun but there is no way we could have any sort of track like this in the UK, mainly for health and safety but the other reason we have no mountains (scenic hills) big enough near where people live for it to be any good.

So after we got back down the mountain, there was a choice the outdoor mini golf or the indoor, we decided to check out the indoor and to our amazement it was really good!! 18 huge holes with lots of different paths and event that could happen, like the gondola that your golf ball could take and you wouldn’t know where it was going to come out after it went off the ramp!

That was a lot of fun and much better than the small outdoor one over the road, we went into downtown Queenstown to find some lunch and found a great little fish and chip shop that cooked fresh fish caught that morning from the lake!

Then we looked around the small flea market that was on the waterfront, it was great seeing some local craft with the backdrop of a huge mountain range.

Oh and one last thing we walked over to another Lord of the Rings shop so to speak, one of the companies that does some of the tours has a collection of the LOTR items for sale. So we walked in and started looking, the woman in the office kindly asked us if we wanted to hold some of the weapons. Both myself and Mikey’s mouths dropped to the floor!!!

Mikey got to wear Gimli’s Helmet and hold his Axe, which was really heavy. I got to hold and swing an Elven Scimitar and Aragorn’s sword Anduril, which was nearly as tall as I was!!! 

That was a great experience and completely unexpected, although we may be able to play about with them more on the full day tour tomorrow!!! But we shall see.

This is me signing off...J

Day 38 2.9.2011 – There be gold in them there hills! - Distance Travelled: 2872km

Wanaka  → Queenstown

Hello all,

Today we woke to a great view over looking more mountains and Lake Wanaka. We headed down into town just to have a walk around as it is very picturesque, we had to park next to the lake so you are treated to even more great views!

We went over to another Puzzle World, this time it was much bigger with another cool illusion room, also an area with a perspective room, this I was the same technique used in Lord of the Rings to get the massive height difference between some of the characters. 

We made our way down towards Queenstown, via another mountain pass with a very long climb up over and an amazing road twisting all the way down like you see on Top Gear and in Italy where it descends very quickly. Now in a motor home nearly 7 meters long its made for an interesting trip down.

After making it down we headed into the very pretty and traditional mining town of Arrowtown. It grew due to the gold rush and you still can pan for gold...which we did!! We hired out some pans and made our way to the river to find our fortune.

The long and the short of it......we didn’t find anything!! We don’t think mainly gold looking rocks which were yellow or orangey! But on the plus side this was another Lord of the Rings location!!! The ford at which Arwen summons the water horses to kill the 9 black riders while she is trying to save Frodo!! It was cool seeing another place in real life.

We are now in Queenstown, which again is surrounded my mountains and at the edge of another lake. We shall see what adventures we get up to in the adventure capital of the world.

This is me signing off.....J