From Down Under to Kiwis...

From Cairns, we hopped on a plane to Sydney where we stayed for a grand total of a night.  The next morning, we flew to Christchurch New Zealand where we stayed for one night (I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone...  Now let me tell you, exploding ears are not fun on an airplane.  I cannot tell you how many times we grabbed our earlobes.  We attempted to watch a movie and could only handle one ear bud in one ear so I decided to turn on the subtitles so we knew what was going on.  It was pretty awful.

The next morning we were to fly into Queenstown where we would meet for our (prepare for geekdom) our Lord of the Rings Tour.  Yes, I know, I know…  Well, Risa set her phone alarm for 5:30am or so so we could be ready to catch a cab by 6am and catch our flight.  Well, we awoke to a knocking on our door and it was like the movie “Home Alone.”  We both jumped out of bed and the chaos began.  Well, needless to say, we missed our flight.  But you know what?  Out of seven flights on this whole trip, you have to admit, we did pretty amazing!  So, we caught a later flight and shot an email to the tour company to pick us up from the airport.  That’s when we arrived at Customs and I had to be sure to claim the cheese Risa and I had bought for the plane ride.  (Seriously?  Australia has THEE best cheddar cheese in the world!)  We made it past customs and we met by the freezing cold.

(We're in freakin' New Zealand!)

As soon as we flew into Queenstown, we fell in love.  The Southern Alps are just a majestic sight to see.  The land is rich with greens and lakes and just so much beauty – all this from the view of the plane!  So we ditched our luggage with the airport administration and just caught our tour.  It was us with a young couple from Germany.  We began to smile and relax as we heard the tour guide named Val (a wonderful elderly woman) playing the soundtrack to LOTR and the German couple handing us the movie scripts.  We were very excited.  Like I said, we’re dorks ok?

(Southern Alps view form the plane.  Gorgeous!)

We began the tour by Val having us watch scenes from Two Towers with the Warg Riders.  That’s when we reached our destination at Deer Park.  We climbed up and up and up passing goats, ducks, llamas, al pacas, and deer.  The scenery was simply astonishing!  Val parked the van and we got out (Risa and I in our jumpers (hoodies) and beanies and scarf) to a sight that was just breathtaking.  There we stood on the edge of a cliff looking at the most beautiful lake and mountains I’ve ever seen.  Val said the lake is 400 meters deep and if you fell in the water, you would die of hypothermia real quick.  We believed her because just sitting on top of that mountain we were freezing!  It was a mere 7 degrees (Celsius) which is about 44 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now some of you may not think this is cold enough to snow but when you’re acclimated to Hawaii where it gets no colder than 68 degrees, you’d agree.

(The beginning of the LOTR tour, reading the scripts.)

We drove around to more film locations and then stopped at a place for our lunch.  Our meal consisted of antipasto and for Risa a Coke and for me, what they call a lemonade, which is basically Sprite.  Why Sprite?  Heck if I know, I’m a Diet Coke girl!  No worries, I had plenty of it! 

('Gollum' in The Two Towers hiding in The Dead Marshes.)

After our bellies were full the tour continued.  This is where we start to giggle a lot.  We stopped at a park with a fantastic lake and got out of the van.  Val then popped open the back and took out some of the movie props.  Not just any props, but LOTR heroes weapons!  She let us play with all of them and believe me when I say we took heaps of pictures!  We had so much fun, pairing up weapons and characters!  It was awesome!  I know, call us dorks again, it’s ok.

The tour continued and we went to a couple of rivers, including the river where the famous AJ Hackett Bungee Bridge is!  Crazy people, young and old jumping from this high bridge… Although, I would do it, Risa wouldn’t even set foot on the bridge.  The river in which we were standing above was in The Fellowship of the Ring.  We reenacted some of the scenes by pictures and continued on to check out part of the shots of where Arwen brings Frodo across the river and tells the Dark Riders to try and claim Frodo.

(Can you guess what statues we're supposed to be? Haha!)

Our tour ended a little late and we got back to the airport just in time to pick up our rental.  THIS was going to be an adventure!  Because I’m the gramma Risa put the car under my name so I drove first.  Now I don’t know if you guys know this, but in New Zealand, they drive on the opposite side of the road.  Having been driving for many years, Risa and I have America’s version of road rules engraved in our brains so it’s autopilot.  I cannot tell you how many times we almost killed each other.  We almost ran each other off the side of the road and into other cars.  Don’t even get me started on the round abouts!  Let’s just say it was all very exciting.  So we found our hostel (a YHA, which I highly recommend) and decided it best to walk in the small town of Queenstown.

(Risa and I with our wonderful guide, Val.)

Risa and I both love this town even though it’s a bit more touristy than what we’d like.  It is just gorgeous with its lakes and little shops all along the wharf.  Val and the German had told us about this burger joint called Fergburger that we must try so we got a burger to share with onion rings.  Risa started on the burger while I started on the onion rings.  After about a bite in a half, Risa was done with the burger.  The sauce they put on it was very different and that was all she could take.  I did my best to eat our money’s worth but wasn’t a big fan either.  We did well on the onion rings though so it wasn’t all wasted.

We cruised around a bit, shopping and then stopping at another place Val recommended called Patagonia.  This was a little chocolate shop with coffee, gelato and, you guessed it, chocolate!  We ordered a small cup of dark hot chocolate and were heaven!  It was THEE best hot chocolate we had ever had!  And it was perfect, considering it was 7 degrees outside – actually, cooler because the sun was going down.  Now sunsets in New Zealand are quite different than any other place.  They are, how do I put this?  Cleaner.  They cast shades of blues and purples and sunlight yellow.  Does that make sense?  And the reflection off the mountains and the lake?  Oh man, just perfect!

(THEE best hot chocolate EVER.  Patagonia.)

After we enjoyed our hot chocolate, we caught our appointment at a bar called Minus 5 Degrees.  This was basically an ice bar!  They dress you in super warm coats, gloves and Uggs.  Then they walk you into a freezer essentially, where you enjoy the ice sculptures and are a allowed one alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage.  There you can sit or stand for 30 minutes and take pictures of all the ice sculptures.  I was fearful for my new camera to go into the bar.  After all, it was –8.2 degrees Celsius and I did not want to bust my camera!  As soon as we exited the bar, we thawed our hands and selves and walked back to our hostel where we had a good sleep, not to mention a great view out the bathroom window!

The next morning, we were off to drive across the country!  With Risa navigating and me driving, we were sure to be doomed… But because of our faith in each other, we survived!  It’s amazing how diverse the lands are in New Zealand!  And the sheep!  Don’t even get me started!  There were literally seas of sheep!  More sheep in that country than people!  No joke!  We made our way up north to check out Mount Cook and freeze our bums off.  Then we headed east to Lake (Titikaka is what we called it since we kept forgetting its name) Twizel where we got a bite to eat (Risa with her famous sandwich craving and me with my famous fish ‘n chips).  We took thousands of pictures as we enjoyed the beauty and kept on towards Christchurch.

By the time we got into Christchurch we were both knackered and ready to go to bed… But we had planned on sleeping in the airport since we had a 6:30am flight the next morning.  We decided it best to get a room and didn’t care about cost, as long as there was a shuttle to the airport.  We agreed on a hotel named Sudima, which we splurged on!  It wasn’t really expensive, but compared to the hostels we’d been staying in, it was a 5 star hotel which included a bathtub! 

Next morning we awoke at 4:30am and got to the airport to pick up our stored baggage.  We had each stored one of our bags here so we only had to lug around one bag throughout New Zealand (a great choice too!).  Well, after 20 minutes or so of waiting for someone, we got security to help us out.  When we got to the ticket counter, we discovered that our flight that was scheduled for 6:30am, which we were on time for, was actually for the next day…  Well?  Like I said, we did pretty amazing throughout our journeys considering how many flights and hostels we had!  And btw, Risa pretty much planned out this whole trip on her own so props to her!  Anyway, we resolved the flight issue and caught the 9:30 one instead.  More flying….  Our poor ears.