Day 37 Edoras

We managed to score a 4 bed share room for just the two of us last night so we had a really good night sleep – getting more than 6 hours is becoming a rarity. Then we quickly checked out and set off towards Mt Summers and the gravel road that would eventually lead us to the platau where Edoras was filmed in The Lord of The Rings!

 There were no signs to take up to Mt Sunday and it only appears on a handful of maps, again, every place seems to have several different names and occasionally, as in this case, things just aren’t on a lot of maps. Anyway we took a road which looked as if it was in roughly the right direction, via a strange detour through private property… oops.

 Yes I made Axel pull over and then I stood in the middle of the road to take a picture... never going to quite get used to how deserted the roads are! 

 The terrible gravel path that resulted in us both having sore heads

 (it was so bouncy we often bit our heads on the roof of the car no matter how slow we went...)

 Anyway we saw some amazing landscapes but we didn’t make it all the way for 2 reasons, we still weren’t sure we were on the right road and didn’t want to carry on for hours in the wrong direction, and the road was terrible for the car. They do run tours to the spot and one passed us… it had 6 wheels and was still taking it very slow. After that we figured we weren’t too fussed about the mountain itself it was more just seeing the landscape in person, since in the films they used lots of different areas for the filming.

Today was filled with beautiful views as we were treated to this on the drive into Akaroa!

After that little detour it was off to Akaroa! All the hostels in the small French town were fully booked (there was only 2 actually) but we found a little farm-based hostel out in the country side. It’s up on the top of a hill so haslovely views of the harbor and to top it off has great walks all around the ridge. 

P.S I'm about 5 days behind with posting stuff on here, I've written my daily entries and the like but it's a nightmare trying to get hold of internet!

Day 26 Glenorchy

Another beautiful sunny day in Queenstown led to a lovely morning walk down the lake to Frankton, along the golf course and through some beautiful scenery. Perfect way to start the day!

(Winston Churchill's Boat in WWII)

Once everyone else was up we went to the iSite, a kind of tourist information centre they have in most towns, and booked some bits and pieces now we could be reasonably sure we’d have at least two days of sunshine. Me and Axel booked to go on a 4x4 tour of the region which showcases alot of scenery used in various films with particular attention to the Lord of the Rings. And then we all booked an exciting trip for tomorrow!

I'm blaming the water in Queenstown but regardless of the why, all our hair has gone a little crazy since being here so ignore the crazy monstrosity on my head in this photo...

After lots of interesting stop offs at different cliffs, roads, bridges, and a whole host of interesting stories and facts from our tour guide about everything in the area, from cow breeding, horses, the formation of the landscape as well as funny stories from various films we stopped at an idylic spot for a picnic. And while there these two fellows walked over to join us

 I attempted a panoramic sort of shot which has kind of worked I think 

 Some random cows milling out in the road.. pretty standard for New Zealand

 The driver pulled over in a forest and gave us all a tiny bit of leaf asked if we liked spicy food and then told us to try it... well 6hrs later the tip of mine and Axel's tongues are still completely numb!

The 4x4 tour was really fun, we saw some amazing scenery, I spent a good portion of the trip just soaking up the scenery, trying to place where I’d seen everything before and the rest chatting to our amazing tour guide. The tour guide was hilarious and really knowledge so he explained the importance of Jade to Maoris, how traditional tattooing is done as well as lots of information on the landscape.

This is one of my favourite views from Queenstown and this spot will probably we one of the lasting memories I take from my time here

I finally went to Agies Shack for dinner when I got back, then it was a quick stop off at the supermarket to buy some supplies in for the next few days, and an adventure in the kitchen making fruit pancakes with George and Cara before trying to get an early night as we had a ridiculously early start tomorrow morning!