The Farm

Being on the farm was awesome.  Once again, I felt at home with the countryside.  It reminded me of good ol' Vicksburg.  We were able to feed sheep, see beautiful scenery, and we each received a dog whistle to use.  The sheep were distinct in that there were merino sheep.  This is the high-quality wool that lines the inside of some coats.  When it was time to eat, my nose smelled the home cooking.  The inside of the farmhouse was also pretty.  The farmer’s wife (I forget her name, but she was so easy-going).

Anyway, the lunch was to die for.  Sausages, beef (formed into small burger patties), peas, carrots, potatoes, and rolls.  Some of the guys (including myself) cut the rolls in half to put the beef patties in between the bread to make it a burger.  There was tomato sauce (ketchup) that topped it off.  Pavlova was the dessert, which is an excellent English dessert.  It had kiwi garnished on top of it, which made it unique to New Zealand.  It was a fluffy and sugary dessert that did not disappoint!

Thank you Jessica Tandy for your Farm pictures, which helped jog my memory. 

Lake Ohau

Before arriving at Lake Ohau, the group visited a fruit stand.  The fruit stand included many fruit that can be found back home from apples to oranges to bananas.  Some of the fruit that is pure New Zealand included the kiwi and feijoa.  Feijoa was a fruit similar to the kiwi, with a different taste.

            The area we drove through included many vineyards, which was the southernmost wine-making valley in all of New Zealand.  This area reminded me way too much of southwest Michigan.  The rolling hills were also pretty.

            When we arrived at Lake Ohao, we walked alongside the rocky lake.  The scenery was still terrific, especially when the sun set over the mountains.  That also gave us the opportunity to see Mt. Cook, the highest point in all of New Zealand.  If we had a cloudless day at Fox Glacier, the group would have been able to see the tall mountain.

            Dinner once again was wonderful, with the main dish of lasagna.  Salad and bread helped complement the dish, along with some fruit.  The apple and feijoa crumble was also good.

            After dinner, some of us sat down to watch the New Zealand All Blacks play against Ireland in Rugby.  The All Blacks team was coming off of a Rugby Cup World Championship and a change in coach, but soundly beat the Irish.  I still do not know everything about Rugby, but sitting down and watching an entire game helped me understand the rules of it.  Craig, our bus driver and tour guide, helped explain different elements of the game. 

Bungy Jumping

How cool would it be if you went to where a phenomenon was started at?  Well, that was the case with my bungy jumping experience.  I went AJ Hackett Bungy nearby Queenstown, New Zealand.  The 43 meter jump of the bridge into a river might be considered crazy by many.  This might have been the scariest experience ever, but did not show it.  The free fall was crazy, stressful, and amazing all at the same time.  It was as much adrenaline and goose bumps as any sporting event that I have either participated or spectated.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound was on an overcast and cold day.  The group did see some excellent scenery going to the Sound.  The terrain that we traversed included rolling plains, mountains, occasional farmlands, and even passed by a few lakes.

The sound is technically a fjord due to the area filled by the sea as the glacier finished carving out the Milford area.  Another differentiation between the two is that sounds are also bigger in size compared to fjords.  The multiple waterfalls coming down the mountains painted an excellent picture despite the weather.  The wind actually made the water falling down from the waterfall swirl.

Wildlife was sought out during the boating experience.  We saw dolphins by our boat for a good 15 minutes or so.  We also came across some seals on the rocks of the mountain foothills.

Queenstown – Eating

            When the group first arrived at Queenstown, the pizza place that we arrived at was special.  The eatery let us have half priced drinks at the bar.  Winnie’s brought in multiple types of pizza to our tables for us to eat.  Before our pizzas, the establishment gave us bread and fries as appetizers.  The first pizza was the house chicken pizza, with chicken and sour cream.  Other pizza included Margarita (cheese), pepperoni, Hawaiian, and Greek along with other unique types of pizza.

            Fergburger was the sight of my massive burger challenge.  The “Big Al” burger included bacon, cheese, 2 eggs, beetroot (beets), lettuce, tomato, red onion, relish, and aioli.  Aioli is a “special sauce” that is a mayonnaise with garlic in it.  I finished the burger in Man vs. Food fashion in 21 minutes.  My biggest challenges were that I did not have any water to wash down the burger and I did not cut up the burger.  There were times I felt that my stomach could not take another bite, yet I somehow stomached the beast.

Lord of the Rings Safari (in Queenstown)

During this safari, I saw the many views that Peter Jackson used for the Lord of the Rings.  He used the surrounding area of Queenstown for all three movies, including a piece from the Hobbit.  The majority of the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers was filmed in this general area.  Digital imaging also played a part in the setting.  Below lists the areas and their place among the Lord of the Rings:

The Remarkables (Dimrill Dale.  Where the fellowship went down from the Mines of Moria into Lothlorien in the Fellowship of the Ring)

Closeburn (Amon Hen.  Where the fellowship splits due to the attack of Uruk-hai and orcs at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring)

Twelve Mile Delta (Ithilien. This is where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol watched Faramir’s rangers ambush the men of Harad that had Mumakil in the Two Towers)

Mt Earnslaw (The iconic scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where the fellowship trudges through the Misty Mountains)

Kawarau River (Pillars of the Kings.  The fellowship travels by boat to Amon Hen and eventually puts Boromir’s body into the river after falling to Lurtz.)

Glenorchy (Isengard and Lothlorien.  Isengard is the tower that belongs to Saruman the White, who summons the Uruk-hai on the fellowship during the Fellowship of the Rings and on Rohan in the Two Towers.  Lothlorien has already been described.)

Dart River (Isengard, Lothlorien, and Amon Hen.  All of these are already described, but gives different perspectives of each area.  This shows the golden leaves of Lothlorien and the aerial scenery of Amon Hen.)

Roteburn Track Road (Isengard. The Tower of Orthanc and the area around Isengard.)

Takaro Road (Fangorn Forest.  This is where Merry and Pippin ran from the orcs and urakai that captured them at Amon Hen.  They later ran into ents.  Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli looked into a burn pile next to Fangorn Forest here as well.  

Leaving Queenstown (Saw the area where Aragorn was wading in the river after the worgs attacked, and later picked up by his horse.  This occurred in the Two Towers.)

Also leaving Queenstown (The mountaintop terrace where the men of Rohan camped by the Pass of the Dead in the Return of the King).

A shoutout to the resources that helped describe and show the scenery:

Julie, the tour guide

Jacquie Pott, the other person from the Topdeck tourbus on this safari 

The Lord of the Rings location guidebook