Off to the Wonderful World of Auss: December 2012

**Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures

Hello from New Zealand!

I landed in Auckland (on the north island) Sunday night and flew down to Queenstown (on the south island) Monday morning. This country really takes its connection to the Lord of the Rings trilogy seriously. The Auckland international airport was decorated with Lord of the Rings decorations and signs.

Auckland Airport

"Gateway to Middle-Earth"

I was lucky and had a window seat for the flight down to Queenstown. The views of the country were gorgeous! From what I've seen so far, New Zealand is really pretty. I can't get over how pretty it is here.

From the airplane

Bekah, Melissa, and I spent the morning walking around Queenstown. The city is not very big, so we were able to see most of it. It's in a valley and surrounded by snow capped mountains and beautiful landscapes.

Random Note: there are no 1 or 5 cent coins here. There are only 10, 20, and 50 cent coins.

I found a kiwi!

Cool looking park

View from Queenstown

Me and Bekah

View from Queenstown

That afternoon, we went on a Lord of the Rings tour. The area around the city was used a lot in filming different scenes of the movies. We went from Queenstown to a town called Glenorchy and then to an area called Paradise. We saw The Remarkables (a pretty mountain range used throughout the movies), Twelve Mile Delta (where they filmed scenes of Ithilien and the oliphants), the landscapes of storms from Gandalf's ride to Isengard, the dead marshes, the forest where Boramir was killed, where they filmed Amon Hen where they filmed the Misty Mountains, and a farm that was used in the filming of Isengard, Hobbit country, Narnia, and Wolverine. (Pictures farther down)

On Tuesday, I spent the morning walking around Queenstown and the Queenstown Gardens. The gardens were really pretty and had great views of the Remarkables, surrounding mountains, and Lake Wakatipu (the lake that the city was built on). Everything here is so pretty!

Looking back at Queenstown

Pretty!

In the afternoon, we went canyoning. Canyoning involves zip-lining, repelling, sliding down rapids, jumping off waterfalls and cliffs, and floating down rivers. It was really fun! We started off zip-lining across a river about four times and then repelling down to the water. We spent the rest of the time working our way back down stream. I jumped off a waterfall, repelled myself into the water in the middle of a lake, and jumped off a cliff into the water. I also went backwards over a tiny waterfall and floated down rapids. The water was icy cold because it was coming from the glaciers. It was exciting and awesome. The group was just Bekah, Melissa, me, and the guides.

Lord of the Rings Tour:

I labeled most of the pictures that are of scenes from the movies. The non-labeled pictures are just pretty (and not necessarily in the films). I also included some YouTube clips of the scenes that were filmed here (the clip links are after their respective pictures). Also, if there is a book in the picture, the book is showing how the scene appears in the films.