6KiwiWannabes: January 2014

While the boys were out conquering Edoras and Rohan, the girls decided to head for the mountains to do a little exploring of our own.

We took the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Arthur's Pass for the day. It was a scenic 2 1/2 hour train ride over the Canterbury Plains and into the Southern Alps through 16 tunnels to reach Arthur's Pass, the South Island's highest settlement (900m above sea level - which explains our exhaustion on the hikes!).

Ready to depart Christchurch

Hmmmm… this is fun...

In one of the 16 tunnels

As always, it's so hard to capture the view, but it was an amazing one from the train

Once we reached the train station at Arthur's Pass, we checked out the village. That consisted of: a park information centre, two restaurants/shops, some backpackers accommodations and several cabins all on one street and took about 10 minutes to see it all. We did spot a Kea bird right away, which was one thing we were hoping to see!

Julia and a Kea bird (a "mountain parrot")

At the Arthur's Pass National Park information centre, the park rangers had some great ideas and suggestions of hikes that would suit our little group. We started out on the Millennium Walk.

After admiring such a beautiful little waterfall on that walk, we moved on up the road a bit to tackle the Devil's Punchbowl Track.

Now THAT is a waterfall!

After some refreshment at the local eatery, we hiked along the river and just took in the most amazing scenery.

She's becoming quite the tramper!

And before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train and return to Christchurch.

We kind of liked the outdoor observation car on the train
(for a very small amount of time)

It was a great girl's day out and one we'll always remember!

Throughout our South Island adventure, we enjoyed seeing many locations from The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit trilogies. Here are some of the highlights...

- Cheers!

Mount Sunday

Mount Sunday was home to Edoras, the capital of Rohan. It took the LOTR production crew eight months to build the Golden Hall & surrounding buildings on top of these rocky cliffs in the Rangitata River Valley near Mt Potts Station. Then after filming, all of the buildings were removed & the site was returned to its natural state. Which is just how we found it. Fresh snow had just fallen on the surrounding mountains when we visited in January! Very unusual for summer in New Zealand. It was a beautiful day at an incredible site.

Ben & I booked 2 seats on this 6WD thru Hassle Free Tours in Christchurch

3 hrs later we viewed Mt Sunday (bottom left) in the distance

Carrying our heavy weapons made the hike to the top a bit more rigorous

Ben enjoys an epic view of the Riddermark...

...and Helms Deep in the distance

The Mavora Lakes

I led the whole family on this detour between Queenstown & Dunedin to the beautiful Mavora Lakes, a popular area for camping, trout fishing & kayaking. Several scenes from The Fellowship of the Ring pertaining to the breaking of the fellowship were filmed in this area, as well. Most notably, Frodo & Sam cross to the eastern shore on their journey to Mordor from this spot on North Mavora Lake...

I couldn't resist the temptation to take a dip in this icy-cold lake ; )

I have great respect for Sean Astin (Sam),
because that water was cold as!

The edge of Fangorn Forest was also filmed just south of the Mavora Lakes

Arrowtown

While we were in Arrowtown, we found two film locations from The Fellowship of the Ring: "The Fords of Bruinin" pictured above...

and "The Gladden Fields" pictured below...

Isildur loses the ring

Deagol & Smeagol find the ring

Glenorchy & Paradise

While in Queenstown, Ellie, Mimi, Ben & I took a half-day tour of LOTR locations with Nomad Safaris. We travelled to Glenorchy & Paradise Valley at the north end of Lake Wakatipu...

The Glenorchy Boat Shed

Geeks on the dock at the Glenorchy Boat Shed

Beorn's House from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Saruman sends out his army from Isengard

Isengard

The Fellowship enters Lothlorien

Hot drinks in Lothlorien. Mmmm. Good Milo!

Twelve Mile Delta

Our Nomad tour also stopped at this location, just twelve miles outside of Queenstown. Two scenes from The Two Towers were filmed here...

Gollum brings "a brace of coneys" to the hobbits

Frodo & Sam peer over the ridge to see these Oliphants for the first time

The Pelorus River

Finally, the first location we found on the South Island was here at the Pelorus River Bridge, between Picton & Nelson. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this location is featured in the river escape sequence that loosely depicts the "Barrels Out of Bond" chapter from the book. One of our favorite parts from both the book & the movie...