We left our B&B in Clyde and drove back north through Cromwell
along the Clutha River, then west to Queenstown.
The land here gets much less rain than the west coast;
the rocky hills look like something out of Mordor!
Cool little mining shack....
On the road to Queenstown, we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge to see a LOTR filming site; it also happened to be the site of the highest bungee jumping bridge in the world......from the road the entrance was very discreet, then you turn a corner and open the door to this:
Even though it was cold enough for jackets and hats, tons of people were doing the ziplines and bungee jumping.
What we REALLY came to see was this:
The site where people jumped from
After the Bungee/Pillars of the Kings Stop, we headed into the old mining town of Arrowtown. Not 200 feet from the town is this pebbly bank by the river where the Flight to the Ford was filmed in The Fellowship of the Ring:
...then we strolled through the town, which contained some preserved historical sites....
...like this...
This....is a rug....???
We found a fun candy store.....
Further along the road was another film site that ended up being unreachable without a rugged 4-wheel drive, but in searching for it we ended up on the near summit of Coronet Peak, which had a lovely viewpoint of the beautiful valley below:
Queenstown is situated on the bank of Lake Wakatipu...beautiful!
We drove along the lakeside to this beautiful site:
.....and continued hiking to find the next filming sites (Ithilien/The Two Towers):
We found Sam's "coney-stew" fireplace!
...and where he saw the Oliphaunt...
....we kept heading up to the far tip of the lake to Glenorchy....
...the site of the Wizard's Vale and Isengard. A magnificent place!
....the 'further up and further in' along this very washboardy road....
....to Lothlorien!
More scenes from our drive back to Queenstown from Glenorchy...
This ended up being one of my favorite days.....Cory was so encouraging when I would be ready to give up and say, "Oh, we don't really need to see this, let's just skip it..." but he would say let's keep going, and we saw all of it....it was so fun!!
Parting shot: Totally random--
along the Clutha River, then west to Queenstown.
The land here gets much less rain than the west coast;
the rocky hills look like something out of Mordor!
Cool little mining shack....
Even though it was cold enough for jackets and hats, tons of people were doing the ziplines and bungee jumping.
What we REALLY came to see was this:
The site where people jumped from
After the Bungee/Pillars of the Kings Stop, we headed into the old mining town of Arrowtown. Not 200 feet from the town is this pebbly bank by the river where the Flight to the Ford was filmed in The Fellowship of the Ring:
This....is a rug....???
We found a fun candy store.....
Further along the road was another film site that ended up being unreachable without a rugged 4-wheel drive, but in searching for it we ended up on the near summit of Coronet Peak, which had a lovely viewpoint of the beautiful valley below:
On to Queenstown!
Queenstown is situated on the bank of Lake Wakatipu...beautiful!
We drove along the lakeside to this beautiful site:
.....and continued hiking to find the next filming sites (Ithilien/The Two Towers):
We found Sam's "coney-stew" fireplace!
...and where he saw the Oliphaunt...
....we kept heading up to the far tip of the lake to Glenorchy....
...the site of the Wizard's Vale and Isengard. A magnificent place!
....the 'further up and further in' along this very washboardy road....
....to Lothlorien!
More scenes from our drive back to Queenstown from Glenorchy...
Parting shot: Totally random--
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