NEW ZEALAND PART 2: THE HEART OF THE SOUTH ISLAND
The first thing that comes to (lots of) peoples' mind when they hear of New Zealand is The Lord of Rings (LOTR): "Is the scenery really as fantastic as in the movie?". We saw plenty of reminders of the movies in the second half of our trip, and it was funny to see how big an impact the movie still has on New Zealand's tourism today.
Home of the Lord of the Rings
It sometimes feels like every village has a claim to fame with 3 seconds of a specific scene being filmed there, however the catch is that a lot of times you don't feel the overall atmosphere without and of the context or the characters. For example, we saw the Ford of Bruinen (where Arwen and Frodo ride across the river to safety in the first movie), but the next scene where a tidal wave washes away the pursuing evil Nazguls was apparently filmed hundreds of kilometers away (and used computer-generated imagery).
Queenstown is a hub of LOTR tours and memorabilia. There are plenty of tour companies offering packages to visit a series scenes from the LOTR and the Hobbit series in different regions. The best idea we saw was official replicas of the "One Ring" made by the son of the jeweler who produced the original (the jeweler himself has sadly passed away before the movies got released). The village of the original jeweler was out of our way (apparently he has the original "One Ring" on display but not for sale), but we saw several resellers of this and other jewels from the movies who all claimed themselves 'licensed'. I'm pretty sure there must have been at least one person who bought a ring and then threw it into the fires of Mount Doom, which was filmed at a volcano on the North Island - an expensive hobby to be sure!
Queenstown, the adventure capital
Queenstown is a hub for outdoor activities and fun, and it has a magnificent location by the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. It is considered to be the adventure sports capital of New Zealand - you can do everything from bungee jumping, canyon swinging, skydiving, paragliding, hang-gliding, powerboating and riverboarding, just to name a few that we remember. These are in addition to some more 'relaxed' sports such as horseriding, kayaking and mountain-biking that you can try out. Even the most budget-conscious backpacker has a separate fund for adventure sports, it has become such a 'thing' to do.
Lake Wakatipu
We're told Queenstown itself has changed a lot in the past decade as it has become a fixture on the tourist map. It used to be a quiet lakeside city nestled in between the mountains - today it is full of hotels and apartments for tourists and locals have been priced out to the suburbs. It felt like a proper tourist trap with restaurants packed with foreigners and shops selling the usual international brands. Coming from the more remote areas in the glaciers and Fiordland, Szilveszter thought it was way too crowded: it felt strange being stuck in traffic and not being able to find a parking spot - previously we'd gotten used to stopping when and where we felt like it!
The one thing we were told we could not possibly miss in Queenstown was the iconic Fergburger hamburger. Although there can be multiple-hour queues of people waiting to taste this world-famous legend - Google helpfully suggested visiting before 9am, or after 2am to avoid this - we can report that their burgers are indeed phenomenally good, even Renata was impressed who's not a burger fan! Top tip: if you want to beat the queue, call them to place your order and they will tell you when to come pick it up. This is a good way to save some time, however, as Fergburger claims, queuing is part of the experience! Indeed, loud music, very helpful staff and fun photos guarantee the party atmosphere while waiting.
Arrowtown, a gold panning village
All things considered, we decided to base ourselves in the suburb of Arrowtown, a 15-mins drive from Queenstown to beat the crowd but still be in the heart of the action. Arrowtown used to be one of the many kiwi gold mining communities. The Otago region of New Zealand is full of little villages that were built during the gold rush of the 1860's. There was gold in such abundance that it was a regular occurrence for shepherds to stumble on a previously undiscovered riverbed and collect 4kg of gold (worth USD 160,000 today, and much more back then) in an afternoon without even digging. Word would spread extremely fast and everyone in the neighbouring area would drop whatever they were doing and start looking for gold instead, and tens of thousands of veterans from prior gold rushes in Australia and California poured into the country to try their luck. Within a few months the easy gold was already found and the remainder required much harder work for less reward, so the miners usually moved on to the next find leaving deserted ghost villages behind themselves. The government invited Chinese settlers to continue mining the more difficult gold to prevent the settlements from becoming deserted. Some of the buildings in the Chinese settlement on the edge of Arrowtown were preserved and are in an open-air museum of this interesting period and their way of life. You can also rent a pan to try to luck to find some gold in the river, which is said to be not impossible!
Learn gold-panning in Dudley's Cottage and cafe; Chinese settlement museum
Arrowtown itself is a picturesque village that looks like it came out of a Western movie with original 19th century streets. It's a nice place to spend a night or two, with a lovely atmosphere and a nice variety of cafés, pubs and restaurants. Apparently it is also the spot of choice for a few ski teams when they are preparing for the Olympics in the off-season when it is summer in Europe, as it is close to a number of skiing spots in the region.
Arrowtown main street views
Gibbston Valley Wineries
Arrowtown also has lots of walking and cycling trails nearby, one of which goes to the Gibbston Valley wine region in a picturesque 16km track each way through the countryside along streams and through hanging bridges. We decided to try this out with a fun Hungarian couple whom we met a few days earlier by chance. It was an easy day's cycling route, with not too many hills which is especially important when you're returning home from the cellars' wine tasting!
Scenic views along the cycling track
The cycling route takes you by the Kawarau Bridge, which is known as the first ever bungee jumping location, founded by AJ Hackett, the inventor of the sport. He got his inspiration from seeing a similar tradition in Vanuatu, but with ropes made of plant stems instead of rubber, which we wrote about earlier this year when we visited Vanuatu. Plenty of spectators were watching the volunteers jump and they cheered them. There was a proper atmosphere around it - you could almost call it brainwashing -, with loud dynamic music and plenty of animators to keep people who had already signed up sufficiently psyched up so they wouldn't change their minds.
But it was definitely a mass-market production line, I think on average someone new jumped down every 90 seconds - not a bad business if you can keep it up over the course of a working day, and make each of them pay ~$200! The braver candidates can even choose how deep they want to be 'dipped in' the water, and they adjust the length of the cord accordingly - some people went waist deep to cool down after the adrenaline rush!
After reconfirming our decision that we would not be taking a jump from the bridge, we pushed on to our destination of the day, the wineries of the Gibbston Valley, right after we fulled up on delicious stone-baked pizzas in the Gibbston Tavern on the way. There are 5-6 wineries located conveniently in a row and not too far apart, prepared for wine tasting. We visited Peregrine and Gibbston Valley wineries. the latter offers a wide range of services including wine tasting in a pretty courtyard under large trees, a 'cheesery' with dairy products and home-made relishes, a restaurant and guided wine tours. The whole bike tour was fantastic, and we would fully recommend it as long as the weather allows!
Peregrine cellar and Gibbston tasting
Cardrona Valley
Another activity that we could conveniently arrange from our Arrowtown base was to go horse-back riding in the scenic Cardrona Valley, also known for its ski slopes - this one only in the winter, luckily! We were in a small group of 5 people and we got beautiful Appaloosa horses, known for their irregular patterns. It was a great scenic ride in the valley with wild flowers and creeks. With our very knowledgeable guide we also managed to improve our rather basic horseriding skills. We highly recommend the tour and also suggest you to look it up on the bookme app for special offers before booking!
The only slight downside was all the rabbit corpses that we rode by who became victims of the compulsory proactive hunting of rabbits due to their harmful grazing on agriculture. The corps are left on the plan because, as the owner told us, there was no point in her collecting them, no one would buy neither the meat, nor the fur, as everyone had more than enough bunnies on their own land!
A funny quirk in Cardrona is the "Bra Fence" which is easy to spot along the road! As the story says, one night a few (probably intoxicated) women from the popular Cardrona ski resort decided to take off their bras and attached them to the fence along the road. The idea caught on, and more and more bras started appearing alongside, so much so that it became a distraction to drivers. The council removed the bras on the basis that they were on public land, but the story kept spreading and today they have been moved slightly away from the main road to the private property of the Cardrona Distillery so that the council can't remove them. The Distillery might have updated their slogan to "booze and bras" since, and the bra fence has become a fundraising hotspot for women's health charities.
Lakes Hawea and Wanaka - The Next Queenstown?
We were told that locals prefer to go to Lake Wanaka or Lake Hawea on their holidays over Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown as these haven't been as overdeveloped and the nature is just as scenic or even more so. We completely agree, it is hard to beat pulling up at our camping with prime lakeside views, unpacking our table and watching the reflections and the thousand shades of red and brown as the sun gradually sets over the mountains while having our dinner.
Views over Lake Hawea
We spent a total of 3 nights on the shores of Lake Hawea exploring the area, including climbing to the pretty amazing Rocky Mountain peaks near Diamond Lake with a view over Lake Wanaka, having a picnic all alone on the banks of a beautiful riverbed, cooking dinner on the shores of Lake Hawea while the sun set, as well as visiting the stunning "Lone Tree of Wanaka". It might just have been all the Lord of the Rings scenes we'd scene by that point - but it felt to us that it was exactly what the White Tree of Gondor should look like!
Lake Wanaka from the Rocky Mountain
Lake Wanaka
The Tree of Wanaka
Mount Cook - the Lonely Mountain
Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, standing at a massive 3724m high which is still growing higher every year due to volcanic activity. We had lingered so long at the previous incredible locations on our trip that we only had half a day to see the surrounds of the mountain, but it was definitely worth the side trip.
As we drove by Lake Pukaki on our way there, we were blown away by the incredible snow-capped reflections on the crystal-clear lake and felt like we had to stop the car at every bend. Naturally, this was also the setting for a LoTR scene, specifically Lake-town from the Hobbit, although there we discrepancies between the sources we read about whether Mt. Cook, on the far side of the like, was actually the model for Erebor (a.k.a. the Lonely Mountain, in which Smaug the dragon lives).
Mount Cook from Lake Pukaki
We did the unmissable Hooker's Valley Track, a 3-hour hike to the glaciers on the approach to Mount Cook with breathtaking views. This walk has it all: glacial melt lakes with floating icebergs, roaring mountain scenes and panoramic backdrops of Erebor. Well worth the hike, although by this point we definitely noticed that that we had strayed on to the main tourist trail from the 50-fold increase in tourist numbers.
Hooker's Valley views
This throng of people (by New Zealand standards) continued on the remainder of our drive past Lake Tekapo where we tried the outdoor hot springs and stayed our last night at the local campsite. Unfortunately we almost didn't get a spot in the camping since this was jam-packed as well (the first time this was even remotely a concern during our whole trip). Part of the reason must have been that as we got closer to the end of November, we were gradually getting closer to the summer (Christmas) peak season which is the busiest time of year in the country. We managed to beat the crowd by leaving early and making our farewell breakfast by the lake with lovely early morning views.
Lake Tekapo views
Meeting Old Acquaintances in Christchurch
Having arrived back to Christchurch and said goodbye to Neo our trusted companion, we spent our final afternoon visiting friends. Andi, Ricsi and their two cute kids who're originally from Renata's village of 5000 people in Hungary, and who moved to Christchurch to start a new life - what are the odds of meeting someone like that all the way around the world!? We spent a lovely afternoon having a BBQ in their garden and promised to send their love (as well as Christmas presents and the childrens' drawings) to the grandparents back home in Hungary when we return at Christmas!
Arriving to the end of our stay and having spent two weeks touring just a small part of New Zealand, we were extremely jealous of the people we had met along the way who had months to do both islands properly. At the same time, we consoled ourselves that Sydney was so "close" we could always go back again to do a different section - which was actually our plan all along. At the same time, we were incredibly grateful for all the fantastic, memorable experiences we gained hiking, driving, camping, kayaking through the island and for the kind people we met on the way who made all this even more special. We can now confirm what we heard so many times before the trip that New Zealand is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.