Today is the last day of our final touring in New Zealand. We were exhausted, but had some fun things to find before making the long drive back to Christchurch.
Wanaka
We spent the night in Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is a very popular place in both summer (for camping at the lake) and winter (for skiing), so we thought we should at least pass through once before heading home. So, to give you an idea of this pretty little town, this is what we got to look at while eating breakfast.
Same picture with myself inserted haha.
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| Such gorgeous scenery |
Yes, that really is the name of the town we headed to after breakfast. To call it a town is a bit of an overstatement, it's more like a village. We were on a dirt road for several km before we actually made it there, but we managed it!
An interesting fact about this area is that part of the TV series Top of Lake was filmed here. This is where the women's commune was based. And nearby Glenorchy, which we drove through but didn't have time to stop and take pictures was the basis for the town of Laketop.
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| I think that dog may be coming for Ike! |
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| Ike makes me laugh - he's excited to be out of the car |
A little farther down the road, we found ourselves at Dan's Paddock in the shadow of Mt Earnslaw. Mt Earnslaw was used to portray part of the Misty Mountains. It was fun to find one of the real peaks used for the Misty Mountains, although you'll see from early posts (back in 2013) we dubbed several mountains the misty mountains because of the low hanging fog that covers many mountains throughout the day.
This area also boasts a beautiful beech forest which was used to film several of the Lothlorien scenes. At the edge of the forest is where the Fellowship entered Lothlorien in the The Fellowship of the Rings.
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| So ethereal! |
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| Inside the beech forest, imagining Lothlorien |
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| "I just want to go home!" |
This marks the end of our time in Paradise and it's time to start the long drive back to Christchurch. The drive back towards Queenstown followed beautiful Lake Wakatipu. Nostalgia set in again and we stopped for a couple quick scenic pictures. We couldn't have asked for a better day :)
Cromwell
What luck! As we were driving home, we noticed the last our of "big things". Even though Brian was eager to get home before dark he kindly obliged me for a picture with the giant peaches.
Twizel
We were in need of some petrol and snacks, so we stopped in Twizel. We also made our final LoTR stop of the day. The largest battle scene filmed in the LoTR trilogy was the battle on the Pelennor Fields. the grassy fields and snow-covered mountains in the background fit the description from the book perfectly. There's not too much snow today because it's summer, but it worked at a different time of year. I'm also enjoying my ice cream!
As we headed out of Twizel we passed by Lake Pukaki one last time (see The Saxtons vs. the Stars for more details of this lake). Brian wanted one last picture of Mt Cook given that we could see it today. Not too bad for taking it from a moving car! (Don't worry, I was driving)
And that sadly concludes our final trip around New Zealand. It has been an amazing and wounderful journey that we are sad to see coming to an end. We've drive about 3500km (about 2175 miles) over the past 8 days. Woah that's a lot of driving - and 100% by me. One funny thing that happened due to spending so much time in the car was Ike found the perfect spot to sit in - sort of on Brian's lap between Brian and the door. Ike loved that spot so much he insists on sitting there even now that we are back in Utah in different cars. Lol.
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