Images of a Journey Through Middle Earth

Ok really, it's New Zealand..but same thing..I mean it just got bumped higher on the list thanks to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although honestly we haven't really sought out the filming sites. There are no remaining sets left, once filming was complete the crew was forced by the Kiwi government to restore everything back to the way it was. I believe all that is left, is a bit of Hobbiton, and from the pictures we've seen it ain't much :) The only thing we have seen, and that purely was because we drove by and noticed it is Mount Doom.

Sooo anyway, we got to Auckland, New Zealand on the 28th of January after a long overnighter from Bangkok. Auckland by the way is close to the top of the North Island in New Zealand. If you thought American customs was bad, you should check it out here. They aren't as worried about terrorists as they are about soil...Yah the dirt kind. Kiwiland has a big agricultural industry and they are ultra paranoid (I guess rightfully so) of foreign plants, sand, animals, diseases, etc getting into the country. So basically they ask questions like this on they're customs declaration card: eg: Do you have wood? (DO I!) or Have you got Hiking Boots?..a yes to any of the questions gets you a meeting with a friendly, hard to understand, latex glove wearing Kiwi..thankfully that latex glove is for your belongings and not you! after everything has been searched your stuff goes through an x-ray machine (yah, that's just to get into the country). And then you are cleared to get on your way, to be honest the process didn't take longer than 20 mins.

Ok so pick up a rental car from the airport at about noon after a crappy 4 hour of plane sleep and we try to get to a little crap smelling town (due to the sulfur gas released from all the hot springs) called Rotorua. There were only 3 things we wanted to do in the North Island : See Rotorua, Hike the Tongiraro Crossing and raft the low Worm caves in Waitamo. Our plan was to get to Rotorua and do the other 2 on the way back up. Driving in New Zealand has been the most fun and beautiful we have ever seen. I think driving through the Rockies comes a close second, but the thing about NZ is that you get changes in scenery every hour. One moment you're driving on the coast, the next your in the mountains, and all of it is stunning. I can't count the number of times we've just stopped the car to take pictures and take in the scenery. After 2 days and a night in Rotorua we drove towards the ferry that crosses to the South Island with a waystop in Palmerston North to sleep. After that, got on the ferry in Wellington, got off in Picton on the South Island and drove to a sleepy little town on the east coast called Kaikora, famous for it's Whales, Dolphins and Seal colonies. At this point we had probably driven 1000 klicks. After a full day in Kaikora tramping by the seal colonies, and by tramping, I don't mean the Julie kind (ok sorry Julie, it's just been so long since I made fun of you, I miss it..u know?), I mean the hiking kind, we headed towards the large city of ChristChurch. OK so large city means 300k people, but where they were is anybodies guess. Everyone told us the town was just super busy, but it looked empty. Also, everything closes early in New Zealand, the latest restaurant open, closes at 10pm..it's nuts..and frustrating for those of us who like to roll into cities late in the night..we've learned not to do that anymore. If you get in past 10pm, it is very very difficult to find a motel open (yah) or restaurant. We checked out empty ChristChurch and then drove through Arthur's Pass to the west coast. Stopped for 4 hours in Arthur's Pass town to tramp through the mountains and then made it to the Town of Franz Joseph, where one of the world's most stunning Glaciers is constantly moving. Recently it has been one of the few actually growing, at an average rate of 2meters per day..the thing is constantly changing. We hiked it and basically the guides were saying every hike is a new hike since the topography of the glacier changes daily. They have to cut stairs at the bottom for all us tourists every day and as we hike! We also spent 1 of the 3 days at Franz's sister glacier, Fox, pretty cloudy day though so the views were less spectacular. Anyway, yadda yaddda...lots of sheep and amazing scenery later and we are in Queenstown. The adventure sports capital of the world. Yesterday we tried jet Boating, took the gondala up the montain, and took some Luge Cars down (Really fun stuff). No Bungy this time, although they have a unique version here. They take you parasailing across the river on a platform, then when you are up on the parachute, you Bungy off..If we come here next time, we'll do that :) Today we are just hanging out and prepping for our 4 day trip into the Fiordlands national park. Anyway, here are the pics (seal and glacier pics to come):

1-5. Wai-O-Tapu (a.k.a. Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland in Rotorua (North Island)- Volcanic geysers, lakes and craters
6-8. Hell's Gate in Rotorua - hottest spring waterfall in Southern hemisphere (albeit damn small), mud pools
9. Biggest valley of windmills in New Zealand (near Palmerston North)
More on post below..