View from our room
Another view from our room of gondola and restaurant
Along the waterfront in the morning
Charlie near statue of founder of Queenstown in Am
We went to a local sandwich shop for lunch - a much needed smaller lunch - and waited for our 4 wheel drive tour.
At 1:30 a Nomad Tours group guy showed up to take us on our adventure. Andre, the guide, Linda and Mike (two tourists from GB) and us, all in a land rover. Our first stop on the tour was an overlook of the Shotover River and a bungee jump bridge. Apparently, the first in New Zealand, the jump still doesn't have any appeal for me. You end up dropping upside-down. Once you hit bottom, you bounce a bit, then stop. At this place, a boat picks up up off the end of your tether - and you walk back up the hill. Yuk. Needless to say, dropping from your neck would be fatal, but the upside-down bit looks awful. Next to the bridge, they had a Zip line drop - that looked like more fun, but at the very end, which I couldn't see, it seemed to come to a loud halt - crash? - that also seemed unpleasant. I'll take the lovely old folk tour on the 4 wheel drive vehicle. The Shotover River is another spot for Lord of the Rings movie trivia. They filmed the river scenes on it. Apparently, after spending oodles of money, and weeks to build, the river flooded and destroyed a lot of movie set up. We were also looking at overviews of the Remarkables - a gorgeous set of mountains that overlook Queenstown. Lots of scenes used the Remarkables as jagged backdrops, then other mountains were added to make the Misty mountain scenes. Charlie and I plan to spend New Year's Eve catching up on scenes that match up with what we've seen here.
Charlie with Remarkables behind him
Peter Jackson used hill above to view Remarkables for Hobbit/Lord of the Rings Films - Misty Mountain pieces were Remarkables
Us at overview
River Shortover - place where Lord of the Rings River scene was filmed
Bungee jumper on the way down
Zip line folks
Bridge for bungee folks
Lord of the Rings River scene place
After we that we went to the small town of Arrowtown, a gold rush town from 1860 New Zealand. Covered sidewalks - like the old west and like a lot of small New Zealand Towns. Quite pretty.
Arrowtown main street. It used to have 4000 people, now it's down to 2000 - no gold - no people
Charlie playing sheriff of the town
From there we took advantage of our 4 wheel drive Landrover and drove down to the Shotover river. We drove in and out of the water - lots of silly bouncy fun. We stopped at one point and had tea and biscuits. We then panned for gold dust. Not enough to pay for our trip (or a bottle of water).
Water pipe above used for gold mining. Although some of it has been replaced, a great deal of it is the same as it was in 1860
Us along the river
Andre, our guide, panning for gold. He did come up with a bit of gold dust - not enough to pay for the pan
We then drove up to the slopes of Mt Coronet. The sides were lined with layered schist which was silvery and amazing stuff. The views from the slopes were dizzying - like flying at a low altitude over the area. It was posted as a 4 wheel drive road, but apparently, people in normal - but rental- cars tried the drive, slowed up to see the sites, then couldn't get their vehicles up the slopes. This wasn't a joke - amazing road.
The schist layers made for some odd rock formations
Schist close up - shiny with mica
Peculiar layered schist
Remarkables, Shotover river, broom plant - me
same with Charlie
Shotover river from far above
We then stopped for more amazing overviews, as my camera began to overheat.
View from 4 wheel drive of odd 1 lane bridge over river near town
We got dropped off at the hotel. We walked to a waterfront pub for a last beer along the lake. We then went back to a restaurant that was the best we've had so far in Queenstown. I had blue cod, Charlie had lamb. Superb dinner. Tomorrow off to Wanaka.
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