Shut your eyes and imagine a mixture of Vermont and the Rocky mountains and a quiet serene lake in Vermont. Take a deep breath and slowly remove the pizza, sub shops and cafe's. As you exhale, incorporate a western style bar called buffalo bar an overcrowded undersized burger place called 'Fergburger', multiple ski and board shops, and a narrow street made of stone. Now you have a miniscule look into what queenstown looks like.
Before I even get to Queenstown, I would like to introduce you to.....
Ricardo! I have welcomes a Hundai Excel 1991 (LS) into my family, so hopefully you all will as well.
Now, Our journey to Queenstown began a bit rocky, but eventually we found our way. One fact about NZ is that thier highways look like this. Another semi annoying fact about NZ roads is that there are not many direct routes, so it takes a little longer to get places. For example, I have been researching our spring break trip and to get from one place to a place about 40Kilometers away will take approximately 4 hours.
From one road to another. Another difference is the location of ski resorts. In NZ to keep the natural beauty, you sleep about 30 minutes away from the Ski mountain. You also need to go up a mountain to get to the mountain. We didn't feel Ricardo could handle it, so we took a shuttle up to Remarkables.
(the following picture were taken by my friend Ellen) High avalanche advisory, no big deal.
I never thought skiing without trees would be so challenging. Believe it or not theres a cliff somewhere in this picture. You tell me where it is, because I have no idea, hence why i kept going into the side of the mountain.
These were people hiking to the top of the mountain to ski off a cliff. No worries, I did not attempt that.
The view was spectacular from the mountain.
Hi mom
I was pretty much behind Ellen this distance for the majority of the day.
Not sure I could ever get sick of this.
Overall great day.
I somehow got talked into going on a horse-back trek. Mind you, I don't think I have ever been on a horse. Maybe I have at some point in my life, but nothing substantial enough to remember it. I also went with people who are experienced riders.
But I guess the view made it worth it.
These pictures do not even do it justice. Just being here sometimes is more surreal than I can handle.
Me with a few friends in front of a lord of rings shooting site. For the fans, I believe this was in front of the ollepants scene.
Note the interesting shape of the clouds.
Horseback riding through middle earth. For those who don't know, that is Lord of the Rings lingo. I reccomend that you rent the films if you havent seen them.
This is Oscar, he was the only horse on our trek in Lord of the Rings as a horse of Rohan. He was a great little guy. I'll explain as the pictures progress.
I believe this is where Boromir was killed. We learned some fun facts about shooting. Apparently Peter Jackson hired like 15 or so rugby players to run down the hill. Out of those 15, 1 got a concussion, a few sprained thier ankles, and one got wacked in the head with a camera all on a hefty salary of $150 per day.
My friend kept saying "I can't believe it actually looks like this," and I couldn't agree with her more.
Scenes from Wolverine and LOTR occured here.
Ok, this is Isengard from LOTR. For the people who don't know what i'm talking about, its just very scenic.
All of our horses in a line, ready to fight
Me and Oscar
Ok, let me tell you a little about Oscar before you end reading. He was quite cranky when it came to other horses. He was not in the best shape, because he was weezing when we went up a wee hill. I got nervous and gave him a hug and let him eat bushes and then he was fine. Oscar also liked to make his own paths. Mostly the horses walked in a strait line, but Oscar would always veer off path and make it a little different for me. He was also a little spacey, but so am I, so I guess we were a perfect fit.
So thats my first real trip in NZ (aside from orientation), and it was great. I will be going on a tramping trip (hiking) next weekend so photos from that soon! :).
Miss you all and love you all.
