Queenstown
My second visit to Queenstown, the adrenaline and adventure capital of the world, was primarily so that I could see some of the "Lord of the Rings" film sites from around there, but also because it's such a cool city that I wanted any excuse to spend a couple more nights there
December 9, 2004

01-QueenstownMall Queenstown Mall 01a-MinasTirith I booked a spot on the 01b-MinasTirith The view of Queenstown from Minas Tirith, a foothill in the Remarkables 01c-MinasTirith From Minas Tirith, looking towards Arrowtown, and over the Shotover River basin 01d-MinasTirith It was extremely windy, literally gale force winds on top of the hill here at Minas Tirith ... in fact, I had a fair amount of trouble even standing, the wind was so strong and cold 02-MinasTirithSite Site of Minas Tirith, the White City 03-MinasTirithView Another view from Minas Tirith, off towards Arrowtown to the north 04-Remarkables The Remarkables, also used as the mountains of Mordor 05-KawarauRiver-LakeHayes Kawarau River and Lake Hayes 06-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 07-Remarkables The Remarkables 08-BungyBridge AJ Hackett Bungy Bridge over the Kawarau River, where the bungy jump was invented 09-ArgonathSite Site of the Argonath, on the Kawarau River ... they were inserted by computer into the hillsides about in the middle of the picture, facing away ... on an image showing the Argonath from the front, as the fellowship approaches it, I can point out where I was standing to take this picture (a little above and behind the shoulder of the one on the right) 10-KawarauGorge Kawarau Gorge, site of the Argonath ... if I were to swivel to my right, I would see the AJ Hackett Bungy Bridge, to give a little sense of place 11-Jared-Argonath Our tour guide had each of us in turn do our Argonath pose ... you can tell from my vest how windy it was, I definitely wound up eating grit for the rest of the afternoon from this stop, yum 12-KawarauGorge Kawarau Gorge and Hwy 6, which runs toward Queenstown 13-IsildurSite The Arrow River, near Arrowtown, where Isildur lost the ring in the riverbed when he was attacked by orcs 14-ArrowRiver Arrow River 15-NazgulSite A little further upstream on the Arrow River, serving as part of the filmsite where the Nazgul charged across the Fords of Bruinen in an attempt to reach Arwen and the dying Frodo 16-ArrowRiver Arrow River ... that path going up the hill is actually an old road that went between Arrowtown and a gold mining town a few miles upstream ... the road crossed the river multiple times, and our 4WD likewise forded multiple times ... the old abandoned gold mining town that's upstream had recently had one of the two remaining old wooden historic buildings burned down by an idiotic British tourist, who had seen the town on the map, decided to walk all the way to the town from Arrowtown to 17-FordingTheRiver A view from the backseat of the 4WD, as we were fording the river 18-ArrowRiver Arrow River 19-WaterPipe An old aqueduct, from the early 20th century 20-Rings4WD Discover the Rings 4WD, on our break for afternoon tea next to the Arrow River 21-CoronetPeak Coronet Peak, in the Crown Ranges outside of Queenstown 22-GorillaRock Gorilla Rock 23-LighthouseRock Lighthous Rock ... way down there you can kinda make out the incredibly narrow and winding one-lane gravel road that we were travelling on, it was somewhat nerve-wracking with so many blind curves, with a cliff wall on one side and a shear drop on the other ... one car we met along the way our tour guide recognized as a lady that lives an hour's drive out on this road, and who drives her kids to and from school every day, except when the road is impassable from snow and ice in the winter ... I dunno, living that far out in the sticks doesn't sound like something for me 24-NarrowRoad Narrow road through the Crown Ranges 25-HelicopteredRafters While we were out there, we saw this helicopter making several trips back and forth with rafters for a new house that was being built somewhere out there in the remote wilderness ... needless to say, the people building the house have to be filthy rich, to be able to afford to have their building materials helicoptered in 26-Helicopter Helicopter carrying some rafters for a new house 27-CoronetHills Coronet Hills ... our tour guide said that there was quite a bit of filming that took place out here, but those scenes must've wound up on the editing room floor, because they're nowhere to be seen in the films as far as I'm aware 28-CoronetHills Coronet Hills, with the snow-capped Southern Alps visible in the background 28a-Coronet Coronet Peak 29-CoronetA Lighthouse Rock and the Coronet Hills 30-CoronetB Coronet Hills 31-CoronetD Coronet Hills 32-Hills Coronet Hills, I think looking mostly down off a ledge 33-Road The narrow road, far below 34-Rings4WD Rings 4WD 35-TourGroup Our tour guide had us all stand out there for a picture, before letting us see the type of ledge we were actually on 36-OtagoHills Golden hills of Otago 37-Jared-Precipice Me, posing on the precipice 38-Sheep Our tour guide said that sheep grazed in these hills, and I asked him if they ever wandered over a ledge, so he told me to look down off this particular ledge to show me that sheep like this one occasionally do tumble to their deaths 39-Precipice The precipice we had all been standing on 40-Arrowtown Arrowtown 41-Valley Kawarau-Shotover valley 42-QueenstownValleyA Queenstown valley 43-QueenstownValleyB Queenstown valley 44-QueenstownValleyC Queenstown valley 45-QueenstownValleyD Queenstown valley 46-CoronetPeakView View from Coronet Peak 47-Remarkables The Remarkables 48-WindingRoad Winding road back down to the valley 49-Arrowtown Arrowtown 50-Road Road 51-LakeWakatipu Back in Queenstown, ont he shores of Lake Wakatipu 52-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 53-WilliamReesStatue Statue of William Rees ... I think he was some famous pioneer of that area of New Zealand 54-QueenstownMall Queenstown Mall 55-QueenstownMall Queenstown Mall 56-SkylineRestaurant Way up at the top of the hill is the Skyline Restaurant, which my parents and I had rode up to one week prior 57-ShotoverStreet Shotover Street in downtown Queenstown, probably my favourite town/city in all of New Zealand, in competition with Wellington for my fave 58-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu, as viewed from my hostel 59-LakeWakatipu Lake Wakatipu 60-BentSign Bent roundabout sign 61-BentSign Something definitely hit that sign pretty good 62-GiveWaySign Give Way (translates as 63-ShotoverStreet Shotover Street, with the Remarkables serving as an ever-present spectacular backdrop 64-WakatipuSunset Sunset over Lake Wakatipu 65-QueenstownMall Queenstown Mall

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