This morning we were picked up by Nomad Safaris for a Lord of the Rings tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a ton of great info all along our stops.
Queenstown was founded on gold mining in 1862. Most of the miners worked up Gorge Road and on the Shotover river. You could stick your hand in the river and stop the gold from running down it, there was that much of it.
From that path we also went up further towards Arthur's Point up by Coronet Peak which is one of the big ski resorts in Queenstown. It's the only ski resort in the area to have a paved road going to it.
This is also the way we veered off to go to Skippers Canyon (on a definitely not paved road). Most of the gold rush people moved up there because there was more gold. Shania Twain's exhusband pretty much now owns all of the land between here and Wanaka. Only 5 families still live in Skippers Canyon and they can trace their ancestry to the gold miners of 1862.
Skippers Road is one of the top 20 most scenic drives in the world. It's a heritage site so there are no modifications done to it. If the road has needed to be rebuilt they must use the same rock from the area-which is basically like sand, it falls right apart. The other thing is that it's also one of the top 25 most dangerous roads in the world, which explains a lot since there are no guard rails and the road is open all year long.
Coming into Arrowtown we drove past Millbrook, a luxury golf course. Now that doesn't mean much for me, but I thought my golf-obsessed family would like that. There are 5 very nice courses in the area. 6 if you count a 9 hole course.
We drove right through the Arrow River with our jeep and tried to find some gold. We had no luck so I guess we have to come home. Arrow River was also our first Lord of the Rings site. When Liv Tyler is trying to get Frodo to the Elves because he's been poisioned she rides across the river while being chased by the Dark Riders.
Our second site was right by the Bungy bridge, and that was the site for the Pillars of the Kings.
Our last Lord of the Rings stop was up by The Remarkables. The Remarkables mountain range is actually a ski resort but was used as Mordor and the Misty Mountains.
All of the stops were beautiful but it was kind of interesting to learn how they super imposed the backdrop of say Skippers Canyon to the Arrow River to make the scene look more dramatic. It's already gorgeous I wouldn't have the eye for piecing it all together. Our guide said he worked security for filming of The Hobbit and he walked into a food tent and all of these actors were dressed up in full costume which was pretty cool.
After our tour we got dropped off in town so we did a little shopping and ate lunch at Fergburger. We have walked past it all thr time and it always has a big line. So we figured we had to check it out. The burgers are huge so we split one and we were both really full. We then walked back to the hostel and decided to change and go to the beach. It was such a beautiful afternoon and we love being down by the lake. We had dinner at a cute little Mexican restaurant and then walked back to the hostel. We have to get everything organized tonight because tomorrow we go to the airport to start our trek home. We have an overnight in Sydney tomorrow, so you should hear from us again.
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