A day of firsts. (Queenstown, Glenorchy)

So Friday, November 16th, was a day of firsts for Cat! It was her first...

Official Lord of the Rings tour. This was pretty tame, but we hit some great sites! Here's what we saw:

• Remarkables (from afar): this is where the fellowship was shot leaving the Mines of Moria, in the back of the Remarkables. It's also in a few different shots in the movies. It is one of two mountain ranges (at least I think two?) that run straight north in the world.
• Deer Park Heights: this is where Aragon is dragged off the cliff by the warg; where Hama was killed; where Legolas does that gravity defying (random) jump; where Gimli falls off the horse as they flee Rohan; where Eowyn gives Aragorn his "tasty" stew. This is it from the movie:

This is what it looks like today (thanks Google images)

• Mt. Earnslow (from afar): this is the highest peak near Lake Wakatipu, and where they filmed the fellowship trekking through the snow: "It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing."

• 12 Mile Delta. Ithilien: look out for the Oliphaunts!

Movie:

Now:

• Mt. Aspiring National Park. This is Amon Hen, where Boromir tried to take the ring from Frodo, and then was killed by the Orc at the end of the first movie.
  

• Paradise Valley. Isengard was in this big lot, and we went 4-wheel driving in it! We also saw some ducks and other native New Zealand birds here. This is also where Gandalf rode through on Shadowfax. The farms here have many "stars" of the movies, too - the horses in this area were all used in the films!

This tour was pretty cool, and convinced me to buy the book I wanted - woohoo! I also met a really sweet Japanese girl - Chiaki was great!

We ended up hanging out later in the day, too, after I...

Paraglided! Yes, that's me out there, attached to a nice Swiss guy named Michael - he was super cool! It was AMAZING - I've never seen anything like it... After essentially running off a very steep hill, I was mesmerized, it was so peaceful! Of course, Michael reminded me about 10 seconds before we took off: "It is quite unnatural to fly, you know, without an airplane..." Thanks Michael from Queenstown Paragliding! I will post more from the CD I got...


Here are the pics from the company:





I met up with Chiaki again, and we went to the...

Kiwi Birdlife Park. This place was really cool actually! It was set up really well - you were given a map to follow the trail, and an audio player that guided you through the whole thing. It was very cool! I learned a lot about the natural wildlife here. At the beginning of our tour, there was a "show" and I learned about...

• Tuatara - not a reptile, but the closest thing I've ever seen to a dinosaur - they were alive when dinosaurs were around, creepy! They live to be 100-200 years old, and this little guy is 9 years old:

• Larakeet - these are really pretty parrots that are super smart! People get them as pets, and often will realize that they can't take care of them... they then release them into the wild, which is TERRIBLE because they breed quickly and then eat all the food that other birds should be eating! Greedy little guys. They are cute, though...

• New Zealand Wood Pigeon - they are dying off because of the possum population in NZ. New Zealand had ZERO mammals species on this island, therefore many of the birds don't fly too well (kiwis are a perfect example - their wings are about 3 cm long, and they're about the size of a chicken). When possums were introduced, they started multiplying very quickly, and all of a sudden, there are now 70 MILLION possums here, eating about 20-30 thousand pounds of plants, bugs and wildlife per NIGHT. This means that several bird species, including the Wood Pigeon, don't have enough food to eat. To put this into perspective... there are 70 million possums, 40 million sheep, and 4 (yes, FOUR) million people in this country. Hence why several Kiwis have told me to take "2 or 3 thousand back to the US when I leave..." These pigeons were actually really pretty - nothing like our flying rats back home...

We saw a lot of other birds, too. Unfortunately, the Kiwi bird I saw was not facing the window at all, so all I saw was a Kiwi's butt. Oh well! After the bird show, there was a Maori Cultural show - very cool! They were really nice, and their voices were so powerful!

Chiaki and I then went to eat at ChopChop, a noodle house in Queenstown - yummy! It was great. From there, we went to another Maori Cultural show back at the top of the Queenstown Gondola - it was interesting! I volunteered to participate in the show, and I learned how to swing the "Pua" which are essentially these little pillows on a string, and you swing them around in rhythm - I was terrible! I'm sure all the little Japanese and Korean tourists enjoyed my flailing around, though - I even managed to smack myself in the face once or twice. Whoooops...

After this long day of firsts, I went to bed finally. It was definitely one of the best days I've had so far, and I loved every second. Saturday will be just as adventurous, I think... more to come later when I return from Middle Earth!!