Milford Sound

We spent part of two days in Milford Sound. The first day was dry, and we enjoyed walking around at the mouth of the sound and then took a hike to Lake Marian. 

But we had been told that Milford Sound was spectacular in the rain, so instead of being bummed when it was raining the next morning, we went back to see for ourselves!  Wow!  It was a day we will never forget.  Even the drive to Milford was gorgeous.  

Lake Marian Hike

We started this hike in the rain in the hopes that it would let up - almost turning back about one mile in.  But we kept going.  The rain did indeed stop, and this hike turned out to be a really fun one.  

There were lots of exposed roots, and the place looked very "snaky."  But it was around this time that we discovered that NZ has NO SNAKES AND NO SPIDERS!  What a place!

These were some of my favorite selfies from our whole NZ trip. 

Lake Marian in a mood

I took this photo of a bird, and some gals stopped to ask me what kind of bird it was.  I said it looked like a black and white bird to me.  LOL. I am not a birder at all. 

Doubtful Sound

When planning our trip, I was really torn between cruising in Doubtful Sound or Milford Sound.  I ultimately decided to book the Doubtful Sound trip and then just see what the weather was like for the Milford Sound cruise. 

The sounds in NZ are notoriously rainy, so we were so excited to be cruising Doubtful Sound on a blue sky day.  The views were incredible!  The journey involved a boat, a bust, and then another boat to get all the way out to the Pacific Ocean.  Our boat was quite crowded, which was a downside, but what do you expect on such a beautiful day?

One of the guys riding the bus with us has been a tour guide in the area for years.  He told us "Best to do Doubtful Sound in the sun and Milford Sound in the rain."  We were blessed that the weather worked out for us to do just that!

Here are some photos!  We took over 100!

A view from a stop on the bus ride

This was the farthest we went.  The sound meets the Pacific Ocean.  There were seals on this island. 

Queenstown, Glenorchy, and Paradise

Queenstown was a gorgeous and fun little town.  By far the best view of Queenstown was to take the hike to Ben Lomond Peak, and we did that on our first day there.  This was our most intense hike so far and perhaps the most intense hike of the trip because we were trying to walk fast in order to get back and watch Arkansas play in a March Madness game.  

This hike starts with a trip on a lift, so that helped with some of the elevation gain.  Here's when I got my first view of where we were going.  A little intimating!

And here's the view back towards Queenstown

Those mountains behind us are called "The Remarkables"  

This next photo was taken on the way back down when the task had already been accomplished

After the hike, we went exploring in Queenstown for dinner options.  We both had a healthy appetite and there were so many options.  We ended up at a gourmet pizza place and were not disappointed.  We even returned here on our way back through town later in our trip.  I just didn't know if I'd ever get pizza like this again.  It was truly the best pizza I've ever had in my life!

Here's the menu.  Our favorite was the Montanara but everything we tried was delicious!  Turns out sauces for the top of your pizza really take it to another level. 

Mount Cook Hike

This was one my favorite hikes of the trip.  We arrived late in the day (our campsite was right next to the trail head) and rushed to take the hike before dark because the weather forecast was calling for rain the next day. This was a relatively easy hike so we got a lot of bang for our buck!  

The next morning I woke up to a gorgeous sunrise.  I put on my shoes and went out to see all the glory!

After this, clouds rolled in pretty quickly, so we didn't take the other hike we had planned to take in the area.  I guess that just means we need to go back!

LOTR Sites on the South Island

The LOTR sites we saw on NZ's South Island were all really big!  We saw the locations for Edoras, Isengard, Pelennor Fields, The Dead Marshes and the river used in several shots from Fellowship of the Ring.  We did watch all the movies again right before our trip, which was a lot of fun!  We also read a lot of blogs about filming locations and even watched a few YouTube videos on the subject, which were very helpful.  Some of the prettiest locations are only reached by helicopter, unfortunately.    

Our favorite spot on the South Island was Edoras - filmed on Mt. Sunday.  It's a long way down a dirt road, and we had the place to ourselves.  Terry had fun finding anchors in rocks that were used when the hilltop village was built for the movie.  The hike itself was quite easy.   We are so glad we didn't skip this one, which we considered doing when we had a wreck the day before and were a little behind schedule.

looking towards Helm's Deep

The fictional location of Isengard is near Paradise, NZ.  It's about an hour's drive from Queenstown (a very scenic drive!). There isn't an exact spot shown, and we know that in some cases mirror image shots were used, so we didn't want to use too much of a beautiful day trying to pin down an exact location.  Here's the general area.  

And we also saw the filming site for the Battle of Pelennor Fields.  Google Maps actually leads you to a spot.   We did hear that almost everyone who lives in the town of Twizel was an extra in the movie.  

And when we were the very furthest south that we went on our trip (and the furthest south we have ever been in our life), we saw the river where many of the river scenes from Fellowship of the Rings were filmed.  We took a long hike near there, and if we're ever back, we'd love to float this river.

While on our hike on the Kepler Track, we saw a marshy area very like the Dead Marshes.  We don't know if it's the exact same location, but we do know this scene was filmed in the "Kepler Mire" - so it's somewhere close and probably looks a lot like this.