South by Southwest
I've been working on this post for a week or so now; it's gotten really long and I'm not even halfway done writing about my trip south. But, I thought I'd put up what I have so far and post the rest again later when I get the chance. Enjoy!


Going alllllll the way back to the third week of October...

On Monday night, Sameera invited Latoya and me over to her flat to make dinner. We spent some time looking up recipes online before settling on a pasta bake that would be pretty easy. We took a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients and then all piled into her kitchen. We accidentally made too much pasta, and ended up doubling the size of the dish, but it turned out really, really good! We were pretty proud of ourselves.

After dinner, we entertained ourselves by putting together the little toys from Kinder Surprises. My dad used to bring these home with him when he went on business trips overseas, and I still love getting them every once in a while.





We ended the evening with an awesome "One Song Dance Party" to "Come on Eileen"--great fun! Basically you dance all-out, as hard as you can for one song. Perfect stress reducer for the end of the semester! :)

The next day I had class and then headed over to Ilam Village where Maggie and Krystina were hosting a BBQ. It was really cool to see everyone again after having been busy wit school for so long.


Liz, Sara, and Greg


Clare, Dan, Sara, and Maggie by the BBQ.


Maggie and Greg


Ella and Krystina thought it would be a good idea to do handstands!


Then they tried to play Airplane.


Clare had to come in and show them the proper technique.


Ella and Clare

The next night, all my flatmates happened to be home, which was pretty cool--it doesn't seem to happen often. Andres was making crepes from scratch, and we kept making jokes that since he is Colombian, the crepes must have cocaine in them, and should be called Colombian Pancakes. Emerald was also making food, and for some reason was wearing bunny ears.


Emerald with her ears.


Drew and some of the other guys set up a way to play Halo on their computers, so for a while this was the only thing you'd see when you passed Drew's room.

On Friday of that week was a big end-of-year party on campus called the Tea Party. Some people dressed up in different costumes for it, and it was fun seeing all those. I decided not to dress up, but instead just took advantage of the glorious weather to wear some summery clothes.

Just a warning, some of the costumes tended to be... off-color? It's a college campus, what do you expect?


Andy with his meat sale costume.


Drew wearing a soccer ball on his head. He's had it for a while, and really just wanted to wear it.


Sameera, Andy, and Drew.


Drew and me rocking the sunglasses


Andy didn't wear shoes and was turned away at the door, so we had to wait for him. We got this fabulous photo while waiting.


The huge crowd at the party. They had a bunch of awesome bands that played.


This is a band called The Mint Chicks. It's really weird, I saw one of their music videos on TV on Thursday and really liked the song, so I downloaded it. Then I came to Tea Party and found out they were playing! It was pretty cool.


Wilbert, Sameera, and me


Sameera wearing Drew's hat.

Along with the tickets for Tea Party we got coupons for a pizza place nearby, so we decided to walk over and have pizza for dinner that night. It was really delicious, and nice to get together with so many people again.


Andy and Hayes checking out photos.


On the way back we ran into a shopping cart.


...which naturally resulted in this.


Hayes, Latoya, Sameera, and Greg walking home.

Early the next morning, I hopped on a bus to meet Greg to pick up our rental car. We got down there fine, did all the paperwork, hopped in the car, and then realized it didn't have any way of playing music except for the radio. We had planned on plugging our ipods into a cassette tape converter, but there was no place to put a cassette it! So Greg dropped me off to finish packing while he drove to a store to see what he could find. He picked me up an hour later having purchased a $90 device that would plug into an ipod and transmit the music about a meter to the radio, which would pick it up. It worked pretty well, we just had to keep changing stations to find one that would pick it up static-free. It was worth it, though, to have music while driving so much.


Back on the road again, this time heading south.


Panorama of Lake Tekapo--the water really is that intense blue color! It was amazing.


The statue of a dog at Lake Tekapo. I've posted similar photos before; I went to Lake Tekapo with my flat mates when we went to visit Emerald's boyfriend's house in Timaru.


Lake Pukaki, at the base of Mt. Cook.


This bike was parked at the information center at Lake Pukaki. Someone had a heavy load!


We had a car called a Sunny, which we decided was the worst car ever--in order to lock it, you had to lock both the driver's door and the passenger door with the key from the outside. That, combined with bad gas mileage and lack of musical devices, and we more or less condemned it. Someone else at Lake Pukaki had the exact same car, though, and parked right next to us!

After Lake Pukaki we drove to Mt. Cook Village at the base of the mountain. We checked into our room at YHA Mt Cook and then decided to head out on a hike through Hooker Valley to see if we could glimpse Mt. Cook. It was pretty cold and a bit rainy, but we decided to tough it out anyway.


A sign for Hooker Valley.


A memorial to all the mountaineers who had died in the National Park.


I really liked the landscape here, it seemed kind of like a tundra. The plants were really beautiful in a rugged kind of way.


We had to cross 2 swing bridges along the trail--this was the first one.


Greg going on the swing bridge.


More of Hooker Valley


The second swing bridge we had to cross. I'm horribly afraid of heights, but I didn't have too bad a time with these because they were so incredibly sturdy--they didn't move all that much as you crossed. Also they had a ton of steel cable drilled into the ground that made it look really safe.


Little plants growing on the face of a rock wall.


The swing bridge.


Our very first glimpse of Mt. Cook. It apparently stays clouded over most of the time, and is difficult to see, so we were excited to see this much of it.


Zooming in on the mountain peak. Edmund Hillary, who was the first person to climb Mount Everest, climbed this mountain. (He's also still living, which we weren't aware of--we saw a plaque at the restaurant we ate at that night saying he had been at the official opening in 2004.)


Me with Mt. Cook in the background.


Greg excited about seeing the mountain.




At the end of the trail was a little lake with ice bergs in it. It looked appallingly cold, but we didn't test it out :)


View with Mt. Cook to my back.


Thankfully, the sun managed to break through the clouds and we could see the whole mountain!! It was absolutely amazing, I can't even imagine what it would be like to climb it.


Beautiful Mt. Cook (or Aoraki, which is its Maori name).


Mountains reflected in a puddle.


Cool plants along the trail.



By the time we finished the trail, it was 8pm and we were both starving. I was surprised how light it was out still, but I guess it's because we were further south and heading into summer. We went to The Old Mountaineers Cafe to get some dinner, but they had stopped serving full meals and were only offering bar snacks. We ordered meat pies instead, and enjoyed watching the sunset out the window before heading back to the hostel to crash. I was surprised how tired I was, but the hike did take 4 hours and I hadn't done any hiking recently, so I guess it makes sense.


The view out the window of our hostel the next morning.


A panorama in Mt. Cook Village--our hostel is the building on the left.


We stopped again at Lake Pukaki; this time you could see the mountains really well.

Our next stop was in Twizel (pronounced TWY-zle, not like twizzle) to get petrol. As we turned off the main road, we saw these huge trucks that had been parked on the grass, obviously no longer in use. After getting petrol we drove over to check them out. Greg, being a boy, reverted to a childhood of Tonka Trucks and was in heaven. They were pretty cool to just climb on and explore.


The inside of one of the trucks.


Greg on a dump truck.


Huge wheels!


(Greg's photo) Me on one of the pieces of equipment.

After Twizel we got back on the road and headed to Queenstown, an awesome town on the edge of Lake Wakatipu. We checked into our hostel, The Black Sheep, and then walked a couple of blocks into the center of town to get some lunch. We decided to eat at a fish and chips restaurant that had a British theme, and each ordered hamburgers. We also found out from the cashier that South Africa had defeated England to win the world cup early that morning. We were sad to hear this (South Africa is a big rival of New Zealand, so we were supporting our enemy's enemy) and also felt it was wrong, since we ourselves had gone to the South Africa vs. New Zealand rugby game in which New Zealand had won. So, judging by that and the appallingly bad call by a ref in the game that caused NZ to lose, we're sticking to our guns and saying that NZ really won. :)

Anyway, then our waitress brought over the hamburgers, which were huge. I've never had a burger this enormous, it was a big as my face!


Greg with his hamburger.

After lunch, we decided to take the gondola up the hill, where there was a luge track. Once again, my fear of heights started to get to me, and going up the side of the mountain on the gondola was pretty scary. I don't know why I'm so scared; I've heard that people who are afraid of heights are really afraid that they won't be able to stop themselves from hurling themselves off whatever they are on, crashing to a horrible death below. I don't think that's it, it's more a fear of whatever structure I'm on failing completely and me crashing to my death below, and knowing it's coming and not being able to stop it. On the gondola, all I could think about what how flimsy the cables looked, how steep the hill was, and how much it would hurt when the gondola fell off the cable and we crashed on the hillside. It's just weird, even thinking about it (right now, actually!) my hands start to sweat. That's why I don't want to go skydiving or bungy jumping--just the idea of something failing, and me watching as the ground gets very close very fast and not being able to do anything about it makes me nauseated.

Anyway... I was able to get a grip on myself and managed to take some photos from the gondola ride up.


Heading up the hill to Bob's peak on the gondola.


Gorgeous view from the viewing deck. The mountains are called The Remarkables for obvious reasons--they are absolutely incredible. The little green roof in the lower right corner is a bungy-jumping place (bungy jumping was actually invented in New Zealand!) We saw a guy jump from it at one point, which was insane to watch.


The viewing deck and Lake Wakatipu.


Once we'd taken enough photos, we hopped onto the ski lift that would take us to the top of the Luge ride. We wore these lovely helmets on the way.


The luge track. This was soooooo much fun! I had a blast. First you had to do the beginner's route, just to get the hang of it, and I wasn't sure how much I liked it after doing that. But then you get to do the fast route, and you go much faster--it was a blast! I think because we were going faster, the luge held to the track better and it was easier to steer. Loads of fun, though!


(Greg's photo) Me on the luge track!


Greg on the luge track.


Wheeeeee!!!

Before Greg's last run, they shut the track down for half an hour because the wind was so bad and it wasn't safe to bring people up on the ski lift, so we hung around for a while getting cold (I was stupid and didn't bring a sweatshirt of any kind) so afterwards we were ready to head back to the hostel.


The bungy jump place on the way back down on the gondola. The thing hanging down from the platform is someone's leg--this guy was just hanging out, sitting on the edge. Crazy!!!


We took a detour over to the docks at Lake Wakatipu. It was really windy, and the waves were pretty choppy, but it was still really pretty.


A statue on the lake edge.

That night we stopped by the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and whipped up some excellent stir-fry. It was delicious!

The next day, Greg slept in pretty late while I woke up early (as usual...) I hung around the hostel for a bit, reading and relaxing, before finally going to prod him until he got up. We had to be downtown to be picked up by the shuttle service going to Glenorchy for our horseback tour of various Lord of the Rings filming locations! We did the Ride of the Rings through Dart Stables, which was absolutely incredible. Our tour guide, Chris, picked us up in Queenstown and drove us 40 minutes to Glenorchy, where the stables were. He told us that he was an extra in the Lord of the Rings movies, and played an uruk'hai in the films. He is apparently visible 5 times in the director's cut versions of the films, and you can tell that it is him because when he was playing a dead uruk'hai he put his knee up. They told him to put it down, so he did, but you can see him with his knee up in the films. Cool!

Chris also very nicely stopped along the road to show us one filming location not on the tour:


In "The Two Towers" (I think), Sam, Frodo, and Gollum are hiding at the top of a hill and see troops walking in the valley below. Then they are captured by Faramir. I tried to find a screen cap of the scene, but couldn't! In any case, the cliff you can see is where they filmed that scene.


Me and Lake Wakatipu.


The horse paddock in Glenorchy. Our tour didn't actually start from here; we piled into another van and drove out to another paddock in Paradise (I kid you not, that's the name of the place, and it's certainly appropriate!)


Greg giving me his best Aragorn impression.


Greg on his horse Sam, who was actually used in the Lord of the Rings movies!


My horse, Boris. He was a pretty cool horse, described by one of the stable workers as "kind of like an old hippie who's abused too many substances." That's right, I got the hippie horse.


Riding through Paradise. It was stunningly beautiful!


Paradise and the Remarkables.


This is where they filmed the scene where Galadriel goes all crazy and green and thinks about taking the ring from Frodo but then decides not to.


The flat plain is where Gandalf rode Shadowfax, his pure white horse.


The views were absolutely stunning!


Me and Boris.


This is where they filmed the scene where the Fellowship of the Ring is broken and where Boromir dies. Apparently, director Peter Jackson wanted Sean Bean (who played Boromir) to actually be shot by arrows rather than doing CGI ones. None of the archers on set wanted to shoot an actor with real arrows, so Jackson did it himself!


Me, Greg, Chris our tourguide, and Sam the Horse.


Chris gave Greg a bit of carrot to give to Sam after the ride.


Driving out of Paradise.

The next day we checked out of the hostel and headed into town to pick up some Frisbees so we could conquer the Frisbee Golf Course in the Queenstown Gardens.


Greg checking out the course map.


Some ducks hanging out in the gardens.


Greg really kicked my butt, as he always does. Although, in my defense, we had a hard time finding some of the holes and ended up jumping from number 10 to about number 17 or so... Not sure how that happened. So we didn't really finish the whole course.