Queenstown Bye Bye

Posted on by February 14, 2012
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How do you sum up Queenstown? quirky, intriguing, bizarre and full of gap year students.

The place has an interesting feel to it, very much a transient town for adrenalin junkies and junk food. Absolutely spectacular views and extortionate prices.

We have enjoyed the last few days here a little chance to relax without driving, see the sights of Milford Sound, the Skyline, LoTR and Segway. We even stepped into the oh so wierd Ivan Clarke Gallery for a little culture (me and culture, ha). The only reason for entering this establishment was the 6ft statue of a Bloodhound, dressed in a 3 piece suit with Brogues, why? Ah well on speaking to the cookie old bird who looked after it, Ivan is a renowned artist who was persuaded by an American (yup had to be one there somewhere), that this work was ripe for Hollywood (seen Harry Potter and thought fantasy is the way to go) and there are book rights and a movie due soon, shhh don’t tell anyone but Morgan Freman is interested.

The statue of the Basset Hound, 28,000NZD, but if you want a bronze miniature that will be 26,000NZD, let me check my wallet. The cookie old bird continued that a drawing of a Basset hound all dressed up was going to be te next Mona Lisa, now that made me howl with laughter. Some of the first editions are worth a lot of money now (tuppence springs to mind) and if you decided to sell, the gallery would take 600NZD from any sale, anything else is yours, ok then not heard of eBay have you, cheaper and quicker.

The cookie old bird finally imparted her wisdom of 3 little words she tells her husband each morning, can you guess them, no we couldn’t either, eventually she passed on her wisdom “make me money”. Stepping out of the gallery we went back to the real world.

The Matrix has you Mrs Nutter, should have taken the blue pill! (anti psychotics anyone).

Leaving Queenstown from here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

The End of Boromir

Posted on by February 14, 2012
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Look familiar? Probably not unless you had studied the LoTR in detail and at the end of the Fellowship when Boromir is brought down by the Uruk-hai, since this is the very spot where it happened in the movie.

Interesting movie fact is that this is a national trust type of forrest and is protected, so as part o the filming they vacuumed up all the leaves on the ground, stored them, then got leaves from other unprotected areas and got local school children to paint them the correct colours. When done filming they then removed all the fake leaves and replaced the originals. And who says that movie making costs are justified?

As you can tell we have done our half day LoTR tour, finding out all the facts and about that other film that can’t be named until after Dec 12th. Incidentally this location was also used to represent the Canadian Rockies (why? here’s a task find a place that looks like the Rockies, err Canada, nope NZ) in the Wolverine Movie (see it, no, but if you did you wouldn’t remember it cos it was pants).

Not a bad day all told, fun and interesting.

Tomorrow on th road for the last 3 days of the tour.

Last night in Queenstown from here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

Oh Holidays Holidays

Posted on by February 14, 2012
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It seems but a moment ago that we arrived in New Zealand and started our tour and yet here we are contemplating the last few days on the South Island.

It is true that there is only one philosophy and that life is for living. Boy have we certainly done that while here. Since 2nd Feb when I last posted our list of achievements we’ve done so much more ( and have the credit card bill to prove it).

So, we have:

Completed five luge rides each in total
Done both Skyline cable cars North and South
Got splashed on the Buller Gorge Jet Boat
Raced 40kph on the tandem zipwire
Listened to Mr Fogg laughing on the Supaman zipwire
Watched the sunset over Pancake Rocks and the upside down moon
Route Marched up and down a glacier
Been munched on by Sandflies
Admired driftwood art in Hokitika
Held a large gold nugget
Nearly been poisoned in The Bushmans Cafe Pukeville
Coached, cruised and flew to Milford Sound
Ate Horace
Segwayed around Queenstown
Visited the longest place name
Looked at “my precious” at Weta Caves
Enjoyed the Interislander ferry trip
Walked barefoot in the dark
Worn flip flops everywhere and no cold feet
Slept in over 20 different beds
Bought too much
Ate too much
Slept too little
Sampled local wines at twice the price of the average cost for a bottle in the UK (nice though!!!)

And much much more…….

And next we have the LOTR tour to Glenorchy where much of the external film shots were made.

Time for a rest later then..

[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]

Segway Around the World

Posted on by February 13, 2012
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And here we are on another Segway tour, this time in Queenstown. A fantastic 2 hour tour with Kevin from “Segways in Q”. It’s a brilliant way to see any city and just soooo much fun, whipping round all the sites to the amazement of all the tourists and locals.

Next stop a geeky LoTR half day scenery tour since so much was filmed here.

We Segway’d from here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

Dinner is chosen

Posted on by February 13, 2012
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After an early start it’s now 5.30pm and I’m starved.

We did the Milford Sound Cruise today which was excellent. It started with a 5 hour (yes five hours!) coach trip with Bob (must make up time) which was supposed to include photo stops and little walks but it seems that Bob was late so we got two stops for 2-3 min toilet breaks (run, drop, flush, run) and a number of “and here is a nice view on the left as I drive past” from our driver. Oh and we got a 20 min coffee stop in a gift shop (anyone want a NZ trinket?)

But the highlight was the cruise itself. Wonderful small boat, the greedy people all opted to dash to the top deck leaving about six of us to spread out across the front and rear bottom deck of the boat. We sailed close to each side of the fjord (its not really a Sound but a Fjord but some welsh bloke incorrectly named it a Sound and they never chamged it) and could almost touch sheer cliffs, seals and two different types of penguin. We went directly under a huge waterfall (need a towel there Mr Fogg or just happy to wring yourself out later?) and hoped to spot dolphins or whales but no luck.

Two hours later and then we are dropped at the teeny airport for our teeny two wing flight back with another couple. Fab Fab Fab. Loads of incredible views, just breathtaking.

Having beaten those who opted for the coach trip back (ha ha 5 long hours to go yet!) we are now back in central Queenstown to sample the local delicacies. We saw the local crayfish pots today in Milford Sound so we just had to do it. Horace the Crayfish just did not stand a chance. Dear Horace, welcome to my plate…….

[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]

Nuff Said

Posted on by February 13, 2012
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Well what did you expect at this time in the morning, sorry Mrs Fogg better pull out that pop-up Maori Warrior

But the whole Milford experience after the 5 hour bus journey was cracking. Mrs Fogg will divulge all the juicy gossip.

Made back from Milford Sound to here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

How Early

Posted on by February 12, 2012
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Up at real silly o clock this morning for the 6 hour drive in a bus, absolutely knackered. I think I’ll need a holiday after this one to recover.

Here’s hoping Milford sound is worth this extra effort.

Let you know in 13 hours when we return.

Wanna go back to bed here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

Queenstown

Posted on by February 12, 2012
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And here we are in Queenstown atop the Skyline tower after doing 2 more Luge.runs before finding beer.

Mrs Fogg has excelled on the hotel front with the Queenstown Bates Morel, aptly named “Amityville Hotel on the Hill”.

Queenstown from here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]

Arrowtown

Posted on by February 12, 2012
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A short drive from Wanaka is the very pretty and historic Arrowtown. We had to drive through the Cordrona Gorge to get to it and passed the old historic Cordrona Hotel which has the old hotel building, school house and post office all restored.

Arrowtown is tiny and geared to tourists but has a nice feel to it. We’ve stopped for lunch at the old Postmasters house which is very quaint, with very English china tea cups and what can only be described as an English cottage garden surrounding the veranda.

Next we plan to amble around and I might even visit the little museum here.

A little bit of history for you. Settled in 1860 this tiny place found one of the richest alluvial gold fields in NZ and sparked an immense gold rush with over 4000 immigrants coming to grab it. It had a china town and plenty of ruffians and baddies to make it a true wild west.

Today there are 2000 inhabitants.

History lesson over..

[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]

Bare Foot Contessa

Posted on by February 11, 2012
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Unlike Ava Gardener, my little Bare Foot Contessa did actually go barefoot on the 2km hike from the restaurant in the centre of Wanaka to the B&B we are staying at. Granted a Ninja she ain’t given the howls of agony when she stood on gravel, but she refused to be beaten and walked all the way without any shoes and why, well the Indian falling down water may have helped, but she didn’t want to be beaten by lil ole me.

Next step walking over burning coals!

Footloose from here.

[Posted from my super cool iPhone]