5 February 2014-
Today we have to get up EXTRA early to go on our morning jog as we're going horseback riding this morning.
Let's take a different jogging route this morning, okay?
I just love jogging on a clean dirt trail…close to a clean lake and fresh air.
A view of Queenstown:
It's definitely a cloudier and cooler day…
The sun is trying to show up …but it looks like the low clouds are going to win today.
So…what's happening today? Oh right! We're going horseback riding in Glenorchy today! Better go eat breakfast and get ready to go fast. The bus will be here VERY SOON to pick us up. Apparently it's a bit of a drive to get out Glenorchy.
We've chosen to do the Ride of the Rings tour with Dart Stables. Why? Well, we do have with us some avid Lord of the Rings fans and Ava has been begging us to do a horseback riding tour. This combines the two – perfect, right? It's only a 1.5 hour riding tour in a place called Paradise. What do you suppose Paradise looks like???? We're also supposed to see several filming locations from the LOTR and Hobbit movies.
It's quite a moody sort of day:
Those sort of look like the Mystic mountains…as they're pretty darn mystical looking (in my opinion):
The road to Glenorchy:
a quick photo op stop:
At Dart Stables in Glenorchy:
Time to get our helmets and boots on. Today is definitely a rain jacket sort of day. It's not raining…yet…but it looks like it could start raining at any moment.
Kids are all suited up:
Ava is SOOOOO EXCITED!!!! (although, her face looks kind of creepy and dark with that helmet on):
Time to pile into another van and drive out to a place called Paradise. Our horses are out there waiting for us!
Wow! I can see why they call this Paradise. It's gorgeous!
Waiting for instructions…. our guides have to figure out which horse we each get to ride (based on our riding experience, weight, height, age, etc..).
I'm up first! My time to very gracefully (ummm…not!) mount my horse:
Beth and I are patiently waiting for the others to mount their horses:
Now it's Ava's turn!
Ava's horses is a MOVIE STAR! And his name is Elvis. How appropriate! LOL!!! Apparently, Elvis was an extra in the LOTR movies. They needed horses that were all the same size and coloring for the movies…and he fit the bill. (you do know that in the scenes that show thousands of horses and riders that in reality they only filmed it with a few horses and used digital technology to duplicate them over and over again, right? That's why using horses of the same size and coloring became important – so that the movie goer wouldn't suspect the duplication! or multiplication…)
Henry:
Annika's on her horse now!
After we were all settled on our horses our guides put the horses in a line…based on the pecking order of the horses. It's time to head out on to the trail:
During the ride our guide told us tales of Peter Jackson and of the various filming locations in the area. Paradise was used for both LOTR movies and The Hobbit movies.
There are different levels of LOTR fans. I'm a fan ….but Beth has us all beat in that arena! I'd say that the Mears family belongs in the ultra MEGA fan level. :-)
Gregory recognized this scene immediately:
It's from a scene in the first LOTR movie- where Boromir gets killed.
Okay, so I did recognize that location but I'll admit I don't recognize the other sites. I am, however, enjoying the scenery and our hilarious guide!
Hi from all of us!
Mark and I were the last of our group…lagging behind at times!
Mark on Boris (you have to say that with a Russian accent):
Boris was an aptly named horse!
Annika on Scar:
Ava on Elvis:
Gorgeous braided glacial river:
Our guided told us that there are wild horses in the area (actually one of the horses in our group was originally one of those wild horses…was it the one Annika was riding on? Ah yes, she just confirmed it; it was Scar.)
You can take one of those fast boat rides zipping around on the river below.
Our guide also instructed us to keep our horses moving and not let them start grazing while on the tour. Once they get started they don't want to keep walking. LOL! At different points during the tour certain horses were more likely to stop and grab a bite to eat. It was harder for the kids to get their horses moving again.
Checking out more filming locations:
And now we're back where we started:
Gregory patting his horse:
Time to head back to Queenstown….via a stop in Glenorchy to take off our riding gear. I can tell you – I doubt any of us was awake for the drive back in Queenstown – we are taking a snooze! (darn, I missed getting a better glance at what is supposed to be one of Peter Jackson's houses. I missed seeing it on the drive out to Glenorchy but I thought I'd get a glimpse on it on the drive back to town. Nope. I fell asleep and didn't wake up 'til we arrived back at our campground stop. Whoops.)
You know what? We're STARVING! It's time to grab a bite to eat and we keep hearing about a place called Fergburger…supposed to have the best burgers around. Shall we get one?
Holy COW! That is quite a line of people waiting to get a burger! Luckily, it's take away – so you order your burger and wait. Thank Heavens they're actually pretty quick about getting the orders made:
The kids are *very patiently* waiting for our food:
Fergburger. What a name!
Check out our Gappy Tooth Baby Girl! (who happened to lose her hat today. Sigh. Oh well!):
We've got our food….and we're going to sit on these benches here and EAT. We're hungry.
Wow. Did anybody actually finish their burger and fries??? I know I didn't even come close to finishing mine. The verdict? The burgers were good …but not the best we've ever had. Sorry. I think the whole Fergburger vibe was fun though even if it wasn't the best burger I've ever had.
At this point we decided to split up for the afternoon and do our own thing.
We took the gondola up to the top of the mountain:can you tell…that Ava and me with Queenstown in the background.
Two people I love…Mark and Annika:
Whoa! What a vibrant and gorgeous view of Queenstown:
At the top:
We stopped in a few shops…there's a Jelly Baby shop here?? Whaaat? Where are we???? (yes, I picked up some jelly beans)
There's a luge up here at the top. Should we or shouldn't we go for a spin on one of those carts? Oh what the heck! Why not??? It's very close to closing time but the guys manning the booth said we could at least do the run twice. Let's go!!!!
Ava and me on the chair lift heading to the top of the luge run:
Annika's pretty excited about doing this!
Here's a look at the luge run from the top:
Getting checked out to ride one of the luge carts (how to stop, how to turn, what NOT to do). And then we're off!
Ava and I rode together while Mark followed Annika. Ava and I are ready to go again!!!
That was FUN! I didn't think it would be…but it was. That's the kind of surprise I can live with. <3
Everything is closed up…time to walk back down the mountain (we bought a one-way ticket):
I just love this forest. And the forest smells! And toadstool mushrooms! (you all know I'm sucker for these, right?):
My favorite people patiently waiting for me to catch up to them as I'm snapping away the camera at all the mushrooms I see. Okay. That sounds kind of weird, doesn't it?
Do you see the trail on the left-hand side of this photo?
Don't blink!
Did you see that? That was freaking crazy mountain biker crashing down the mountain!!!! Those guys are NUTS. Extreme nuts! The bikers have their special trails (and thank heavens they're not allowed on the walking trail as that could spell disaster.).
LOL! Check out the name of this trail:
Hobbit Trail! Giggle. It does make one wonder if Queenstown even existed before the whole Lord of the Rings movies. (yes, it did!)
Annika and I decided to race ahead and do a wee bit of trail running without trying to kill ourselves and accidentally go tumbling down the mountain:
Every now and then we stopped and waited for Mark and Ava to get caught up with us:
We saw lots of stumps cut into different artistic shapes or seats like this one:
Yep, we're waiting for the slow pokes to join us. :-)
Annika and me. A selfie.
Ava and Mark finally caught up with us!
This looks like a fiddlehead fern:
Oh, hi! Can you see me down here?
After making it to the bottom of the mountain we walked back to the campground and met up with Mears family. They also had climbed the mountain! Dinner tonight? Well, Ray and I went to the local grocery store and picked up some pasta and pre-made pasta sauce. Easy dinner! While going out to eat is nice it's also pretty darn expensive. So we cooked our meal in the communal kitchen at the campground and ate dinner next to our campervans. Guess who got to do the cleaning up???? If you guessed the Minions – give yourself a pat on the back! Boy, I'm loving this!!!
Here's a bit of sad news though: tomorrow we have to pack up and leave Queenstown and head back to Christchurch. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! We didn't see Milford Sound. How can we go back? Do we have to??????? yep. It's time. Darn it!