I Want To See Mountains Again, Mountains Gandalf!!!

Queenstown. The adventure capital of New Zealand and maybe even the world. I arrived in Queenstown on Friday, April 30th in the early afternoon. On our drive here I noticed the mountains getting taller and larger and the ranges getting longer. Queenstown is a town surrounded by mountains with a lake at its base. One of the ranges enclosing Queenstown is “The Remarkables”. Whoever named this mountain range got it quiet right. They are remarkable! They look like perfect mountains that you would see in an artist’s painting. The Queenstown area reminds me of Whistler/Blackcomb, but I feel it would look more like Lake Louise. I’ve never been there so I don’t actually know, I’m basing this off of pictures. Once I unloaded all my stuff at the hostel I decided to walk around the town. One thing I wanted to do here was the luge down the mountain. It was another beautiful day as I was walking around and everyone I talked to said the weather in Queenstown was usually rainy and crappy. Since it was a nice day I decided to use the weather to my advantage and luge during a beautiful sunset. 

I walked over to the gondola at the base of the mountain and bought my ticket for 5 luge rides. The luge isn’t like olympic luging. It is more like go-carting down hill but you don’t have an engine, gravity does all the work. It was definitely worth it. Even though I was by myself I had a wicked time. It was really fun and when I get back to Canada I will do it again. I found out that they have recently opened one at Mt. Tremblant. During my luges I didn’t really follow the rules. 1. I have a heart condition - wasn’t even suppose to do it. 2. Follow the signs and slow down - On the advance track there is a steep drop followed by a tight corner and you are suppose slow down. I went full speed and got some air on it. On the following corner my luge was on 2 wheels vs 3. It was awesome. After the luge rides I went back to the hostel and we all watched some movies.

Saturday was another beautiful day. I went into town and headed to the waterfront for Saturday mornings arts in the park. It was fun just walking around and looking at all the local handmade jewelry and paintings.

Saturday night. Oh what a night. I don’t really know how to start this story. There were a bunch of people hanging out in the lounge and I decided to join them. We started talking and I told them I was one of the few travelers from Canada, and I worked at Apple, etc. I found out that they were Kiwi’s and visiting Queenstown for the weekend. There was Brett, Anna, and Penny. Now if you know Flight of the Conchords you know that with a NZ accent Brett sounds like Brit. It was funny listening to the germans try to get his name. Someone thought his name was “prick”. We had a good laugh about that. I was pretty happy to finally sit down and talk with Kiwi’s. I love their accent so much. It is awesome.  

We started talking about our cultural difference and similarities. I brought up a sex study that I found out about just before I left, which says that New Zealanders are the most sexually active people with a female having an average of 23 sexual partners. I was curious as to how they obtain such high numbers and I got an answer. I don’t think I should mention anything more here because my family and Babci are reading this. All I will say is that in that respect their culture is very different from ours. When I get back or if we are on skype I can tell you the story. It is pretty interesting, or at least I thought so.

At 11ish everyone decided to go out. I am not much of a party person, nor do I do much going out or clubbing. They finally got me to join them. It was actually pretty fun. The bars here in Queenstown don’t have any cover charge. We went to a bar and listened to live music. It was pretty cool. I met more Kiwi’s and some Australian’s. After the bar we got some food. In Ottawa most people go out for McDonalds after a night of partying. Usually it is quite delicious. From now on that will not compare with what we ate after the bar. Deep fried lasagna!! OMGosh. WHY DOESN’T THIS EXIST IN CANADA!!!! AMAZING!!! Who ever thought of this was a genius. I found my new calling. When I get home I am opening up a deep fried lasagna stand in the middle of the market. BTW it is squares of lasagna. After a regular lasagna is made they cut it into squares (as you normally would), bread them, then deep fry. The only thing that would have made this better would have been a bowl of KD for me to dip the lasagna square into. SIDENOTE - They don’t have KD here (tear). So my first meal when I get home will be a big bowl of KD.

After the lasagna we went back to the hostel and slept. That was about 3am. Back to the subject of food. One “kiwi” dish I guess is potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili thai sauce. The dips can either be separated or combined. Either way it is delicious. 

In Queenstown the one thing everyone is suppose to do is have a FERGBURGER. I got the “Tropical Swine” Fergburger. Which is the classic burger with cheese, bacon, and pineapple. This burger was phenomenal. It was huge. The sauces, toppings, and meat all complemented each other in a way that created magic in my mouth. I’ve never felt the same sense of satisfaction from any other burger. While I was eating I had a great conversation with a dentist from Dunedin. The people here are just so cool and interesting. One thing I’ve also noticed is that   New Zealanders are very modest people. They tend to talk themselves down. The dentist I was chatting with was like, “Yeah Im not a really smart guy, I’m just a dentist who does his job and I know that there are people out there that are way better than me.”  WHAT??!! You’re a dentist. In Canada that’s a big thing. From my experiences dentists in Canada act like big shot know-it-alls. They brag and boast that they are dentists.

Anyways, Sunday and Monday were both very relaxing days for me. I just walked around town and tried some local cuisine. As I was walking around I was checking out LOTR tours and activities around the area. The majority of the activities involved sitting in a car and driving to the general location areas. Finally I saw some small brochure that said “Horseback riding through LOTR filming locations”. Interesting. Since I hadn’t done anything in a few days I figured I could spend some money, see the locations, and go horseback riding. 

This was the first time I had been horseback riding on a trail. I lied and told them I’d been before because I’ve done it at the zoo and the circus. Our group consisted of our guide Georgie, a couple from Australia, and me. It was nice to have a small group and it was a beautiful day outside. I don’t want to boast but I think I may have been a badass cowboy in a previous life lol. I was behind Georgie riding like a boss. My horses name was “Doobie” but I referred to him as Shadowfax in disguise. At some points we were cantering (yeah I’m a pro equestrian now, knowing all the lingo).    

During our ride I was looking around noticing certain locations. I told our group I was a huge fan and nerd of the movies. We stopped a few times and I instantly noticed what location of the movie(s) we were in. I was soo happy. We were in the forests where they filmed Lothlorien and Amon Hen. I saw the location where Boromir dies and the tree that Lurtz pins Aragorn against with his shield. That is one of my favorite scenes so I told the group to stop so I could take it all in.     We also saw Isengard and where they had the tower of Orthanc. My second favorite area that we saw was the mountain tops where they lit the beacons of Minas Tirith. I know many of you may not understand what I’m saying but all you need to know is that I was in disbelief. Near the end Georgie showed us where the largest set for the Hobbit was built and what scene it was for. She also gave us a bunch of insider info. On one of her rides Gloin waved at her tour. Jealous

Other movies that were filmed there include, The lovely bones (never saw it), Prince Caspian, and X-men Origins Wolverine. The guides got to meet Hugh Jackman and watched as they filmed the chase scene where he is naked and runs into the barn. The barn that he runs into was actually a full scale barn built and blown-up for the movie. They had the day off to watch them blow it up. After our tour I got to meet one of the girls that was in the movies as a rider in LOTR, and the horse she rode, Elvis.

Wednesday and Thursday were also very relaxing. I called the hostels in Wanaka to see if I could get a room for a few days. Then I would meet up with the girls. Unfortunately every hostel in Wanaka is booked for Easter weekend. Warbirds over Wanaka is a big event over the Easter weekend and so every accommodation is full. I sent the girls a message telling them the deal and if I don’t here back by saturday night then I will head to Dunedin and stay with Brett and Anna for awhile. Hopefully during that time I can pick up the Kiwi accent.

As I was walking around town on Thursday I saw a parking lot being converted into a slopestyle course for BMX and downhill riders. I then saw a poster saying Teva Slopestyle event tonight, free, time, blah blah blah. I went. They had pro riders there. Holy Shit are they good. One of the riders was from Canada. I can’t remember his name though and another rider was the first person to pull a triple backflip on a bike and land it. These guys were doing double backs off a relatively small ramp and other crazy tricks that just fill you with energy when you see them pull them off. They were giving away amazing prizes. They handed out 4 pairs of $260 Teva shoes to people and bottles of whisky. They def know how to party here. One club/bar here is like spring break everyday. They have, Swinging Sundays, Mustache Mondays, Topless Tuesdays, Ginger Wednesdays, Wet-Tshirt Thursdays, Miss Backpackers Fridays, and Best Booty Saturdays. I have been behaving myself and I have not gone to this club. I don’t want to be getting into any trouble, here or with anyone back home. It’s also kind not my scene if you will.

The town is getting ready for Easter weekend. They are actually really respectful of the true easter meaning. Starting at midnight on friday everything is closed, even bars, no alcohol is served all weekend, and yeah pretty much everything, even some restaurants are closed for the Easter weekend. One New Zealander put it like this, “Jesus is a pretty cool guy, just for us he decided to have this whole event on a friday and wake up on a monday. It must have been a pretty good bender if he didn’t wake up for three days. He gave us a four day weekend. Thumbs up Jesus, You rock.”  Admittingly I did laugh a little. But it is good to see they take it seriously down here.

I don’t know what the rest of my weekend looks like. I gotta hear back from the girls and if I don’t than it looks like I’m heading back to Dunedin.

Happy Easter Everyone!!! Enjoy your Easter Weekend and for all you sinners out there go to church for the next 3 weeks minimum and the Easter Vigil!  And confession!

1 month down, 2 to go.