Only a quick update, since my laundry is sitting in the dryer waiting to be packed neatly into my backpack so I can leave bright and early in the morning. So what have I done since my last entry? Well, the last evening that I spent in Arrowtown was a good one because I went on a special offroad tour only offered at my hostel (the very nice Poplar Lodge). We went driving down the Arrow River (and I mean straight down the middle of the river), gold panning (Arrowtown was founded on the gold in the Arrow River, but unfortunately it all seems to have gone because I only found a little speck), and driving up Tobin’s Track to get a great view over the Wakatipu Basin at dusk. I really enjoyed the tour and learned lots of little factoids about the area from our local guide in the process; I also learned where the various Lord of the Rings sets in Arrowtown were and what it was like to be there during filming.

Today I went horse riding with Dart Stables in Glenorchy, which is at the very north end of Lake Wakatipu, the lake that Queenstown sits on. This area, which sits just south of Paradise, is really one of the most spectacular in New Zealand, and that’s saying quite a lot. The Dart and the Rees rivers run into the azure Lake Wakatipu and are surrounded by imposing and still slightly snowcapped mountains, one range of which was used as the Misty Mountains in LOTR. We were in the saddle for two hours, and I got a big Clydesdale named Drum(my). He was a great horse that really loved to go fast and pass other horses, but he was also rather itchy today. This meant that he rubbed up against every tree around, which were all unfortunately the bendy types, so he ended up running my right leg straight through quite a few tree trunks. There was no leg damage, which I was worried about for a time when the trees started getting bigger, but fortunately the guide decided to lead us along the river bank instead because of Drummy’s behavior!  Overall, I truly enjoyed the trip and had to spend a lot of time picking my jaw up off the floor from the spectacular scenery surrounding me!