Paradise, Glenorchy (& Around Otago: vol. 1)

Hey everybody,

Ok, so this post is going to cover a trip from two weeks ago, accompanied by some random things that I have seen close to basecamp Dunedin since I've been here. I wasn't able to take a trip this past weekend because work seems to have caught up with me. It definitely seems like I will probably be having to take one of these catch up weekends every now and then.

Paradise, Glenorchy:
Paradise is probably one of the more difficult places to access in the entire country. It is about a 5 hour drive from Dunedin all told, but an hour and a half of that comes from the short stretch between Queenstown and and Paradise itself, which is only 65 km west. We set out on Friday, the 12th of March and drove to a town in Central Otago called Ranfurly with the intention of fishing. The weather was windy and rainy when we arrived though, so we made the decision to push all the way to Paradise. At about 6PM we finally made it to a campground near the Dart River, past Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown and very near our final destination. It was a cool spot, isolated along a stream with some fantastic views and dense beech forests.

Paradise is a place on the map, but it's not a town. No one lives there. It is more of a name for the area at the end of the road, as far west as you can get in a car on that part of the South Island. As far as locations go, it really doesn't get much better. In some ways, it is my favorite place I've visited thus far. There are tons of small streams, slightly blue and extremely clear, that flow year round from snow melt. The forest is beech, something I'm not used to, making it really unique.

Moss is everywhere in paradise. It climbs the trees, covers the ground, and lines the sides of rock faces that jut up out of the ground in certain areas. It is without a doubt the greenest place I have ever been, and it really surpassed all expectations since our trip was without any real intent as far as crossing something off the must-do list.

Required Lord of the Rings Nerd Section: 
From the above description, it should be fairly easy to figure out where Paradise fits into the tour de Peter Jackson sites that I've got going on here. Paradise itself was the site used for the filming of two sections in the Fellowship of the Ring; first as the woods of Lothlorien and next during the Amon Hen battle scene at the end of the film. The Dart River area we visited was also used in the Two Towers as the outskirts of Fangorn Forest. Finally, covering all three films in a single trip, a place called Greenstone Station was used in Return of the King as the Dunharrow camp. WOW... This stuff is everywhere, and believe me when I say, they really didn't need to edit things to make them look more impressive or otherworldly.
END.


On Sunday the 14th, we left Paradise after doing some slack-lining (essentially tight rope walking for those of you who have never heard of it), and headed to Queenstown. We were only there for a few hours, but I didn't care for it. It has a cool enough location, but the tourist feel and upper crust resort status of the town doesn't really do it for me. We ate lunch at a place called Fergburger, supposedly the best burger place in NZ. It was packed at an off hour, so I had high hopes. Overall, the burgers were good, but good burgers in America are better. Big Jud's is an example of what I'm talking about here, some of you will know exactly what I mean. After eating we pushed back to Dunedin and into the school life again. I will be going back to Queenstown to do some more outrageous, thrill-seeking stuff in the future, but overall, the tourists can keep Queenstown, I'll take Paradise.

Around Otago: vol. 1
This is going to be a short section. I'm not going to give trip reports or dates, just let you know of a few places that I've seen over the past month.

Moeraki Boulders: About an hour north of Dunedin along the coast. These are a collection of boulders, naturally molded into spherical shapes by the beating of the tide. Too touristy though.

Shag Point: An area with a lot of rock faces and sea cliffs. Fur seals, shags, and the yellow-eyed penguin (the rarest penguin in the world) hang out here. We didn't see any penguins.

Otago Peninsula: A few places here. At the very tip of the peninsula is Taiaroa head, an old fortress used as a defensive position guarding the Otago harbor. This is where the Royal Albatross colony nest, and though the picture doesn't really show it, the albatross are enormous, with 6+ foot wingspans. On the peninsula are also places called The Chasm and Lover's Leap. This is a really weird area, where you park the car, walk through an alley of dead trees that look cooler than any other trees I've ever seen in my life, emerge to sheep fields lining a cliff hundreds of feet above the ocean, and come across giant holes that sink from the cliff top to below sea level. We even walked across the land-bridge shown in the picture, but it was pretty sketchy. One thing of note here is that the day we were out on the peninsula was the day the earthquake hit Chile, so there was a lot of talk about a tsunami coming in. I saw flat water, no storm swells. Liars...

This past weekend I was also able to attend my first rugby game. That will be covered in a separate 'mini-post' eventually, because I have a lot to say.

Anyway, hope all is well and that everyone is enjoying 'March Madness'. I had Kansas taking it all, so naturally they lose to a vastly inferior team in a shocker. Awesome... I'll post here again soon regarding THE New Zealand sport and pride of the country.

Cheers!