There and Back Again

The River Anduin, Middle Earth… Only in our imagination. This was the place, (OK, near the place) that they filmed the Pillars of Kings scene in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy

Here’s my final post of our New Zealand trip from 2018. At last, finishing posting all that I wanted to post of NZ. See ya, NZ, till we meet again.

Dad, Hazel, Jason and family are flying to NZ tomorrow, to visit Kim and family! How nice! This would be Jason’s, Fang’s and Stacey’s first visit to NZ! As for Dad & Hazel, they’ve been there umpteen times! Hope the weather is good and that they enjoy the trip.

Back to my post, here goes.

Continuing from where I left off in my last NZ post. Our last day on the South Island of NZ was spent sightseeing in Cromwell and Arrowtown, before we headed off to Queenstown Airport to return the campervan and take the flight back to Auckland. In between Cromwell and Arrowtown, is the great Anduin River of Middle Earth (from the LOTR movie trilogy). Nah, it’s actually the Kawarau River, which was used to film the Pillars of Kings scene, where the heroes rowed passed the two ginormous statues of kings with arms extended, flanking the river.


Kawarau River, all sunny and clear, not like the gloomy & foreboding river in the movie that the Fellowship of the Ring rowed in… It’d be awesome if they’d really created the Argonath (aka the Pillars of Kings), wouldn’t it?


Hey, are those the hobbits in the river?? Nah, they’re white-water rafters… The Kawarau Gorge is an adventure sports location


Can’t open our eyes! The sun’s too bright – Kawarau River, Otago, NZ – Dec 2018


Hey, what’s going on? Did someone jump??!?


There he is! Oh, it’s a friggin bungy jump! What did I just tell you about adventure sports??


The Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, is the birthplace of bungy jumps. That’s because this was the first ever commercial bungy jumping site in the world! This suspension bridge used to be an important access to the Otago goldfields during the gold mining days. Now, it’s just a place for people to jump themselves bonkers!


AJ Hackett was the entrepreneur who set up the world’s first commercial bungy jumping site here, and made this crazy sport famous around the world


Inside the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bungy Centre. See, how it’s cramped with people! Nope, not gonna do something crazy like that!


Just came here for a little sightseeing. Let’s go, we have a plane to catch!


Queenstown, here we come! The Remarkables Mountain Range, Queenstown (view from Riverside Road, next to the airport)


That’s our plane. Time to go! Queenstown Airport, New Zealand, New Year’s Eve, 2018. Bye, till we meet again! See ya, when we see ya!