Some of the beautiful scenery near GlenorchyWent back up to the Glenorchy area yesterday to hike part of the Routeburn track - one of New Zealand's Great Walks. The whole thing takes several days to traverse, but we only did a part of it...up the valley for about 5 miles to the first overnighters hut.
The color of the water in the rivers here is incredible - the most aquamarine blue you can imagine, and clear as glass. Am told that the color comes from the glaciers up the valley which supply about 90% of the water.
It was a fairly easy walk into the valley - mostly level with only a few scrambles along the way. The reward at the end was a spectacular picnic spot on a glorious day.
This being New Zealand they provide everything you can think of to make a hiker's job easier. There are numerous "wire bridges" spanning the various major streams - no need to get you feet wet unless you're somewhere really remote.
Today we went up to Deer Park near Queenstown. It's one of those drive thru wild animal parks where you can feed the animals along the way. Rita greatly enjoyed getting up close and personal with some of the locals.
As luck would have it, this area was a major filming venue for LOTR. Here's the lake along which the people of Rowhan fled towards Minas Tirith (told you we were in to this stuff). Big battle site too, and it's only 10 minutes from downtown Queenstown.
Here's the cliff that Aragorn was dragged over.
One more critter from Deer Park
And a last look at the countryside around Glenorchy
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