We are now in Queenstown after travelling about 700km down from Christchurch yesterday. I must admit that our first day in NZ was not a particularly happy one as Qantas managed to lose my bag on the short hop from the North Island to the South Island. What was more annoying was that they had no idea where it was (and didn't seem to care). But nevermind because it magically appeared after about five hours or so. That meant that we had to change our itinerary and go clockwise around the island (hence my post from Lake Tekapo yesterday).
Anyway after mentioning Sauron yesterday, we ended up on a bit of a LOTR mission. It wasn't itentional but we stopped at a small cafe in a place called Omaramo (or something) and there was a small gift shop nearby selling guides to the filming locations. One of these was on the road to Queenstown (which is pretty spectacular) and it was the site of the Pillars of the Kings on the Anduin River. It is also the spot of the historic first bungy jump site (A J Hackett) off a rather nice old suspension bridge (I must be a bit sad, though, because I thought the consutruction of the bridge was more interesting than the jumping). So we stopped for a while and watched mad people throw themselves off (buggered if I would). Well Mr Hackett must be making some money because the visitors' centre there is pretty nice and plush. I read that we would get a better view of the site of the Pillars from the road to a small vinyard just opposite the car park for the bungy jump. What the book didn't say, though, was that it was a small, unmade switchback road with a sheer drop on one side. Karen had a fit as I was negotiating the way in our rather large camper van :-)
I am not sure which of our pictures matches the location the best, but here is a pretty good one anyway:
