Isengard

The only way to get to a place called Glenorchy is via a road from Queenstown. This was our aim for this morning. We packed up the car (after Matt had a chat with his brother) and set off. The drive took us along the lake and further, taking about 40 minutes to reach the little village. When there, we went to the edge of another lake (this was in the village) and took some good snaps before finding a free map at a little shop and asking which were the best walks to do. Turns out you have to drive another half an hour, half of that on a gravel track, to reach the good places. This wasn't so good for us because our car insurance stated that it didn't cover us for any roads beyond Glenorchy. However, the lady that we'd got the information on the walks from said that we would be absolutely fine and the roads are in perfect conditions. We trusted her and set off. 

The main reason we wanted to explore this area was because it was a place used for several parts of Lord of the Rings, including Isengard. I realised where the location of Isengard was and luckily it was somewhere we passed on the way to a little lake that we were going to walk around. We didn't get the best view of it though so decided to look again on the way back. We parked up near the little lake and walked over a swing bridge to the start of our route. The track took us through a forest for around an hour and a half and although it was lovely we did get a little bored. We're used to amazing views for the majority of our walks. When we finally reached the lake it was rather lovely and so we sat and had a sandwich, looking out at the mountains surrounding us. A little bird got a little too close for comfort, obviously wanting to steal our food. This meant we didn't stick around for too long and headed back to the car which took another half an hour. 

On the way back we did stop and admire the large open space that was used for Isengard. It's actually a river bed but the river takes up only a very small part of it. We took a couple of pictures, looking out for any sneaky Orcs, before making the journey back to Queenstown. 

The main reason for wanting to go back through Queenstown (it was also our only way to get to our next destination) was to have a famous Ferg burger. We found a parking space and went to queue up. As it was around 3pm by this point the line wasn't as huge as it could have been so it took us around five minutes before our order was taken and then another fifteen minutes before we got our order. I went for the classic Ferg burger with a beef burger, tomato, lettuce, aioli, red onion but with a lovely topping of blue cheese. We sat in a beautiful mini park round the corner and happily ate our delicious burgers. Matt had chosen the biggest one he could get which had two burgers and beetroot as well as all the stuff mine had (except the blue cheese). They were tasty burgers but they could easily be made at home so I wasn't entirely sure what all the fuss was about. 

Back in the car we made the drive to Te Anau, a small town next to the second largest lake in New Zealand. It took us a couple of hours to get there meaning we didn't arrive until after 6pm. We had to find a hostel and after trying the YHA (there weren't any cheap rooms) we got a couple of beds at a homestay. It was a lovely homestay with a well equipped kitchen but it was a little strange that we were the only guests. We felt like intruders. Nevertheless, after a trip to the supermarket we made a rather boring tea of pasta and sauce. The lovely owner did give us some sticky date pudding and caramel sauce for afters though which went down a treat. Proper comfort food. By the time we'd eaten it was gone 9pm so we read for a bit before going to sleep.