[lettie]

On Tuesday we packed up our worldly goods into the car and set off down the west coast highway, destination Queenstown via Haast and the gorgeous Mt Aspiring National Park. It was a lovely drive and again, quite a long one. Mt Aspiring national park is the 3rd largest in NZ covering about 3,500 sq km. Scenery ranges from Alpine mountains to spectacular forested valleys and waterfalls.

We arrived in Queenstown mid afternoon and I was immediately blown away by the place. We had 4 days here and there was so much to do that we could've easily had a month. I've always wanted to visit Queenstown. Do you know that feeling of when you have a dream of something that you want to do or a place you want to visit, then when you actually get to do it it's not always how you pictured it would be. Queenstown was everything I had hoped for and more.

Situated on Lake Wakatipu NZ's 3rd largest lake and backed by the Remarkables mountain range the Queenstown area is extremely familiar looking. Many of the scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed in this district. I once had an aquaintance who swore that the scenery from this film was computer generated because nowhere on earth could be that beautiful. I have to say that my friend is completely and utterly wrong, there is nothing computer generated about this place at all.

Lake Wakatipu is unique in that it breathes. Honestly the water level rises and falls as much as 12cms every 5 minutes, this movement is caused by variations in atmospheric pressure, but of course the Maori have a different explanation. Their legend has it that the lake was formed by the burned imprint of a sleeping demon killed by the lover of a beautiful princess that he had kidnapped. Because his heart did not perish it still beats and causes the rise and fall of the water level of the lake. I kinda like this explanation.

The Remarkables (Kawarau) were formed by the folding and faulting of Schist rock to the point where many of the rock faces are vertical. They are gorgeous to look at and are remarkable for 2 reasons. They are lovely to look at especially in the sunset and they are only one of two mountain ranges in the world that run from due north to south (the other being the American Rockies).

Here are some pics of Queenstown and district. A view of the wharf on Lake Wakatipu, Sparky and the Remarkables, Thunder Creek Falls in Mount Aspiring National Park and Queenstown taken from Bob's Peak as the sun started to set.