New Zealand Trip, Day 3: Queenstown

Our third day begin with an early shuttle to the airport for an early flight from Auckland, on the north island, to Queenstown, on the south island.
A few hours later found us at our new hotel from where we walked down to the bay to find lunch before our Lord of the Rings tour began.

A view from our balcony

McKenzie by the bay

During our trip research, we found that a number of locations around the country offered LotR tours. We ended up selecting this one as it focused on impressive scenery used in the movies. We enjoyed the tour in general, but the highlight for the girls was when we stopped in the forest for hot chocolate and biscuits and they got to have a sword fight with “real” LotR swords!


After completing the tour, we rode the gondola up the mountain and the girls did a couple of runs down “The Luge”, which I can best describe as a cross between a bicycle and a sled.



Dinner in town and some grocery shopping for the next day’s picnic lunch completed our day’s activities.