Day 5- Dunedin- Te Anau

We left our excellent accommodation in Dunedin and headed south west towards our next stop, Te Anau.  Thanks to the hospitality of Jane and Logan, we had a bucket of Cranberry and white chocolate "Cookie Time" cookies to munch upon as we travelled.  Cookie Time cookies are a New Zealand icon, and very enjoyable too!.  At the suggestion of our host from Dunedin, we deviated from our planned route to visit "Nugget Point" a coastal site with particular rock formations and also home to a penguin colony.  Nugget point was "nice", but not spectacular, and there was not a penguin in sight, so we jumped back into the car.

We had a slight disagreement with our GPS upon returning to the car. She (The GPS), wanted to take us across some unsealed roads, but we wanted to stay on the bitumen.  After a short discussion we decided to trust the GPS and headed onto the unsealed roads.  50km later, we were finally back on sealed roads, and a town we recognized on the map.
We are still not sure if we took the long way, or the short way, however one of the benefits was that we got to travel through more of the countryside, fields of rolling green hills, herds of sheep and even a rabbit or two.

Shortly after lunch we arrived in Te Anau, a town of approx 2000 inhabitants in the Southern Fiordland.  Te Anau is situated on the shore of Lake Te Anau, the second largest lake in New Zealand.  Te Anau is also a major starting point for many tourist activies in the Southern Fiordland, treks along the milford or other walking tracks, and boat trips along Milford or Doubtful sound.  Its a beautiful town, so before dinner we went for a walk along the shore of the lake.

In summer, there is accommodation for up to 4000 tourists, and no less that 24 different motel or hotel chains.  Some of these are up for sale, so Mazz has been busily reviewing the business opportunities and costs associated with each busines, after all, the Sakovits family might be in for a change of occupation in the near future.

Day 4 Dunedin

This morning we had a little bit of a sleep-in,  we are still not use to the time difference here. Once up and ready to go we headed into down town Dunedin to Cadburys Chocolate Factory for a tour. Because it is nearly Christmas the factory wasn't running but we still got to see a 1 tonne of chocolate pour out like a fountain in one of the silos. We also had a bag of samples given to us and a little cup of melted chocolate. The tour wasn't great but the shop at the end have chocolate for a good price. We just had to buy some Jaffas for where we were about to go next.

Baldwin St in Dunedin is the steepest street in the world according to the Guinness book of records.  Every year,as part of the Cadbury chocolate festival, 20,000 Jaffas are released from the the top of Baldwin Street to see which one will make it to the bottom first.  Looking up the street, it doesn't seem to be all that steep, but once you start climbing, you sure feel it.  We climbed to the top of the street (our fitness workout for the day!), complete with our bag of Jaffas.  We took it in turns to roll Jaffas down the street - It sure is hard to get them to roll down the middle of the road without bouncing into the kerb.  It was a closely contested event, but in the end we think Daniel might just have come out in front.

After Baldwin St, we headed back into down town Dunedin and had subway for lunch, followed by a trip to the Cinema to watch The Hobbit part 2 - The Desolation of Smaug, (We were actually in Cunema Sux!) The movie was pretty good, and we all enjoyed it more that the first Hobbit movie.  It's not exactly true to the book, more like a Peter Jackson "re-imagining" of the Hobbit story.  Either way, it was a quite enjoyable.


After the movie, we headed back to the apartment to freshen up, before heading out to Dinner with Logan, Jane, Grace and Chelsea, friends from Dunedin, who spent some time in Adelaide 18 months ago on a work assignment.  We had a lovely dinner and an enjoyable evening.  It was nice to catch up on what's been happening and to share a laugh.

Day 3 - Twizel to Dundedin

After a a leisurely sleep in we checked out of our motel to await for the mornings entertainment. - Having three boys who are Lord of the Rings nerds , and a patient mum/wife,  we had booked ourselves on the two hour "One Ring" tour.  At 10:30 we were picked up in a minivan and were taken on a tour of the local Twizel area that had been used for filming some of the battle scenes from LOTR, in particular the "Battle of Pelannor Fields"

(For you non LOTR nerds, thats when the huge Orc army, complete with "oliphants", is attacking Minas Tirith", and where Eowyn slays the witch king of Agmar!"  Our tour guide Dawn was very enthusiastic and very passionate, and explained in great detail what shots were taken where, what camera angles were used and also provided us with lots of great film trivia. e.g. Sir Ian Mackellan (Gandalf), never rode a horse!, approx $6M worth of make-up was used to make the horses brown / black.  The grass was "spray painted" to make it look greener, and "spider cam", now used on many sporting fields was first used for Lord of the Rings.  One of the best parts of the tour was that we got to dress up and "recreate scenes from the film.  Daniel finally got to be a Hobbit (and a Dwarf), Josh got to be a Ranger, and Lady Eowyn (Marilyn) got to slay the evil Witch King.

Tour guide Dawn was also an extra in one of the Hobbit movies, but she couldn't tell us too much as the movie hasn't been released yet.

After the tour we set off on the drive to Dunedin, about a three hour drive from Twizel.  Once again, the scenery was absolutely spectacular.  Snow-capped mountains in the background in all directions, and mountain lakes which were an unbelievably bright blue.

On the way to Dunedin we stopped at a place called the Elephant Rocks, a series of unusually shaped formations, (which interestingly were also used in filming the final scene from "The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe"

We left the Elephants rocks and continued on our way to Dunedin.  The sky was overcast and very grey.  A light drizzle soon became heavy raindrops which were then replaced by a flurry of hailstones.  The hail was so thick at one stage that we almost had to pull off the road as visibility was down to a few metres.  We were even worried that the windscreen was going to crack and that the car would be covered in dents.  Soon enough the hail stopped, but large piles of hail could still be seen along the side of the road.

We  finally made it into Dunedin around 5:30, and with the help of the GPS, located our accommodation, Apartments at St Clair.  Were all quite tired, so it will probably be a quite night in, eating Pizza and watching Lord of the Rings to see if we can recognise any of the locations.

Day 2- Christchurch to Twizel

This morning Paul got up early to go back to the airport to pick-up our rental while the boys slept in and Mazz just chilled. We are all feeling
a bit tired because of the time difference but am sure it wont take long for us to adjust. Paul got back with the rental (a white RAV4) and we packed the car and began our journey. It's not the nicest of weather today-rain, rain and more rain and a temperature of 11 degrees.
We drove for about 2hours until we decided to take a look at the amazing view near a town called Fairlie. We took a few photos and then stopped at a coffee spot for some lunch. It is so green here!

Next stop was Lake Tekapo. Lake Tekapo lies in the heart of the Mackenzie Country and is the second-largest of three lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin.  Situated on the shores of Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd, which was the first church built in the area.

The church would have to be one of the most photographed in New Zealand as there were quiet a few tourists there. The church features an altar window that frames stunning views of the lake and mountains. Very spectacular!

We then headed another 50km to the town Twizel. We booked into our accommodation, unpacked the car, had a short rest then it was back on the road again. We headed up to Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park so we could see Mt Cook. Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching 3,754 metres. We couldn't see the top of it very well  because there was a lot of cloud cover. BUT there was snow still on top of the mountains.  You can't go up the mountain unless you go by helicopter. We decided to drive to Tasman Glacier.

After a 15 minute walk, we came over the hill and saw the glacier. So spectacular! Its about 27 kilometres  in length and as much as 4 kilometres  wide and 600 metres thick. There were parts of the glacier floating in the lake where they had broken off. Very cool. After some photos, we walked back and then took a detour down to the actual lake. Paul wanted to see how cold the water was. It was very cold! After a pleasant drive back it was time for dinner and watch Lord of the Rings before bed.

Day 1 - Adelaide to Christchurch via Auckland

Well, the trip is officially under way.  We all woke up this morning, (before the alarm clock!) and after our showers, breakfast and a small amount of fin some bad news that one of Paul's Uncles in Hungary had passed away the previous night.  Not a nice way to start the holiday and a reminder just how precious life is.


We arrived at the airport at 9:30, checked in, and awaited the the two hours to our flight to Auckland.  We had two very excited boys and one very nervous Paul, pacing up and down the airport like a cat on a hot tin roof! Soon enough we were in the air and travelling on the way to Auckalnd.  The flight was about 4 hours long (and uneventful thank goodness).  Auckland is also 2 and half hours in front of Adelaide, so we arrived at about 6:30 local time.

After a short stopover in Auckland, we were once again on our way.  This time we had a one hour flight from Auckland to Christchurch.  Again, an uneventful flight, but we were not impressed as there were no inbuilt TV screens on the flight.

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Finally Arrived in Christchurch at 9:30. Found a taxi and made our way to our hotel.  Cant believe we are so tired and we have't even done anything just yet.  The adventrue for the evening wasn't over yet however.  It appears that Mazz has forgotten the combination to her suitcase lock, so she is starting at the bottom. 001, 002, 003 etc.  Hope she gets there soon or it could be a rather smelly trip for the rest of us.

DAY before we leave

We decided to surprise Daniel for his 11th Birthday and boy was he surprised! Says it all in the photo! 

We gave him a present which was a Lord of the Rings location guide. He was more excited with the envelope inside. He opened it up and wasn't too sure what it was about. Mazz had made a fake boarding pass but with our real flight details. He got pretty excited about the First Class bit. Oops! Forgot to edit that. He was very disappointed when we told him we were going with him and by cattle class! He still hasn't really come to the realisation that we are going tomorrow. When I told him we will be visiting his best friend Michael in Auckland, then the tears began to flow!!! Well must rush away and get packed now. We are off to New Zealand in the morning. So from the Sakovits- we will write again when we reach Middle Earth. (For all those Lord of the Rings fans!!!)