Lord of the Rings Road Trip to Paringa

We woke up and made some breakfast with our camping stove. It's taken some trial and error, but we've worked out all the kinks with cooking now. After breakfast, later than expected with the issues we worked through, we popped down to the bungee area to see if anyone was jumping. It was much colder today than previous mornings, so I can't imagine what the air would feel like jumping off the bridge! The bungee place was pretty dead, but did mean we could sit indoors and warm up a little and use the bathroom.

Before we drove off in search of our next LOTR location, we walked across the historic suspension bridge, which was a bit icy after the below freezing temperature we reached last night. It was a pretty cool place with the gorge and bridge as well as the autumnal leaves all around. We didn't stray far from the bridge as our first location was just out of the parking lot and up a nearby mountain. This is where the Argonath on the Anduin River were seen as the Fellowship pass the Pillars of the Kings on the Anduin River
(Kawarau Suspension Bridge). This was another iconic scene in the first movie and easy to picture. So far, many locations we've visited have looked like the movie except for Rivendell.

We left Kawarau behind and headed about an hour up a mountain and down into a canyon on a horrible gravel road. Allan did great navigating the narrow road and, at times, dodgy gravel. We stopped about a kilometer or so from the coordinates to avoid a bit of a steeper gravel hill we didn't want to chance not making it back up. These coordinates brought us to the Ford of Bruinen (Skippers Canyon) where Arwen defeats the Nazgûl by conjuring up a flood. If the water wasn't so fast and cold, I would've been more tempted to go into the river and say the iconic line "if you want him, come and claim him". Just seeing the spot and marvelling at the color of the rushing water and shiny shale all around us was worth it though.

After the drive back out of Skippers Canyon, we stopped at the top for some lunch and then headed up to Coroner Peak for a view over the valley. It was similar to our lunchtime view, but a little higher and a wider spread down below us. We drove back down the mountain after getting some pictures and stopped in Queenstown for some fuel before making our way north up the west coast. We made one stop along the way at Wanaka and took a picture at the iconic lake tree. It looked a little less impressive without the water surrounding it, but there were some great views at Lake Wanaka and I can see why it's a popular holiday destination in the summertime.

We continued driving up the west coast, making a quick stop at a viewpoint on the side of the road of some beautiful mountains and a lake. The sun set while we were here so the sky was a nice color. After that, it was a straight shot up the coast to Paringa where we stopped at a salmon farm Cafe to spend the night. It got dark during the drive, and a random black cow at the side of the road made the journey more interesting than necessary, but we got there safely. We also had service so we were able to watch a bit more of the movie! Today was a long day of driving, but we saw some pretty amazing stuff along the way.Read more