GODZONE
A few months back, I travelled to the amazing south island of New Zealand, to meet with two good friends for some work. (The flight I took, travel times, where I stayed, basically all of the 5W1H will be in another update - after Biden is out of office.)
If you’re a LOTR fan, you’ve certainly heard of New Zealand. But have you heard of Glenorchy?
Glenorchy is a small settlement at the northern end of Lake Wakatipu in the South Island region of Otago, New Zealand. It’s approximately 45 km (28 mi) by road or boat from Queenstown, the nearest large town. There are two pubs, a café and a range of small shops in the town catering mainly to tourists but also to the small resident population. There is also a small airstrip which caters to small planes.
Last year, New Zealand earned a score of 89.01 out of 100 points in The Conde Nast Readers' Choice Awards, Top Countries category, edging ahead of Spain and Ireland in the minds of high-end American travelers.
The magazine went on to say, that “direct East Coast air links and top destination spas have US travelers dreaming of NZ” aka ‘Godzone’.
Filming locations.
The local scenery was used as one of the settings in the first of Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), the first film in his Lord of the Rings series. Lothlórien, Orthanc, and the scene where Boromir was slain and leant near a tree were a few that were shot in nearby Paradise.
Vertical Limit (2000), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) were also filmed in the area.
Other films that did location shots in Glenorchy and the surrounding area are Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981) and The Water Horse (2007).
The Food.
Most of the food we had, was grabbed on-the-go at local cafe’s in the main township of Queenstown — but the ONE place we wanted to visit, was the legendary Ferg Burger! One of the best burgers I’ve ever had. Also #BLM was there too!
The Views.
Although most of the days were spent indoors working hard, there were a few small windows, that allowed a quick visit to some of the top tourist destinations. The famous Red Boat Shed being one of them.
In this video, the ‘recorder’ is seen admiring the wooden internal structure
This quaint little town is certainly on my list of places to visit again, God-willing. Some say it’s the place to be, if WWIII ever goes down…
The Work.
The work. Hmmm… (insert pondering emoji) Well THAT story, is for another time. And boy, is it a doozy of a story!
This my friends, is a story for another day... 
