恶人谷

I'm writing at a cybercafe in Christchurch right now. Just want to say hi from down under and report briefly --
1. Saw Kiwi the birth yesterday.
2. Drove by Peter Jackson's million dollar house in Wellington 2 days ago on a tour bus.
3. Also saw part of the set he's built for King Kong.
4. Hiked to a place called "Devil's Gate."
5. Saw some unbelievably beautiful scenery.
6. People here are ridiculously sweet and unpretentious.
7. Heard some cool tales about the Maori.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I am glad that, instead of fighting the shopping and traffic crowd, I'm here in a vast and beautiful and empty land. Off to Queenstown tomorrow. (No, I'm not going to bungy jump. )

jun

Enjoy! Can we expect the pictures when you come back?

太过分了。我今儿去停车场取车时候还想起JUN你呢，过程如下：有空得去DC一趟――找小E吃一顿――就去JUN推荐过的福建馆子吧――好久不见她上来了――大概去玩了――记得她在OHIO那个帖子里说要去新西兰玩。
但是也不要这么刺激我啊。

Jun wrote: 1. Saw Kiwi the birth yesterday.
4. Hiked to a place called "Devil's Gate."
5. Saw some unbelievably beautiful scenery.
6. People here are ridiculously sweet and unpretentious.

jun

真是太过分了。

FB啊FB啊

等着看游记啦.

哇，jun终于去了，真羡慕啊。
洛洛你来DC就不记得找我

欢迎JUN,已经到了皇后镇了吧?很美很美吧,这个季节游南岛再合适不过了,不冷不热的.
多吃牛羊肉,不一样就是不一样地.

Jun wrote: 6. People here are ridiculously sweet and unpretentious.

新西兰人普遍都很朴实, 除了奥克兰,大城市,呵呵.

我还没有去呢，这只是在停车场的一瞬间盘算而已。

Sorry. I meant that I saw Kiwi bird. ALso ate Kiwi Kiwis (the fruit).

I just got to Queenstown today. Sh*t it is so darn pretty! But so expensive.

Is Garfield in Auckland?

I plan to try the venison meat in addition to lamb.

Jun感恩节快乐啊~~~~

真羡慕啊，满世界的跑~~那什么，多拍照，回来见一面吃一顿看照片~~~~注意看有没有lord aragorn的专门景致啊，俺羞答答的提醒到~~

祝大家感恩节快乐！！

洛洛，福建馆子我没问题，哇咔咔，不然叫上Debeers一起吃？

I'm ashamed to say that I've exhausted my supply of adjectives to describe the scenery.

Several tours offer visits to LOTR filming sites departing from Queenstown, but they are all pretty expensive. I plan to go to the nearby town Glenorchy where LOTR was filmed in the mountains around.

I'm burning through the dozen rolls of film. I'll have to buy more rolls locally to replenish the supply. Too many pictures to take. I'll show them to you, Elysee, when I come back.

Just experienced a pretty substantial earthquake about 10 minutes ago, sitting at the internet cafe. Cool.

Apparently, my fitness level is below average according to NZ standard, since I can only do the "easy" walks as defined by the department of conservation, while the "average" walks are quite tough for me!

It will be very hard to leave this country. I am already thinking about the return trip. Oh how i want to do the 4-day, 56-km Milford track!

JUN你居然不是用数码象机么?
嫉妒啊, 尤其我们这里最近天天下雨.

总有人说澳大利亚美呀美，新西兰更美呀更美，JUN这么激情洋溢地，一定是真的了。:-D 从花生屯过去得飞多少小时？我们悉尼同事去欧洲开会动辄25小时航程，把我吓得不轻。

俺当时看个什么节目说，上帝造一个国家的时候都是一般天堂一半地狱，唯独造新西兰的时候只有天堂木有地~~~当然那个说法的下一句是地狱都用在澳大利亚了.......

恩，俺在奥克兰生活5年多了，去年第一次去南岛，到处都美，就是美。不过第二天就想家，人太少，太静了。:shock:
JUN去MILFORD了吗？一定要去啊，海豹躺在岩石上懒懒的晒着太阳，海豚欢快的追随着油轮，瀑布彩虹近在咫尺，这样的美景怎能错过？
下次再来，欢迎到奥克兰一游。

我老动心乐, 大大地动心了. 这两天也不劝偶的死党别移民新西兰了.

Of course I went to Milford Sound. I saw seals and little crested penguins with yellow cheeks. Going to Dunedin today and hope to see another kind of penguins there. Now I wish I had done an overnight trip to Milford or Doubtful Sound.

Yesterday I did a very cheesy and touristy thing -- I went on a tour about LOTR. We were driven from Queenstown to Glenorchy, Routeburn, and Paradise Valley and shown the locations where some LOTR scenes were shot. Ah... Even without the LOTR connections, they are spectacular. Once I come home, I'll have to rent the trilogy and watch them again to review the scenery.

The last two days suddenly got really cold in Queenstown. This morning the mountains across the lake are capped with snow, all glistening in the sunlight. The wind is crisp. Where else can you pay NZ$50/night (USD about 35) for a room at a hostel and have the view of lake and mountains fit for a queen?

I have mixed feelings about QT, because its reputation is true -- both beautiful (gosh I'm sick of using this word again and again) and touristy. Next time when I come to NZ, I'll definitely rent a car no matter how scared I am of driving on the left side, and do some farmstay. I feel I'm missing out on the more tranquil and intimate country and farm scene.

My friend and I find the trip to be both satisfying and frustrating, because we simply do not have the time to do even half the things we want to do, like walking the Routeburn and Milford Tracks and kayaking in the Tasman sea. We are not at all prepared for the abundant trekking opportunities, although my friend climbed Mt. Cook through the Ball Pass! She could not rave enough about the experience, as tough as it was.

The scenery is stunning all the way from Milford sound to Queenstown, driving alongside the west coast is pretty cool, as well as kayaking in Abel Tasman, strongly recommended.

I saw penguins! I saw yellow-eyed penguins yesterday! La la la. Crossed off another childhood dream. It was so amazing -- we were so close to them that I could have touched one had I been allowed to do that. The excursion was not without a price, however, and I came back with several bug bites from the farm...

The scenery of Otago Penisula is ... (majestic, magnificent, unbelievable, extraordinary... you fill in the blank). Dunedin is probably my favorite city I've visited in this trip.

I only saw thousands of thousands of people...... and a big traffic jam on my way home yesterday....
My, I spent almost 4 hours on NJ turnpike from NYC to Delware, it's less than 100 miles.