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This was a film site in the Lord of the Rings series.
the New Zealand Experience - Part 4
Travel Series
Maureen Matchett
New Zealand has tremen-
dously good infrastructure
for travellers, and a wide
variety of travel methods,
with everything from top-of-
the-line RVs to very basic
hippie -style campervans.
Almost every little town has
a travel park which usually
offers cabins and dorm beds
as well as tent and RV sites. If
that's not your style, there
are motels, hotels, and B&Bs,
a multitude of car rental
companies, buses, organized
bus tours, and long-distance
hop-on/hop-off bus tickets.
The options are many,
depending on your budget,
the amount of time you
have, and whether you're
comfortable driving on the
opposite side of the road! For
our time on South Island, we
rented an economy car
(remember: gas is expen-
sive), and stayed at a combi-
nation of hostels, travel
parks, and motels.
Most tourists heading to
South Island's mountainous
interior go directly to Lake
Tekapo or Mount Cook, but we
were competing for affordable
accommodations with a lot of
Chinese tourists who were
traveling for Chinese NewYear-
-it's the Year of the Sheep, so
what better place to ring it in
than NZ? Instead, we stayed a
bit to the south, to Methven,
which was a great decision; it's
very busy in the winter because
of the nearby Mount Hutt ski
hill, but the summer sees signif-
icantlyfewer tourists, so we had
this area's shops, restaurants,
and quirky movie theatre
almost entirely to ourselves. To
get here, we left the seaside
beauty of Christchurch and
drove through the agricultural
heartland of NZ, known as the
Canterbury Plains, where most
of NZ's food is produced. But
even as we saw the snowy
peaks of the Southern Alps in
the distance, we noted the
extensive free-range ranching
in the mountain lowlands, and
we frequently came upon herds
of cattle, sheep, or deer in land-
scapes that appeared otherwise
devoid of human activity. Our
general impression of this part
of NZ was that, even though the
human population densitywas
low, very few areas remain
untouched byhumans.
The number of tourists
visiting NZ has increased in
the past few years, much of it
due to the Lord of the Rings
and Hobbit movies. There is
very little left of the filming
locations for tourists (more
on this in a later article).
However, we did drive to
Mount Sunday which was
featured in the LOTR as
Edorus, the capital of Rohan,
and there were other areas of
Canterbury that were used
for battle scenes, including
the sleepy town of Twizel.
Not only was the scenery
spectacular, but again we
were almost entirely alone.
The only downside to our
day's travels was the lengthy
drive down a gravel road
with unnervingly long wash-
board sections.
We had a twisty, moun-
tainous drive to Lake
Tekapo, always a spectacular
but popular tourist spot for
buses and tourists heading
to or from Mount Cook, but
even more so in the winter
because of the nearby ski
field. I suspect its hot springs
have more visitors in the
winter than in the summer!
We visited the Church of the
Good Shepherd, an interde-
nominational church built in
1935 of stone and oak, in
part to acknowledge the
founding families of the
area. Behind the altar is a
large window with the most
amazing view of the lake and
mountains; if more churches
had views like this, attend-
ance would certainly go
up! Beside it is a statue of a
collie as a tribute to the role
sheepdogs have played in
developing the country and
the higher -altitude ranching
common to this area. In fact,
there are still many "back -
country stations" where peo-
ple primarily manage huge
herds of animals over vast
country.
Close to Lake Tekapo is
Mount John (1000m), where
the University Observatory,
using New Zealand's largest
telescope, is looking for
planets in deep space. The
Aoraki Mackenzie area was
declared an International
Dark Sky Reserve in 2012,
and there are only a handful
of these in the world. This
means that the night sky is
extremely dark and clear,
since it's quite far away from
city lights, and virtually pol-
lution free. We thought we'd
take advantage of this and
we participated in a Cowan's
observatory tour later that
night. Despite the bright
moon, we had an amazing
tour of the night sky. We
looked through the big fancy
telescope at Jupiter, a globu-
lar cluster, at Crab Nebula,
and at the moon. After the
tour, we sat up for another
hour or so picking out the
Southern Cross and contem-
plating the meaning of the
universe.
PARK THEATRE The
COuERiCH 519 524 781 ;
FOR MOVIE INFORMATION.,.
wview.rnaii elcriks.ca
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 • Lucknow Sentinel 7
The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1935 of stone and
oak, in part to acknowledge the founding families of the area.
Behind the altar is a large window with the most amazing view
of the lake and mountains; if more churches had views like this,
attendance would certainly go up!
The Mount John Observatory (1000+ metres), with Lake Tekapo
and the Aoraki Mackenzie valley in the background.
COUNTY OF BRUCE
HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE
COLLECTION EVENT
Saturday July 11th
KINCARDINE
Kincardine Public Works Yard, 140 Valentine Ave.
1:OOpm - 4:OOpm
Acceptable items include:
Paint
Pesticides
Aerosols
Motor Oil
Pool Chemicals
Antifreeze
Fluorescent Bulbs & Tubes
Solvents
Batteries
Propane Tanks
Cleaners
Pharmaceuticals
For a complete list of collection events and types of materials accepted please visit
www.brucecounty.on.ca/waste-management.php
COMMERCIAL, AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL WASTE, PCB'S, ASBESTOS,
INFECTIOUS OR RADIOACTIVE WASTE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Containers with a volume greater than 30L will NOT be accepted.
COUNTY OF BRUCE HIGHWAYS DEPARTMENT
30 Park St. P.O. Box 398 Walkerton, ON NOG 2V0
(P) 1-877-681-1291 ext.4 (F) 519-507-3030