Better than rain or rippling brook, is a mug of beer inside this Took!

Nothing booked today, so took my time in the morning, and ventured out for a morning walk around town. I walked along the river, towards the Queenstown Gardens, and had a stroll through there. The weather was surprisingly clear, so I managed to get a few photos and enjoy the scenery.

Since I hadn’t eaten anything yet, I decided to make an early lunch stop to try and beat the foot traffic at Fergburger. I walked back along the river this time.

When I arrived at Ferg and was surprised to find not much of a line. Two minutes to order, about a 10-15 minute wait for the burger, and I was off! I also ran into Tim there, so we took our burgers down to the shore and ate them there. I got the Bombay Chicken (grilled chicken, ginger/coriander yoghurt, raita, mango chutney) – it was sublime. A messy one though, especially when not seated at a table, but thoroughly enjoyable.

From there I went straight to get some Ferg Gelato for dessert (hokey-pokey and a creamy chocolate flavour). Both amazing.

After a bit more of a wander around town, the winds started to pick up and the rain clouds were moving in, so I decided to head back to the hotel and rest before we all met up for dinner. Good thing I did, as it did proceed to rain, but at least I had enough time to explore in the morning.

We decided on a pizza bar called the London, so after meeting up in the hotel bar, we all headed over together. Unfortunately Dino and Raulene were going to be late meeting us, as they had a full day-tour booked and were due back at 8pm. When it reached 9pm and they hadn’t arrived, Martijn went back to fetch them, in case they had missed our messages about where to meet. A few others called it a night at this point too and said their goodbyes.

Martijn returned victorious, and renewed energy was injected into the group, as is often the case when Dino is around. They had only just gotten back at 9pm and came straight over – I’m not sure how they had the energy, but we were grateful to share a drink with them and watch the footy together, while Dino explained all of the rules to everyone (including me; Australian by the way).

We then all headed back to the hotel, said our goodbyes to those we won’t see tomorrow, and turned in. South Africa is playing in the footy later tonight though, so Dino was planning on going back out to watch it somewhere, but I need sleep, especially since I’ll need to wake up kind of early to see some people off. At least then I’ll have a few hours to pack everything and explore a little more before my shuttle to the airport at 2pm.

Of course you are, and I’m coming with you!

A bunch of different locations today, but at least they were all relatively close to each other. It was a decent drive out to the middle of nowhere initially though. The road became another dusty path and we drove past fields, forests, lakes and mountains to reach our first destination which was used for a few scenes, on the outskirts of Fangorn Forest.

Of course there was also a convincing reenactment (wind warning).

A short drive down the road led us to this nice photo spot.

Then a really cool river location with stunning views.

Further along the river and we reached the area seen at the end of Fellowship, which was just another all-round lovely place.

After a quick duck onto the nearby forest to spy out where Frodo and the hobbits hid from the Uruk-Hai, we grabbed our picnic lunches and ate on the shores of the river.

Then it was the long drive back towards Queenstown, with a couple of customary stops on the way, including a honey tasting. Finally arriving in Queenstown, we settled into our hotel (the final one for our trip).

Tomorrow we have a super late start! Yay! I will have a nice sleep-in, and then maybe wander around before our noon meeting to go to Arrowtown.