Before leaving Lake Wakatipu on Monday (November 16th), we followed the lakeside road beyond our campground to look into the lake’s northern arm of the backwards-N, towards Glenorchy. In the brilliant sunshine, the lake and surrounding snow-capped mountains (Thomson, Ailsa, Humbolt, and Richardson Ranges) looked magnificent. It was a marvelous beginning to our tour of the South Island.

A bout of grocery shopping back in Queenstown was followed by a lovely drive alongside the southern arm of Lake Wakatipu, at the base of The Remarkables. The subsequent 140 km (88 mile) drive south and then west took us through various valleys formed by rivers that drained the distant snowfields. The boulder-strewn riverbeds were surrounded by flatlands and low, rolling hills upon which grazed thousands of sheep, many cattle, and a remarkable number of deer.

The latter were mostly red-deer but there a few elk and crosses between deer and elk called Wapiti. Although we occasionally saw some smaller roe deer. Originally introduced to New Zealand from England and Scotland in the mid- to late nineteenth century for hunting, within a 100 years feral deer were such pests in the native forests that culling was encouraged. As the global demand for the low-fat venison increased (mostly in China and Germany we were told), deer-farming became viable and New Zealand now has the world’s largest and most advanced deer-farming industry.

Andrew, Randall, and I shared the driving and we soon learned that the strong, gusty winds that seemed to typify the afternoon weather in this area had quite a noticeable effect on the high-sided campervan. There are many rows of trees planted as wind-breaks along the roads and across farms so it took some serious concentration and grip on the steering wheel when passing into, or out-of, such breaks in the strong wind. Passing lorries (tractor-trailers) and crossing narrow bridges also presented quite a challenge.

Our destination for the day was the small community of Manapouri on the shores of Lake Manapouri, New Zealand’s second deepest lake (the deepest being a little further south). After settling Andrew and Judith into a tiny but quaint cabin at the Manapouri Motel and Holiday Park, we all took a stroll along the lakeshore and around the point to Pearl Harbour on the Waiau River. I never did learn why this famous name had been applied to the shoreline moorings and tour-boat docks along the riverside but we were able to confirm our places on the following day’s overnight-tour of Doubtful Sound.

As we wandered back to the campground, the sunny skies were no longer evident over the lake and mountains of Fiordland to our west. Rain showers cast gloomy but dramatic white veils over the dark, brooding hillsides and it was easy to see why (Sir) Peter Jackson had decided to film parts of “The Lord of the Rings” in the area. Actually, scenes from the that trilogy and the Hobbit series were shot all over New Zealand and the large Hema Motorhomes and Camping Atlas that I had purchased for our trip (not being sure how accessible internet resources would be during our travels) indicated many of the sites, e.g., “Fangorn Forest” or “River Anduin”.

Specialty tours and guide-books focusing on the numerous sites used to portray Tolkien’s Middle Earth are available all over the country so that quite a substantial secondary industry has developed for fans of movies that have been set in New Zealand. The following morning we tried to find access to the site, just northeast of Lake Manapouri, indicated for the “Dead Marshes”. We were not successful but enjoyed walking along a gravel-road through a beautiful, dense forest of tall, small-leaved trees. It would not be until we were afloat again that we would learn what types of trees we had seen.