Queenstown has knocked us both into the New Zealand fan club - it's surrounded by at least 11 separate mountain ranges and has great cafes and restaurants and a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu. We're here in the area for the fourth day now - after spending our first here in town and then in Arrowtown, an old gold-era town nearby, before taking off to the infamous Milford Sound in Fiordland. We braved youth hostel culture at its (worst?) in Milford Sound to be able to get up at dawn on Saturday to sea kayak in the sound (which is actually a fiord). We had an encounter with a pair of seals and the fiord was virtually empty except for our group of 16 or so - beautiful place! Here's a photo taken the evening before our kayaking trip:



The roads to get in and out through the mountains though can be a bit harrowing. Over the last few days we've also been hunting for Lord of the Rings shooting locations and took a detour near Te Anau to see the location of the "Fanghorn Forest" this morning. We missed Thanksgiving of course - which is unfortunate! But we're eating well... no worries. Turns out adding beets and cabbage is a common way of dressing up a sandwich. We have a photo of Akhil in the Fanhorn Forest location - here he is - looking much like a hobbit: