In New Zealand…of course…LOTR tour

One of the favorite movie series in the Fraser household is Lord of the Rings…at least for Ron, Tanner, and Justin.  Of course being in New Zealand presents many opportunities to tour various film locations.  We chose to do the tour in Twizel, where they filmed many of the scenes from the Return of the King.  Specifically we were at the location where the Pelennor Fields scenes were filmed.  The tour was fantastic as the guide was actually present during some of the filming and was very knowledgeable about what transpired during the 30 days the film crew was at this sight.  Even Kim left the tour with a new appreciation for the movie, although she will still not watch it.  The kids all had a great time as they got to handle swords and dress up as orcs.  

The guide had movie pics to compare to our locations…very cool

Scary orcs wearing Disney shirts!! Reenacting the witch king scene…fortunately Ron fared significantly better than the real witch king!

  A family really comes together when they are shouting ‘death’!

A White Christmas After All

The odds of a white Christmas in New Zealand, traveling through an area of tropical rainforest, seemed fairly remote at best.   We timed it so that travel was the biggest item on our itinerary for Dec. 25th since most everything was shutdown.  Our destination was Fox Glacier.  Along the way, we ran across Franz Joseph Glacier.  The larger of the two, both strangely located at the edge of the rainforest.  Our white Christmas was from a distance, as we could not get very close to the glacier without a guide, which were all off for the holiday.  That would have to do.  The real white stuff would come the day after Christmas.

The next day, the the three boys took a hike on Fox Glacier.  It was a four hour hike, most of it through rainforest before hitting the glacier.   About 90 minutes were spent on the glacier after strapping on crampons to the bottoms of the hiking boots.  Justin was the only one who suffered any injuries, losing some skin on the ice after misjudging a small ice mound.   Overall, it was a fantastic experience and one of the highlights of the trip.

Justin about to get wet…

Ice crevasse…very cool This is why you need a guide!!!