Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Shotover River and Skipper's Canyon

Lynn, Andrew and Phillip on the second row.
Arrowtown on the Shotover River back in the 1850's during the gold rush. Mainstreet doesn't look much different now. The old post man's house is now a restaurant.


Instead of panning for gold our kids just splashed around in the water and enjoyed the sunshine after the cold mountain nights. The camper has a heater and we felt luxurious compared with our freezing next door tent campers.

The girls hugging in front of the SHotover bridge reminds me of how as family we are growing closer. There is still arguing but there is a lot of love mixed in too.


A section of this river through skipper's canyon was used when the fellowship went on canoe through the two pillars of the Kings which were really only 10 foot statues superimposed on the cliffs edges.




Great fun was had on the Shot over River. You may recognize it as the river where Frodo had to escape from the ring wraiths after being stabbed. Liv Tyler carried him on her white horse making the flood come like God did for the Israelites.


We went to a hot tub with a view of the river.


The boys did the Shotover river jetboating. You can see the loading dock in the back ground.





It was high adventure but expensive. The girls wanted to go but will get their own special activity later.
The campground has worked out to be a wonderful experience as we have met other families from all over the world. The community kitchen and living room pictured was a place to hang out. Anna played Play-doh with a little girl from Holland who didn't speak English. Her older brother who spoke English introduced them enough to know eachother's name. A family from England camping a few spots over at actually been in Whangarei doing a homestay with some of our Whangarei Heads friends. Their kids at met ours at a Birthday party a few months ago. When we were on the train we met an American family of yachty's whose boat is next to our friend Bob's in the Harbor. On the train we also ran into Gene and Ginnie Baillie from the Anderson Pathology practice I worked in South Carolina. It's an amazing small world.

1 comment:

Hugh said...

Glad at least the boys got to do the Shotover River, it is a really exciting ride....so did they need to change underwear afterwards?
It is a small world, and when you are out there traveling and creating memories, you'll likely find it even smaller, and meet lots of like minded people/new friends too!
Cheers!