Lakes are one of the most spectacular elements of the New Zealand landscape. Each of them has its own characteristic: size, shape, color, mountain rage surrounding them, beaches and roads. This gallery shows few of the New Zealand lakes. My favorite one is Lake Pukaki- the one colored with impossible turquoise. The water of this lake is milky: you cannot see the bottom even close to the shore. Its color is a result minerals eroded from the close glaciers. Minerals are mixed and dissolved in water of this amazing lake. Lake Pukaki is frequently visited by tourists as it is located close to the highest summit of New Zealand: Mt. Cook. The road to Aoraki  (closest village is situated at the end of a wide valley filled almost entirely by the lake) leads along this lake for more than 50km! With its numerous turns you can watch the lake from many different perspective. But its fabulous color is always hard to believe. Aoraki is dominated with The Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre, from where the alpine quests start and from where the view is breathtaking. Standing in front of the building you can admire a wide perspective with Mt. Cook just before your eyes, with peak covered with snow and spectacular blue ice. If you wish to watch next photo gallery from New Zealand click here: most beautiful beaches! Lake Pukaki is a filming location of the new Hobbit movie: The Desolation of Smaug. I am thrilled with it! I think this site is so beautiful and mysterious at the same time that filming a movie there was a must! See for yourself! Some of the Hobbit filming locations were close to Christchurch – the biggest city at the South Island which was badly hit by the earthquake. Read the full story here.  

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The story behind this post is pretty dramatic: since 36h I have no electricity at home thanks to Xaver and my previous- almost ready!- post was deleted along the big blackout. So, I’m writing it all over again. Hopefully it’ll be good and funny as intended. Just like millions people around the world I am a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, no surprises here. My favorite book is Sillmarilion- the one my best friend gave me many years ago (thanks buddy!) but I also appreciate The Children of Hurin very much. Every time I read this book I am deeply touched with the story told. As all Tolkien’s fans I have closely watched the work done by Peter Jackson’s team while translating The Lord of the Rings to the movie language. And I was delighted with the final result. So the day I bought a plane ticket and discovered I was visiting New Zealand few days before the world premiere of The Hobbit movie I realized how perfect the timing was. Edoras There was a plan to visit all major LOTR locations. It all started with Mt. Sunday which in a movie starred as Edoras. This was a gloomy, windy and cold day so after driving for 1h a  tiny little path deep into the mountains I was rewarded with amazing view. Not the one known from the movie but equally powerful: very wide flat valley surrounded with high peaks hidden under clouds.  Two things touched me deeply: total wilderness of this place (no houses, no electric poles, no roads, nothing!), and its ordinary usage by the locals. Hey, no jokes here: in front of Edoras there are cows and sheep having their everyday meal and wondering about the secrets of the universe. You might think that the magic of the movie was lost for me forever. No way! On the contrary: I can now appreciate how this beautiful landscape was professionally used in a movie without any harm to it! After visiting Edoras my itinerary went further down south and the day ended with camping at Lake Tekapo. The gloomy weather was left behind and a lovely sunset lighten up the lake and far snowed peaks. I was astonished with the beauty of this place. So beautiful I could hardly believe in what I saw. And suddenly I realized that what I see is the landscape filmed in a movie. Scenes from the Fellowship of the ring floated in front of my eyes. And I knew there is no point in riding around, looking for the exact locations of the movie with a navigation system and coordinates. Because the whole South Island is Middle-Earth. And no matter where I go I’ll find the immense beauty of it. The Hobbit movie Just few days ago the world premiere of the second part of Hobbit took place. Some lucky people participated in official meetings and screening. I am sure you wished to be there if you could. But here is what I got to share with you: exclusive photos from world premiere in LA. All for your delight! Apparently imagination of people working on a Hobbit movie has no limits: they decided to bring parts of New Zealand to the US. Literally! They came up with idea to construct a huge pop-up book. All to create an opportunity to all Hobbit fans to get closer to the filming locations. Here are some photos of how the book looked like. The crew was tireless in bringing New Zealand to the American audience. They constructed a very detailed set to the fan’s delight. The set brought to the US allowed the audience to feel just like in the movie or perhaps in New Zealand? (at some point this is the very same thing!) The Hobbit premiere in LA Last but not least let me share some pictures of the honorable guests: the director and leading actors. Here they are! Starting with sir Peter Jackson – driving force of the whole mess! The picture below shows our favorite character Bilbo but I would like to bring your attention to the details: the background of this photo presents Lake Pukaki and I will tell  you the story about it in my next post. For now just remember its color. All pictures are courtesy of Pure New Zealand team. I would like to thank to all people who made it possible (yes, Sarah, it’s about you!). And very last thing: I fully share the Hobbit’s crew delight with landscape of New Zealand. Having this amazing opportunity to actually se the filming locations and the South Island in general allow me to confirm: New Zealand landscape is breathtaking!  

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