The scenery in New Zealand makes people linger.

Few people know that in the movie The Lord of the Rings where Orcs Live, the place where the hellish Eisinger is located is called heaven. In New Zealand, heaven is a real place.

Heaven is adjacent to Aspiring Mountain National Park in the World Heritage Area. The Enslau Mountain in the National Park is the place where Gandalf the grey wizard defeated Everett and eventually became a white wizard. At the foot of the mountain is the entrance to the elf kingdom.

? The road to heaven? The starting point of "The Lord of the Rings" is Queenstown built on Lake Wakatip, and the end point is due to the film "The Lord of the Rings? Lord of the Rings? Paradise Ranch in Greenwich.

The Road to Paradise is one of the top ten self-driving highways in the world, because it includes snow-capped mountains, glaciers, river valleys, waterfalls and lakes.

starting point

Queenstown: The Capital of Gold Rush and Extreme Sports

In this world, I'm afraid there are few small towns whose scenery can compare with Queenstown.

Queenstown was built in 1863 with beautiful scenery. It was once called. Canvas town? And then because it was considered? Tailored for the queen? Named after this? Queenstown? And it has been used ever since. The town is built by the lake, and most Queenstown residents can enjoy the lakes and mountains while lying on the sofa.

This place is located in the south of South Island, New Zealand. It is a lakeside town surrounded by mountains and waters. It is located at the mouth of the canyon caused by glacier retreat. Lake Wakatip, the longest lake in New Zealand, and southern alps, the highest mountain in New Zealand, run through it.

Queenstown is located in the middle of the lake (Lake Wakatip has a 90-degree bend), surrounded by high mountains, with the suffocating Otago in the middle. It is a famous extreme sports capital in the world, and bungee jumping originated from here. In addition, there are world-famous top ski resorts here.

New Zealand's unique maritime climate makes this small town with visible Antarctic light have attractive and distinct four seasons: bloom is constantly warm in spring and colorful. There are long sunshine hours in summer, and the magnificent sunset can be seen at eleven o'clock in the middle of the night at its peak.

Autumn is another scene, with all the layers of forest dyed and golden eyes. When winter comes, the mountains that Queenstown can see will be covered with ice and snow for dozens of kilometers. Sunrise and sunset will also present a gentle sky.

Before the first westerner came to Lake Wakatip in 1853, it was mainly Maori who occupied Queenstown.

At that time, Queenstown was still very primitive, with rats and thorns, and friction often occurred between tribes. Maori people live in Puhu Valley in Wakati, mainly for fishing and hunting fear birds. Of course, the most attractive thing for them is to canoe to the cliff to mine green jade (New Zealand national jade, also known as Maori jade).

It was not until 1860 that the first white settlers arrived in Queenstown. Two years later, a large number of gold mines were discovered in the canyon near Queenstown, which caused a sensation all over the world. Gold rush? In an instant, thousands of miners from all over the world flocked to Queenstown.

However, it is precisely because the arrival of these new immigrants touched the development of the gold rush industry that Queenstown was finally able to develop and establish a perfect transportation system, and successfully switched to tourism when the gold rush industry dried up, and finally became an internationally renowned tourist attraction from an unknown remote town.

Queenstown has a unique personality and diverse customs. This is not just for tourists.

You know, this is a picturesque town, and people who often live here would rather endure high rents and high consumption than leave. If Auckland is the economic center of New Zealand and Wellington is the political and cultural center, then Queenstown is the most dynamic and attractive tourist center in New Zealand.

People living here have the most typical New Zealand temperament: they love sports extremely, enjoy life extremely, are open, tolerant, closely United, simple and kind. Every summer, New Zealand hosts the craziest Christmas Carnival. Every winter, almost the whole town will go out, and everyone will go on a pilgrimage to the snow-capped mountains to play with snow.

Surprisingly, Queenstown, which has a huge tourist flow, is still a place of rough jade where the doors are closed at night and the roads are not picked up. Even though house prices are soaring now, it is still a forest park open to the public free of charge in the most beautiful prime location in the town.

In New Zealand, there are many beautiful towns, but the traffic is often inconvenient and the information is blocked. But Queenstown is different. Its scenery and opportunities exist. It is a quiet town with world-class beauty, which can soothe people's restless hearts, have enough job opportunities and cultural exchanges, realize people's heroic dreams and let everyone grow up freely.

on the way

The most beautiful cliff: a lake with a heartbeat and a century-old steam boat.

The road to heaven is as beautiful as heaven. One of the top ten most beautiful self-driving highways in the world? The reputation of.

Along the whole road to heaven, the most unparalleled scenic spot is called Bennet Cliff, where the spectacular glacier landscape can be seen at a glance. Air New Zealand once took photos here.

Here, you can not only overlook the upper valley of Lake Wakatip (Dart Valley, which produces gold, and Greenstone Valley, which produces emeralds), but also overlook Mount Ernslau, the highest peak of Lake Wakatip (the snow-capped mountain climbed by the Lord of the Rings expedition in The Lord of the Rings).

? The road to heaven? About 70 kilometers, covering half of Lake Wakatip. Lake Wakatip is the longest lake in New Zealand and the third largest lake in New Zealand.

According to statistics, 98% of the water in Lake Wakatip is so pure that local residents even pump water directly for their cars.

Most of the time, Lake Wakatip is blue and sparkling. But when extremely irritable, it can set off a huge wave of two meters on the pier in Queenstown.

Lake Wakatip is not only long, but also deep, with an average depth of more than 250 meters and the deepest point of 400 meters. This depth keeps this lake from glaciers at around 8 to 15 degrees all the year round. It won't freeze in winter, and the water temperature in summer is only about two degrees higher than that in winter. It takes a lot of courage to swim in the water in summer.

Interestingly, some small businesses in Queenstown have made use of the characteristics of the lake to make a wonderful rule: employees will be carried to the lake and thrown into it on the last day after work, which will become a unique landscape.

But the most amazing thing about Lake Wakatip is that it is rare in the world? Lake earthquake? Phenomenon? As an inland lake, tides occur every once in a while. If you put a ruler in the lake on a calm day, it is easy to see the change of water level.

Why is this happening? In Maori legend, Lake Wakatip is a sleeping giant who was burned to death. Maori believe that although the giant is dead, his heart is still beating, so the water level of the lake will fluctuate with the giant's heartbeat. But modern science finally attributed this phenomenon to the long and narrow shape of the lake, the trough-shaped depression at the bottom of the lake, atmospheric pressure and wind.

Many years ago, 186 1 year, Lake Wakatip welcomed its first ship, which was purchased by William Reiss, the earliest white settler in Queenstown.

Later, with the emergence of the gold rush, shipping on the lake also developed. In the shipping history of Lake Wakatip, the most dazzling ship is TSS Ernslaw, a century-old steam ship. Now this steamboat is 104 years old, isn't it? Princess on the lake? It is the only steam ship powered by coal in the southern hemisphere.

Enslow and Titanic were launched in the same year (19 12). It is said that on its maiden voyage, the mayor of Queenstown specially ordered the whole town to have a day off. After that, hundreds of Queenstown residents couldn't wait to board the steamboat for an outing in the upper reaches of the Lake District. People in Greenock welcomed this special group of tourists with singing and dancing. 1990, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip boarded the steamboat and became the most distinguished guests they had ever received.

/kloc-For more than 0/00 years, the century-old steamboat TSS Ernslaw is not only a historical witness of the prosperity and loneliness of Queenstown, but also a lifeline connecting the middle and lower reaches of Lake Wakatip. It not only brought cattle, sheep, horses and other materials to coastal residents, but also transported large machinery such as cars and tractors. At the same time, it is also the emotional bond of residents, shouldering the responsibility of delivering letters and doctors.

destination

Greenock: The Lord of the Rings Town and Paradise Ranch.

In Maori legend, Greenock is located on the head of a sleeping giant. In the movie The Lord of the Rings, it is the home of countless orcs and Eisinger, Saruman's lair. Because of this, Greenoch is also known as? Lord of the Rings? .

The town of Greenock can be called the secret garden of Queenstown. When tens of thousands of people are surging, the permanent population here is only about 300, and even in the tourist season, there are only a few thousand tourists every day.

Although the distance from Greenwich to Queenstown is only 48km, the expressway connecting the two places was not completed and opened to traffic until 1997, and it has only been 20 years. It is this relatively isolated geographical environment that makes it a paradise for birds, with the most beautiful birdsong in the whole Wakatip Lake basin.

Like Queenstown, the glacier landscape in Greenwich is still quite complete. In fact, it is the third largest national park in New Zealand? Aspirin Mountain National Park is located here. Aspirin Mountain National Park, together with the surrounding Cook Mountain National Park and Fiddle National Park, has been listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Tiwahipnam？ , meaning? Where does Maori jade come from? .

Because of its hardness, Maori jade was mainly used as a weapon by Maori in wartime. The first people who came to the Greenohe area were the Maori who took this route to the Green Stone Canyon to mine green jade. It is said that whenever a boulder falls off a steep cliff, the Maori chief will lead his people to collect jade in a canoe.

However, after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori and the British government in 1840, almost all the Maori in the South Island were forced to move to the North Island. After 1860, the first colonists occupied this area. Greenwich became the private property of William Reiss, the earliest white settler in Queenstown, which was mainly used for raising sheep and grazing.

However, the peaceful life of herders was soon broken by fanatical gold diggers. These gold diggers even used steam to bring excavators to work in Dart Canyon.

2 1 century, with the opening of Queenstown to expressway in Greenock, this story-filled town gradually turned into a quiet and beautiful town, which was developed on the basis of tourism. Among them, the biggest selling point of the town scenery is Paradise Ranch, where The Lord of the Rings is located.

? Heaven? The origin of the name is because it is the easiest place to see paradise ducks (New Zealand native ducks) in New Zealand.

Paradise ranch is often ridiculed as? New Zealand Hengdian? Because of its unique scenery, it has attracted the attention of many international directors. Besides The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the films Wolverine, The Legend of Narnia and The Vertical Limit were all filmed here.

The most famous building in the ranch is a century-old mansion with a white tile and green roof. Paradise station? It was built by a rich second generation named Joseph in England in five years.

The young man left his hometown in England because he wanted to heal a sad feeling? His fiancee was robbed by his father, and he built this house to pursue the daughter of the rancher next door. Perhaps it was fate that the rancher's daughter was not moved by his sincerity. In the end, Joseph, disheartened, sold his mansion and found a clean place to die alone.