February 24, 2008 - Alexander

We decided to see what would happen if we ate from different sides of that mushroom we found at Lake Rotoiti. Actually, this shot was taken in the Ames Perspective Room at Puzzling World on the outskirts of Wanaka.

We've officially entered Lord of the Rings Country. The area around Queenstown, which is just down the road, was used for more scenes in the three Lord of the Rings movies than anywhere else. Everyone around here seems to be trying to cash in on the connection. Puzzling World is no exception. In addition to a giant maze (which was a ton of fun) and an illusion room, shortly after the first movie was released they opened the Ames Perspective Room to show how Hobbits were made to appear small and Ents huge in the movies.

Just before we left Puzzling World, I was flipping through brochures for other attractions in the area. One tour operator offers a half day white water rafting trip and a half day scene location tour, which just seems like an odd combination. One of the companies that specializes in location tours had comments from satisfied customers in their brochure, such as "ORCtastic!" and "The most incredible day of my life." Now, that's just sad.