Independent Lord of The Rings tour in Queenstown on day 17
My friend and I are on the Grand Australia/New Zealand Tauck trip which starts October 10, 2024.
We are planning our free time activities and want to do this half day Lord of the Rings tour the afternoon of October 26th where we have free time following our jet boat and helicopter in Queenstown.
The Tauck agent says we will be back from our morning Tauck activity by 130. This half day tour starts at 130, and the starting location of the Trip Advisor tour is a 3 min walk from the Sofitel hotel where we are based in Queenstown.
I was thinking if we had multiple folks interested in this tour we could convince them to wait for us (only by a few minutes) and get in this highly recommended tour. It is about the only slot available in the tour schedule to do anything related to Lord of the Rings. Evidently stunning scenery regardless of your interest level in LOTR! See reviews of tour below.
Appreciate your thoughts or any other ideas!
57 days to go!
Comments
We took this wonderful tour in 2019. Like you, I considered a LOTR tour for Queenstown, but decided against it. I did not regret it, as we did see enough LOTR sights to satisfy me.
In Wellington, during our free time, we visited the Weta Cave workshop, which was quite interesting.
In Queenstown, upon arrival, the group stopped in Arrow Town, which was a film location. The Remarkables (mountains) are easily seen from town. On the way to Skippers Canyon, a beautiful drive, the guide pointed out a couple of rock formations that were used in the movies.
I do wish that we had added a day at the end of the tour so that we could have visited Hobbiton.
Judging by the return time for the "morning" Tauck activity (jet boat & helicopter tour?) - 1:30, there must be lunch in there somewhere. One option is to bail out early from the last morning activity or the possible lunch, and walk or take a taxi to the LOTR tour meet point. I think you should give Tauck a call to get more granularity on locations and timing for that morning/day. The agents usually have fairly detailed itineraries and a pretty good idea what is happening when and where, something more precise than "return by 1:30." Also, if the Tauck schedule says you'll be back by a certain time, more often that not, you'll be back 15 min. or more before that time. The TD may be able to assist.
We've done this several times over the years. During Blue Danube, we bailed out of the walking tour of the Vienna city center about 5 - 10 min. early as the group passed by the Hofburg. That allowed us to see most of the Lipizzaner Morning Exercise at the Spanish Riding School which is very close to the Hofburg. During Classic Italy, we bailed out of the walking tour of old Florence at the Piazza della Repubblica a few minutes early, so we could make a Segway tour we had booked. We did it twice in Paris during Tauck's Normandy, Brittany, etc. tour. We bailed out at the end of the walking tour of the left bank in the St. Germaine des pres area, just before the group boarded the bus to the hotel and met a local guide who took us to Saint Chapelle, the Conciergerie, and the Louvre. On another day, we passed on the bus ride back from the group visit to the Museo d' Orsay and walked to the Roden museum, lunch, and the Eiffel Tower.
In all cases, it worked our perfectly and as we found out later, we didn't miss anything. We always gave advanced notice to the TD.