Auckland Exploration on Te Ika-a-Māui

After over a full day's delay, we finally landed on North Island of New Zealand in Auckland a bit late in the day on December 8.  After settling in, Allie and I took a running start on December 9 for our exploration of the city.  Sky Tower is within walking distance of our hotel, so we headed over. Sky Tower is tall enough to view everything in Auckland from high-up. Many of the places we will be exploring are clearly visible.

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After getting-the-lay-of-the-land, we explored on foot for while, then had an awesome dinner at Origine Bistro with great food and incredible service.  We had a table that offered a good view of the Harbor too.

 

 

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Due to the delay in arrival, there are a number of places we had to push off or reconsider for another trip in the future. However, the next few days did not disappoint!

Unfortunate Extra Day in Queenstown

 After enjoying a few days in Queenstown and surrounding region, we were excited about travelling to Auckland on December 7, 2026.  We took the morning easy in preparation for our flight to Auckland. Unfortunately, our flight from Queenstown was cancelled due to high winds after we arrived at the airport, and after we checked our bags and went thru security. So we had to retrieve our checked bags and find overnight accommodations. I found a room at the Hilton Queenstown Resort. We were reassigned a flight the next morning.

After we checked-in to the hotel, we took the water taxi to Queenstown CBD for a late lunch at a great seafood restaurant, and some ice cream at a popular shop. We then roamed a bit around the touristy area before returning via water taxi to the hotel for the evening.

At some point during the night, the reassigned flight was also cancelled. We were forced to accept an even later evening flight. In turn, this forced me to start cancelling plans in Auckland, as we were losing a day in town.

Lost Day - December 8, 2026

We didn’t plan for anything in Queenstown on this day, due to it being a lost day. We had breakfast at the hotel cafe, but otherwise relaxed in the hotel room until checkout time.  We finally went to the airport in the afternoon to wait for our early evening flight.

This flight was not cancelled. 

We ultimately landed in Auckland in the evening. After taking our hired towncar to the hotel and checking-in, we settled a bit then went to the hotel cafe for dinner.  Due to our delayed arrival, we had to rearrange plans for our first day in Auckland.

Queenstown New Zealand Exploration

Allie and I arrived in Queenstown on December 3, 2026 in the afternoon (local time). We left California our previous day of December 1, 2026 (local time). We lost a day to travel and another day to the International Date Line. We also lost a portion of one day to a long stay in Auckland Airport on our way to Queenstown. The following are my journal entries from the first few days.

Tuesday, December 3: A Lakeside Welcome at Wakatipu Grill

We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Kawarau Village near Queenstown. After settling in, we walked over to Wakatipu Grill at Hilton Queenstown Resort and Spa. Restaurant staff sat us in a glass-enclosed patio with good views of the lake as the sun set. The dishes were very good. I had the Pork Porchette, and Allie had a steak dish she liked a lot. We also tried a drink called a Matcha Mojito, which ended up tasting more like a Long Island Ice Tea than anything that should bear the name “mojito” or “matcha.”

The staff were really helpful, though. They went out of their way to make an actual Iced Tea for me even though it’s not on the menu. For a location that doesn’t brew iced tea, they made a great one. Dessert was a bit of a surprise. The Strawberry Cheesecake was really more of a strawberry mousse. Even still, it was fairly tasty, just not what we expected. We also had a type of Chocolate cake that tasted very good but came with a super hard chocolate shell that was thicker than a candy bar. It literally required a steak knife to break through. The shell was likely just too thick, making it a bit of a nuisance to an otherwise tasty dish. Overall, it was a great experience with extremely attentive, capable staff.

Wednesday, December 4: Water Taxis, Gondolas, and Queenstown CBD

The weather was nice and sunny with light cloud cover and a little bit of a morning chill. We started the itinerary by taking a water taxi from the Hilton over to the Queenstown CBD, which let us see the area from the lake and take in the gorgeous scenery. From the CBD, we walked over to the Skyline Gondolas. On the ride up to Skyline Queenstown, we saw and heard a goat on the side of the mountain. I had an 11:45 reservation at the Stratosfare Restaurant for their buffet lunch. The food was high quality with a lot of great options, and our table offered awesome views of the town and lake from a high vantage point.

Afterward, we hit the souvenir shop before heading back down. We had another appointment at Kiwi Park Queenstown where we explored this special kind of zoo. Highlight is that we were able to catch glimpses of actual kiwi birds! That was awesome. We also saw many other beautiful and native animals, including a bird and reptile show. There was also a happy and buzzy bee colony.

We left the park and roamed around the CBD for some more shopping. The town is very much a touristy place, and there didn’t seem to be a ton of local personality beyond the architecture and the beautiful deep valley lake backdrop. After a long day, we took the water taxi back to the hotel to relax and rest for the evening.

Thursday, December 5: Hiking Frankton and Finding the Local Spots

Allie and I went on an exploratory hike into the Frankton area and ended up at Pantry by Frank’s. We ordered a couple of bagel sandwiches, but what’s called a “bagel” here is more of a white bread with a pastry crust than an actual dense bagel. Allie’s Pesto Chicken sandwich was served cold for whatever reason, while my Chicken Club was warm. Allie had a hot breakfast tea, and I had a hot Chai tea. Exploring the area further, we discovered an Asian market, a grocery store, a very nice laundromat, and a few other shops. The grocery store had a permanent resident cat who guards the entrance as it naps throughout the day. On the way back to the hotel, we took a heavily vegetated trail along the river. The bugs annoyed Allie, but luckily none bit her.

Being so far South on the Globe in the summer means there is still direct sunlight on the city at 9pm. Later that night, I caught a view of the full moon with its light reflecting perfectly across the lake.

On December 6, we took a day-long tour of various Lord of the Rings filming locations on the South Island.  Unfortunately, we had a series of cancelled flights on December 7, so we ended up staying an extra day in Queenstown, not making it to Auckland until December 8.

Movies I watched in the theater in 2017

I am not sure where I saw most theatrically released movies in 2017. This list is put together from memory. One fact I remember is that the only reason I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi was because The Disaster Artist was sold out when I arrived at the theater. I think this may have been the point where I stopped doing walk-ups and started to regularly buy my seats ahead of time.

Movies I saw in the theater in 2017:

• Lady Bird
• Baby Driver
• Blade Runner 2049
• Thor Ragnarok
• Dunkirk

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
• Logan
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• John Wick: Chapter 2
• Wonder Woman

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• Happy Death Day
• Justice League
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
• Alien: Covenant

• Kong: Skull Island
• The Disaster Artist
• Annabelle: Creation
• Ghost in the Shell

2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025

Movies I watched at the theater in 2018

2018 was likely the year I really started using my AMC membership. At some point that year I joined the AMC Stubs program and later upgraded to AMC A-List. Before then, I had never used an elevated membership to go to the movies. I think I had the equivalent of the free Insider level since 2016 or 2017, but I was not using it regularly during those years. Since 2018, I have watched most of my movies at AMC, though not all. For example, I saw Mandy at an independent theater.

Here's the list of movies I was in 2018:

• Aquaman
• Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
• Once Upon A Deadpool
• Bumblebee (early access screening)
• Hunter Killer

• First Man
• Venom
• A Simple Favor
• The Meg
• Mission Impossible: Fallout

• Ant-Man And The Wasp
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Deadpool 2
• Avengers: Infinity War
• A Quiet Place

• Game Night
• Mandy

2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025

Movies I've seen in 2025 and "why"

Has there been a return to form for movie theaters to pre-pandemic levels? No. However, I found myself going to the cinema more in 2025 than in 2024. The nature of movie-going has fundamentally changed with the dominance of streaming. Patrons now see fewer films in theaters, opting to wait for many of them to arrive at home. This is especially true for movies not designed as a spectacle or an event, creating a fresh challenge for the industry. Still, theaters have faced similar hurdles before, such as when televisions became commonplace in the home.

Eventually, theatrical films improved after over a decade of adjustment throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Even before then, patrons had stopped attending theaters for short serial shows. Additionally, the concept of made-for-TV movies eventually emerged, allowing lower-quality films to be released directly to television without a theatrical run.

Later, both theaters and television were challenged by the introduction of VHS and movie rentals. This led to the straight-to-video concept for lower-budget films, which raised the quality expectations for theatrical releases even higher.

Today, streaming poses yet another challenge. Many high-quality movies do not necessarily require a theater because they do not rely on spectacle to be enjoyed. Even when a large screen might enhance the experience, a story may be perceived as small scale, making it easier to wait for a streaming release.

Despite all of that, I still enjoy seeing various types and scales of movies at the theater. Some films are so massive they demand a theatrical viewing, such as the Avatar franchise. Others are enhanced by the cinema experience even if they have a straightforward story, like Last Breath.

Finally posting my 2025 list

I have been putting off this post for five months for a simple reason: I saw too many movies in 2025 to make this article enjoyable to create while including a poster for every film, such as last year's article. I believe movie posters add value and enhance the post, but including all of them is an immense amount of work. To that end, I am scaling down this year's post to a simple hyperlinked list.

Here is the list of what I watched at the movie theater in 2025:

• Nosferatu
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Last Breath
• Novocaine
• Thunderbolts*

• Ballerina
• 28 Years Later
• F1 The Movie
• Superman (special Amazon Prime Early Screening)
• Jurassic World Rebirth

• The Naked Gun
• Alien Earth (special FX preview of first episode)
• Nobody 2
• Weapons
• Eden

• Caught Stealing
• Good Fortune
• Black Phone 2
• Shelby Oaks
• Predator: Badlands

• Avatar: Fire and Ash

2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

Allie and I at Denver Botanic Gardens - Winter 2026

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUv2xaFAcJV/

Allie and I on a cool Winter Sunday morning from the tree tops in Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory

Full Day Lord of the Rings Mavora Lakes Adventure

Allie and I enjoyed an adventure on South Island of New Zealand (Te Waipounamu) where we retraced the steps taken to film Lord of the Rings trilogy. We toured with Trails of Middle Earth on their Full Day Lord of the Rings Mavora Lakes Adventure.  The tour included multiple filming locations for Lord of the Rings in the general Mavora Lakes region, including the famous Orc Mound, Anduin River and Nen Hithoel.^[1][2] At Mavora Lake, we had a chance to cosplay with Hobbit outfits and authentic replicas of many battle weapons from the Trilogy. Overall experience was positive.

However, while visiting these filming locations was great, the travel between them is a bit rough. This is the nature of travelling around the South Island of New Zealand in this region, especially when you are leaving paved highways behind for a time.  The tour length definitely adds to discomfort as much as the roads themselves since this is a 10 hour tour, with long stretches between locations.  Just be prepared.  One bit of advice is to pack your own lunch, as I found the location where food was available to purchase to be rather lacking.

 

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUefP6dgWfQ/?img_index=1 and https://www.instagram.com/p/DUego49AVOc/?img_index=1

Besides the thrill of discovering so many filming locations in one tour, we also got to see much of the beauty of South Island's mountains and lakes. It feels like New Zealand was always meant to be the location of Middle Earth.

Check out our other explorations around Queenstown on this trip, including arrival to Auckland a day late.

Trail 44 South Mesa

South Mesa has a good loop trail and lots of interconnecting trails with many other areas.  The loop takes you from the trailhead and around the South Mesa. Technically, this is not the route shown in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder, but it still a nice hike with good views.  The hike starts out with thick brush, but transitions to forest on the Westside of the Mesa, as you switch from Mesa Trail to Homestead Trail before returning to the trailhead.

This is a good hike for dogs. The Mesa Trail, in particular, being fairly wide and well-maintained. There are come connector trails that do not allow dogs. These are very narrow and rocky.

We visited these trails in Fall. I wonder how this location blossoms in late Spring.

Trail 33 Chautauqua Park

Chautauqua Park is a great mountainside park with various interconnecting hiking trails of easy to hard classes. Allie and I have been here many times. We almost never hike the same combination of trails. In fact, I don't think we've hiked the specific trail choices mentioned in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder. Segments of the trails are in shade, while other segments are exposed.  There are great views of Flatirons and Boulder. This park is particularly dog friendly, though dogs need to be leashed.

This past summer, an eagle flew right by me at eye-level within 10 feet as it zoomed past. The eagle was so quiet that I didn't even know it was flying near me until it was already at its closest, right before I felt the air being pushed aside by the flapping of its wings. I was able to get one photo of it flying away.