This is where I found my soul.

This traveller was beaten, soulless. But somewhere 800m above sea level by a cliff in Queenstown, he found his soul. The majestic view offered by standing on the narrow Ben Lumond Track, the snow-capped Cecil Peak towering on my right, and serene Lake Wakatipu by the Queenstown Bay all renewed in him a sense of adventure and heightened euphoria.

The bus journeys throughout New Zealand are easily the best highlight of the trip. The sojourn lush green fields on either sides are interspersed by towering mountains of varying types and height, and occasionally they seem to close in on us. Beech trees and other unique flora only found in New Zealand punctuate much of the scenery, along with thousands of grazing sheep, cows, horses, and the occasional deer. Sometimes the open and infinitely vast green fields, with hills and the alps as the backdrop, seem to bring to mind scenes right out of the Lord of the Rings. It almost seems as if Tolkien’s verbose description of Middle Earth in his books seem to describe that of New Zealand.

Try as I might to scour my head for the right words to aptly describe this vividly breathtaking (literally) scenery, I can’t. I’m at a loss for words by much of the mysticism that shrouds New Zealand, and as I’ve mentioned quite a few times in much of my postings in some social networks, I can very well disappear here forever.