New Zealand Trip Review: Auckland, Queenstown, Rotorua, Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Lake Pukaki, Tamaki Maori Village, Glowworm Caves

Here are my top rankings:
1. Glacier Helicopter Tour: LOTR + Glacier (Queenstown). Landing on the Earnslaw Glacier, knowing I might never experience this in my lifetime was the highlight of my trip. Glaciers might be gone in 20-30 years.  
2. Hobbiton Movie Set tour (Matamata): absolutely beautiful, large set to immerse in the Shire. Took pictures of Bag End and had lunch and a drink at the Green Dragon. A must do!
3. Visiting and praying at the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo. What a spiritual experience!  
4. Seeing Mount Cook and Lake Pukaki: we would have done the plane tour but we had already booked the helicopter ride in Queenstown. Floored to finally see the beautiful and highest peak in NZ!
5. Luging at Rotorua: this exceeded my expectations. Going up the Gondola and then racing my family down the Luge. I haven't laughed this hard for a while. So much fun, took me back to my child days.  
6. In Queenstown: going up on the river for 20-25 miles between beautiful forests, mountains and glaciers will change your perspective in life.  
7. Stay at the hotel in Queenstown: Geoff knew how to end our trip in the most comfortable and luxurious stay of the trip. 3 nights with huge windows overlooking Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable mountains. We had some amazing, life time memories at this hotel.  
8. Cultural Experience at Tamaki Maori Village (Rotorua): I didn't know much about the Maori culture until this trip. They welcome us to their village as we were part of their family. It went beyond and above my expectation. 
9. Lord of Rings Edoras Tour (near Christchurch): We took so many pictures at the actual Mt Sunday where Edoras was filmed. The mountains and scenery were exactly like what we saw in the movie. We took picture with many of the movie swords.  
10. Footwhistle Glowworm Cave Tour: loved the mom and pop owned company and taking us to see the Glowworms in their natural environment then having tea in a backcountry tea house. Super awesome to support local businesses.  
11. The myriads of souvenir shops around the country. Loved every single one of them, especially the ones owned and produced by Kiwis. We had to buy two different suitcases to fit all of our souvenirs.