One final trip - Day 4 (NZ's "big things" and near death experiences)

December 30, 2014

Today is our last day of touring on the North island. But to cap it off, we saw some beautiful sights. Our first stop was Mangawhero Falls where two different scenes from The Two Towers were filmed. At the top of the falls, the little river leading two it is where Gollum caught a fish on the road to the Black Gate. Then, the pool at the bottom of the falls is where Gollum was caught by Faramir and Frodo. 

The drive up to the falls was absolutely beautiful. It was a quick 20km back into Tongariro National Park towards Turoa ski field. When we got there, the first view point was right at the top of the falls looking at the river where Gollum fished.

We are clearly following the sign and staying "behind the fence"!

Now go watch The Two Towers to picture Gollum swimming/fishing right behind me...

Now for the part where I started making bad decisions. There was a little track that went down the ravine past the falls so you could get a view of the waterfall. While Brian walked down the track to take a picture of me at the top of the falls, I thought it would be a good idea to stand in the middle of the falls. So I stepped down from the fence into the river right where the bend in the fence is that you can see in the picture of Brian. Just as Brian walked into view, I slipped on one of the rocks and fell down.

Now, I had chosen a safe distance from the edge, but from Brian's vantage point it looked like I was right on the edge. When he saw me fall, he thought I was about to fall of the waterfall to my death. Needless to say, he was very traumatized. I didn't realize how traumatized until later, so I sat there and waited for him to take my picture anyway. What a meanie I am! As you can see, it really does look like I'm much closer to the edge than I actually was.

After the picture I quickly ran around to check on Brian. After being strongly rebuffed on his end and several groveling apologies on my end we took a couple more pictures and headed back. But first, we stopped back at the first lookout so I could prove to Brian I hadn't been as careless as he thought.

Beautiful view from the waterfall

Looking at Gollum's pool

Closer up 

We are going to miss these beautiful drives through the woods!

On our way out of Ohakune, I noticed a giant carrot sculpture and we just had to stop for a picture. A while ago I had found out that New Zealand has about 20 "big things" around the country. A majority of them are on the north island and I had hoped to chase a few down on our road trip, but most of them were too far north of where we were traveling. Because we couldn't catch them all, I sort of forgot about them until we passed this one. So, we were able to get pictures with a couple of them.

Apparently adventure begins with carrots...who knew!

At this point, our journey turns south back towards Wellington. But first we had a couple more stops to make. The first was in Taihape, where we accidentally (again) found our second "big thing". This time it was a giant gumboot. If you've ever travelled to New Zealand, you will know that gumboots are an absolute essential part of any Kiwi shoe collection.

Random photo taken from the road as my obsession with the NZ skies and the land of he long white cloud.

Our last stop just after we passed through Taihape was at Rangitikei Gorge. There are so many gorges here with all of the glaciers in New Zealand and each one we have seen has been absolutely beautiful. This one was no different. This particular location was one of four places where the Anduin River was filmed during the LoTR trilogy. 

These were the last photos of the day. At this point we continued back to Wellington where we stayed the night before catching an early ferry the following morning. I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind day as much as we did!