One final trip - Day 2 (Rivendell to Masterton)

December 28, 2014

Rivendell 

After we had some dinner in the park (Noodle Canteen - sooo yummy!) we kept driving along Highway 2 until we reached the Kaitoke Regional Park where the location of Rivendell was filmed. The map below shows our first stop, at a lake used to provide water to the local area. It was a beautiful evening!

After the lake, we followed the many signs that ensured we found our way to the right place: Rivendell.

At the entrance to the site, there is a post welcoming you to Rivendell. One side is in english and the other in Elvish. The only way I could get the two pictures side-by-side though was to make one small :(

Standing in one corner of the old set site

Brian is standing in the middle of where Frodo's room was when he was recovering from the Morgul blade wound in Fellowship of the Rings

Which way to Mordor? Is it right or left?

This was one of the more fun sites because there were actually markers and placquards showing you where things were located during filming. As we walked back to the car, we also passed over this river, which portrayed the Fords of Isen in the extended DVD of the Two Towers. It's always nice when you can get two sites in one stop!

After a beautiful walk in the forest, it was time to continue down the road. We decided we could only get as far as Masterton due to the time (rather than our intended stop of Napier) but we made a couple more stops anyway.

Lothlorien and the Gladden Fields

We attempted to see the area where part of Lothlorien was filmed, but when we got there we found out it was a private residence and you could only see the gardens on a tour. Since it was about 7pm on a Sunday evening, and this being New Zealand, there was no way that was happening. We took some pictures of the fields surrounding the property, but we couldn't get a view of the lake in the "Gladden Fields" where Smeagol and Deagol were fishing and found the One Ring. Complete strikeout.

Stonehenge Aotearoa

The next small town we drove through was Greytown. We saw a sign for the Stonehenge of New Zealand and thought that could be cool to see. It was a bit farther out of the way than we thought, but it was a beautiful drive.

However, we were again disappointed to find this on the sign. Darn private property! We thought we were going to a public place.

This is the last picture for the day. I thought this was just an amazing dilapidated old house. I think I'll have to make it into a puzzle some day.

After this little detour, we made it through Carterton and Masterton without event. Even with a few disappointments at the end of the day, it was overall a pretty awesome day!

One final trip - Day 2 (Weta Workshop to Isengard)

December 28, 2014

We managed to get a lot done on our first real day of sight seeing as we embarked on our tour of the bottom half of the North island. We'd seen most of the top half with Mom & Dad a year ago, so when we had to cut down the route, we decided to focus on places we hadn't yet been.

Weta Workshop
To start off, we were in Wellington. Yes, we came here a couple months ago for our anniversary, but it was only about a 36 hour trip and we (and by "we" I really mean me) really wanted to go to the Weta workshop. Weta is the company that did the special effects for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, among others.

We got to the workshop early to take pictures and get souvenirs. We had a blast.

First we introduced ourselves to the Trolls: William, Bert and Tom

Troll feet are really big!

Here's an expanded view of the exterior of the workshop. It's literally in a neighborhood called Miramar - we laughed that we were going to Top Gun. So cool!

Random picture of a tree that we saw a lot of in this area. It was interesting because it's partially green and partially red. Reminds me of Christmas.

We also made sure to take care of the sign visibly posted not to touch the trolls. This is for you Sister Crankshaw (who did not follow the sign in her pictures).

Inside, Gollum looked a little wary as I prepared to give him a little kiss...

There was a whole cave of miniature figurines of every character from the the six movies you could possible think of. It was pretty cool.

We then went inside the workshop, but sadly no pictures were allowed in there. It was a really interesting tour that lasted a little over an hour because we asked so many questions. Our tour guide was an actual Weta employee, so she could explain how everything is made. 

She told us how she spent several months making chain mail for LotR battles. So Brian asked her if she added that expertise to her resume. Funny thing is she said her dad had asked her the exact same question. She also told us how on her first day of work she almost introduced herself to a dummy because it was so life-like. That would have been embarrassing!

We saw weapons, full size renderings of animated objets, armor, skulls, plasterings, even a life-size and life-like dummy of Sam Neill, etc. Here are some of the movies that were represented on the tour:

• Lord of the Rings trilogy

• The Hobbit trilogy

• King Kong

• District 13

• Can't remember the movie Sam Neill's body was in nor the giant stuffed bunny that looked like it came from Donnie Darko

Isengard
Once we completed our tour, it was time to get on the road and see some more sights before the end of the day. Our next stop: Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt.

Harcourt Park is an amazing, enormous and beautiful park. It also served as the sight for the grounds of Isengard in LotR (with a superimposed tower).

If you can tell, Brian is taking the picture from up on a hill about 5m high. This is because the park is built on a fault line. The Wellington Fault goes through the park and a large earthquake during the 19th century lifted the ground 5 meters and diverted the course of the Hutt River. Pretty cool story.

This post took us until about dinner time. Luckily its summer, New Zealand is very far south and there is going to be several more hours of light. Since this post is waxing long, I will include the remainder of our day in another post. Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the places from middle earth!

One final trip - Day 1 (The Ferry)

December 27, 2014

Today we started off on our final trip in New Zealand. We still have some things we wanted to see while living here so we are trying to fit it all in to about 10 days.

We were actually meant to start out on Christmas Day, however Brian didn't realize he was out of his prescription and we had to wait for the pharmacy to open back up, which wasn't until the 27th because December 26, Boxing Day, is also a national holiday here in NZ. So we cut even more out of our trip, but we got to see most of what we had hoped for.

We decided to make this a road trip as we had not yet taken the interislander ferry between the North and South islands. So this first day was a little uneventful, but always beautiful. We drove up the east coast to Picton where we jumped onto the ferry. As you can see from the picture below, we were treated to sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky.

View from the road

Before I move on to the ferry, I'd just like to point out that the ocean is two different colors. Dad, this is for you because you can't tell me that it's because of the clouds (if you've known me since I was about 15 you will get this reference).

We arrived in Picton and got on the ferry. It was about a 3 hour trip and a very pleasant evening. I only took a few pictures because our allergies were so bad that we had to take some medication

Making ourselves comfortable in our own little corner

Looking down the hall inside the ferry

One of the several areas o sit and look out the window. Our spot is at the far back wall. Brian is sitting behind the lady walking towards me

Views of the harbor leaving the South Island

It was about 10pm when we arrived in Wellington so we just headed to our hotel for the night, eager to get some sleep for a big day of travel and site-seeing tomorrow!

We're on top of the world!

Monday October 27th (Labor Day)

Today we are heading to.....

We were very excited to go to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers today, which was the main purpose for our West Coast trip this weekend. We were a little bit nervous with the bad weather yesterday that our planned activity would be cancelled, but as we got closer to the glaciers the weather started clearing. We knew we were close when we started seeing signs like the one above.

When we arrived at Fox glacier, we were not disappointed. We were going on a helicopter ride over the glaciers!!! I think the anticipation was showing as we got strapped in.

I don't know why Brian had his arm through that strap - maybe it makes him feel safe

WARNING - there are a lot of pictures in this post. We took about 200 pictures during this part of the trip so the fact that I cut it down to 43 is pretty good (in my opinion). But make sure you scroll down to the middle for an epic story.

As we lifted off, there was a lot of green and it was hard to believe we were going to viewing ice and snow capped mountains any time soon. I'm pretty happy with how a lot of the pictures turned out given that we were taking them through a window most of the time. We had a lot of fun passing the camera back and forth taking pictures of the views we each had out the window.

View as we entered the canyon where Fox glacier ends

The bottom of this pictures is where Fox glacier actually ends. It was pretty abrupt!

Here is the body of the glacier. It's crazy to me that this river of solid ice actually moves over time. It's definitely a force to be reckoned with. The contrast of colors is absolutely amazing and beautiful.

Close up of the ice. That blue ice underneath the dirt is fantastic. I guess it's the minerals in the water that make it turn that color - so interesting!

We never could have seen these amazing views from the base of the glacier if we had simply hiked to the bottom. This was definitely worth it!

Moving to the top of the glacier.

View of Fox glacier from the top. Although global warming has caused the glaciers to shrink, it's still pretty large!

We also got up close and personal with the peaks in the Southern Alps, including:

• Aoraki/Mt. Cook (highest peak)
• Mt. Tasman (2nd highest peak)
• Mt. Elie de Beaumont (highest peak North of Mt. Cook)

Mt. Cook

Another view of Mt. Cook

Tasman glacier

More cool views of the mountains...

This is the collection point for one of the glaciers. That means most of the snow that forms the glacier falls in this area

Franz Josef glacier

Now that we've flown around a bit, we are going to land on a mountain! Here is the flat spot that will serve as our landing pad.

We're ready to hop out.

It's time to get out of the helicopter. I wonder if the snow will be soft and fluffy or hard packed to walk on easily?  Survey say...hard packed! Good thing, I was a little worried about sinking into a snow drift or starting an avalanche.

The peak hidden by the clouds in the upper right hand corner is Mount Elie de Beaumont

Stupid clouds - get out of the way!

Our pilot is spraying the snow to help him land on later flights during the day - good thing since the fog is settling back in

Okay, here is the awesome story I promised in the warning at the beginning of my post. While we were enjoying the scenery on the mountain top, the pilot asked Brian how much he weighed. After Brian gave his best estimate, the pilot responded with "okay, I'm going to leave you where you are".

Now I don't know what that sounds like to you, but Brian showed some immediate and serious consternation. Brian's next question was "you're going to leave me up here?" Hahaha - he thought the pilot meant he couldn't get back on the helicopter, but he really just meant he was going to have to stay in the same seat in the helicopter. Usually the pilot switches the people around so everyone has a chance to ride in the front. We didn't get to do that, but I actually liked sitting in the back - we had way more room. The other couple was practically sitting on top of each other they were so squished.

We had a good laugh with the pilot about misconstruing what he said. Brian said he was very glad that he didn't have to stay because "he didn't have that many warm clothes with him" not that he would be sitting on a mountain by himself hoping someone would be coming back for him. Obviously his priorities are in check!

I'm kind of sad I put the camera on a bad setting for the pictures we took together - but you can sort of see us!

I had to Tebow on top of the mountain since I had also done it on top of the hill were they filmed the city of Edoras in LOTR 

A little pic of our pilot and the other couple in the heli with us. They were from Spain and really nice

Ready to get back in the helicopter and head back down

Good thing we didn't ask too many safety questions before our trip started or we may have chickened out. Our pilot said he has been flying since 1986. Every few years a helicopter crashes up here and all the people he trained with are dead. I guess we were lucky he was our pilot? As you can tell, we made it back safe and sound.

There was a little lake in between two of the peaks with the most beautiful blue water. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, but you can tell how unique the color was. I bet it was cold! 

Leaving the mountains and re-entering the valley

It's hard to tell, but our pilot made a really sharp turn that put us almost sideways as we came in to land. That's us looking straight down to the ground out Brian's window!

Safely home and the next group getting loaded up

As we left "Glacier Country", we had to make a few additional stops. For those of you who know us, know that we play World of Warcraft. The people who give out the quests in the game have an exclamation point over their heads. So when we saw these signs for cattle crossings, we had to take pictures. In the second pic, I've officially become a quest giver!

The rainforest we drove through was beautiful...is there anything in this part of the world that isn't?

 The Whataroa River was an amazing color of blue as well. It could have passed for the ocean. There is so much gorgeous scenery in this country - I absolutely love it!

Our last picture is another sign indicating that you should be cautious when the roads are wet. Brian loves this sign because the tire skidmarks are impossible to create. I'll leave it to you to figure out why. Enjoy!