A Great Surprise

For all of you who don't know, I am slightly seriously in love with the Lord of the Rings.  Tolkien is a genius and a literary master.  When my sisters and I were young, my dad used to read to us before bed, sometimes C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, and later, Tolkien's The Hobbit.  I can still hear his voice when I open the pages of that old book...  That was my first introduction to Middle Earth.  Several years later, I was drawn back into the world of Tolkien when a rainy day prompted me to open The Fellowship of the Ring.  Then the movies were released, and for extra encouragement, my dad told me I had to finish reading the books before I got to see the movies.  (If you haven't seen the extended editions by the way, you're missing out.  Seriously.)

Over the past 10 years, I've become a real Lord of the Rings geek.  I can quote huge portions of the films, I dominate (in my family, at least) at LOTR Trivial Pursuit, watch the movies at least once a year, reread the books usually about once every two years, and I watch the appendices from time to time.  I've already told Jeff to put the midnight opening of The Hobbit (also produced by Peter Jackson) in his calender, even though it's still a good 7 months away.

Now, why does that matter?  Well, I accidentally found out six or seven weeks ago that Jeff had been hiding something from me.  Quite successfully until that point, actually - I wasn't the least bit suspicious...  I found out that he had been planning on taking me on a surprise honeymoon right after the semester ended.  But I couldn't believe what came next - he said we were going to New Zealand.  New Zealand, clear on the other side of the world, the place where those fantastic films were created, the one place on Earth where I could go to Hobbiton, walk through Lothlorien, stand on the slopes of Mount Doom, and step into the birthplace of Gollum.  I have dreamed of traveling to New Zealand ever since I first sat in the theaters and saw how Jackson turned the words of Tolkien into a reality. It took me a while to decide the Jeff wasn't messing with me, but that my dream would soon become a reality.

So, in just over 36 hours, Jeff and I start our long journey to New Zealand.  We'll travel all over the North and South Islands, going to see film locations, studio mini-museums in Wellington, spending time hiking and seeing the beautiful scenery that the country has to offer.  The adventure of lifetime.

courtesy of scrapbook.theonering.net