The North Island, pt. III

To Auckland

After a stormy night in Wellington, we prepared for yet another long day - we were driving all the way back to Auckland, a good 8-9 hour drive winding through the North Island.  But before that long drive began, we had a number of filming locations to visit.  First we drove up to Mt. Victoria to see the Hobbit's Hideaway - where Frodo, Merry, Sam, and Pippin hid beside the road to avoid being seen by the Black Rider in the first film.

a signpost!

the hollow by the side of the road is just to the left edge of the frame... I forgot to check the picture before we left.

We found it pretty quickly (there were signs posted), and then hopped back in the car to find Dunharrow, the fields were the armies of Rohan camped before going to war in Gondor in the third film.  Unfortunately we had a lot of difficulty finding it, so we moved on to the Weta Cave.  Basically, it's a mini-museum attached the to the workshop so people can get an idea of what Weta does.  They've got a little film set up as a tour through the workshop talking about history, past projects, and the different specialties, as well as several costume pieces and miniatures from films around the place.  We had a great time seeing Sauron's armor, the prosthetic work for the Uruk-hai and the goblins, the actual swords and doubles' swords (for the hobbits), as well as talking to an employee who was lucky enough to get a spot as an extra in Lord of the Rings.  We also picked up a copy of the LOTR guide to New Zealand - complete with pictures, GPS locations, and descriptions of how to get to certain locations.  Sweet stuff!

one of the best places we visited on the North Island

a life-size replica of the guy who played Lurtz.  No joke.  He was that big. 

Gollum!

Sauron's armor

After that, we began the long journey north, stopping for lunch at McDonald's to update our directions (so thankful for McDonald's Wifi!).  We drove along the coast for a while, which was beautiful.  Most of the drive was uneventful - the weather was clear for the most part, and we finally got a glimpse of Mt Tongariro.

driving along the coast

Mt. Tongariro

But as evening fell, the weather took a turn for the worse, and soon we were driving down back country roads through a torrential downpour.  It was pitch black, and at one point, we lost signal on Jeff's phone, so we had no way of knowing where we were or what way to go.  But thankfully, we got signal back and found that our hopeful turns were actually keeping us on the correct path.  We got into Auckland around 8 pm, and arrived soon after at Derryck and Barbara's home.  They are the parents of a very good family friend, and were so kind as to let us stay with them for a few days.

At Barbara and Derryck's

While we were there, we got to meet one of their daughters, Sheridan, who recommended a restaurant to try the next day.  We started off our free day by taking the train into Auckland, grabbing some breakfast, and then took the ferry out to Rangitoto Island.  It's basically an egg-shaped island that is home to an old volcano and lots of beautiful plants.  It was a crisp and clear day, great for hiking!

on the ferry, with Auckland behind us

coming in to the dock at Rangitoto Island

We walked up the side of the volcano until we reached the top and had a beautiful view of the surrounding bay and Auckland.  A storm blew in pretty quickly as we walked around the top of the crater, so we were hiking in the rain for a while.  We also stopped to walk through some lava caves, which were dark and dank and full of bumps.  We didn't have a flashlight, but another hiker let us borrow one while we were in there - a good thing because a number of times I almost split my head open on a few low-hanging chunks of rock.  After we returned the torch, we headed back to the dock, and ended up catching an early ferry back.  It was actually part of the harbor tour (which we didn't pay for) but they took pity on us, being wet and windswept and ready to head back to shore.  So we hopped on, and learned a lot about Auckland Harbor.  We saw pretty much the entire New Zealand Navy, old guns built into the sides of small islands during WWII, went under the Auckland bridge, and got to see people bungy jumping from it.  It was well worth it!

the lave cave

part of the NZ navy

getting ready to jump!

Then we walked around downtown Auckland a bit, and found a bus that would take us to Ponsonby Road Bistro, the restaurant Sheridan told us about.  We were unfortunately too early to get their popular steak and potatoes dish, but we ended up getting this AMAZING pizza.  It had spicy sausage, roasted pumpkin, fresh mozzarella, and caramelized red onions - delicious.  Some of the best pizza I've had!

After that scrumptious meal, we took the bus back to Barbara and Derryck's, and then met up with one of their sons, Nigel, and his family for dinner.  It was a wonderful time getting to know them!  We headed home early since we had to pack our things and get ready to leave super early the next morning.  Our time on the North Island was over, and we would be flying to Queenstown for a week on the South Island.

The North Island, pt. II

After our morning dip in the hot springs, we dried off and got back in the car, ready for a new day of adventures.

To Taupo


Unfortunately, this was the part of the trip when Jeff got sick.  We had stopped at the pharmacy earlier that morning to pick up some Sudafed, but because of a crackdown in NZ on the active ingredients (thank you, meth-heads), it was more like Tylenol.  But Jeff was great about it, and the only real indication of illness was the rolls of toilet paper we kept in the car for runny noses...  Anyways.  So we drove off to Taupo, checked into the hostel - which was really nice - took showers, and then decided to go see Huka Falls.  Before we got to the falls, we stopped at a honey store, which was doing honey and mead tastings.  So we went in, and it was really cool - loads of different types and flavors of locally made honey.  Then we tried the mead (my first time), and finished off with a brandy that had honey in it.  It was like a hot toddy all by itself!  It was warm and sweet and of course, expensive.  But we enjoyed the tasting!

The waterfall wasn't all that tall (only about 35 ft), but it had this stunning blue color.  I found that a lot of places had this crystal clear color there, but in this case, the color had a lot to do with all the air bubbles.

After the falls, we drove back to Taupo, and found that the McDonald's there had an airplane next to it.  Not only that, but you could actually go eat in said airplane.  It was pretty sweet!  Then we walked to dinner and turned in for an early night.

To Turangi


After a good night's sleep, we hit the road, on our way to Tongariro National Park.  We decided to stop at the hostel first and check in.  This hostel, however, was far different from the YHA we had just stayed at.  It was this little privately owned place, run by a small family.  The place was pretty eclectic - colorful paintings everywhere, a big fire in the living room where a bunch of the guests were gathered to watch films and play board games, and one of the first things we got was a seat next to the fire and cups of mint tea from the owner.  He insisted that we sit and warm up a bit, and then showed us to our room and around the hostel.

After a little while, Jeff and I got in the car and headed off to see Mt Tongariro and Mt Nguahoe (which I've probably spelled horribly wrong), where the Mordor scenes were filmed.  Unfortunately for us, the weather was terrible, and we could hardly see 10 feet in front of us.  Even with that, however, we could tell that this was the perfect landscape for Mordor.

After a while we drove back, picked up some soup for dinner, and watched a few films before heading to bed.  We had a long day ahead of us.

To Wellington

We got up early and headed to Burger King for breakfast and to use their internet to download our next set of driving directions.  We would be taking the scenic route down to Wellington, stopping at LOTR sites along the way.  We drove through more storms, windy routes, up and down hills, through mountainsides... Basically, a recipe for guaranteed car-sickness.  Umph.  But after many long hours in the car (much longer than anticipated...) we reached our first location - Fernside, home to lovely gardens used to film parts of Lothlorien and the fishing on the lake scene with Smeagol and Deagol.

We passed it by accident, but got directions from a local and found it quickly. The driveway was gorgeous - about a mile long, lined with silver trees with yellow leaves, sheep grazing by the side. Once we got to the house however, we found that technically, it was also private land and therefore we were not allowed on it without a tour, arranged ahead of time, of course. We were really disappointed, but then saw an open area of gardens outside the walls. So we walked on over, and quickly found ourselves surrounded by chickens and peacocks.  

The gardener found us not long afterwards and told us it was off limits, so we left. At this point, it was starting to get dark, so we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to see any of the other sites along the way. But we kept trucking, and found ourselves going down this huge valley with crazy winding roads, and random construction stopping traffic without signs around blind corners. Good stuff.

We stumbled upon a set of gardens while looking for a park, which were really pretty and fun to walk through, and then entered the actual park, destination: Rivendell. We only had about 15 minutes until closing time, so we rushed to find it, accidentally stopping at the wrong place first, but then finally we arrived at the grassy opening. There wasn't much there besides trees and grass, but the trees were familiar.

At this point, it was almost dark, and we still had at least an hour until we reached Wellington. So we packed it in, left the park and started to make some calls to hostels in Wellington to find accommodations for the night. We found a place in the heart of the city called Rosemere's - a former brothel turned into a backpacker's. We got a double room, went out for some dinner (at a Middle Eastern place - even got to speak Arabic with some of the folks!), then packed it in for another early night.

Coming Up: We drive from Wellington up to Auckland for our last few days on the North Island!

The North Island, pt. I

The Journey

As excited as I was about this trip to New Zealand, I was a little nervous about how long this journey would take.  I've managed to get through 12.5 hour flights when I was flying to and from Jordan, but every time - without fail - I would be jumping out of my skin by 11 hours.  So with a 14+ hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, I wasn't sure I'd make it through in one piece...

4 am, May 8th.  We got up, loaded up our bags and drove out to the airport (thank you, Bill!) to catch our 6am flight to JFK.  Then came a 10 hour layover.  It was bearable though, because MasterCard was doing this promotional thing in our terminal, and you could get free internet and a comfy chair if you had one of their cards.  Score!  And to top it off, the space shuttle was temporarily parked on top of an airplane there, so we got to see it up close as we taxied on the runway.  It was awesome.

So then we got on our flight to LA, which wasn't bad, and hung out for another hour.  By the time we boarded our flight to Sydney, we had been up for almost 24 hours and we were running on hardly any sleep.   It was rough.  So rough in fact, that I couldn't even stay awake for dinner.  I fell asleep multiple times while eating, and they finally took it away while I slept.  The flight itself wasn't actually that bad.  It was long, but honestly not as rough as some of my flights to the Middle East.  So we touched down in Sydney, having crossed the international date line, on May 10th.  We got on our last plane to Auckland, picked up the rental car, and headed off to find our first hotel.

Auckland

The first challenge: driving.  They drive on the other side of the road here, which was really confusing.  Jeff was doing all the driving, and I would be doing all the navigating.  Simple, right?  Nope.  No gps, no data plans, and only minimal maps meant we were stopping at McDonald's to load map directions (or take pictures of them) in order to get from place to place, and hoping we didn't get lost.  Our first night we stayed at this little place called Oakwood Manor.

 I got us lost going there from the airport - I was too busy oohing and ahhing at all the scenery and didn't pay attention to the distances on the map - but we found it pretty easily on the way back.  We found a local grocery store, and tried New Zealand's famous L&P (it's a lemony fizzy drink made locally), and of course, had Subway for dinner.  Instead of American cheese, they had "Old English" cheese - it didn't quite taste the same.  Early the next morning, we grabbed breakfast at McDonald's - we stopped here frequently for internet to load driving directions - and then headed off on our 4 day tour of the North Island (and a bunch of LOTR filming locations).

To Rotorua

First we would be heading to Port Waikato to see Weathertop.   It was actually on private land, so we couldn’t get to the exact location.  But we were trying to get as close as possible, and ended up parked in some guy's farm, quickly turning around to backtrack as the owner's looked dubiously at us.  We stopped at the closest point in the road, got out and took a few pictures, but we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't really find it.  Fortunately, we were headed for Matamata next, home of Hobbiton.  We stopped along the way at this small café called the Black Beagle Café, and had coffee, steak pies, and a fresh out of the oven blueberry muffin - yum! 

Back on the road, we came to the end of our directions to Hobbiton, but there was no Hobbiton, just fields.  So we kept driving until we saw this little house by the side of the road, pulled in the driveway, and I ran to the door to ask for directions.  The couple looked pretty surprised, but said we weren't far and explained how to get there.  We finally arrived about 10 minutes before the tour left. 

Hobbiton was probably one of the coolest things about the trip.  It looked exactly like it did in the movies!  We were lucky - for years after LOTR was filmed, it was just a bunch of holes in the ground.  But because the Hobbit would also be filmed there, they rebuilt the place and decided to leave it intact this time.  We saw Sam's house, the ol' Gaffer's house, Bag End, the Green Dragon (from across the lake, they're doing some work on it to make it safe for customers to come through), the Party Tree, and even got to go in one of the hobbit holes.  It was so much fun!

After Hobbiton, we set off for Rotorua, where we would be couch-surfing for the first time.  We stayed with this really sweet girl, Klee, who is a high school teacher.  She had actually spent some time in the States before, so it was fun talking with her about her experiences there.   That night, we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant (Jeff said he hadn't really had Indian before), and it was delicious!  We went to bed early, still jet-lagged, and the next morning, got a massive breakfast at the Fat Dog and headed off to find the natural hot springs.  Klee was kind enough to tell us how to get to a local place that was free and had a hot and cold river running into each other, so you could move up or down the pools to find a comfortable temperature.  They were awesome!  It was a cool, sunny morning, so you could see the steam rising off of the water, and even though it smelled a bit sulfur-y, it was wonderfully relaxing. We were surrounded by trees, only a couple people around (who mostly kept to themselves), and quiet - only the birds and the whispering of the wind through the trees to keep us company.

Coming up: off to Taupo, Turangi, and Wellington!

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