I’m in the Sydney airport now, and I’ve got Internet connection! I’ll catch up on the last few days here.

First, I've got a few scenic pictures, ending with an unlit Sydney opera house picture I took early this morning. We've gone twice to both Sydney and Brisbane on this trip, if you're wondering why I'm back at Sydney yet again.

We did get to see Rivendell, but I was so in awe that I forgot to get pictures of the actual scenery! My dad got pictures though. Here's some pictures I took of the signs:

 

 

The autumn leaves seen falling in the background of Rivendell in the Fellowship of the Ring (they symbolized the passing of the elves from middle earth) have a funny story attached. An advertisement was put up that the first 50 respondents who wanted their yards cleared of leaves would have a filming crew quickly descend and clean up the leaves for them, free of charge. Thus, the respondents could have their own leaves portrayed on screen.

We reenacted the fellowship first embarking from Rivendell, with me as Gandalf, Lauren as Frodo, and Julia as a fellowship extra. My dad filmed it and said at the end, “Peter Jackson would be proud.” I’m not sure if he was joking.

Peter Jackson actually filmed the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy, but cut 900 hours into only 9 hours of film. This includes the scenes that he had to re-shoot. He had the Lord of the Rings books with him while he directed scenes to ensure it was as true to the actual story as possible, minus scenes he deemed necessary to change.

At the site where Isengard was filmed, I gave Julia my white sweater and Mom gave Lauren her gray sweater so that Julia could be Saruman and Lauren could be Gandalf. Julia tied her hair in a ponytail in front of her face to create a beard. When the orcs pull down the trees at night, there are actually only two trees being pulled down. When each shot was taken, there was a hinge attached to the trees that would pull them back up. These trees were already dead, but the leaves had to be reattached after each shooting. The shots were taken at various angles to make it appear that lots of trees were being pulled down. I found it interesting that Peter Jackson decided not to just use fake trees for that night scene.

Julia got a chance to be Frodo when we acted out the black rider (Dad) sniffing for the hiding hobbits. I was Sam, so I grabbed Julia’s (Frodo’s) arm when she was putting on the ring (Dad’s wedding ring). Lauren was Merry and Mom was Pippin. We pretended to be concerned about the bugs.

We saw the site where Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith were filmed. It was a working quarry, so Peter Jackson bought the quarry for a year so that he could use the site. He also bought all the Styrofoam in a factory to make the sets, but realized that was silly, so he ended up just buying the whole factory.

We met Bombur’s stunt double. He was also another tour guide. Our tour guide said that almost everyone in Wellington had some part in The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings films. That’s why in New Zealand there’s a five-minute thank you from Peter Jackson to the Kiwis before the showing of the third hobbit movie, which I still haven’t seen.

We went to Akaroa to see Edoras (Mount Sunday in real life). Most of the places I’ve been to in New Zealand have been really windy, and the hills of Akaroa are no exception. The wind blew my hair into my face so that it was hard to see. I’m not sure how Legolas kept his hair out of his eyes while running through the hills of middle earth!



I've seen some weird things in public eating areas here:

First off, Julia looked at a menu in a coffee shop and saw they were selling an avocado along with other side dishes. She thought that was strange, but an avocado sounded good to her, so she ordered that at the counter. However, when her order came in, it turns out that an avocado is a type of milky coffee drink. When the barista saw Julia’s surprise, Julia explained that she thought she had asked for the fruit, not a coffee drink. I’m not sure why that drink wasn’t organized with the other coffee drinks on the menu, but the barista kindly gave Julia a refund.
And...

??????

This nice restaurant displayed the behind of a zebra for some reason. Maybe to show where the exit was? I found this wallpaper quite funny.

Julia has developed a bit of an accent, and I can now distinguish between Aussie and Kiwi accents. Kiwi accents are softer, like Pacific Northwest American accents, while Aussie accents are like how American southern accents are much more noticeable and drawled out. In addition to the Whytes who moved from New Zealand to Australia, I’ve met several Kiwis who poke fun at Aussie accents and mimic them, like how Americans mimic southern accents sometimes.

Because there’s a great diversity of people who come to New Zealand and Australia for vacation, it’s easy to almost walk into people on hiking trails and paths. One time a woman and I were walking toward each other, both on the left side, but she started to move to her right, probably thinking I was American, while I stayed at my left, thinking she was from New Zealand. Then she laughed and asked, “Which side?” I explained simply, “I’m American.” Then she said, “Ahhhh.”

Our tour guide called one of the security staff “the smiling assassin.” This is pretty accurate, and it’s this one security guard in particular who seems unkind. She smiles, but is quite ready to scold us over basically nothing. The smile is only a façade; a look she gives when devising potential ways to point out our minor faults. She also misdirects us every time we see her.

The town of Dunedin in New Zealand feels like Seattle’s summer now because they’re at around 46 degrees latitude, while Seattle is at around 47 degrees latitude. The spelling of Dunedin looks like the Lord of the Rings Dunedin, but it is pronounced differently. Dunedin has the steepest residential road in the world, so we got out of the tour vehicle and ran up it. This road is on Baldwin Street and has a steepness of 34 degrees. It gets steeper near the top of the road too.

 

 

 

 

 

“They figured they could probably get away with it.” –our tour guide, referring to Baldwin

Street.

Dunedin is known for its beautiful architecture. Lauren said, “So this day is for me!” after Mom talked about the architecture we’d see in Dunedin. Lauren wants to do “something with design and something with math” in Lauren’s exact words. In the past, she has wanted to be an architect or an interior designer. She’s not exactly sure what she wants to do for her occupation now. 

We visited the University of Otago in Dunedin to look at the beautiful gothic designs of the structures. The Scots were involved with the University of Otago, and there were originally three Scottish professors and only one English professor teaching at this university. 

Eighteen species of penguin exist worldwide. We got to view yellow-eyed penguin chicks through peepholes in dugout trenches, living in their natural habitat. I liked the warm trenches as they had pretty leaves and kept out the cold and windy climate.

 

 

We also saw albatross and bachelor sea lions. Only black swans live in New Zealand. There are no white swans.

Our tour guide said there’d be a surprise for us…and there was!

 

Our tour guide’s children danced a Scottish jig in front of the train station with a recorded bagpipe. It was the first day they had ever danced for tourists.

Later, we watched two men playing the bagpipe.

 

We have a picture of the family next to the sign in Eastern Washington that says “Seaton Road.” It turns out that our English family name is popular enough in New Zealand to exist on signs here as well!

 Seaton Road is near Seaton Bay.

“This is probably the hottest day in Dunedin since last Christmas” –our tour guide

Although it’s New Zealand’s summer and it looks tropical in photos, New Zealand got a bit cold (and windy) for me, especially in the southern parts. Even the New Zealand capital is sometimes referred to as “windy Wellington.” I like how Australia was warmer, but both are beautiful. Although I love Washington, sometimes people ask me why I live there if I feel the cold so deeply. The reasons are that Washington is beautiful and most of my family lives there. I’ve got great memories in Washington as well. It’s fun to visit both Australia and New Zealand because these places used to just exist in my imagination and seemed so far away. Although I had never been to Australia or New Zealand before this trip, I've had a kindled fascination with these places from movies, stories, and books. When I was little, I watched a lot of Steve Irwin and Discovery Channel, some of which was filmed in Australia. When the Whytes lived in Washington, they brought stories of New Zealand and Australia with them. I also had a kids’ book about a kiwi who wanted to fly, so he found ways to artificially fly, like bungee jumping. At the end of each story, the narrator would say, “Kia Ora little kiwi, at last you learn to fly.” So, I’ll end this blog with a Kia Ora:

Thanks for following our family vacation through Australia and New Zealand! This concludes my blog, but I’ll see most of you guys in person soon. We're flying to Los Angeles soon for a long layover before coming home to Washington.

So we have been roaming hills, travelling the ocean, and out of internet range. Thus, this post is a random consolidation of the last several days.

Before I dive into talking about Lord of the rings, I’ll start with glowworm caves. The hot New Zealand sun cannot reach the darkness and coolness of the cave, but glowworms provide light in a cave like the moon does on a cloudless night. The glowworms lit the way through the cave and formed constellations. I unfortunately became aware of my Americanized thinking when the beauty of nature reminded me exactly of the synthetic stars in the Disneyland Peter Pan ride. Both provide the same mesmerizing effect for me, but the glowworms are much more spectacular, knowing that they are there by nature, not by man. We took a raft down a dark river in the cave and also travelled some by foot. I do not have any glowworm pictures because flash was not allowed, but I have some pictures of another cave where there were artificial lights inserted…

Okay, we stayed overnight at this bed and breakfast and I learned something here that made my mouth drop. The owners of this bed and breakfast said that Martin Freeman actually stayed at this bed and breakfast for eight days during some of the filming of The Hobbit live action movie! The owners had to move to an apartment while Martin Freeman stayed here, but were paid a nice price and came to clean while he was away at Hobbiton filming. They said that he had his shoes and clothes arranged very nicely in the closet.

The rural areas of New Zealand remind me of the happier scenes from Lord of the Rings. And this is because….

 

The outside Hobbiton scenes were filmed here! The hobbit holes are mostly facades, so we have to go to a studio in Wellington to experience the inside of hobbit holes where the inside was filmed.

Going into Hobbiton, we played “Concerning Hobbits.” I’m sure we’re not the first Tolkien-fan tourists to do that!

The party tree from the Fellowship of the Ring was originally going to be chopped down for firewood, but the owner never got to it. This was lucky as it was later determined to be the perfect tree for the Hobbit party.

 

The farm that Hobbiton is built on has 15,000 sheep. Smoke machines created the smoke coming out of the pretend chimneys peeking out of the hills in Hobbiton. Fake lichen is put on the fences to age them.

There were some very noisy frogs in a pond in Hobbiton with a funny story attached. Peter Jackson did not like the sound they made, so he had his filming crew jump into the pond and grab as many frogs as they could. He then had them transplanted out of Hobbiton, and then returned them to their pond after filming finished. There were also black swans in the lake near the party tree. They had beautiful black plumage with reddish markings near their beaks. I couldn’t get a good picture of them, but my dad did.

We were given the choice between ginger beer (a popular non-alcoholic drink in Australia and New Zealand) or alcoholic drinks, such as amber ale or honey meade to drink inside the Green Dragon. Legally, I could have had one of the alcoholic beverages because here I’m considered an adult, but I’ve never had alcohol before and have no desire to. I’ll try it when I’m 21 though. Because of this, I had ginger beer. It was delicious. Although ginger beer and ginger ale are fairly similar, I think ginger beer is less sugary as it has more soda water and less syrup used, so it hydrates you more. I prefer it to ginger ale. Ginger beer is advertised here like Coca Cola is advertised in the United States. I love ginger candy, ginger ale, ginger beer, anything ginger really. I want to try chocolate with ginger imbedded sometime, but now I’m getting off topic. Anyway, we ate a second breakfast at a party tent near the Green Dragon, as we had already had breakfast at the bed and breakfast. This was quite appropriate for visiting Hobbiton. They served us a huge buffet of delicious food as well. Then, like true hobbits, we took food with us. We were concerned that they would throw the food away if we did not take it.

Hobbish font

 

 

Dad and Mom kissed in front of Sam and Rosie’s door.

 

Even the scenery driving to Hobbiton looks like we stepped into a happy Lord of the Rings scene with the lush, rolling green hills.  

 

Here’s some quotes said at Hobbiton:

“It looks just like it…it is it! I’m so used to Disneyland looking just like it, but this is it.” -Dad, upon seeing the Green Dragon.

“They fed us like hobbits.” –Dad

“All the food at Hobbiton was so good. No wonder the hobbits eat so much.” -Julia

“So we’re riding on Legolas today.” –Our guide, explaining how all the vehicles in Hobbiton are named after Lord of the Rings and Hobbit characters.

 

 

 

We kayaked down the Pelorus river, which is the same one that the dwarves and Bilbo were seen travelling down in barrels from The Desolation of Smaug. As we kayaked on the guided tour, strangely people on the side of the river stared and took pictures of us. I’m not sure why, but it could be that they may have thought we were making a movie. Not only were we going down the same river where the barrel scene from the Hobbit was filmed, but we have American “Hollywood” accents. We were close enough to the side of the river that they could hear us chatting among ourselves. The 26^th of December is also Boxing Day (like our Black Friday), so the people by the side of the river were not regulars to this river, but trying to escape the crowds probably. Although this kayak tour is done every day, this would explain why they took pictures of us if they thought our kayaking was a rarity. I haven’t seen the third hobbit movie yet because I’ve been very busy rushing around on this vacation.    

We went to Wellington and visited the forest where the black riders pursued the hobbits in the Fellowship of the Ring. We re-enacted several scenes between the trees of that forest and even saw some black riders (bicyclists with black gear). The forest is right in the middle of the capital of New Zealand on Mount Victoria. It’s amazing how they’ve conserved this forest. We learned that Sean Astin was unable to run after a few shots were taken, so in one of the scenes he is portrayed leaning against a tree while the other hobbits run around him. It looks like he’s running with them because he leans against different trees and changes his position. He was out of shape because he was on a fat diet and gained 30 pounds for the Lord of the Rings movies. The camera crew made the other actors run up that hill 30 times before they got the shot they wanted.

Some caves are drier, and some are weta. We travelled through the Weta cave near Wellington, but it wasn’t wet at all. In fact, it’s not even a cave. It’s a studio where many movies have been filmed, including Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. We got to see prosthetics, sculptures, and silicon or plastic weapons from various movies. I found the chainmail very cool. Most of the things we weren’t allowed to touch, but we got to touch the chainmail. They made the chainmail out of different materials depending on what purpose they needed it for. 10,000 weapons were made for Lord of the Rings.

We visited the site where Lothlorien was filmed in winter from one side of the pond. On the other side of the pond, Smeagol killing Deagol over the ring was filmed in summer. The trees were sparser in winter and broader in summer. The Lothlorien bridge still stood, but was simpler than the one shown in the movie. Our tour guide said that one time a couple stayed behind the rest of the group and the guy proposed on the Lothlorien bridge. A funny fact is that while Viggo Mortensen (actor of Aragorn) was a great horseman, he could not paddle straight, so in the scene where they’re leaving Lothlorien, a scuba diver is below the boat that Viggo Mortensen is in, holding onto it and walking on the bottom of the shallow pond to keep it straight. We’ll be visiting Rivendell soon.

This entry was mostly about Lord of the Rings, so if you’re not a fan, I’ll share some other experiences of mine here to conclude this post.

First off, I always try to eat something new on any vacation I go on, so I ate fish eggs. I didn’t like them that much really.

The milkshakes here are quite different from the ones I’m used to in the United States. It is just like an American-made milkshake left out in the sun for a few hours if you’re in California, or a milkshake left out and diluted by the rain if you live in Western Washington. Basically, it is just shaken milk with a bit of flavor added. It’s not the rich, creamy, delicious, ice creamy milkshake you get in the United States. 

Also, I know I’m nearer to Japan than to the United States when I see…

 bidets!!

I had never seen a bidet before, so first I went into the stall, saw it was a bidet, and then half ran right out as if it would start spraying water at me without me pushing buttons. When I saw that I had to push buttons to activate it, I reentered the stall. Although the Japanese are known for their fancy toilets, the French actually invented bidets. I never intend to use a bidet. Seeing one is enough of an experience for me.

We also had our Christmas too. It was weird opening packages when it’s so warm outside. Lauren related to us that she wrapped her presents for us really well so that the TSA would not bother to inspect them, like they’d say, “Oh well, it probably doesn’t have anything dangerous in it anyway.”

We went on a volcanic hike near Rotorua that reminded me of Yellowstone. The Inferno crater has a beautiful lake inside of it. It changes color, and we were there under the ideal conditions to reveal its bright blue color.

 The inferno crater has a pH of 2.1.

 

I found the recipe for Hokey Pokey ice cream!

 

 

The space needle of New Zealand

 

Wild dolphins

To those C10s who joked that I may not survive Australia, I'm in New Zealand now! Nature is kinder here, so I can relax even more. The worst that happened in Australia was an ant crawled into Lauren's shoe and bit her a few times. She took off her shoe, but the ant clung to Lauren's foot for dear life with its jaws. She then killed it. Lauren tends to have unfortunate encounters with ants, and I have examples to support this. If you're interested, you can ask me about Lauren's encounter with a whole army of biting ants in Costa Rica. Poor Lauren.

Dolphins! This day made me want to be a dolphin biologist all over again like I wanted to be when I first fell in love with dolphins at age seven. A guided tour on a 50 foot catamaran took us to see some dolphins. Although it is legal to swim with wild dolphins in New Zealand, we could not swim with these dolphins because there were about four calves with them. The whole pod put on a show for us. These dolphins did not swim as close to the catamaran as the ones near the Great Barrier Reef, but I'd still get super excited to see dolphins even if they were only a speck on the horizon. Although my dad took better pictures with his fancier camera, here are some pictures I took of the dolphins…

 

                            And my favorite...

I tried to identify this individual using her dorsal fin and an identification guide, but I can't see the dorsal fin well enough to determine which dolphin she is.  
   
We went to a beach and hiking area in the Bay of Islands for lunch. And now for some scenery… 

   

The local people in New Zealand (Kiwis) call these Christmas trees.

Pirate tour ship I saw in the distance

 

Quote from Lauren regarding this peeling tree: "I could not bear to have that tree in my backyard. I'd pick at it all day."

Our catamaran