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

 

It is December 21 here – the official first day of summer is today!

Today I have a bunch of random comments and stories for you, starting with…

 Seattle "art"

 

Explanation: This Australian public art in a park reminded me of Seattle art because Seattle art is often very abstract and sometimes doesn’t even look like art, but can be quite beautiful…or just plain weird. At least, that’s my opinion.

If you are curious as to the status of our lost luggage, Qantas did in fact deliver it. However, they unwrapped some of the presents in my mom’s suitcase that she was saving for Christmas day (25^th for us and the Shanghai Seatons reading this blog (Uncle Russell, Aunt Tammy, and girls), but 24^th for those in Pacific time). We know that the packages did not just get unwrapped by themselves with the jostling because we could tell that my mom’s careful wrapping had been undone, but sloppily rewrapped with TSA tape, as if to say, “Merry Christmas from the TSA.” One was even left completely unwrapped without any attempt to rewrap it. This could not have happened without TSA intervention. The airport staff were probably looking for presents to see if they’d find anything that looked good and worth “confiscating.” Most of the candy canes were also broken, but they’ll still taste the same.  

Our American Pacific Northwest accent sounds like we’re cowboys or movie stars to Australians (Aussies) as they watch Hollywood movies. Although from New Zealand (Kiwi), Josiah Whyte thinks my dad sounds like Tom Cruise. Whenever we walk through town, there is the same music played here that is played in America. Items from the movie Frozen are everywhere in stores. I see little Aussie girls wearing shirts with Anna and Elsa portrayed on the front. Even when I talked with the Swedish and German families on the overnight boat to the Great Barrier Reef, we were able to talk about the same movies. Hollywood is watched worldwide. It’s pretty amazing.

Mrs. Whyte’s New Zealand accent sounds pretty similar to the Aussie accent, but she mimics their accent like how my family sometimes mimics Southern accents for fun. She seems to feel a bit isolated as a Kiwi surrounded by Aussies. She has a certain pride, however. She told us about how she saw several construction workers by the side of the road doing nothing, but there were a few actually working. She said that those few actually working were probably Kiwis because “Kiwis are the Mexicans of Australia.”
 
After several rounds of hugs, we said goodbye to the Whytes near Brisbane. They are amazing friends and hosts. We will miss them. Mr. Whyte said he really enjoyed the hugs because when he tries to hug his four sons, they sock him.

We arrived in Sydney to start our journey around New Zealand.

The time zone changes frequently now, so I’m now no longer sure how far ahead in time I am compared to those in Pacific time, but I know I’m still around a day ahead.

I also learned the Merengue with Julia as my partner. The instructor had us guess where the Merengue came from and he hinted that it was somewhere in South America. When no one guessed the correct answer, he said this dance originated in the Dominican Republic. I’m not surprised no one guessed that given his hint! The merengue is all about the hips and the arms. I really enjoyed dancing with Julia to the music. At first, we switched who was the leader and who was the follower, but it turns out that Julia likes to lead more and I like to follow more, so we make great dance partners. She gets dizzy spinning, but I like the spinning. The goal of the dance is to get yourself and your optional partner into a pretzel and then manage to gracefully get out of the pretzel. It’s like solving a puzzle as you move to music! The instructor taught us the basic pretzels, and then we were free to make up our own versions.

Great Barrier Reef

The last few days I’ve spent on a boat without internet access, so I haven’t had a chance to write in this blog until now, but I’ll catch up here. 

While planning to go to the Great Barrier Reef, we had a few surprises.  The first surprise was that it is impractical to drive to Cairns from Brisbane because driving that distance is like a tourist coming to Seattle and deciding to drive to Los Angeles.  An airplane flight makes more sense on a time budget.  The next surprise was that the best diving and snorkeling spots on the Great Barrier Reef take a day by boat to get to from Cairns. 

 First, we went to the Brisbane airport to fly to Cairns (it is pronounced “cans” with a silent i and r) that is called tropical North Queensland.  A security guard with a heavy accent said something to me, but all I heard him say was “cans,” so I said no because I assumed he was asking if I had any aerosol cans with me (that was one of the items not allowed past security).  I realized later that he was asking if I was going to Cairns, so I had a little laugh about that later.

 

This is a funny sign I found in a Cairns airport bathroom stall

There is a heavy Asian population in Australia and they often crouch to use the bathroom.  This sign teaches Asians how to use a Western-style toilet.  I just found this sign semi-surprising.

The boat we travelled on had hardly any space, but we all managed to get along.  Besides my family, there was a German family and a Swedish family.  The other two families spoke English, and the Swedish family taught us some Swedish words.  My dad and I talked with Sam (one of the members of the Swedish family) about various cultures.  He knew several different languages and had been all over the world.  Sam asked if we could speak any Norwegian, but we only know foods and one prayer.  Sam asked us to say the prayer, so I started and Sam understood some of what I was saying!  He also said that when I speak Norwegian, I get a Russian accent and that this is common for people to get upon attempting to speak a Scandinavian language.      

On the way to one of our diving destinations, a pod of bottlenose dolphins swam next to the boat to hitch a ride.  There was even a mother and her calf. 
 
The boat took us to a few different sites on the Great Barrier Reef, including Flynn Reef in Queensland.  My dad and I both have our advanced scuba certification, so we went on two day dives and one night dive.  During one of the day dives, a triggerfish attacked the guide who went with us.  That triggerfish chased the guide very aggressively.  Apparently triggerfish have a nasty bite and can take hunks of flesh out of a person.  Their teeth are specialized for coral, so they are tough.  Their territory is cone-shaped and starts at the bottom, expanding upward.  If a diver does not realize this, then the diver will try to escape a triggerfish attack by swimming upwards or horizontally, but this doesn’t work.  The best way to escape a triggerfish is to swim downwards and diagonally, out of its upside-down cone-shaped territory.  Often a triggerfish will be protecting a nest.  In our case, the parents split up to attack from the sides, but only one got extremely aggressive.  We thankfully escaped unscathed.

We saw several nudibranchs of various colors.  My favorites were the green and white spotted one and the Spanish dancer.  All of the nudibranchs we saw were about two inches across.  We saw the Spanish dancer during the night dive.  The Spanish dancer appeared to dance in our dive lights as we illuminated the dark water surrounding it.  We also saw a white-tipped shark.  Our dive lights attracted many fish.  At one point we kneeled down in the sand and hid our dive lights.  It was BLACK.  I could not even see my hand in front of my face.  The last time I had done a night dive was six years ago in Puget Sound, but it was not as dark as this was.  It was pretty fun to be in such blackness. 

The next day we could not go scuba diving since we had a flight to catch that day to go back to Brisbane, but we were able to snorkel.  We saw a giant clam (about five feet long) right under the water’s surface and played with it a bit by waving our hands in front of it to push water into its mouth.  The clam probably did not appreciate our attempts to play with it because it closed up.  We also saw a white-tipped reef shark, probably the same one that we had seen on the night dive since we were still in the same site. 

Travelling between one of our snorkeling sites, the same pod of dolphins leapt just a few feet from the boat.  I was so fascinated by these amazing animals that I did not get my camera, but these dolphins are burned into my memory.  There are videos and pictures of my dad and I scuba diving using our underwater camera, but I cannot upload them easily to this computer, so I’ll have to show you guys when I come back to Washington.  The Great Barrier Reef is truly an amazing place.  It is just like swimming in an aquarium, but there are even more fish. 

I could see fish and reefs from the boat.

Okay, as a tangent, I just had to show you these pictures.  I found it funny how Christmas is still celebrated during December like in the Northern Hemisphere, despite its being Australia’s summer.

 

 

 

 

Today we went to Currumbin wildlife sanctuary. We got to hold a cute koala!

We found a stick insect, and it started running up my dad’s pant leg!

  “It feels like a Dungeness crab.” Dad, quoting Patrick F. McManus as the insect raced for his vitals.

There was a crocodile feeding show, but it was difficult to take a good picture.  These other crocodiles were making a scary, growling sound when they breathed.

Never smile at a crocodile!

 

I can’t seem to stop taking pictures of the ibis, Australian brush turkeys, and water dragons.  This probably is like a tourist coming to Woodinville and taking pictures of squirrels.  If my American Pacific Northwest accent doesn’t give me away, then me taking all of these pictures will.  I don’t care though.  These animals are so cool!  I’m going to post a few pictures of these “everyday” animals. 

Ibis

Ibis with Australian water dragons

Eastern water dragon

Eastern water dragon

Gippsland water dragon

 

 

Australian Brush Turkey

After a sheep shearing show, the song “Down Under” by Men at Work was played!  On the airplane ride over here, I was hoping to hear this song at some point in Australia!  I was so excited about it.

We started howling at some dingoes and to our surprise, one howled back!  We howled back and forth with one for a few minutes.  I wonder what our conversation was about.  Hopefully we weren’t insulting the dingo’s family or saying something offensive in its dingo language!

Interestingly, dingoes are competitors against tigers for food.

There was a kangaroo hangout going on here with one lonely emu

Here are some various animals that I took pictures of:

Tasmanian devil

Koala

Sleepy kangaroos

Wombat

After visiting Currumbin wildlife sanctuary, we got some ice cream.  I ate lychee frozen yogurt and hokey pokey ice cream for the first time.  Hokey pokey ice cream tastes like creamy caramel and vanilla with some crunchy pieces.  It was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had.  The taste of lychee is really difficult to describe.

Later, we went on a night hike with Mr. and Mrs. Whyte as our guides.  Jokingly, my dad modified the rhyme that teaches the differences between poisonous versus harmless snakes: “Red and black, get the heck back. Red and yellow, kill a fellow. All other snakes, you’ll die anyway.”  Basically, everything here is either poisonous, or it makes you high.  Seriously, there is this toad that if a dog licks it, the dog will get high.  This could just be Mr. Whyte pulling our leg though.  We learned to keep an eye out for Mr. Whyte.  He liked to work us up with scary stories about dangerous critters and then hide to scare us.  The first time he did this I thought there was a poisonous snake in the bushes when it shook.  I jumped back and was ready to run.  We didn’t see any snakes, but we did see big toads and spiders.  I kept my eyes on the spiders the whole time.