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