Things I Did When I Gave Up Looking for Frodo, Part Three

And now, for the final installment of my 2006 New Zealand trip review. When I last left off, my husband and I were in the northern part of the South Island. We realized that if we stuck to our original itinerary, we would completely miss the Franz Josef Glacier, so we scrambled to cancel our hotel reservations in Christchurch on the east side of the island and instead headed west. Neither of us had ever been on a glacier before, so we had no idea what to expect. I was excited at first because it looked like we were about to head off into Mordor. Unfortunately I did not have the One Ring with me to destroy.




The snow that you can see in between the mountains is the start of the glacier. It may look like it was fairly close, but it actually took an hour to reach!



To prepare to finally climb up on the ice, we all put on talons/clamps over our boots so as to not slip. The guides ran ahead to make sure the "stairs" were ready for us... they basically took their ice picks and hacked away at the trail before the rest of us followed to ensure that the path wasn't too icy. As you can see below, it was an almost completely vertical climb up (climbers are the line going up in the middle). On the steps there was a rope we could hold on to, but once we reached the top we were on our own. Anywhere I travel outside of the U.S., I always marvel at the fact that you can do things where you could easily be injured or killed, and you don't have to sign any release forms. It just goes to show how sue-happy this country is. Whereas in New Zealand, they're like: If you're dumb enough to step over the edge of a cliff, it's your own fault. I can't say I disagree.


Once up on the glacier, it was pretty amazing. The bad part was that it started pouring rain and never let up. While all of the other gear the hiking company provided was awesome, for some unknown reason the gloves they gave us were seriously that crappy kind that you can buy at Walgreens for $2. You know what I'm talking about--they're made of thin cotton and should truthfully never be used except perhaps under REAL gloves. They got soaked within the first ten minutes and actually made our hands feel much worse, so we were up there running around on the snow and ice in the freezing, pouring rain with bare hands. That part was NOT fun. If you ever go, take my advice and bring your own waterproof gloves--you'll thank me later.

While I thought that walking around on a glacier was going to be just that, it was actually quite physically demanding. You cannot be even the slightest bit overweight and do this hike, or else you will literally not fit through some of the passages. Below is a trail they carved out through a wall of ice, but at another point we were crawling through a frozen tunnel on our bellies, no lie. Not something for the claustrophobic!


After we had survived Franz Josef, we drove on to the last stop on our trip, Queenstown. We stayed at an awesome apartment right on Lake Wakatipu, which looked out at The Remarkables and an area called Deer Park Heights, at which many of the Rohan scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed (covered in this post). What happened when we weren't posing for pictures at the various movie scene sites was that I got attacked by goats.



What can I say? I'm like Snow White, animals just flock to me. Or perhaps it was that I had a huge bucket of food (you can buy them throughout the farm area).

The finale of our trip was a cruise through Milford Sound. When people talk about how beautiful New Zealand is, this area is one of the best examples of its awe-inspiring scenery. It was the perfect way to end the vacation.


I hope you've all enjoyed my walk down memory lane. I promise I won't take a full year to post pictures of my next trip...

- e

Things I Did When I Gave Up Looking for Frodo, Part Two

Time for the next round of pictures from my 2006 trip to New Zealand.

When we last left off, my husband and I were at the Agrodome, where my husband completed his Zorbing quest. After he dried off, we made our way to Skyline Skyrides where we took a gondola to the top of Mount Ngongotaha--quite a spectacular view of Lake Rotorua. But the best part was when we took ski lifts to an even higher point on the mountain and then rode a luge on one of three awesome tracks back down. The New Zealand luge is not even remotely like the luge that they use in the Olympics. It's just a crappy piece of plastic on four wheels with a steering wheel that you pull back to drag some other piece of plastic on the ground in order to slow down. Kind of tough on your hands and wrists, but still incredibly fun--it was actually the high point of the entire vacation. Just imagine being on the top of a mountain looking out at a beautiful lake as you ride this little go-cart thingy down while taking in the extraordinary view. We went up and down and up and down countless times, and even went to another luge track in Queenstown at the end of our trip, but the one in Rotorua was much better. If you ever get the chance to do this, I highly, highly recommend it!


On the way back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner, we took a walk through one of Rotorua's many thermal parks. The town is famous (infamous?) for its sulfuric stench, resulting from geothermal activity in the area. There are bubbling pools, geysers, and clouds of fog all over the place. Here I am realizing that it is not fun to be enveloped in a cloud of stink!


Finally it came time to relax for a bit and we took in a traditional Maori tribe dinner and demonstration. If you've ever seen Whale Rider, then you are familiar with the Maori. They used intimidation tactics like widening their eyes and sticking our their tongues to ward off enemies invading their space when others started settling in New Zealand in the early 1800s.


The next few days were spent driving down to Wellington and taking a ferry over to the South Island. Soon we were in the Abel Tasman National Park region. We stayed several nights in the most awesome cabins in the world at The Resurgence. If you ever go to New Zealand and are in this area, this is where you must stay--check out their web site to see the views. The lodge hosts, who live in the main, huge cabin, made arrangements for us to go on a half-day kayaking trip in the national park. I am the worst kayaker in the world, and my husband and I had already had a bad experience kayaking in Thailand (let's just say that my arms give out after about, oh, ten minutes), so we knew what we were getting into. Except for one tumultuous area of mini-rapids that scared the crap out of me (but that most people found "fun"), it was a fairly smooth adventure (and yes, my husband still did most of the work, but I got blisters that proved I was doing something!). We lucked out - the only completely sunny day on the trip was this one. There were seals and rare birds all over the place, so that was cool, too.


Our trip recap will be concluded in Part Three...

- e

Things I Did When I Gave Up Looking for Frodo, Part One

It's a slow news day, folks. Therefore, I thought I would grant the request for more pictures from my New Zealand trip last year. However, there's still no way I'm uploading any of the scene re-enactments! Instead, I have included below some of the highlights of the vacation that are not Lord of the Rings related, just to prove that I am not 100% insane.

Let's begin in Auckland, where we stayed for just one day. We went to the beach where The Piano was filmed, but it wasn't that exciting (and I hadn't even seen the movie). What was pretty cool was the Minus 5 bar.


It's kind of touristy, but worth visiting nonetheless. It's a bar made completely out of ice - as in, pretty much everything is ice - the bar itself, the glasses, the seats, the walls, the floor, you name it. Their big shtick is that they give you a parka and gloves and you can only stay in there for 30 minutes, or else you essentially freeze. We had to go in the early evening because we were about to keel over from jet lag, so there wasn't anybody else there. But that gave us time to look at all the crazy ice sculptures around the room, and talk to the bartender quite a bit. He made us a blue drink that looked like anti-freeze but it was the best drink I had on the trip, I tell you. If you are interested in going to a Minus 5 bar, there are 3 in Australia, 2 in New Zealand and one in the Caribbean. I would recommend it, just because it's a pretty unique experience. If you have time, you should also read their FAQ page, because it includes what I found to be some fascinating information about how they run the place and make all the ice. But I also see that it says you aren't allowed to take pictures in there. Oops!

After leaving Auckland, we made our way inland to Rotorua, where we went to the Agrodome. This is the entrance to the park, so I had to get out of the car and give props to the Lord of the Rams.


I have mentioned the Agrodome before in my review of Merino Lanolin Skin Creme, as that's where I bought it. If you would like to be entertained, I highly, highly suggest you check out the Agrodome's site. Who would think to combine extreme sports with farm shows? Only crazy kiwis, that's who.


There I am, second from the right, taking part in the sheep show. Do you see the swarms of sheep behind me? They were really well trained! Anyway, I was a little worried about what they were going to make us do up there, but shortly after this picture was taken, a whole bunch of baby lambs came out on the stage and I got to feed one, so it was all good. If this whole writing thing doesn't work out for me, I'm totally going to go back and work at the Agrodome.

My husband put up with the sheep show and the organic farm tour, which was great - we got to taste kiwi wine (too sweet for my taste) and get up close with tons of llamas, emus, ostriches and alpacas. I was in heaven. But then I had to put up with him achieving one of his main goals of the trip - to go Zorbing. If you look closely you will see two huge inflatable spheres on either side of a station at the top of the hill. My husband was in the one on the left.



There is another sphere inside of these contraptions, and they put a bit of water in it, and then crazy people like my husband get inside (they give the crazy people wet suits), it gets sealed shut, and they push the Zorb down the hill. You are supposed to try to stand up and run while the Zorb is careening down the hill (think of a hamster wheel), but most people slip and fall and get sloshed all around until someone stops the ball at the base of the hill. My husband got about 8 steps under his belt and then fell. He said it was extremely fun, but a little freaky because there is no way out. Not for claustrophobics! No, I did not take part. This was early on in the trip and I didn't want to get sent to the hospital before finding Frodo and Gandalf.


The guy above eventually decided to let my husband out. It looks really gross, like the ball is giving birth to a human or something.

I have a few other pictures that I have deemed "safe for the blogosphere," but I think this post is long enough for now. The next time I have nothing else to write about, which may be very soon because it seems like all the celebrities have decided to let Britney Spears take the limelight and I refuse to write anything else about her for a while, I will post Part Two... and then Part Three.

Have a good weekend,
- e

A Look Back on Middle-Earth

The possibility of The Hobbit being made into a movie got me thinking about my LOTR-inspired trip to Middle-Earth (New Zealand) last year. I realized I never shared any pictures from this trip with you, my dear readers. Now you can witness how truly crazy your blogger friend e is, as below is proof that I sought out movie locations all over the country during the two weeks I was there. I kept the most embarrassing photos (scene reenactments with other nerdy travelers) to myself though - ha!

The small town of Matamata is the home of the set of Hobbiton. Before the movies, the only people coming through Matamata were travelers "seeking out a bathroom," according to a documentary we watched while flying over on Air New Zealand. Now Matamata hosts a thriving visitor's center, from which Hobbiton tours depart.


When Peter Jackson originally negotiated with the government of New Zealand in order to film the trilogy there, it was decided that all sets must be returned to their natural states. When they were in the process of tearing down Hobbiton, a huge storm kicked up that lasted several weeks. During that time, so many tourists came by the farm on which the Hobbiton set was built, that the owners and Peter Jackson convinced the government to make an exception. So all of the hobbit-holes remain, though the decoration from them has been stripped. There was a rumor even when I was there last year that they could perhaps re-use this area for The Hobbit movie (if it ever gets made). Inside of Bag End (Bilbo and Frodo's home), where I am above, is just a small room. About 15 or so people could fit inside of it. They needed the room to be deep enough so that they could shoot the sequence where Gandalf shows up at the door - which is shot from the inside of the house. The Hobbiton set is the only remaining set from all three films. I personally would pay good money if they opened up a bed and breakfast there!


This is what you see when you are looking out from Bag End - that is the big tree that was prominent in Bilbo's birthday scene at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. Isn't it gorgeous? All of that land, as far as the eye can see in all directions, is owned by the same family of farmers. Good investment, peeps!


If you look really closely, you can see little ol' e hugging Bilbo's birthday tree. The guide (who believed hobbits were real, no lie - he ROCKED!) claimed that this was the most famous tree in the world. I love this damn tree, so I agree with him.


Now we've left Matamata and are just outside of Wellington, where we were led by a guy whose brother was one of the top set directors for the trilogy, so he had a ton of cool inside scoop for us. Rivendell, home of the elves, was built in this small, not-too-well-known park. They had so many requests for where exact locations of the movie were that they had to put up little signs like the one above to point people to the right spots. All of my other pictures from here are too embarrassing, sorry!


A short walking distance from downtown Wellington lies the forest in which one of the most famous scenes in the trilogy was filmed. This is exactly the spot where Frodo stood and sensed something was wrong, warning Sam, Merry and Pippin to "Get off the road!!!" That forest was eerie, I tell you!


Now we've made our way down to the south island of New Zealand. A small farm on the outskirts of Queenstown, called Deer Park Heights, is where all of the Rohan scenes were filmed. This farm has also had to make a few changes because of the onslaught of LOTR tourists - they have a one-page printout with a map explaining which scene was shot where, and at the actual locations, as you can see above, there are little posts indicating what number on the map the spot corresponds to. Above is my husband yelling "RIDERRRRS OF THE ROOOHAN!!!" at the top of his lungs, which was one of our favorite things to do whilst in the park.


This picture actually has a funny story behind it. This is the spot where Aragorn fell off the cliff in The Two Towers. Quite a controversial scene since that never actually happened in the books - but a memorable scene nonetheless. Whilst the good news for me was that there is actually not a cliff but rather just a three foot drop in that spot, the bad news is that you have to go down a very steep hill and then up another hill to get to it. When we got there, I saw a few other tourists pull up and I wanted to get to the spot first to get a picture. So I started running down the hill. Unfortunately it had just randomly started hailing, as you can see in the shot above, and the grass was very slick. So I took a huge fall and twisted my ankle - I honestly thought I might have broken it. But I still made it to the spot before the other geeks arrived - though you can tell I'm not feeling too comfortable. Victory at all costs.


This is the "cliff" from afar.


And lastly, here is the area where Arwen raced on horse-back to escape the Black Riders, carrying an ailing Frodo with her. "The Remarkables" are the mountains in the background, which were used as a backdrop often throughout the trilogy.

Ahhhh, the memories. If only I had seen just ONE elf while I was there. The New Zealand tourism board really needs to do something about that. A lot more nerds would be making the trip to Kiwi-land if they could be guaranteed an elf sighting...

- e