New Zealand Lord of the Rings Trip!

Well, I have officially been to the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen (yes, this beats Kiama). And that place is New Zealand! Not really one specific place, but all of it completely. Because there are so few people that live in New Zealand, as soon as you leave the cities you can really understand why Peter Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings there – it seemed to actually be Middle Earth.

We flew into Auckland, one of the major cities on the North Island. NZ doesn’t have states – instead it has regions, but apparently that doesn’t really make a difference until it comes to rugby. At a population of 1.4 million, Auckland has one third of the entire population of New Zealand. We didn’t spend any time in Auckland itself really – it was just where we picked up – a 6.8 meter long, 3.1 meter high, 3.2 meter wide – campervan that we affectionately named Gwahir, after the eagle that saves and carries Gandalf a few times in the novels/movies. We name our GPS system Galadriel, because she does the voiceovers at the beginning of the film and helps guide the fellowship along.

Ok, so, the Lord of the Rings sites that we visited: Weathertop (Port Waikato), Hobbiton (Mata Mata), Mt. Doom (Mt. Ruapehu), Mushrooms/Get Off the Road Scene, Dun Harrow, Isengard, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Unconscious Viggo (all of these were around Wellington, we visited them on our 8 hour day tour), and the Misty Mountains (Southern Alps). We also drove past the quarry where Helm’s Deep was built, visited the jewellery shop where The Ring was made and visited Weta Cave, a mini museum belonging to Weta, which is the special effects company Peter Jackson helped found. While some people out there might not find this fascinating, I loved thinking that I stood in the same place where 10 years or so before some awesomeness was being filmed. In a decent amount of places, I and my friend Brett acted out some of the scenes. On Mt. Doom, we have a mini slideshow of what happened in the film at the beginning of the Fellowship.

In addition to Lord of the Rings sites, we also saw some other really cool places. Lake Taupo, where I sky dived (more on that later!), was an absolutely amazing place. We had no idea it was such a cute little place with so much to do, or else we would have budgeted more time in there. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in the southern hemisphere and had some magnificent views – it was surrounded by mountains and forests and nature at its absolute finest. We spent a few days in Wellington, but one day was specifically for being in the city. We checked out Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand, did some shopping, and I took a tour of Parliament and walked around the Harbour for a bit. I loved Lake Tekapo too, where in the distance you can see where the Southern Alps. The lake is fed by glaciers and was really cold, but that didn’t stop me from walking around a bit in it. Only up to the middle of my calves though because it felt like in under a minute your feet would go numb.

So what exciting things did I do? Well, besides seeing all of the Lord of the Rings places, I also watched all three extended movie versions in New Zealand! I find there to be something poetic about it. Onto the real exciting things. I took a ferry ride from the North Island to the South Island and driving on and off the ferry was fun. Because Hobbiton was filmed on a sheep farm, we got a sheep shearing demonstration and I bottle fed a sheep. I ate at the Green Parrot, a restaurant in Wellington where Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) used to eat at all the time back during filming. And of course, I went sky diving!

To start off with, I would absolutely sky dive again. We had perfect weather that day; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We decided to sky dive from 15000 feet so we pile into the plane and start flying up. Aside from the four of us, our four tandem divers, and four cameramen, there were two other divers going from 12000 feet and their two tandem divers. So 16 people in a tiny little plane. I think the craziest part of the entire experience was right before we dove out of the plane. We’re strapped to our dive masters (mine was a German named Albert) and they just pop your legs out of the plane so you’re dangling on the edge of the plane with absolutely nothing underneath you for miles except air. Then, we just slid off the edge of the plane and fell. I think that for the first few seconds, you don’t even realize that you’re plummeting towards the Earth – there definitely isn’t a sensation of falling, except for the wind blowing past your face. As we’re falling, the wind was blowing in my face so hard that my cheeks were flapping hardcore and spit was flying out of my mouth (probably into Albert’s – sorry dude!). Free-falling is definitely one of the wildest feelings ever – there’s absolutely nothing around you except the air. Once the parachute was pulled, we just drifted down and that’s when I really got the chance to look around me at the scenery. I was on top of the world! Everything looked so small. Albert and I ran in for the landing ( I don’t know why he had us run in, everyone else got to slide in) and it was over! One minute or so of free fall and I guess two or three minutes of just drifting. Regardless, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! I have 100 pictures that were taken of me during the free fall (some are very very funny) and a DVD of everyone jumping out. Find me when I get home and I’ll show you!

There were some things that I’m a little sad I didn’t get the chance to do. At Lake Tekapo, we were going to go on a horseback ride along a trail that took us around the lake, but we didn’t get a chance to. Two of my friends also bungee jumped, and while I know that it’s probably best for me to not risk hurting myself (my knees, I’m not worried about anything else), I still want to give it a try. I think I would also like to kayak along some of the rivers in NZ – it’s the beginning of autumn over there right now, so the foliage was beautiful and I think that a kayak trip down a river would give me a spectacular view of all the trees. We visited Mt.Cook, which is the highest peak in Australasia, but only got a glimpse of it and I think that hiking up it would be a lot of fun, albeit very cold. There are a lot of places in the South Island that we didn’t visit – there is a glacier which I wish we would have been able to fit in, Queenstown which has a lot of adrenaline filled things to do, and Dunedin where apparently is just a happenin’ place. There are also a few places in Wellington that I wish I would have been able to get a look at – the National Archives, a bunch of exhibits in Te Papa, and I would have liked to see a session of Parliament. I’ve decided that in order to do all these things, I’m just going to have to return to New Zealand one day.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to upload, I've selected for your viewing pleasure some New Zealand pictures! Follow this link and it'll take you to Google's picture website: http://picasaweb.google.com/hohumdedum02/AbroadDownUnder?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6g_OWo5ZakXw&feat=directlink

Halfway done with the semester?!

Apparently I'm halfway done with this semester. Unbelievable, completely. Next week is our mid-session/Easter break (not spring break, because it's fall down here, although all us Americans still refer to it as spring break) and then there are seven more weeks left and then finals! Although, we get a study week for finals and finals extend for a good two weeks I think. But after that comes June 30 and then I'll be heading home. It's strange to think about - it definitely doesn't feel like I've had six weeks of classes already, but I suppose that's because my schedule is just that awesome.

I'll go ahead and comment on my classes - my parents will be happy to know that I am doing all my work and it at least feels like I'm doing well. In my history class, I've had two assignments that were returned to me - I got A's on both of them. I've given two presentations so far (I mentioned the one for my history class I think - the other one was a presentation on the Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) harvest of the Sooty Shearwater (a bird that breeds in New Zealand). I didn't have any midterms this semester but when I return from break I'm going to have to start working on three papers - they're not due for a while (mid to end of May) but it's a lot easier to get big assignments done here because I don't spend so much time on doing homework. The reading load is just way less than back home. I think it's also because of the subjects I'm taking here - as an Arts student (basically, not an engineer like everyone else here) I don't have a lot of contact hours, so it leaves more time for me to just do things. For one of my assignments, I did legitimate research - it's actually probably the best piece of work I've written in a while.

Moving on, I haven't really been doing anything very exciting. All last week it was rainy and overcast so we couldn't go to the beach, not to mention it's getting colder and that is really tragic too. Of course, by colder I mean it's in the high 60s low 70s, but it's all relative. My dorm had a Harbour Cruise on Sydney's Darling Harbour, so that was really awesome. On the walk from the train station to where the boat was picking us up, we saw 10 brides. 10! It was neat though because we got to scrutinize all the dresses and decide which one we would or wouldn't wear. I didn't bring my camera that night, but luckily (I suppose) I left my purse on the boat that night and had to go back to Sydney to retrieve it so I took pictures of the harbour when I went back. I plan on spending a weekend in Sydney anyway though, so of course there will be more pictures. I also plan on spending a weekend/making trips to Canberra (the capital!), the outback, the Blue Mountains, and Melbourne (this trip is actually already planned - we're seeing cirque du soleil!). And of course, NEW ZEALAND!!!

I'm leaving tonight to go to sleep in the airport because our flight leaves at 7am tomorrow. If you aren't aware, Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, so we're going and seeing a bunch of filming sites. It's going to be so epic!! We're traveling around the North Island and the South Island and visiting a few major cities in the process. We will be spending the most time in Wellington - We're doing an 8 hour tour of places where LotR was filmed. And yours truly will be driving a 6.5 meter long motor home! On the wrong side of the road! And it's a manual! To say the least, this is going to be quite an amazing adventure. I'll copy in our itinerary, so you'll be able to look at it and think: "Lisa is in the Misty Mountains - Dear Lord I wish I was her!" (btw, I'm not bungee jumping)I plan on taking lots and lots and lots of pictures - most likely, we'll be taking them doing LotR poses too, because that's the kind of people I'm going with. :D

Well, that's about it from me for now. I won't be posting next week as I won't have internet access, but I'm taking a notebook with me to NZ so I'll make sure that I take notes about the trip and put them up back on here.

Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!

Friday April 10
Arrive and get ready to head off around 4 pm
Go to Port Waikato
Drive to Mata Mata
Saturday April 11
Hobbiton Tour (9:50 am)
Drive to Lake Talpo
Sunday April 12
Sky Diving @ Talpo 10:30 am
Taurangi for the day
Monday April 13
Taihapi – bungee jumping
Drive to Wellington/Upper Hutt
Tuesday April 14
Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt exploration
Wednesday April 15
LotR day tour
Thursday April 16
Wellington for the day
Friday April 17
830 am ferry to Picton
Mt. Sunday
Nelson
Saturday April 18
Nelson
Drive to Christchurch
Sunday April 19
Jenn leaves – noon at Christchurch airport
Mt. Cook
Monday April 20
Mt. Cook/ Misty Mountains
Tuesday April 21
Arrive at airport at noon