One night, Melissa and I put our heads together - those logical, math-oriented sides of our brains - to plan out all the great places we want to visit this year. There are so many great cities and sites within Australia, but there are also so many cool and interesting countries within reach. With limited vacation time, we needed to prioritize. We've talked about Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Tasmania in Australia as well as Auckland, Bali, and Hong Kong. One city we did not discuss - Wellington.
Melissa had a need to be in Wellington this week for work. With several of my team members attending a week-long training in Chicago, I could get away without much trouble. But I had to ask, "What’s there to do in Wellington?" I'm not that familiar with New Zealand and before arriving in Melbourne, I would have had trouble naming a Kiwi city other than Auckland. [Oh yes, New Zealanders fully embrace their mascot the kiwi.] After some initial research, I learned that Wellington is the country's capital. That's exciting, I thought. I also quickly learned that Wellington is known for something pretty cool - The Lord of the Rings.
Peter Jackson's movie creation was filmed all over New Zealand. Lucky for us, many of the scenes for "Middle Earth" were taken from right around Wellington. Several tourism companies offer day tours that cover many of the famous sites. We decided to save our money, grab a map, and try to find them ourselves. It was quite a trip - too much to fully get into here. We were successful in our search and discovered some great locations including Helms Deep [no pictures, actually just a rock quarry]; the Great River Anduin; Isengard and the Orc trees [notice Melissa mesmerized by the tree], Rivendell [below the rope bridge]; and outer protective walls of Mordor [unlike in the movie, these rocky walls are actually white].
We continued beyond our final destination and followed the coastal road as far as it would take us, and then continued on a loose gravel road to check out a huge seal colony. Our little Ford Focus was a great trooper during the off-roading and the sites in and around the seals were breathtaking. Honestly, most of the drive was breathtaking. Our camera could not do the scenery justice. We've added a new slide show to the left to share the pictures from the trip.
Needless to say, I now know much more about the little city of Wellington and cannot wait for Melissa's next trip to New Zealand so I can tag along. We may need to brush up on the trilogy before we head back ;-)
Melissa had a need to be in Wellington this week for work. With several of my team members attending a week-long training in Chicago, I could get away without much trouble. But I had to ask, "What’s there to do in Wellington?" I'm not that familiar with New Zealand and before arriving in Melbourne, I would have had trouble naming a Kiwi city other than Auckland. [Oh yes, New Zealanders fully embrace their mascot the kiwi.] After some initial research, I learned that Wellington is the country's capital. That's exciting, I thought. I also quickly learned that Wellington is known for something pretty cool - The Lord of the Rings.
Peter Jackson's movie creation was filmed all over New Zealand. Lucky for us, many of the scenes for "Middle Earth" were taken from right around Wellington. Several tourism companies offer day tours that cover many of the famous sites. We decided to save our money, grab a map, and try to find them ourselves. It was quite a trip - too much to fully get into here. We were successful in our search and discovered some great locations including Helms Deep [no pictures, actually just a rock quarry]; the Great River Anduin; Isengard and the Orc trees [notice Melissa mesmerized by the tree], Rivendell [below the rope bridge]; and outer protective walls of Mordor [unlike in the movie, these rocky walls are actually white].
We continued beyond our final destination and followed the coastal road as far as it would take us, and then continued on a loose gravel road to check out a huge seal colony. Our little Ford Focus was a great trooper during the off-roading and the sites in and around the seals were breathtaking. Honestly, most of the drive was breathtaking. Our camera could not do the scenery justice. We've added a new slide show to the left to share the pictures from the trip.
Needless to say, I now know much more about the little city of Wellington and cannot wait for Melissa's next trip to New Zealand so I can tag along. We may need to brush up on the trilogy before we head back ;-)
2 comments:
Bilbo...Frodo...Hobbits. John hooked me on the trilogy 35+ years ago. The boys...even Debbie read the books. As excellent as the movie was...Middle Earth is still best left within the individual imagination (although I'd love to visit NZ.) Reading is "magic." Keep writing. Love ya...Bing
In my day, we watched the FILMSTRIP CARTOON version of LOTR & we liked it! Well, I didn't but the boys were obsessed. Jon frequently turns on LOTR when he wants me to fall asleep!
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