LOTR Rivendell

Our journey to return the Roachmobile of power to where it was once acquired forces us to head north. However hearing we were in close proximity of fair Rivendell, we decided to go for a small detour and make a rest in the halls of Elrond.

Rivendell is located close to the city of Upper Hut near Wellington in a park called Kaitoke Regional Park. You can reach Kaitoke by taking SH-2 out of Wellington and look out for a road called Waterworks Road. It will take you to the Pakuratahi - Hutt Forks car park. There are signs indicating the position of the former Rivendell movie set.

We followed the signs saying "<-- Rivendell". But Io! Rivendell must have fallen to the wrath of Sauron. Only grass land and forest remain. Here the fair Rivendell once stood in all it's glory and splendour. Now all that remains is a little information tablet telling its tale.

Like Edoras the Rivendell movie set had to be completely disassembled after the crew finished filming. A large area of this park was used to construct a real-live resemblance of Rivendell making it a pity, that now all you can do is walk the paths through the area and wonder what it must have been like...

 

Roachmobile Struggling

Saying farewell to our friends, we headed back to the motorway to get out of the greater Wellington area. However we did not get far. Right after hitting the road, there was a steep mountain to climb up. Usually no problem for dear old Roachmobile, but this time it was struggling awfully at 10 km/h. Also the temperature indicator went up and something didn't feel right.

Damn. Okay first we thought about turning back, but our friends already did so much for us. So we continued and asked the first passer-by for directions to the nearest garage. There was one in this township, and we reached it minutes later. However they were so busy with "Christmas Repairs" that they could not take a look at Roachmobile before Thursday. For some reason every Kiwi wants her or his car to be in perfect shape for Christmas. Anyway, we described our desperate situation and he told us to try another garage in a nearby town only three more exits on the motorway. They would be bigger and better armed with mechanics and might be able to help us out right away.

So off to the motorway. It was kinda embarrassing. We did not make much more than 40-50 km/h with Roachmobile's condition. The other cars on the motorway didn't like that very much, but had to live with it. Luckily the three exits weren't that far apart from each other and we reached the second garage in under one hour.

We waited at the counter and told our story and hoped for their help. They said they have a mechanic who was willing to look at it. We were very grateful, handed over our keys and went to the supermarket and the public library in the meantime. Only three hours later they gave us a ring on our mobile and told us it's done. We were so relieved. It could have easily been the end of our companion.

Upon returning we gave the mechanic a box of muffins bought at the supermarket earlier. He explained that one of our four cylinders was broken. Usually the standard procedure would have been to order a set of four new ones from Toyota. However that would have easily taken a week. So he took the cylinder of another similar car and tried his best to fix it into our car. He said he used a lot of duct tape, but it should last for while.

Whew. That was close.
Roachmobile got away with a band-aid patch, and we could continue our journey.
When we were waiting for Roachmobile to leave his doctor, we found that we were actually in close proximity to Rivendell. So before finally leaving greater Wellington, we had to do one more side trip.

scallywag

Visiting Friends

Before moving out of Wellington, there was one more thing we hoped to accomplish. While working in Gisborne we made a friend, who was now living in Wellington since a couple of days. He and his family moved only very recently, while we were touring the South Island.

I tried to get in touch with him and managed to do so, just barely before we intended to give up and move on. We met in the centre of the city and took him on board, as he just finished work and was using public transport. We brought him to his home at the outskirts of Wellington, where we were warmly and openly welcomed by his wife, her sister and his three daughters.

They told us, they actually only moved in a couple of days ago and were still new to the house and environment as we were. The wife and her sister prepared a wonderful dinner for us and all invited us to stay over the night, offering to us one of the daughter's rooms. We gladly accepted and spent a wonderful evening at their home.

The whole family is from Mauritius and moved to New Zealand to get a better education for the daughters. However they were all missing Mauritius very much and are thinking about moving back when the daughters will have finished their school education.

Mauritian Flag

Singaporean Flag

They shared wonderful stories about Mauritius with us, which reminded us of a Singapore in Africa. Actually the two countries are not so unlike. Both are small island states with tropical climate. Both are multicultural states where you can hear many different languages every day. Both were former colonies of the United Kingdom and still show traces of that heritage in architecture, culture and organisation. In both countries the government seems to care well for its citizens offering public services from transportation to swimming pools to a very affordable price. Despite all this similarity Mauritius seems a less busy and more easy going place than Singapore. And you don't have these ridiculous fines.
All that said, bilge rat and I definitely want to go there some day.

After dinner we played with their cheerful and friendly daughters, made friends with the whole family and watched Rocky, their favourite movie together. The next day they again prepared an amazing lunch for us and packed the remainder of yesterday and today in a bag for us, so we would have some food supply for our ongoing journey.

We were welcomed so lovely and felt so at home with them that saying farewell was not easy. We wished to be able to stay longer or repay them for their kindness, but we had to move on. So farewell we said, back in our Roach Mobile we climbed and due north sails we set.

scallywag

Wellington 2

And thus we set foot once more to the harbour of Wellington. It has been a long time, till we departed from right this spot to the shores of the South Island. We looked forward to spend another day in Wellington, which was still very fond in our memories.

This time we spent most of the day shopping, as we were still looking for presents for our families. While shopping we came across a fair trade store called "trade aid":

This seems to be a fair trade chain or organisation, as we encountered similar stores beginning with Gisborne all over New Zealand. It was nice to see familiar products we knew from our shared time at the fair trade store in Erlangen.

We also stumbled across a street artist writing on the tar with chalk. It seems he criticized both gender inequality as that parts of New Zealand still formally subordinate to the Queen of Britain.

Finally we also saw some funny advertisement from a pest-control company:

We spent the night again at Oriental Parade, but not before restocking our supplies at the local organic supermarket for a yummy dinner.

Crossing the Cook Straights

After a couple of wonderful days in Wellington, we decided it was finally time to relocate from the North Island to the South Island. All the while people kept telling us the South Island would be more beautiful, so there was no turning back now.

We checked the possibilities to cross the Cook Straights, the name of the sea between the two main New Zealand islands. The easiest way is to go by plane to Christchurch. However we wanted to take our roachmobile, so we had to stick to the alternative: the Cook Straight Ferry.

There currently are two companies operating ferries between Wellington (North Island) and Picton (South Island): The Interislander and Bluebridge. The first one departs some kilometres outside of Wellington right next to the motorway. It's a bit tricky, because if you miss the exit to the ferry, you have to continue on the motorway around 20 km to the next township before you can turn around and try again. The second one Bluebridge departs right from the centre of Wellington next to the railway station.

We decided for the second one. We made our booking two days in advance, but in the main tourist season (December till March) you are well advised to make the booking around one week ahead.

So we drove our roachmobile to the ferry terminal, waited in a line of cars and drove our van right into the belly of the giant ferry. There we were pointed to a parking space, advised to pull the handbrake tight and lock the car. Then we left the belly for the upper decks and could enjoy the rest of the trip. After eating a little lunch, we went over to explore our ship:
The ferry had a lounge with a movie being played, a little restaurant and a cafe/bar. There were plenty of couches and, on the highest deck, some rooms with beds which seemed available to use when empty. But the coolest thing, of course, was the observation deck where you could enjoy the view from the ferry and the sea breeze.

The most beautiful sight on the short journey (3-4h) were the Cook Straights. Before laying anchor in Picton the ferry had to cross several kilometres of amazing inland fjords (also called sounds). In Wellington we bought a little spyglass, which we made ample use here taking a closer look of the mainly uninhabited sounds. So in the end it was a really pleasant and interesting journey and a nice change to flying.

*harr* and of course your little pirates Bilge Rat and Scallywag were clad to be on board of a ship again sailing the seven seas to plunder *harr*
Avast ye landlubbers!

LOTR Weta Cave

LOTR Weta Cave

Weta is the company that made all the costumes and special effects in the Lord of the Rings movies. They did all of the digital work like Gollum or placing the Isengard on top of a real New Zealand location [LINK], but also all the crafting of armour, cloths and weapons.

Weta has grown from a small group of motivated and talented craftsmen, that helped Peter Jackson with his first movies (e.g. Braindead and Bad Taste) over a company helping TV-series with armour and weapons (e.g. Xena) to an internationally renowned design studio which took on movies like Narnia, Avatar or District Nine.

While the actual studio is closed for public, they working on new unreleased movies after all, they have created a little display area called Weta Cave.
In the Weta Cave you can samples of their craftsmanship, miniatures from movies they worked on (the miniatures are created from the same people working on the movie) and watch a little 30 min DVD about Weta's history and work.

weapons from District Nine

Dr. Grordbort

more cool weapons, these are from Dr. Grordbort

from Halo

One guy working for Weta was asked in the movie how he likes to work for Weta and he answered: "If I wouldn't work here, I'd do the same stuff at home anyway". It's seems to be a really cool place. You got all the time and means to put a lot of love and effort in the things you create, you can fully live out your creative energies. 

Bilge Rat and I thought that we also would love a job like this.

bilge rat was not scared of this Uruk-hai

the original armour of Sauron

LOTR Escape from the Nazgul

Escaping the busy street of Wellington lead us to a nearby mountain path. We headed for Mt Victoria, only a short walk away from Oriental Parade. But just when we thought to have escaped the rumbles of the city we heard the clapping of horse hoofs. Fear overcame us. We were being followed by someone. We thought to better run and hide. Luckily just then we came across a sign: Hobbit's Hideaway.

Then everything became clear to us. We were in the Outer Shire were the hobbits ran away from the Nazgul. The Nazgul must still be here searching for them. So we thought we'd better run.

Onwards we sped...

... looking for cover. Finally we found a big network of root, big enough to provide cover for us.

Later we realized we hid at the exact same spot as the hobbits on their flight.
When the sound of hoofs ceased we proceeded, however we avoided the main path.

Being still anxious of the Nazgul we didn't heed attention to where we were going and before we realized it we tumbled down a little cliff and ended up on a meadow where mushrooms grew. It actually was a feast of mushrooms and the footprints of other hobbits could still be seen here.

Thus we filled our pockets with mushrooms and headed back into the city. Enough excitement for one day.

Wellington

Wellington

After crossing the Alps in Tongariru National Park, we headed straight south for Wellington. We didn't make it in one day and made one more stop close to Palmerston North, but the next day we arrived in New Zealand's capital.

Although Wellington is much smaller than Auckland and has about one million less inhabitants, it is still New Zealand's capital. In earlier days Auckland actually was the capital, but it was moved to Wellington, because of its key position between the North and South Island. It also serves as connection hub between the two islands, with several ferries starting from Wellington heading for Picton on the South Island.

However in its size lies its beauty. While we didn't like the concrete jungle of Auckland, Wellington completely caught us with its charm. The houses are small and colourful and from afar look like they have been sprinkled on the surrounding hills like decorative flakes.

 The central city is all in walkable distance and contains countless unique little cafés and restaurants.

Anywhere in the city you can find amazing street art and the city seems to be full of imaginative artists.

 

official art is none less impressive: this wooden whale is a bridge

Wellywood

The film industry left a big mark on the city, now giving it the unavoidable label "Wellywood". Lord of the Rings premièred in an old and impressive cinema in Wellington and the famous Weta Works are just a 10 minute car ride away in the nearby township of Miramar. But apart from the movie industry, theatre, musicals and operas are also high in fashion with posters of new shows advertising them everywhere in the city.

Apollo 13: Mission Control

Bilge Rat and I caught by the flair decided to go for the theatre. We watched "Apollo 13: Mission Control" a really cool piece that originated in Wellington but just came back from a world wide tour. The innovation about it is that it is interactive, it actually involved and includes the audience into the actual show making them the actors. Instead of seats the audience is seated in Houston Mission Control behind monitors, telephones and other operation equipment. Every visitor get its own little individual role. One acted as Russian-English translator, others as medical supervisors for the astronauts. The real actors would take the role of the coordinators and try to get the three astronauts safely to the moon and back. But it wouldn't be called Apollo 13, if the journey would go all well. And some hard work and initiative on the side of the audience is necessary for the crew to be brought back safely to earth.

Zine Festival

Another highlight was a local Zine festival we heard about browsing the streets of Wellington. We went there and browsed through lots of Wellington self made little magazines, tapes and art. Most were a bit to artsy for our taste, but in the end we left the festival with quite a bit of stuff to read and listen to.

Botanical Gardens & Cable Car

Wellington also has nice free accessible botanical gardens on the top of surrounding hills. The coolest way to get to them is to use the old cable car up the hill. It starts right from the central shopping street Lambton Quay and takes you up to the border of the botanical gardens. Some plates tell the history of the gardens, when one single man got the job of creating some nice gardens for the city.

the view from the cable car

Government

The central building of government is also a sight by itself called "The Beehive" by the locals. If the politicians really are a busy as beans is out of my knowledge, but politics is always a topic on every NZ dinner table. We even got ourself a newspaper, cause we wanted to know what is going on ourself.

Cuba Street

The coolest shopping street we discovered was Cuba Street. It is full of little alternative shops, from decorative art shops, comic shops and second hand book shops to little cafés and vegetarian restaurants. The Zine festival mentioned above was also here.

Mt. Victoria

If you want to get out into the nature, nearby Mt. Victoria provides excellent walkways through hillside forest. The view of Wellington from the summit of Mt. Victoria is also really nice. Another reason for us to go there, however, was that just here right next to Wellington the filmed some scenes from Lord of the Rings. 

Parking & Lodging

After getting friendly advice in the local Youth Hostel, we found out the best way for parking in the city is by "Coupon Parking". Coupons can be bought at lo:t cal convenience stores for 7 NZD and are valid for one day each. Parking in coupon zones is free on weekends. And the closest such coupon parking zone is on Oriental Parade. That's where we parked our car and spent some nights. Before that we spent two nights at Rowena's Lodge and after being fed up with the unfriendliness of the people there going over to much more friendly and warm Maple Lodge. While the first house is really cool both in architecture as in interior design, the people operating it are just too unfriendly, we always felt out of place and unwelcome there. Thus we recommend you the Maple Lodge.

Oriental Parade

where we parked