And thus the adventures of Bilge Rat and Scallywag in New Zealand come to an end. It was time to leave. Other places on this world called for us.
It was a wonderful time on the two islands of this distant distant land, which we called home for about half a year now. We worked, we travelled. We found friends and a place to stay. We went to local festivals and hiked famous trails. We met true Kiwis, Pakeha and Maori alike, and got to know their respective way of life. We helped people on the way and were helped ourselves. We learned to cook and to keep a road trip diet. We slept in small rooms, in the woods, on the beach and in a car. We climbed mountains and swam in the sea. We crossed forests and visited old towns. We dug for gold and found happiness.
It was a great time for both of us, which we would never want to have missed. We learned a lot and grew quite a bit standing on our own feet in a land far away. We are both very glad to have made the journey and do not regret even the hardships we had on our way.
Let's see where the future will take us. What paths we will walk, what journeys undertake and what adventures we will face.
We're looking forward to it.
Till then we say thank you for accompanying us on our adventures on this blog. Wherever our paths may lead, we will see you there! :)
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Saturday 18 December 2010
North Shore Beaches
As you know we are living with Bilge Rat's cousin. He is living in North Shore City, once an independent city next to Auckland, now a governmental district within Auckland. You reach North Shore City as soon as you cross the long harbour bridge over the sea. It's really close to Auckland and a 30 minute bus ride, usually takes you to the centre. But it is less crowded and you see more nature and parks, so it is a pretty nice place to live.
But it has another advantage over central Auckland: Beaches. Along the North Shore you can find a couple of really nice beaches. In good New Zealand style they are neither crowded nor polluted and quite a thing to see. Bilge Rat's cousin's friendly aunt took a day of to introduce us to the beaches. We started off following her favourite jogging trail, which goes simply along the beaches connecting one beach with the other. Here you can draw yourself a picture about just how many nice little beaches there are to explore:
We then took the car and visited some more beaches further north, including the furthest north: Long Bay, which is already in a nature reserve and not only especially long, but also especially beautiful.
After enjoying the beaches, we visited Devonport Hill, another highlight of North Shore City. Devonport is facing the Auckland sea in the very south of North Shore. From the top of the hill you get a really nice view on central Auckland. Also there are a lot of military installations left on the hill, which you can explore. In WW2 after Japan's expansionism reached as far south as Australia, New Zealand also feared a potential Japanese invasion and fortified it's harbours. Due to Perl Harbour the Japanese could never fully invade Australia and thus never reached New Zealand, but the military fortifications still exist. There are some harbour artillery, bunker and a net underground passages and rooms. And you can freely explore all of it! Pretty cool.
Finally we went to huge inland lake Pupuke, another highlight of North Shore City. This giant lake offers nice views, a variety of ducks in large numbers and nice meadows for picnics and relaxing.
On the shore you can also find a really scenic old pumphouse, which now serves as a restaurant.
That concludes our exploration of North Shore City! Thanks a lot to Bilge Rat's cousin's aunt for leading us around. It was a really pleasant change from the concrete of downtown Auckland. And we have to admit that at least this part of Auckland has some really nice sport for retreating!
But it has another advantage over central Auckland: Beaches. Along the North Shore you can find a couple of really nice beaches. In good New Zealand style they are neither crowded nor polluted and quite a thing to see. Bilge Rat's cousin's friendly aunt took a day of to introduce us to the beaches. We started off following her favourite jogging trail, which goes simply along the beaches connecting one beach with the other. Here you can draw yourself a picture about just how many nice little beaches there are to explore:
We then took the car and visited some more beaches further north, including the furthest north: Long Bay, which is already in a nature reserve and not only especially long, but also especially beautiful.
After enjoying the beaches, we visited Devonport Hill, another highlight of North Shore City. Devonport is facing the Auckland sea in the very south of North Shore. From the top of the hill you get a really nice view on central Auckland. Also there are a lot of military installations left on the hill, which you can explore. In WW2 after Japan's expansionism reached as far south as Australia, New Zealand also feared a potential Japanese invasion and fortified it's harbours. Due to Perl Harbour the Japanese could never fully invade Australia and thus never reached New Zealand, but the military fortifications still exist. There are some harbour artillery, bunker and a net underground passages and rooms. And you can freely explore all of it! Pretty cool.
 |
| Auckland, as seen from Devonport |
 |
| Incoming! |
Finally we went to huge inland lake Pupuke, another highlight of North Shore City. This giant lake offers nice views, a variety of ducks in large numbers and nice meadows for picnics and relaxing.
On the shore you can also find a really scenic old pumphouse, which now serves as a restaurant.
That concludes our exploration of North Shore City! Thanks a lot to Bilge Rat's cousin's aunt for leading us around. It was a really pleasant change from the concrete of downtown Auckland. And we have to admit that at least this part of Auckland has some really nice sport for retreating!
Friday 17 December 2010
Auckland 2
And thus our long journey there and back again ended where it had begun: in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. Bilge Rat's cousin warmly offered us shelter once more and we tried to use the few remaining days to sell our dear old Roachmobile to the next pair of backpackers.
Unfortunately we didn't pick the best time to do that. It rained basically every day with only the amount and degree of rain varying. That's always bad if you want to sell a car, cause people stay indoors having such weather. Secondly it's close to Christmas. And what do tourists and even backpackers do on Christmas? Well they don't take an overpriced flight to New Zealand, that's for sure. They'd rather stay home and celebrate with friends and family or even fly home trying to sell their car before leaving. So yeah, we kinda picked the worst time of the year to sell a second hand car.
We rented a space at the Backpacker's Car Market and after day one even stayed with the car to talk potential buyers into buying glorious Roachmobile, however, none came. The one pair interested in our car was scared away by us, when we showed no skill or lack in haggling. When we learned the basics of haggling, they were gone and no others showed up. Except this crazy ass family will to give us 1/5 of what we wanted (And we wanted still less that what we paid for, not even considering all the repairs, registration and Warranty of Fitness...
Leaving the car issue aside, browsing through the big city once more, we found some more curious spots worth visiting:
We happened to park our car next to a talented metal artist, building from scrap metal popular figures from pop culture. Can you recognize all of them?
There is a Daiso in Auckland! Everybody that has been to Japan or close to it, probably knows Daiso, the famous 100 Yen store. It's like a 1$ store, but it has everything: from DIY supplies, office supplies, gardening, car, electricity, toys, dishes, food and fun articles (and much much more). There is nothing you cannot get from Daiso, and it's at its cheapest possible prize. It's so much fun to just browse the store and pick up some curious things.
Right. It's all made in China, of course. But then so are most of the clothes, shoes, etc. you can get at popular vendors. And the workers don't get higher wages, just because the same items cost more at regular vendors. So what's the difference?
On the other hand we are always buying fair-trade, when we are able to. Because that does make a difference. But that won't stop us from having fun at Daiso here and then!
Game Houses! Fucking Shit, of course! Auckland is full of Korean immigrants. And what to Koreans love? Games, Games, Games. Look at my Korea article, to see some proof. While older people prefer to play Baduk, younger generations tend to computer games. The most popular being StarCraft. That means the favourite past time of Koreans is playing computer games. But they don't play at home, like in Europe. They go to Game Houses. A Game House has a set up of modern PCs ready to play the most popular games, and usually also offers some food and drinks. So you sit together with your friends and start gaming. It's quite the social thing in Korea, because while gaming people will share stories, rant about their jobs and so on.
So with so many Koreans in Auckland there are bound to be Game Houses around too. And indeed there are. Of course everything inside (including the PCs and Windows versions) are in Korean, as are all the guests inside. But that didn't stop bilge rat and me to pass some afternoon inside trying out Left 4 Dead 2 in coop mode.
Finally there was a pretty cool photo gallery in the centre of town. Every picture had a short story beneath. The pictures tried to raise awareness about social and environmental problems. But they also showed just how amazingly beautiful our planet can be, when people don't destroy it with waste and inconsiderate behaviour. There is not much time left to stop destroying our planet and to stop bereaving people of their culture, if we want any of that to remain for future generations to marvel upon...
Unfortunately we didn't pick the best time to do that. It rained basically every day with only the amount and degree of rain varying. That's always bad if you want to sell a car, cause people stay indoors having such weather. Secondly it's close to Christmas. And what do tourists and even backpackers do on Christmas? Well they don't take an overpriced flight to New Zealand, that's for sure. They'd rather stay home and celebrate with friends and family or even fly home trying to sell their car before leaving. So yeah, we kinda picked the worst time of the year to sell a second hand car.
We rented a space at the Backpacker's Car Market and after day one even stayed with the car to talk potential buyers into buying glorious Roachmobile, however, none came. The one pair interested in our car was scared away by us, when we showed no skill or lack in haggling. When we learned the basics of haggling, they were gone and no others showed up. Except this crazy ass family will to give us 1/5 of what we wanted (And we wanted still less that what we paid for, not even considering all the repairs, registration and Warranty of Fitness...
 |
| good old Roachmobile |
We happened to park our car next to a talented metal artist, building from scrap metal popular figures from pop culture. Can you recognize all of them?
There is a Daiso in Auckland! Everybody that has been to Japan or close to it, probably knows Daiso, the famous 100 Yen store. It's like a 1$ store, but it has everything: from DIY supplies, office supplies, gardening, car, electricity, toys, dishes, food and fun articles (and much much more). There is nothing you cannot get from Daiso, and it's at its cheapest possible prize. It's so much fun to just browse the store and pick up some curious things.
Right. It's all made in China, of course. But then so are most of the clothes, shoes, etc. you can get at popular vendors. And the workers don't get higher wages, just because the same items cost more at regular vendors. So what's the difference?
On the other hand we are always buying fair-trade, when we are able to. Because that does make a difference. But that won't stop us from having fun at Daiso here and then!
Game Houses! Fucking Shit, of course! Auckland is full of Korean immigrants. And what to Koreans love? Games, Games, Games. Look at my Korea article, to see some proof. While older people prefer to play Baduk, younger generations tend to computer games. The most popular being StarCraft. That means the favourite past time of Koreans is playing computer games. But they don't play at home, like in Europe. They go to Game Houses. A Game House has a set up of modern PCs ready to play the most popular games, and usually also offers some food and drinks. So you sit together with your friends and start gaming. It's quite the social thing in Korea, because while gaming people will share stories, rant about their jobs and so on.
So with so many Koreans in Auckland there are bound to be Game Houses around too. And indeed there are. Of course everything inside (including the PCs and Windows versions) are in Korean, as are all the guests inside. But that didn't stop bilge rat and me to pass some afternoon inside trying out Left 4 Dead 2 in coop mode.
Finally there was a pretty cool photo gallery in the centre of town. Every picture had a short story beneath. The pictures tried to raise awareness about social and environmental problems. But they also showed just how amazingly beautiful our planet can be, when people don't destroy it with waste and inconsiderate behaviour. There is not much time left to stop destroying our planet and to stop bereaving people of their culture, if we want any of that to remain for future generations to marvel upon...
Wednesday 15 December 2010
LOTR Hobbiton
Leaving Rivendell our Fellowship headed further north. We had two more days to reach Mordor/Auckland to drop Roachmobile into the depths of Mt. Doom Car Market. (Am I getting delirious?)
Our journey has been going on long and was arduous. Looking on our map of Middle Earth for another possible haven for the next day, we found that the shire and Hobbiton lies just on our way from Rivendell to Auckland. Here look for yourself:
So on we went with recently fixed Roachmobile. We did not stop very often, we knew the Ringwraiths were on our trail and eventually the next day we reached:
Matamata / Hobbiton
Matamata is a small town south of Auckland that recently got famous when it was chosen to be the host town for Hobbiton. It can be easily seen just how proud the people of the town are about that. Look at above picture of the city sign greeting guests and visitors or below the new name of the local newspaper:
Even the tourist centre building looks like a big hobbit hole. In our guide book Hobbiton always remained a little mysterious. At all the other locations we had visited up to this point, nothing remained of the original set. But in the chapter talking about Hobbiton nothing was mentioned in the like of: the location of the former set, or, it can easily be imagined that here once stood...
On the other hand it also didn't contain a contrary statement saying that anything was left. So we didn't know for sure, but our hopes were high, when we entered the tourist info below:
It is the first tour we booked. If you read through our blog, you know that we had to leave out many locations, because they were on private land and only accessible by private tours. But this time we scrapped our last money together, because we might really be able to see Hobbiton, damn it!
Even more! The women at the info counter kept saying how lucky we were to show up at this time. More mysteries! What is going on in Hobbiton? Now we really had to find out! We booked the tour, waited outside the hobbit hole above and entered the arriving hobbit bus below:
Now comes the downside of it. Because of the upcoming movie and filming, we had to sign a declaration prohibiting us from publishing or sharing any photos we have taken during the tour. :/
Suffice it to say that it was amazing! Hobbiton is unique in so far that it is not composed of several places set together for impressions in a movie, but that it is one real village so far off from human civilization, that no matter where you stand you will only see Hobbiton and the shire. No traces of humans. Hobbition has become a real village.
It is amazing how much love for detail the set guys put into their work. We saw a girl painting little black ruse on all the chimneys of the hobbit holes, so you get the impression that they have been is use very often. We also saw a real miniature garden with small vegetables, honeycombs and each hobbit hole had its own little unique mailbox. They made some new hobbit holes for the movie, which they made so deep, that later you will be able to actually rent and sleep in them!
They also rebuilt the brandywine bridge. This time they used real stone and old bridge building techniques. (The first bridge was made our of plastic). Thus the new bridge should last for centuries! Also we found the place with the party tree and the big open area, where Bilbo held his 111 birthday party! It is all really there.
If you have the chance to visit Matamata before or after the filming, while the set is still as complete as it is now, do it! You can check the tour provider's website here. Godspeed.
Our journey has been going on long and was arduous. Looking on our map of Middle Earth for another possible haven for the next day, we found that the shire and Hobbiton lies just on our way from Rivendell to Auckland. Here look for yourself:
 |
| map taken from here |
So on we went with recently fixed Roachmobile. We did not stop very often, we knew the Ringwraiths were on our trail and eventually the next day we reached:
Matamata / Hobbiton
Matamata is a small town south of Auckland that recently got famous when it was chosen to be the host town for Hobbiton. It can be easily seen just how proud the people of the town are about that. Look at above picture of the city sign greeting guests and visitors or below the new name of the local newspaper:
Even the tourist centre building looks like a big hobbit hole. In our guide book Hobbiton always remained a little mysterious. At all the other locations we had visited up to this point, nothing remained of the original set. But in the chapter talking about Hobbiton nothing was mentioned in the like of: the location of the former set, or, it can easily be imagined that here once stood...
On the other hand it also didn't contain a contrary statement saying that anything was left. So we didn't know for sure, but our hopes were high, when we entered the tourist info below:
It is the first tour we booked. If you read through our blog, you know that we had to leave out many locations, because they were on private land and only accessible by private tours. But this time we scrapped our last money together, because we might really be able to see Hobbiton, damn it!
Even more! The women at the info counter kept saying how lucky we were to show up at this time. More mysteries! What is going on in Hobbiton? Now we really had to find out! We booked the tour, waited outside the hobbit hole above and entered the arriving hobbit bus below:
When the tour guide greeted us on the bus the mysteries were eventually solved. After some trivia about Matamata we finally were told:
- the Hobbition movie set is the only movie set in New Zealand that was not dissolved due to some funny circumstances
- it is currently being completely rebuilt and refurbished for the upcoming Hobbit movie
Now comes the downside of it. Because of the upcoming movie and filming, we had to sign a declaration prohibiting us from publishing or sharing any photos we have taken during the tour. :/
Suffice it to say that it was amazing! Hobbiton is unique in so far that it is not composed of several places set together for impressions in a movie, but that it is one real village so far off from human civilization, that no matter where you stand you will only see Hobbiton and the shire. No traces of humans. Hobbition has become a real village.
It is amazing how much love for detail the set guys put into their work. We saw a girl painting little black ruse on all the chimneys of the hobbit holes, so you get the impression that they have been is use very often. We also saw a real miniature garden with small vegetables, honeycombs and each hobbit hole had its own little unique mailbox. They made some new hobbit holes for the movie, which they made so deep, that later you will be able to actually rent and sleep in them!
They also rebuilt the brandywine bridge. This time they used real stone and old bridge building techniques. (The first bridge was made our of plastic). Thus the new bridge should last for centuries! Also we found the place with the party tree and the big open area, where Bilbo held his 111 birthday party! It is all really there.
If you have the chance to visit Matamata before or after the filming, while the set is still as complete as it is now, do it! You can check the tour provider's website here. Godspeed.
Tuesday 14 December 2010
LOTR Rivendell
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
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.
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
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
Monday 13 December 2010
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.
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.
Saturday 11 December 2010
Picton 2
After a whole day of driving we finally reached Picton on the eve of the 11th. Although it was barely three weeks, since we set found on the South Island here in Pictorn, to us it seemed like a year.
It felt good to reach familiar ground. Tomorrow we would enter the ferry a second time and cross the Straits to the North Island and be a bit closer to home by that. For the rest of the day we simply relaxed from the arduous journey. Thanks to our little South Island Camping Guide, we found a DOC camping ground right next to Picton, less than a five minutes drive away.
That's where we spent the night. It's a nice little camping ground next to the sea gripping inwards making the water here more like a lake, than the sea. There are some peculiar wood formations on the beach. Look for stones entrapped in the wood. It looks like the wood grew around the stones. But than... the wood here is dead driftwood, right? Driftwood can't grow, so it couldn't have grown around those stones. But there is no other plausible explanation either. Mysterious.
Also beware of the ducks! They are vicious and attack in packs. They will surround you, trap you and then help you god!
It felt good to reach familiar ground. Tomorrow we would enter the ferry a second time and cross the Straits to the North Island and be a bit closer to home by that. For the rest of the day we simply relaxed from the arduous journey. Thanks to our little South Island Camping Guide, we found a DOC camping ground right next to Picton, less than a five minutes drive away.
 |
| driftwood at the camping ground |
 |
| it somehow looks alive |
That's where we spent the night. It's a nice little camping ground next to the sea gripping inwards making the water here more like a lake, than the sea. There are some peculiar wood formations on the beach. Look for stones entrapped in the wood. It looks like the wood grew around the stones. But than... the wood here is dead driftwood, right? Driftwood can't grow, so it couldn't have grown around those stones. But there is no other plausible explanation either. Mysterious.
Also beware of the ducks! They are vicious and attack in packs. They will surround you, trap you and then help you god!
Friday 10 December 2010
Christchurch
Leaving the Riddermark we continued heading north. We had a ferry to catch after all. The path north brought us through New Zealand's second biggest city:
Christchurch
It's very easy to notice that you are approaching Christchurch. The lonely country road suddenly becomes busy and then multiplies its lanes. The solitude you are so familiar with by now is replaced by subtly increasing background noise and outside activity. Yes you are getting closer to a metropolitan area.
It's quite a change from crossing the country. Unprepared for the concrete jungle we of course got lost in the endless maze of intersecting roads with no landmarks, safe huge concrete blocks. On the other hand we could refill our tank, even though it was already way after sunset and buy some supplies in a big supermarket.
Christchurch didn't really have more of interest to us than that, also we needed a camping ground to sleep (something unheard of in metropolitan areas) and didn't have enough time left to spend another day in one place. Our ferry would disembark the day after tomorrow in the morning, and we still had quite a distance to cover. So after the gas stop and the supermarket, we asked our way out of the city going north and continued for a little while, till our eyes got heavy and we stopped for the night...
Christchurch
It's very easy to notice that you are approaching Christchurch. The lonely country road suddenly becomes busy and then multiplies its lanes. The solitude you are so familiar with by now is replaced by subtly increasing background noise and outside activity. Yes you are getting closer to a metropolitan area.
It's quite a change from crossing the country. Unprepared for the concrete jungle we of course got lost in the endless maze of intersecting roads with no landmarks, safe huge concrete blocks. On the other hand we could refill our tank, even though it was already way after sunset and buy some supplies in a big supermarket.
Christchurch didn't really have more of interest to us than that, also we needed a camping ground to sleep (something unheard of in metropolitan areas) and didn't have enough time left to spend another day in one place. Our ferry would disembark the day after tomorrow in the morning, and we still had quite a distance to cover. So after the gas stop and the supermarket, we asked our way out of the city going north and continued for a little while, till our eyes got heavy and we stopped for the night...
LOTR Edoras
Having gotten directions and a map from Ashburton, we could start on the Journey to Edoras.
Here's what the pamphlet says:
The rough country around us really made us imagine crossing the Riddermark. We followed the map along a long unpaved gravel road until finally Mt Sunday, Meduseld came into view. Not long ago this little hill hosted impressive Edoras. The Edoras set was real and took 11 months to complete. It was quite elaborate, as you can see in the movies.
Now nothing remains, but the hill still is and always will be remembered as the place of the mighty Rohirrim.
Here's what the pamphlet says:
Nestled deep on a Canterbury high country station was the set for Edoras, the fortress city of the Rohan people in the The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The spectacular location on Mount Potts
Station, in the Rangitata river valley in the Ashburton district
(around 2.5 hours drive inland from Christchurch) seemed purpose built for the production; a sheer-sided hill in the middle of an expansive plain, bordered by impassable mountains of rock and ice.
The production crew took nine months to build the set atop the cliffs, during which time the locals peeked around to see as much as they could. The finished product looked otherworldly and strangely historic, a testament to the truly remarkable atmosphere of the area.
Director Peter ]ackson and his team, actually worked from inside the
buildings that were constructed for the Mount Potts set - the interior scenes from Edoras were filmed several months beforehand in
Wellington, so the large buildings in reality served as shelter and,
extravagant food tents for the approximately 1000 cast and crew!
"Never shall forget the utter loneliness of the prospect; only the little far away homestead giving sign of human handiwork, the vastness of mountain and plain, of river and sky; the marvellous atmospheric affects sometimes black mountains against a white sky, and then again, after cold weather, white mountains against black sky".
Thus wrote Samuel Butler in his classic novel Erewhon, a fine description of a harsh landscape that for eleven months became Edoras, the capital city of Rohan.
The rough country around us really made us imagine crossing the Riddermark. We followed the map along a long unpaved gravel road until finally Mt Sunday, Meduseld came into view. Not long ago this little hill hosted impressive Edoras. The Edoras set was real and took 11 months to complete. It was quite elaborate, as you can see in the movies.
Now nothing remains, but the hill still is and always will be remembered as the place of the mighty Rohirrim.
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