We landed successfully on the North Island after quite an easy breezy ferry ride, especially compared to what we heard it could have been. Seasickness rating: 4/10.
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, and well, it felt real nice to be back in a bustling city center if only for a night. The views, the scenery, the nature we have had the wonderful opportunity to experience has been absolutely incredible. I’ve had moments where my breath was taken away, instances where tears started really did spring to my eyes, and times that I have been left in awe. But walking around a city, with people around you in a restaurant, a dull roar of various conversations, maybe a car honk in the far off distance, and city lights illuminating our path home was extremely comforting.
We stayed atop a hill overlooking the downtown area and waterfront of Wellington. We were greeted with a glorious scene when we woke up of the sun streaming down on us on our veranda. As we wrapped up our third load of laundry at the AirBnb (our first one to have a dryer!), we took a quiet moment of drinking coffee and reading our independent books together. It was a very sweet moment.
We quickly packed our things and headed towards Weta Workshop. Extremely fascinating company that’s behind a lot of the set design, make up, and props for fantasy and horror movies. We were shown some of the accolades they have received (saw an Oscar for the first time), learned about the process they use for prosthetics make up, and the highlight: props they’ve created for some blockbuster films.
Now, Asa and I have no issue with falling into what could be called “nerd” category. But there was a time in my life, around 6th-7th grade, that I became a MEGA-nerd for The Chronicles of Narnia movie. I’d watch endless behind-the-scenes videos, read all sorts of fan fiction, and even participated in these online role playing blog groups. (I’m very glad the blogging website Xanga no longer exists, as all evidence of this work has been destroyed.)
In the room, where unfortunately they did not allow photos, were multiple props used from the Narnia movies. Things like Peter’s sword and helmet, Susan’s bow and arrows, the White Witch’s staff, were about 12 inches in front of me. I was in awe.
I remember learning that the Narnia movies were made in New Zealand. Like I said, I was probably about 11-12, so old enough to know where New Zealand was (the other side of the world) and truly thought I would never make it there in my life. But here we are. And I’m seeing the very props used in that movie. I’ve seen the very locations where scenes were filmed. The surreal experience for me that comes with seeing these things isn’t due to their notoriety, but it’s from actualizing this unknown dream I’ve had since I was a young, moody pre-teen. This trip has been so much of that, not just an 11-year-old’s dream, but a 23-year-old’s, and even a 30-year-old’s. I’ve met gratefulness with practically every turn.
Pardon me, for I’ve been writing this post with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Which yes, New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blancs live up to their reputation.
So Weta was wonderful. And it also wrapped up our quick 20 hours in Wellington. And so on we went another 4 hours north to small town called Tokaanu.
A very simple stay with a single goal. Hike the Tongariro Crossing.
Turns out they don’t like people doing this crossing when there’s low visibility, negative temperatures (celsius), and chances of frostbite and hypothermia. So the powers that be (our shuttle company) said that it was a no go. We figured they know more than we do and we should trust them. So we had to cross the hike unfortunately off our list.
We still were able to enjoy a couple of soaks in a geothermal pool located directly at our AirBnb and saw a gorgeous historic wharf just a short walk away.
And what I think has been our shortest stay yet (17 hours), we were back on the road, driving almost three hours to Hamilton (NZ’s fourth largest city if you’re tracking) for some more… rock climbing!
This time in a gym with a lot of padding. Another reason to love cities – safer rock climbing, but the views aren’t quite the same.
After the gym and a yummy meal, we headed to our second-to-last AirBnb in Piarere. 20 minutes from the world-famous movie set Hobbiton.
A rainy day today made for a magical visit to Hobbiton. This is where they filmed the exterior scenes of The Shire in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. It exceeded our expectations, we thought it might be a degree above a plywood movie set.
Wrong.
It feels like an actual Hobbit village. Everything planted in the ground was real. Each individual hobbit hole had their own unique mailbox. There were clotheslines with hobbit-sized clothing hanging out to dry. We started to believe we were really in the Shire.
With live fireplaces on a rainy day, it was an extremely cozy ambiance as we toured the hobbit holes themselves. The set decorators and designers are incredible artists, their talent shines in the amount of details every single piece has. Oh yeah – and it sits on a working sheep farm, so, of course, more sheep.
We said farewell to The Shire and headed home for a lazy afternoon on this drizzly day. We’re missing our home, our dog, friends, and family, but are still excited for the remaining 5 (!) days we have left in New Zealand. It’s coming to a close so soon!
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