South of the North Island

As most of you know, we spent Christmas and New Year's on the South Island. Before we get to our report there, we want to show you the rest of the North Island:

The day after our volcano climb, we drove further in the evening, but the sunset behind the mountains looked so inviting, that we made ourselves comfortable on the side of the highway and took some pictures:

Following the highway south, we came across an area that surprisingly reminded us a lot of American prairies and desert sections:

This road is appropriately called 'desert road'. Due to the strong wind and rain conditions (=> erosion), the area has not been as successful in being populated by plants, which is why it looks so foreign in otherwise green New Zealand.

Shadow play :)

Our car looks like a tortoise here, hehehe:

A bit further south, we approached a completely different landscape. Suddenly, the roaring sea appeared directly on the right side of the highway:

In the city of Porirua, there was a very beautifully located free sleeping spot right by the sea, which we used for the night:

A few pictures from the town will show you the typical New Zealand architecture and the often seen residential areas on the hills by the sea:

+++++++++++ More 'Lord of the Rings' ++++++++

Wellington is lucky to have not one, but three beautiful national parks nearby. One of them served as the location for Rivendell, the Elven realm in 'The Lord of the Rings'. (If you haven't seen this movie, you should catch up soon. Not only because it's good, but also because you get an impression of New Zealand's diverse landscape. And so that you have an idea of what we're constantly talking about :D)

Beautiful enchanted tree ferns.

Here, the direct size comparison with the characters from the movie surprises you: the 'great wizard' Gandalf is clearly smaller than Hannes. Tzzz.

Annette: 'LOOK! Who's small now, I am much taller than Gimli' (Gimli is the dwarf in the movie...) 'And almost as tall as Gandalf!!!'

For the absolute fans here a little map of the sets.

Top: This is how it looked in the movie.

Bottom: This is how it looks today from the same perspective. As you can see, you don't see much except for the tree in the foreground, which is 15 years older by now.

In this enchanted light, you can still sense a bit of magic - however, the gate was built by a fan, the original was twice as high.

'The Lord of the Rings' also had some river scenes, some of which were filmed here.

A park in nearby Upper Hutt became Saruman's garden during the course of the movie, the most powerful wizard.

Top: The movie scene, bottom: the real place with a real wizard :)

++++++++++++ WELLINGTON ++++++++

And just like that, we arrived in the far south of the North Island, to be precise in the capital of New Zealand: Wellington. Auckland may be New Zealand's largest city with 1.4 million inhabitants, but Wellington was named the capital of both islands because of its central location. Wellington only has 191,000 inhabitants! We found Wellington really beautiful:

Wellington is a port city.

In the middle of the city/on the promenade, you can jump into the sea. Despite the very windy weather, some people even dared to do it:

Parts of Wellington's city center reminded us a bit of London:

Cute old bar houses between the high-rises.

There was also a self-contained sleeping place in Wellington, right by the harbor:

WETA Workshop:

Since 'The Lord of the Rings' (sorry, but the movie brought a lot of popularity and tourists to New Zealand, so this topic will pop up again at some places), the special effects company 'Weta Workshop' has also become very well-known. Weta Workshop and its sister company Weta Digital are currently the most in-demand companies for special effects, whether digital (computer animations) or practical (puppets, costumes, miniatures, etc.). If you have seen a big movie in the last 10 years that had special effects, chances are this company made them. It all started in Richard Taylor's apartment, and with 'The Lord of the Rings', his company took off.

We took a tour of the workshop at Weta Workshop, which makes the practical effects, such as puppets, masks, costumes, miniatures, etc.

Bottom: The artists working at the workshop also sell their stuff in the adjacent fan shop. Like this cuddly sleeping dragon for a measly $189.

Afterwards, we went higher. Wellington from above:

By the way, we're here at Mount Victoria Park, where film scenes were shot (well, from which movie???).

First of all, the park itself is very beautiful with its quaint trees:

And here, a scene from 'The Lord of the Rings' was filmed:

Unfortunately, there is nothing left of the root under which the hobbits hid from the ringwraith (Nazgul), except for a depression in the ground.. For some reason, the tree was apparently removed, and parts of the root were also said to be artificial. Nevertheless, a picture! If you're here anyway!

From Wellington, we set off on the night/morning of December 22nd very early (2:30 a.m. departure) to the South Island, and that with a car and passenger ferry like this one, called 'Bluebridge':

The crossing only took about 3 hours. We have heard a lot about the landscape of the South Island, and we have high expectations for it! So we will be back soon, this time with the highlights of the South Island!

See you soon - and we wish each and every one of you a beautiful, successful, varied, loving, enriching year 2017!

Hannes & Anette