Wellington Day 1

 Friday, February 21

Wellington is the southernmost capital city in the world.  It is a hilly city, with a population of 424,000 people.  It is nicknamed "The Windy City" or "Wellywood".

We started the day bright and early with a tour of the Wellington Weta Workshop.  If this sounds familiar, it's because we also went to the Weta in Auckland.  Only at this one, pictures are not allowed 😞in some areas.  We suspect that is because there are artists working on real movie props here. Also, we were told that they don't own everything so there are copyright laws.  Does this troll look familiar?

We found out that "Weta" is actually a type of cricket here in NZ.  The founders were looking for the scariest creature they could find since they specialized in horror.

The Weta in Auckland focused on sets and props and special effects.  It's more of a tourist attraction.  The Wellington Weta is more behind-the-scenes.  This was a 1.5 hr guided tour.  We saw costumes and makeup for different films, a lot of Lord of the Rings, including Sauron's costume.  We did get to try some of the swords and helmets.   

Here is a short video of Frankie using a remote control to make this monster's face move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcjFjz5K-qc

We were given a tinfoil demo, she has made 10 foot high sculptures out of tin foil.  Then she covers the foil in clay.

The tour ended at the Weta Cave, which is a shop of course!  But a very cool shop, more like a mini museum.  Here you can purchase your photos, or download the cheesy one for free.

After our tour, we met up with Jonathan.  Jonny is our much-loved godson, and our excuse for visiting New Zealand in the first place (even if we are only spending a few days with him LOL).  Jonathan is finishing his masters degree in drama here in Wellington.  Watching him act is a treat! 

We hung out at his "flat" or apartment and dried the clothes that didn't quite dry properly last night.  We walked and found a pizza place for lunch and people watched.  After lunch he took us mini-golfing.  Anton got a kick out of the self-serve:

It was the most unique mini-golf course we have ever been to.  It was like mini-golfing through a scrap yard.  

We had great fun until it started to pitter patter a bit.  No worries.  Until that one big roar of thunder and we decided to finish our 18th hole in a hurry and get out from all that metal!  We sheltered under a roof for awhile as it poured.

Once it let up, we drove back to his flat and hung out.  Jonathan actually made us a home-cooked meal which was really great. 

After supper we clambered up to a lookout that overlooked all of the city for some nice views.

We said good night to him around 7 pm and drove back to our hotel.  It took a 50 point turn to back into the last available parking spot.  There are only a dozen spots or so and it's very cramped.  But we are lucky to have one reserved. Ours is the middle car.

Mt Doom en route to Wellington

 Thursday, February 20

Today was a VERY long driving day!

Driving out of Rotorua, we made a pitstop right outside town at the Redwood Memorial Grove Track and hiked the 2 km track.  Yes, they are actual California Redwood trees which were planted in 1901 and are currently 219 feet (67 meters) tall.  These trees are dedicated to the men of the New Zealand Forest Service who died in the World Wars.  It was a lovely walk.

The drive from Rotorua to Wellington normally takes five and a half hours going straight down Hwy 1, but we had already decided to take the more scenic route around Tongariro National Park. We wanted to see Mt Doom, which made our drive just over six hours without stops.  Having already made this decision beforehand, low and behold that normal stretch of Hwy 1 is all closed for roadwork, so we would have had to go this way anyways!

But it's funny how quickly a 6 hour drive can turn into a 12 hour drive!  That included stops along the way, and lots of roadwork.  And also some very slow curvy hills.

Partly through the day, Anton was complaining that his phone needed charging and the battery pack wasn't helping much.  Lo and behold, we found a charging port kinda hidden in the car!  He plugged his phone in and voila!  we now have Android Auto.  Our gps route map popped up on the screen and Frankie no longer has to hold his phone and navigate.  All of a sudden she feels like she no longer has a purpose to her life!

About an hour into our drive, we stopped to see Huka Falls.  It is a narrow channel of rushing water that empties at the head of the Waikato River.

We stopped to see Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake not just in NZ, but in Australasia.  It is about the same size as Singapore.  For scale:  Lake Erie is 40 times bigger than Lake Taupo.  It was formed by the caldera of a massive volcanic eruption.  They actually call the Taupo volcano a supervolcano, which is one that has erupted more than 1000 cubic kms of material.  It is magnitude 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.  Who knew volcanoes had their own magnitude scales?!?!

The picture above will become more significant as you read the rest of the blog....

Another hour and another stop, this time at Te Porere Redoubt.  A redoubt is a small shelter for soldiers during war.  Te Porere Redoubt was used during the last of the New Zealand Wars in 1869 (wars between the Maori people and the government over the selling of Maori lands).  We didn't hike all the way in to see the redoubt, but the view along the way was pretty:

We specifically drove this route so we could have good views of Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings movies!  It is located in Tongariro National Park, and the real name of Mount Doom is Mount Ngauruhoe.  The name Mount Doom is much more dramatic.  And pronounceable.  Today the mountain top was covered in cloud. 

This is Tawhai Falls, also known as Gollum's Pool.  This is the place where Faramir and his archers are watching Gollum as he is fishing.  You need to be a Lord of the Rings fan to understand any of that.

imagecredit: https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Gollum-Forbidden-Pool.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5

And this is where disaster struck!  By some fluke, Frankie's BRAND NEW PHONE slid down the rock where she was sitting and plop! it went into the water.  There was no sign of it anywhere, and the water was too fast moving and too deep to go searching.  In loving memory, here lies the final resting place of her cherished new phone.  It was with us for far too short a time, and will be dearly missed.

Which means, if you want to get a hold of Frankie for an indefinite period of time, you must either email her or go through hubby.

All pictures for the rest of this trip will now be the sole responsibility of Anton!!!

Here are some of the windy roads we had to navigate:

We FINALLY got to our hotel in Wellington at 7 pm.  Our hotel is smack downtown and seems very old and cramped, but that may be because we just came from such a boutiquey place.  Thank goodness we had reserved hotel parking, there are only a few spots in their parking garage.

Frankie stayed in the room while Anton went to the bowels of the hotel to do self laundry.  We decided this after seeing the price list for the hotel to do our laundry:  $11 per shirt, $18 per pair of pants, and $5 for each underwear!!!

Wai-o-Tapu and Waimangu

 Wednesday, February 19

We woke up this morning and watched live on our outdoor house camera as our awesome neighbour cleared our not-so-small driveway for Frankie's parents.  Wow, that's a lot of snow!  

So apparently a "boutique" hotel means that you choose one of five $30 items for breakfast along with a few pastries.  Thank goodness our breakfast was included!

If the title of this blog is foreign (ha ha), Wai-o-Tapu and Waimangu are the names of two geothermal parks in the area.

We started in the morning with a half hour drive to Wai-o-Tapu.  This park is famous for their Lady Knox Geyser which erupts like clockwork everyday at 10:15 am.  It is a bit controversial because the eruption is actually "triggered" by adding soap powder which disrupts the natural chemical balance.  Is it a good thing to be adding soap into the environment?  Many people don't think so, yet the tourists keep coming.  

imagecredit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Knox_Geyser#/media/File:Lady_Knox_Geyser.jpg

We've seen geysers before, and this one seems a bit forced, so we skipped the crowds and took to the trails instead. 

There are 3 walks totaling about 3 to 4 km.  Notice the arrows to indicate which direction you should walk.

imagecredit: https://www.visualitineraries.com/img/locations/12741.jpg

The area is full of  boiling mud, collapsed craters, steaming fissures, and lakes that are strikingly coloured by minerals. There are 12 craters.  Each is 5 to 15 meters across and up to 20 meters deep.  The colours around the craters are caused by minerals that are oxidized when they come into contact with the atmosphere of the earth.

This pool of water is really a collapsed crater, and is called Devil's Bath.  The water is actually clear, but saturated with sulphur and other minerals that make it appear green.  The pool is highly acidic.  

At the far end of the trail is Lake Ngakoro.  This one is green because of algae blooms from high temperatures. 

The waterfall here is called Puna o Ngakoro and is actually a hot water waterfall.  There are only a few in the world.

This is the Champagne Pool:

Our favourite came right at the end.  This is Roto Karikitea, a crater that is filled with excess water from the Champagne Pool:

The drive to our second park, Waimangu, took 10 minutes, and we found lunch at a small cafe there.

Waimangu is called the world's youngest geothermal area.  It is the only such area created within written history.  It was made during a volcanic eruption in 1886, and has been unaltered by humans since then, hallelujah!

Unfortunately, the eruption destroyed the area's pink and white terraces.  This is a re-creation of what they looked like:

imagecredit: https://www.waimangu.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pink-terraces-image.jpg

The Waimangu Geyser was active for 4 years between 1900 and 1904 and was the world's largest geyser at the time, spewing up mud almost 500 meters high.  Wow!

imagecredit: https://www.waimangu.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/waimangu-geyser-1900-to-1904-768x432.jpg

Unfortunately, 4 tourists were killed in 1903 when they were standing in area they had been told was dangerous and the Waimangu Geyser suddenly erupted.  The white cross still remains there:

In Waimangu, we had booked a "Volcanic Valley Walk and Boat Cruise".  It started with a 3 hour self-guided walk through geothermal areas.  We found this park to be far less commercialized and it had much denser vegetation.  Plus we went long stretches without seeing another soul.  They gave us a handout with 32 geothermal features along the way.  Here are some of the places we saw.

Our favourite  feature was Inferno Crater Lake.  Temperatures reach 80C, and the water is highly acidic at 2.8.  What a beautiful colour!

We skipped doing the Mt Haszard Hiking Trail which was described as steep and rough.  With a name like that???  Maybe in our younger days....

The walk ends with a 45 minute boat cruise on Lake Rotomahana to see more of the area.  This lake is the youngest of New Zealand's naturally formed lakes.  This large lake was formed during the 1886 eruption that cracked open the earth and sent debris 11 kms into the air.  Seven villages were destroyed.  Eventually, the crater filled with water to form this lake.

The boat runs every hour, and the boat ahead of us had about a dozen passengers.  But we were the only ones aboard when we took it!  So we had our very own VIP tour of the lake.

He took us to a spot were a geyser (natural!) erupts every 10 minutes or so.

We also saw some blue-green algae along the rocks that is now yellow because it has been sunburned:

A "shuttle" (really old bus) took us back to the park entrance and we got back to our hotel AGAIN ten minutes before free parking began.  So again we sat with the car to make sure we didn't get a ticket.

We found very good gluten free pizza to share for dinner:

Hobbiton and Glow Worms!

 Tuesday, February 18

Auckland to Hobbiton to Rotorua:

Today we picked up our rental car bright and early.  No Lyft in New Zealand, but they do have Uber, which we took since it was a 20 minute walk with all our luggage.  That part went fine, but what a horrid experience picking up the rental!!!  We arrived at 7:45 wanting to pick up our car when they opened at 8 am.  However, our travel agent made the reservation for 9 am and they WOULD NOT allow us to take the car early!  A guy from Whitby was having the same problem.  Then some guys came and mentioned how in their last experience with Europcar, the car was wrecked on the way to them, and then a second car was wrecked on the way to them, and the whole thing took almost 3 hours.  Then 2 other guys came and zoom zoom they were through UNTIL they showed their driver's licenses - which apparently were not english.  So they were told to apply online for an official translation of their licenses, which cost $65 each and took a few hours. Meanwhile, while all this was going on, we were on the phone with our travel agent, who was supposed to authorize our change and then call their office.  But apparently our agent could not get through to their office.  We finally told the Europcar guy that our agent authorized the car, and he took us at 8:50.  On our way out, who did we happen to see but our nice UK couple from yesterday's ferry LOL. 

We rented a Toyota Corolla (a subcompact crossover SUV).  The trunk is not big enough for both suitcases, we had to put the seats down.  We will have it only for the north island.  And yes, they drive on the LEFT hand side of the road here!  

imagecredit: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:940/1*glDDc0cqLlJnFtcs3RpGfg.jpeg

After only 3 close calls, we made it out of the city.  

Those 10 minutes proved to be crucial because we arrived at our tour with only 10 minutes to spare.  And it was one of the tours we just did not want to miss. It was a 2 hour drive to our first destination:  Hobbiton!!!!  Arrive and pick up your tickets at The Shire's Rest Ticketing Office ha ha.  So busy!  The parking lot had hundreds of cars and it took us awhile to find a spot.

It was a guided tour, and included Hobbit locations such as The Green Dragon Inn, the Mill, the Party Tree, and of course Hobbit Holes.  Peter Jackson built 44 Hobbit holes!  In 1998, his crew used a helicopter to find the perfect location for his Hobbit village.  When they saw the 1250 acre sheep farm owned by the Alexander family, they knew it was perfect.  Apparently they knocked on the farmer's door on a Saturday.  They know this because he was watching rugby.  New Zealanders don't like to be interrupted when watching rugby, but luckily it was during a break.  The crew asked if they could look around and the farmer said sure, just close the gates behind you.  And thus a movie location was born.  At least that is the story that our guide Kat told us.  Kat happens to be Canadian and her parents live in KW ha ha.

To make the movie, Peter Jackson replaced the farmer's sheep and pigs with different sheep and pigs to look more authentic.  He also wanted a plum tree because JR Tolkien refers to a plum tree.  But the plum trees were too tall, so he planted apple and pear trees, then stripped the fruit and leaves and replaced them with synthetic plum leaves and fruit, each one individually affixed with wire.  BTW, this tree that took so much work shows up in the movie for all of 5 seconds.

We really enjoyed looking at the Hobbit homes.  You'll notice every door is different.  To make the Hobbits seem smaller, he built large doors.  To make Gandalf seem larger, he built small doors.

Here is Bag End itself, where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins lived:

This home belonged to Samwise Gamgee, and this is the last scene of the movies.  BTW, the little girl who runs into his arms was his real daughter and Rose's baby was her own baby.

The really cool part was being able to explore one of the Hobbit holes.  It was huge, and it really was like a rabbit's warren in there!  Here is a video that Anton took:

The tour took 2 hours, and then we were given lunch at the Party Marquee.  Fitting, since hobbits eat like 10 times a day.  The food was buffet but quite good, and they had a separate charcuterie board of desserts for Frankie.

Kat finished our tour by saying, "Stay safe, stay brave, and most of all stay left!"  We finished lunch at 3 pm (guess we won't need supper!) and then it was a one hour drive to our hotel in Rotorua.  Are you sure we're going the right way????

Our hotel was a bit tricky to find and only had 12 parking spaces, but parking is free on the street between 5 pm and 9 am.  Because it was only 4:45 when we arrived, we stayed at the car to avoid the $180 ticket.

It seems our travel agent booked us into a "boutique" hotel.  Basically that means that we couldn't tell if the receptionist was male or female.  It must be a prerequisite to work there, since the other receptionist was the same.  The other thing a "boutique" hotel means is that there is no elevator, carry your luggage up the 2 flights of stairs please.  But the room is huge, it has 3 beds and a nice sitting area and even a little kitchenette.

We had asked our travel agent Harriet if it was worth going several hours out of our way to see the famous glow worm caves at Waitomo.  She suggested that there are little-known tours right here in Rotorua (that's why we pay her the big bucks LOL).

So it was just a 6 minute walk from our hotel for an 8 pm tour.  Another 3 hour tour.  They shuttled us to their location on Lake Okareka and geared us up.  They gave us rainproof pants and jackets, and we all wore a headlamp.  

We hopped aboard our "two person sit-on-top" kayaks and followed the guide around the lake.  Lake Okareka is actually the crater of an extinct volcano.

Here is the crater wall that is made of sandstone and pumice:

The guide led us into 2 tunnels and 4 or 5 some small hidden caves where we marvelled at the glow worms.  We had to turn off the headlamps inside the caves because the light would confuse the glow worms, they would think it was daytime, and they wouldn't glow for us.  Since we couldn't take pictures (because of the light of the phones), we found this internet picture.  They promised to email some pictures to us.

Image Credit: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paddleboardrotorua.com%2Frotorua-glow-worm-kayaking-tour

What is a glow worm?  Wikipedia's definition:  Glowworm or glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. Really, it's the larval stage of the fungus gnat fly, but glow worm sounds so much better.  And they aren't really worms, they are flies.  The larva is 3 cm long and they hand out in dark, damp, insulated areas such as these caves. They emit a small web and their light attracts bugs to eat (it also attracts tourists!).  When they digest their prey, it creates protein to fuel the bioluminescent light and they glow brighter.  After about 9 months, the larva has stored enough energy to hatch into a fly, at which point they get to procreating quickly because they only have enough energy to live for 2 days before they die.

Here is a close-up from National Geographic:

imagecredit: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/151020-glowworms-females-selection-finland-animals-science

The evening was warm and calm.  We started on the lake at sunset and finished in the dark with our headlamps.  We got lucky because last night they did the tour in the pouring rain.  It was an amazing tour, it felt like being in a dark cathedral looking at thousands of blue stars.  Apparently the only places in the world that have glow worms are New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania.

We got back to our hotel at 11 pm, so it's a late night!