Hobbiton!

For those of you who are fans of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, you probably already know that those movies were filmed in various locations throughout New Zealand.  Along the way on the cruise, there were excursions to see those various locations. We held off on taking those excursions, and waited until we could see this location, the movie set of the town where Bilbo Baggins, Frodo, Sam, and all the other little hobbits called home, Hobbiton.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but we were delighted beyond words with our visit there!

The movie set was left exactly how it was for the filming of the movies, and one of the first things we saw was this sign, telling weary travelers that we had arrived at the home of the hobbits!

We were amazed that the set today still looks so realistic, if you pardon my flight of fancy!  The charming little hobbit homes built into the hillside looked like a hobbit could walk out any minute and greet us.

Often, the expertise of the hobbit that resided in the house was evident by what one could see in their front yard.  These homes belong to a fisherman, gardener (florist), and a handyman.

Throughout the entire village of Hobbiton, there were charming scenes of the produce that the hobbits grew in the areas surrounding the town.  

It was amazing how “real” this movie set still looked.  After the filming was completed, the decision was made to keep the set “as is” and set up a tourist attraction.  An agreement was reached between the film company, who owns all of the actual set and the owner of the land upon which it sits, to keep Hobbiton exactly as it was during filming.  It’s been several years, and everything still looks as well kept and pristine as it first did.

The effects created with the set are very interesting.  Most of the fences and gates looked as if there was some moss growing on them, Jeff touched it and verified that it is truly fake and the “wooden” fences and gates are not made of wood, but certainly look like it.  Also, the view of the landscape shown here, complete with a couple of hobbit homes, was built over a span of a couple of weeks.  When Bilbo returns from his adventure in the last of the Hobbit movies, as he runs around the bend in the path thru the village on his way up to his home, there is a scene behind him.  This is that scene.  If you don’t remember it, that’s understandable as the view of this scene only lasted about 3 seconds in the movie!

When we came upon this home, both Jeff and I recognized it as Sam’s home.  Sam was the good friend of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movies.  When Sam & Frodo returned from that adventure, he married the bar maid that he had taken a fancy to from The Green Dragon pub. At the end of the last Lord of the Rings movie, there is a scene where Sam returns to his home.  His now wife and children greet him as he walks up to the house.  One little girl runs up to him and he scoops her up in his arms.  When they were rehearsing this scene, a child actress played the role of his daughter.  However, unknown to the actor who plays Sam, the producers of the movie flew his real-life wife and daughter to New Zealand, and during the actual filming of the scene, his own daughter ran out to greet him.  He stayed in character, but the joy you see on his face when he scoops up his daughter was very real as he hadn’t seen his family in about 5 months!  Also, his wife stands just outside this door, with a baby on her hip.  That baby was the actual child of the actress playing Sam’s wife.  Just a couple of fun little tidbits from the movie!

Fans of the movies certainly recognized Bilbo Baggins red vest hanging out on the clothes line as we approached his house.  The bottom image is of Bilbo’s home, taken from at the entrance to Hobbiton, at the bottom of the rolling hill it’s located on.  According to the norms of hobbits, the richer and wealthier one was, the higher on the hill their homes were located.  Bilbo’s was at the top!

There were a couple of interesting tidbits about Bilbo’s home, too.  Around the side of the house that was Bilbo’s was another, much smaller recreation of this same front door.  They made a smaller version so that when Gandalf, the very tall wizard approached Bilbo’s home, he looked appropriately larger than the doorway of the very small hobbit that lived there.  Also, the oak tree on the top of Bilbo’s house is fake!  Filming took place over several months, and in order for the tree to always look the same, it had to be fake – altho it certainly looked real enough to us!!

After seeing Bilbo’s house, we made our way toward The Green Dragon pub thru the charming scenery of Hobbiton.  It was amazing how detailed and complete the set was.  Filming could take place anywhere and it would maintain the illusion of a very real town of tiny hobbits!

And, here it is – The Green Dragon where Frodo, Sam and the other hobbits went to celebrate and, in Sam’s case, meet his lady love!  Today, the inside of The Green Dragon still looks like a pub and visitors were able to get a mug of something to drink – either ale, hard cider, or ginger beer, which was non-alcoholic.  Jeff had the ale and I tried the hard cider, which, I have to say, I didn’t care for.  Oh, well!

Out in front of The Green Dragon, and one of our last views of Hobbiton, was the watermill that existed in the village.  I don’t recall seeing it in any of the movies, but it certainly added to the realism of this charming movie set.

Enjoy!

Napier Wineries

This was our last wine tour on this trip, and I believe it was the best one.  We only stopped at two wineries, but they both served a bite of food to complement the wines they served, and that made a significant difference.  Also, because there were only two wineries, we could spend more time tasting at each one before we had to leave.

Clearview Estate Winery had some lovely wines, and we purchased a lovely Syrah to take back to the ship with us.  Most of New Zealand grows the grapes for Pinot Noir, and altho we did sample some lovely ones, Pinot Noir is still not one of my favorite grapes.  But, Syrah is nice!

Abbey Cellars Vineyards also had some nice wines, but there prices were rather steep, and much more than we typically spend on wine, even accounting for the favorable currency exchange in terms of the US dollar compared to the New Zealand dollar.  So, we just enjoyed our sipping at this winery and called it good!

Enjoy!

Wellington Botanic Gardens

I thought I’d wrap up my posts from Wellington with one of the beautiful blooms at the Botanic Gardens there.  It was a bit difficult for me to get my head wrapped around having to head north for warmer weather, but that’s what we did in the Southern Hemisphere!

Before we got to the flowers, Jeff noticed this lovely little waterfall hidden away along the walkway to the formal gardens.  Such a peaceful place, listening to the water gently flowing down the rocks.

The outdoor gardens were full of blooming roses and small fields of poppies, complete with bumble bees!  This is just a small sample of all the roses that were in beautiful bloom!  It was amazing how many more of them were blooming than we saw in Christchurch just a couple of days before!

We then headed into the greenhouse there to see some of the most vibrantly colored flowers we could recall seeing!  Even the most delicate flowers seemed to be vibrant in color, in a soft sort of way!

Altho I didn’t remember the names of most of the flowers, for some reason the name of the waterlily, Director George, stuck in my mind!  What a beautiful waterlily – and his supporting cast!

Enjoy!

Ride the Funicular and Views from the Top

One of the cool things we did was to ride what the folks in Wellington called a cable car to the highest point in Wellington.  However, this really wasn’t a cable car, it was what’s called a funicular.  There are 2 cars and as one goes down the very steep hill on which it’s located, it pulls the car at the bottom to the top.  We pass each other at the halfway point.

The Wellington Cable Car celebrated 100 years of service back on February 22, 2002.  I love the bright colors of the underground station where we boarded at the bottom of the hill.  It was also very cool as we rode thru the tunnel when we began our climb.  I think there were spooks and goblins on the walls to celebrate Halloween, as we rode this just after Halloween.

When we got to the top of the hill, and the end of our ride, we were at the highest point of the Wellington Botanic Gardens.  Up on the top, there are mostly trees and beautiful views of the city of Wellington and its harbor.  I especially loved the tree that had been trimmed to look like a rounded box hedge!

Altho we didn’t ride the car back down the hill, I was able to capture a shot of it leaving the upper station.  The route of this car only makes one stop, just a bit higher than midway down (and up) the hill.  The midway stop was to access a college, so folks didn’t have to walk up and down the hill.

Enjoy!

Wellington Sights

Wellington was our first stop on the North Island of New Zealand, and we had a sort of sight-seeing day there.  There was quite a bit to see, so I’ve chosen to split all we saw into 3 blog posts.  Let’s get started with the first of them….

The first sight we saw was the Parliament building.  There is an interesting story about this building.  As it stands today, it seems a bit lopsided with the sort of round beehive looking building and the entrance off on the left side.  The building originally was to have a second beehive type of structure on the opposite end of things, but they ran out of money, so they ended up with just one!

Old St. Paul’s Church was the next sight on our itinerary.  It was built in 1866, and was the parish church of Thorndon and the Anglican cathedral for Wellington until 1964.  It now serves as a meeting place for all sorts of events, and is nondenominational.  I always find it difficult to think of these smaller churches as “cathedrals” as I always picture those as very large stately buildings.  The small church tower of Old St. Paul’s is charmingly small.  There were some interesting and pretty blooms throughout the church as well.

Inside Old St. Paul’s Church, we had a treat – all the lovely woodwork!  All of the inside of Old St. Paul’s is made from native timbers.   It’s a very good example of 19^th century Gothic Revival architecture.  We did notice several large cargo straps across the top portion of the building.  It turns out those straps were giving the building stability.  It was quite damaged from a structural soundness perspective by an earthquake that hit near Wellington in 2016.  They had been gathering donations to repair that damage, and those repairs are now scheduled for May – October, 2019.

Some of our other touring took us to locations high above Wellington, where we got a good view of the harbor there, and the airport.  Our timing was good!!  In the bottom image, I caught a jet taking off from the airport!

That evening, as we left Wellington, we had a lovely sunset.  I couldn’t decide between the 3 images shown, so I decided to include them all!

Enjoy!

Boardwalk and Wineries in Picton

Our next stop in South Island, New Zealand, was in Picton.  We had time to actually take in the small port town of Picton, before heading out on our excursion of wine tasting!

The boardwalk in Picton was just a very short (5 minute) shuttle ride away.  Yes, we could have walked it, but the dock where our ship was at is a working dock and full of logs waiting to be shipped out.  The authorities felt it wasn’t safe for us to walk thru it, so it was a mandatory shuttle.  Still, worth the short ride for this very picturesque boardwalk.  A lovely park and bay full of sailboats (and other boats!).

The downtown area was also cool, with a number of different shops and eateries – we got a chuckle from the fact that this one pub had “drinking consultants” there to help out with beverage choices!  The white structure at the head of the stairs is actually an arch that is the entrance to the boardwalk from the business section of Picton.

But, on to the wineries.  New Zealand, especially the South Island, mainly produces white wines.  Jeff and I aren’t really white wine drinkers, and typically, I’m not a Pinot Noir fan, fun the pinots here were pretty tasty.

The next winery was Forrest Winery, which has a clever label on some of their wines.  The owners are both doctors – one a medical doctor and the other holds a PhD.  Therefore, the label for some of their wines has an old fashioned doctor on his bike making the rounds, as its logo!  I couldn’t resist – I actually got a t-shirt with this logo on it!

Our third, and last, winery of the day, was one called Spy Valley.  It’s a playful reference to the military satellite downlink station located near the vineyard and winery.  It was just a bit chilly to sit out and enjoy the wines at the picnic table, but I’ll bet during the summer months, this is a great way to spend an afternoon!

Enjoy!

Christchurch Botanic Gardens and Return to Akaroa

We did have just enough time after seeing the city sights of Christchurch and having a nice lunch, to see the beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens, before heading back to Akaroa.

After the sadness of so much remaining damage from the earthquakes, it was so nice to take a stroll and see some lovely blooms like these trumpet shaped flowers growing in a bunch on a large tree shrub.

This was a really different flowering bush.  The blooms are actually sitting on top of the leafy branch!  Jeff and I had never seen something like this before.

What a lovely peaceful scene this was.  I love the reflection in the water of the Avon River, which flows thru the Botanic Gardens.  They had several benches set up along the river, so people could just sit and enjoy the beauty and perhaps even get in a bit of meditation.  Altho right in the city, many parts of this garden had very little, if any, city sounds to disrupt the peace.

We also saw the same variety of blooms as the first image I showed you in different colors.  Here was a deep, rich red version of the same lovely trumpet shaped blooms.  I think it’s kind of a luscious color.

While we sat at one of the benches along the river, these 2 ducks were very happy to provide entertainment by bobbing for some food to munch on.  I was lucky enough to capture one right side up while the other is upside down!

As we started to make our way out of the garden, we strolled thru the rock garden there.  I love the contrast between the hard rock surface and the soft pink petals of the ground flowers growing there.

The Botanic Gardens dissect Hagley Park.  We exited the Botanic Garden and walked thru a bit of North Hagley Park on the way back to the shuttle to take us back to our ship.  I really love the remote feel and ultimate peace of this image, with the tree hanging over and reflecting on the Avon River.  What a lovely respite!

When we got back to Akaroa and were taking the tender boat from the dock to our ship, we passed this adorable little lighthouse in Akaroa Harbor.  For whatever reason, the sailboats weren’t out on this day.  Maybe too windy?

As we got close to the ship, I saw this great landscape that I have found is just iconic New Zealand.  The rolling hills within larger hills – it makes me feel so small and insignificant.

And, finally, farewell to Akaroa!!  Great sea, sky and bluffs!

Enjoy!

Akaroa and Christchurch City Sights

Our next stop in New Zealand was the port of Akaroa.  We were only about an hour or so from Christchurch, so we decided to take a shuttle bus to Christchurch to see those sights as well!

As we took off for Christchurch, the route provided a lovely view of the port of Akaroa.  The town of Akaroa is a small town on the Banks Peninsula of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand.  FYI – New Zealand is made up of 2 large islands – North and South Islands and several smaller islands.

On the way to Christchurch, we drove by the Southern Alps of New Zealand.  Beautiful, aren’t they?  It’s earlier in the spring down in New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere), altho these mountains are so high, I’m not certain if the snow completely melts on the top.

Along the way, we also saw some beautiful New Zealand landscapes.  There is an old saying about New Zealand – the sheep outnumber the people who live there.  While the number of sheep are declining, due to cattle and horses being raised on the islands, there are still 5 sheep for every person there!

When we got to Christchurch, the first thing we decided to do was to ride the hop-on, hop-off trolley there to get an idea of what the sights were and then decide which to check out in greater detail.  One of the sights from the trolley was this tribute to New Zealand’s fallen soldiers.  New Zealand sent troops in all the major wars – WWI, WWII, Korean War and the Vietnam War, in addition to their own internal wars.

One of the lovely pieces of architecture in Christchurch is the current Central Art Gallery.  This building originally housed Canterbury University, originally called Canterbury College, founded in 1873.  In 1961, it became an independent university and moved out of these neo-gothic structures.  

Part of this building was damaged in the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.  Most of the building is able to still be used, but there are some remaining signs of the earthquake damage.  New Zealand is within what is called the Ring of Fire, a ring of very active earthquakes.  Alaska and California are also part of this Ring of Fire.

This damaged clock tower is another reminder of the damage of those earthquakes.  The 2010 earthquake was a 7.1 earthquake, but happened during the middle of the night, and was a lateral earthquake.  The earth shifted from side to side, but there wasn’t much visible damage and no deaths. This earthquake and its aftershocks did weaken the buildings in Christchurch and made the second earthquake much more damaging.  

The second earthquake hit on February 22, 2011, just before 1pm.   It was centered just over a mile away from the port town of Lyttleton and about 6 miles southeast of the center of Christchurch.  There was significant damage as was particularly evident at Christ Church Cathedral.  It was New Zealand’s fifth-deadliest disaster, killing 185 people.  The port town of Lyttleton used to be the port where the cruise ships docked, and our bus guide told us of the shuttle he was bringing back to the ship when the quake hit.  He could not pull onto the formal dock, because it had cracked enough from the quake to make it unstable for vehicles.  He had to let off the sightseers on the far end of the dock, and they literally ran to the safety of the ship.  They have been working to restore the port at Lyttleton, but as of the time of our cruise, it still could not accept the cruise ships.  They are hoping that within the next year or so, cruise ships will again begin to use that port.

This scene was especially saddening to me.  It’s of one of the entrances to the Christ Church Cathedral.  In our travels, most of the churches we came across were open to the public throughout the day.  The bar across the entrance of this cathedral just seems to be the antithesis of what the churches and cathedrals in New Zealand stand for.  The plan for this cathedral is to be rebuilt to look as much like the original as possible.  They hope to retain and reuse as many of the original materials as they can and recreate much of the same design on both the interior and exterior.  Unfortunately, more than 7 ½ years after the second earthquake, significant work has yet to begin.  All of the scaffolding, etc. that is there is trying to keep the building standing.  Why the delay?  The trolley guides could only offer one reason – financing.  But, all of Christchurch is not this depressing.  In my next post, you’ll see some of the beauty of a special place in Christchurch.

Enjoy!