On New Year’s Eve we visited New Zealand’s premier museum, Te Papa Tongarewa (Our Place). The museum covers the geology, natural history, and cultural history and art of the country. We learned that many animals and plants have become extinct since the islands were settled by Maori and Europeans who introduced many non-native species that changed the ecosystem. It is apparent that scientists do not have complete knowledge of native vs non-native plants and animals, but efforts are being made for more complete understanding.

We found out that a bird that we saw and heard in Rotorua on the 27th is called a Tui; its unique call is enabled by two voice boxes! We walked over a rope suspension bridge outdoors and went into an artificial cave complete with stalactites and stalagmites as well as glow-worms (see entry for December 28th for the real thing). A giant squid was also on display, encased in resin.

When European settlers arrived in the late 19th century they brought many plants and animals with them. This included farm animals and the grasses to feed them. They proceeded to cut down the native forest and created large farms and stations to raise cattle and sheep. The transformation of the land to accommodate these industries happened quite fast; the settlers even imported grasses to stabilize coastal sand dunes.

A major portion of the museum is devoted to Maori history and the conflicts between these “indigenous” tribal people and the later settlers. A treaty signed by representatives of England and many tribal leaders established a peaceful coexistence but was much later determined to have unfairly moved the Maori off of their lands. These disputes are still being settled today. The Maori language and art exhibits were quite extensive and many Maori were present as both visitors and docents.
*****Written by Brian*****

Nerding (v): it’s a bit like birding, except that you are not seeking out nerds. You ARE the nerds. And you seek out nerdy things at which to direct your inner nerd. On this day, we succeeding in nerding magnificently. Oh yes, we did.

First off, let me say that the BnB we stayed at in Wellington was phenomenal. Views, comfort, delicious breakfast, the works.

Across the street was the bay. It was gorgeous.

Anyway, we had a tour to get to that morning. A tour at the Weta Workshop, a place of creativity, wonder, and engineering. The Weta Workshop designs props and sets for many movies. Among these movies, of course, was the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. We started off in the gift shop, milling around until our tour began.

This is actually outside of the gift shop. Just a tiny taste of what was to come. (Not to mention the troll stench. Ew.)

Gollum welcomed us into the shop. Just… don’t look at the price tag. We sort of went around the shop as if it were a museum: a place where items are stared at rather than purchased.

And this Uruk-Hai growling at a Christmas tree is just hilarious. In the shop, weapons and models lined the shelves.

Our tour began. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the workshop. Although the projects are created there, the workshop may not own the rights to the images themselves. Plus, they were working on projects that obviously haven’t been in theaters yet. This made the workshop tour so incredibly real. It is where the team does the work. We even saw a guy designing a demon on his computer in Z Brush. He seemed pretty casual about the whole thing.

The high ceilings had beams across them supporting models of creatures, masks, sets, and more. Everywhere you looked, there was something new. A full suit of Sauron’s armor. A gun from District 9. Many different sets of chain mail. A mini 3D printer, working away. We passed around Thorin Oakenshield’s shield. We gawked and drooled and asked questions. Everything your nerdy dreams are made of, my friends. The Weta Workshop has it. You can learn more at their website by following this link. (And no, I’m not getting paid for this blog post.)

The design process fascinated me. It starts, of course, with an idea. That idea is developed in software such as Autodesk Maya or Z Brush. This can be 3D printed or CNC cut. This version is taken to artists who carve more details into the form. Then a cast is made in silicon. The cast can be used again and again to create props out of most types of plastic. These final versions are painted, and you see them on the big screen. For weapons, often there is a master version made in aluminum that is then used to make a simpler plastic version: the metal one is for detail shots, but the plastic one is used for combat.

I really can’t do the place justice. I had to manually hold my jaw in place to keep it from dropping every few seconds. I really love seeing technology and art come together so seamlessly.

When we left the workshop, we began the second leg of our geeky Wellington adventure. We drove down the beautiful coast to find Red Rocks, or perhaps in more familiar terms, The Black Gate.

An army once marched here, Frodo and Sam watching from a nearby cliff. Rewatching The Two Towers is definitely on our to-do list when we return home.

As the Gate begins to close, Sam sees their one chance to sneak into Mordor. He leaves their cliff hide out and stumbles down a slope of rocks, in which he gets stuck. Frodo scrambles down and hides them both in his Elvish cloak just in time. Of course, we aren’t 100% sure, but we know the scenes were filmed in the area and this seems pretty close!

Next, we went back into town to find Mount Victoria. Now, you have to understand something… Wellington is like a crazier version of San Francisco in the way it is laid out. Streets wind their way up and down hills right to the coast. It’s really difficult to navigate. So on our way to the base of Mount Victoria, we instead ended up on a road that took us to the lookout.

A view of Wellington. We soon made it to our destination, and wandered through the trees, guided only by GPS and our memories of the movies. We sought the scene just outside of the Shire, where Frodo urges to fellow Hobbits to “Get off the road!” and they all hide under some tree roots from the approaching Nazgul. It was, admittedly, more popular than we thought. We followed a sign simply stating “Hobbits’ Hideaway.”

Get off the road!!!! **insert darkness and mist here**

Scared Hobbits hiding. Obviously the giant tree roots in the movie were synthetic, but this seems like the right place. Or close enough.

We were tired nerds at this place, so we found ourselves a late afternoon snack and explored downtown Wellington. It’s a pretty cool city.  We had one last thing to find.

This is it.
Are you surprised?

It’s a pirate themed speakeasy. Ahoy!

*****Written by Checkers*****

Today our main attraction was, unfortunately, the longest drive on the North Island: six hours from Lake Taupo to Wellington. Luckily we were able to punctuate the long drive with fun side trips. As you know, we love side trips. Our drive south from Lake Taupo took us first through Tongariro National Park, New Zealand’s first national park.

Recognize that haunting sillhouette? That is Peter Jackson’s inspiration for Mount Doom, called Mount Ngauruhoe. Ngaruhoe is tapu (sacred) to the Maori, so they were unable to film on the actual mountain peak. Far off scenes of Mount Doom were either CGI or a model, or a combination of the two. Some close up scenes were filmed on the slopes of Ruapehu. You can go a decent way up both mountains, and the track (hike) between them is one of the most popular in New Zealand – you need reservations just to walk on it.

Mount Ruapehu from afar. After taking some photos, we continued south through the park and followed our guidebook to Tauro Ski Area, on the southern part of Ruapehu. This is where they filmed many scenes taking place in Mordor, as well as some specific scenes the Two Towers of Gollum catching fish. And you might be laughing at our nerd dedication at this point. It’s a fun excuse to see parts of this strange and wild country we would never have bothered with otherwise, so nerd culture for the win!

Imagine this hill swarming with Orcs while Frodo and Sam blend in with their Elvish cloaks. YES. It was cold at the summit though, so we drove back down the windy steep road. We kept our keen elf eyes open to find kilometer marker 14, where our guidebook says Gollum caught a fish in a stream. Umm. Well then. Good thing Checkers and I have watched those movies a million times!

My only wish, to catch a fish, so juicy sweeeet! And we may be extrapolating here, but we think we found the Forbidden Pool as well, where Gollum catches a fish (he likes doing that) and is almost shot by Faramir’s men. Our guidebook told us to look for Mangawhero falls, and this is it.

Maybe? We thought so. Just imagine more of a waterfall with the secret cave behind it. Well, this is all we had time to see in the national park, so we finally rejoined what they deem state highways and continued south to Wellington. But was this is the end of the the Lord of the Rings side tours? I DON’T THINK SO.

This is the Rangatiki River, and also one of the four rivers they used to portray the River Anduín when the Fellowship canoes down towards Amon Hen from Lothlorien, and the conclusion of the Fellowship of the Ring. Coincidentally, the supposed tallest bungee jump in New Zealand, but it was closed.

From here, we had another three hours to go, and driving in New Zealand, while slightly more exciting than in the US (left side of the road, windy narrow highways, no streetlights), it is still driving. We arrived without incident in Wellington, and a long comfortable stay at Beachfront Bed and Breakfast awaited us.

*****Written by Laura*****

I remember when I was young, we had glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling to mimick the night sky. Simply a bit of phosphorescence, and I was transported to another realm. This was the same feeling that struck me as I looked up in a cave and saw… stars. Except they were actually bioluminescent bugs.

The Glow Worm caves are a big attraction here, and though we have explored caves before, we felt this was one spot we couldn’t miss.

The cave tour started at a synthetic cave entrance. A funny thing, really: they tried to make the cement look like sandstone.
We entered the ground through a giant sliding metal door. The temperature started to drop. In the darkness, yellow and white lights appeared in a giant spiral.

The beginning of the tour talked about cave formations as we went deeper into the Earth. Stalactites, stalagmites, cave curtains, you know the drill. Along the sides of the walkway, there were sensors that beeped aggressively when you got too close to the formations. Our guide joked that ninjas would drop down from the ceiling if it happened more than three times. Honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the beginning. Before long, we arrived at what I really wanted to see.

The cave opened into a chamber, and above us there were bright teal stars. Of course, it wasn’t the night sky we were seeing but glow worms. They are very difficult to photograph without fancy equipment. They  are way, way brighter than this, and there are far more of them. If you’re curious, I highly recommend looking up better photos online. They are truly incredible.

We learned that glow worms are actually glow maggots. They are usually above running water in caves because they feed off of insects. The insects fly up to their bioluminescent light and get caught in their dangling strings.

These strings are made of mostly mucus. Gross. The mystique of glow worms was destroyed a little, but I am still fascinated by their strange glowing lives. I could have spent hours in that room. However, the tour continued. The next big room we went into was dubbed simply “the pretty room.”

So many cool formations!

My favorite was seeing the reflections in the pool. Yes, there’s a pool there.

The cave we were in, Ruakuri, was named as such from a Maori story. It translates to the cave of two dogs. There is a part of the cave that is sacred: it is a burial site. Tours do not go in that area any more. The cave itself was privately owned for years before being seized by the government. Eventually it was restored to the original owner who much later agreed to private tours if they took care of the cave and kept everything in good condition. He had put up this sign to ward off the curious, and it still stands.

One of the last walkways we went through was lit in blue.

It was named the Ghostwalk. Apparently some spooky ‘incidents’ happened down here.

Eventually we returned to the bright light of day and had a late lunch at a local cafe.

*****Written by Checkers*****