Day 64:

December 31st, New Year’s Eve we flew from Sydney, Australia to Wellington, New Zealand. We arrived in Wellington in the late afternoon. We grabbed our bags and headed straight outdoors to call an Uber so we could…

“January is when you will find the driest weather in New Zealand. You should expect long warm days with lots of sunshine and little rain.”  Lies, I tell you, they’re all lies. Invented by marketers to get us gullible Americans to fly half-way around the world to spend money. 48 degrees and sideways rain. That’s what it is. And spending money? That’s not even a question. Holy crap, dear! Look at the price of that admission ticket. That’s as much as it costs for a full day at Six Flags in US dollars. And it’s a 60-minute tourist trap tops. Trap I say! Lies I say! Marketing mucky muck!

“John, dear, you may be setting the wrong tone for this blog from the start. We don’t want to give the idea that New Zealand” … lies I tell you, lies … “Alright honey. It’s going to be all okay. Just sit down right here beside me. Yes, yes, just right here next to me. It’s okay. I have a little helper for you. Here’s a nice little yellow pill. That’s my little hubby dubby. Now give it a moment. That’s it. Just one moment longer. There, now. Isn’t that all better, dear? Aren’t you a sweet fellow, now? Who’s my little buddy? Who’s my little buddy?”

Ah…look at all the lovely ferns and pretty flowers. They look so dainty and happy when they are wet with rain. The rain is lovely. I love it when it drips from my hat and down the back of my shirt like that. Wow, feel the wind make it extra cold. Being cold is lovely. Look, Faith, my lips are the same color as that blue flower. How neat is that?

Hey! Can you see my breath? It’s like a fog machine at a happy concert in a happy theater on a happy, happy New Year’s Eve. They say that they may have to cancel the fireworks. I love it when they cancel the fireworks. I love fireworks. And I love cancelled fireworks. I love all kinds of fireworks.

Hey, look. See how the wind blew that little bird into the side of that building? Happy little bird. It’s so relaxed, it’s just sleeping right there on the sidewalk. It’s so lovely. It’s so peaceful. Oh, look now. It’s in that puddle next to the sidewalk. How precious. It’s taking a bath. So happy. Wow, Faith, look how long it can hold its breath! So peaceful. “And it was all yellow.”

“And now back to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.”

…the hotel after a pleasant and informative ride from the airport in our Uber. We dropped our luggage in our room and stepped out to take in a little of the city and to have a bite of dinner. It was cold, windy and wet. I may have covered that elsewhere, I’m not sure. We bundled up and walked down to the piers in downtown Wellington.

We were thinking that the weather might have resulted in some reservation cancellations at the waterfront. Apparently, so was everybody else. We managed to find the last table at a fixed price dinner for $117 per person NZD. Yikes! Okay, so it was $63 in USD per person. Ah, well. New Year’s Eve and all that. It was a pretty good dinner. Not sure if it was $125 USD good. But pretty good.

When we left the restaurant, a scratchiness was forming in the back of my throat. We decided to head back to our room. It was around 8 PM. Fireworks for the kids were planned for 9:30 though they announced that they might cancel if the weather didn’t mellow. Waiting in the warm hotel room seemed a better idea than standing in the sideways rain.

Our room was on the 11th floor directly downtown about three or four blocks from where the fireworks were to be shot off. We hung out, watched TV and waited. After an hour in the nice warm room, we figured we would find a local station and watch the festivities on the tele if they weren’t cancelled. We didn’t find a local station.

And we almost missed out. The rain and wind calmed sometime before midnight. We heard the hollow booms right on schedule. I opened the curtains figuring there was no chance we would see the fireworks with another tower between us and the bay, but we might see the brightness in the clouds. Son-of-a-gun! We had one of the most interesting views of fireworks I have ever had. The left third to half of each big explosion was plainly visible around the side of the other building. And the explosions were visible in the glass panes of another building just up the hill and to the left of us. It was a strangely fun way to ring in the new year.

Day 65:

The weather report showed rain, cold and wind. It was around 50 degrees (10 C) when we left the hotel after breakfast. The scratchiness I had the night before was now a mild sore throat. I picked up a bug either from the plane trip or from the crowd at the Sydney Tower Eye the evening before we left. So, indoors activities it was.

If you have followed our blogs to this point, you’ll know that we love museums as much as we love the outdoors. We started the day at the Wellington Museum. The museum is in an 1800’s warehouse that has been lovingly restored and converted. Though small, it had an impressive little collection of artifacts and stories from the history of Wellington including its early tribal settlers and its later colonials.

It was a quirky museum that was good fun to visit. We spent about 90 minutes at the museum taking in most every display from late-19th century artifacts and technology to some early-21st century stuff. There were boats, and cameras, and stakes for stabbing vampires, and paintings, and…

Kinda glossed right past that one, didn’t I? Yes indeed. They had a handsome collection of vampire-killing stakes from Wellington residents of the late 19th century. It didn’t appear that any had been used. Unless they had been washed afterward. Or perhaps left out in the sun for the vampire blood to disintegrate.

After the Wellington Museum, we walked the pier south to Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand. Te Papa is a cross between a natural history museum, an indigenous people’s museum, and a people of New Zealand museum. The most impressive section for me was the Gallipoli diorama.

You may recall the Anzac Memorial from our Sydney blog—named for ANZAC, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. That was a memorial primarily about WWI. Anzac had a dedicated nook for Gallipoli. During WWI, Australian and New Zealand forces landed on the peninsula of Gallipoli, Turkey in Europe along with British and French troops. The objective was to take control of the Turkish straight between the Mediterranean Sea (Aegean specifically) and the Black Sea. The battle with Turkey was long, brutal and ended poorly for the ANZAC forces.

Peter Jackson and the Weta Workshop in nearby Miramar created a super-scale exhibit of the war. The exhibit consists of 1.4 scale, larger-than-life statues in a set of war dioramas. These are not Madame Tussaud’s wax figures. They have beard stubble, skinned knuckles and sweat on their foreheads. The level of detail is astounding and deeply moving. The war in Gallipoli was terrible. Roughly 20% to 25% of the New Zealand combat forces in Gallipoli were killed.

Please note that I am not glorifying war. I don’t think this exhibit did either. I think it showed the terrible, brutal nature of the war in Gallipoli. It definitely highlighted the concept of “honor” though I think “sorrow”, “fear” and “loss” were far more prevalent than any sense of “glory”.

Beyond the Gallipoli exhibit, the museum had a nice natural history collection and a great collection of indigenous art and artifacts. By this point, I was running down. My cold had caught up with me. We took a super-fast tour through the rest of the museum before sitting for a while.

After a rest, we walked a few blocks from the museum to have dinner at a highly rated American food restaurant. No reservation. No dice. We had burgers at the pub next door. We had a nice visit with a woman from Ireland and a man from northern England, both of whom lived in Wellington for around a half-dozen years. We didn’t get either of their names. So, henceforth they shall be immortalized as the Wellington Irish Lady and the Wellington British Dude. Wellington Irish Lady shared several restaurant tips for us as we sat together chatting about our travels, and about Ireland and England.

By the time we finished dinner, I was severely spent. We grabbed an Uber back to the hotel and crashed early.

Day 66: 

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. If you are familiar with the filming of LOTR, you will know that it was filmed in New Zealand. In fact, several scenes were shot right around Wellington. Nerd 1 had a firm plan to LOTR-inate while in Wellington. Kinda-nerd 2 was almost as enthusiastic.

The rain from Tuesday and Wednesday had thoroughly soaked everything, but the sun was out on Thursday, and it was a balmy 57 F by the time we set out for Mount Victoria. This is one of the mountains forming a semicircular arc around Wellington, hemming the city between the hills and the adjacent bay. The mountain boasts fabulous views of the downtown section, several of the bays near Wellington, the Miramar peninsula and more.

And it has the spot where Frodo and the Hobbits found mushrooms in the forest before one of the black riders showed up. It has the nook where they took refuge from the black rider, though the tree that was over the top of the nook was a set prop that was removed after the scene was shot.

It also has the spot where Frodo sat in a tree smoking his pipe before he and Sam met the elves who were leaving Middle Earth.

     Frodo: "They're going to the harbor beyond the White Towers. To the Grey Havens."

     Sam: "They're leaving Middle-earth."

     Frodo: "Never to return."

     Sam: "I don't know why - it makes me sad."

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

We went. We posed. We posed some more. We got muddy. We were cold. Did I mention I had a pretty serious sore throat by then? I didn’t feel a thing but the glow of memories and imaginings that span from my teen years until now. That includes my most recent re-read of the series not 6 months ago and my most recent watch of the extended LOTR movie set not a year ago. The greatest fantasy series ever written hands-down in my opinion. And Peter Jackson did LOTR proud with his movies. Now for Peter Jackson’s the Hobbit…well…we’ll leave that one be. The book was fabulous as well. Enough said about that.

After getting my nerd on, we headed to the lookout to…look out. We looked. Out. The view is fabulous. And windy. And cold. It was sunny and had heated up to about 58 F. Thankfully, we both wore raincoats and layers. It didn’t rain, but the coats were great wind breakers and helped to lock in our body heat.

After we had enough of the wind, we grabbed an Uber back downtown to the cable car. Wellington has had a cable car since the beginning of the 20th century. The current cars have been taking riders up the Te Ahumairangi Hill to the neighborhood of Kelburn since 1979. The Wellington Botanic Garden and the Zealandia Te Mara a Tane nature reserve are up there. The cable car is a funicular, a counterweighted hill-climbing cable car system. The counterweight is the other cable car. One goes up while the other goes down connected to a shared cable.

We rode to the top and took in the Botanic Gardens. We quickly found that the gardens make a steep track from the cable car station all the way back down the hill. I was feeling the yuck of Mr. or Ms. Rhinovirus prominently by this time and was in no mood to walk all the way down and back. “There and back again” is hunky-dory for a healthy Hobbit. We agreed to walk down as far as the succulents about 1/3 of the way down the hill. It was a lovely walk past the Australian Gardens (a dinky little section we almost missed and with which we were not impressed) and the Hydrangeas.

The Hydrangeas were in full, spectacular bloom. Picture clusters of whites, pinks, purples, violets, blues and every shade in between. Smell the little drafts of sweetness in the sharply flowing wind. The cacti were also in bloom. Hard to imagine that they weren’t freaking dying by then. Brrr, was it cold. Good grief, Charlie Brown. Who ordered that weather anyway? It certainly wasn’t us. Maybe somebody had just arrived home from the Australian Outback and burned a bundle of kiwi feathers to the wind and rain gods. We kept moving. “If we keep moving, we won’t freeze,” she says. “If you get suddenly warm, call out for help. That’s hypothermia setting in.” 

Back at the top of the hill, we caught a free shuttle over to Zealandia. Now, that was more like it. Zealandia is nestled between two large hills. Very little wind. Lots of sun. And a wealth of birds and lizards that are not lizards. “They look like lizards,” he says. “They aren’t lizards,” the ranger replies. “They are their own species of reptile that have survived 240 million years. They lived with the dinosaurs.”

“Damn, those are some freaking old lizards,” he says to his wife. Smack! “Ouch, why did you hit me?” he asks. “Don’t be obtuse!” she says. “What is obtuse?” he asks as he dances just out of reach. Crack! “Darn, girl, where did you find that rock????”

Zealandia apparently has a large population of endangered kiwis. No! Not the fruit. The bird. After which, the fruit is named. For its furry skin. Kiwi are a unique species of flightless bird that grow to about a foot tall and look like…well… they are darn hard to describe. A little brownish furball (like a short-haired Tribble, IYKYK) bobbing around on spindly legs with a soda straw sticking out of their head.

Anyway, they are true nocturnal birds. The only way to see them is at night or in a special exhibit that reverses day and night. More on that in the next blog. That’s foreshadowing. All the night tours in Zealandia were booked through February. Needless to say, we didn’t see any kiwi. Not there, anyway. Another portent of things yet to be perhaps?

We shuttled back to the cable car and took a quick walk through the upper part of the adjacent museum. The rest of the museum was closed by then. It was just before 5 PM. We snapped a few pictures and then took the cable car back down the hill.

We caught an Uber to Cuba Street, a popular street for dining and shopping. We ate at a terrific Turkish place called Kisa, one of the restaurants that Wellington Irish Lady had recommended. We sat at the bar (no reservations…again). The bartender was from Coers D’Alene Idaho. He was visiting New Zealand on a work visa.

We chatted. We ate. We drank. Soda, that is. Alcohol and I have become unfriendly. Better said, my body and alcohol have become unfriendly. Alcohol intolerance SUCKS! But it was for the best. Alcohol, rhinovirus and my body are all counter-indicated. Definitely for the best. The food was great, and the company was nice.   

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel.

Day 67

I was feeling pretty rotten by Friday. Darn! We had tickets to visit the Weta Workshop that afternoon. That’s the company that made set props for LOTR and the Gallipoli exhibit. I was not about to miss that. So, we took it really easy. We went to a pharmacy and got a bunch of zinc, elderberry, vitamin c, dead chicken feet, warts from the New Zealand southern bell frog, incense, a sacrificial altar, and…well…maybe not those last four. We looked for them. You believe me, right?

You do? Really? Was it my tone of voice? No, no, no, it couldn’t be that. I wrote it. No voice to have a tone. Hmm. Was it my clever use of commas and ellipses? I need to know. It’s, uhm, it’s purely for research reasons. Yes, research. I’m asking for a friend. Don’t tell Faith. She doesn’t like the word, “ellipses”. It’s best not to say anything about it. I know, she’s kind of weird like that.

The first part of the day we spent downtown. Our first stops were the WWI and WWII memorial and the government buildings. The Beehive building is dedicated to the executive branch, where the prime minister’s office and the PM’s workforce do their day jobs. It is shaped as it is named, a round, hive-looking structure.

Next door to the Beehive is the Houses of Parliament and the Parliamentary Library. The Houses of Parlement is a pretty typical government building. The Parliamentary Library is one of the oldest government buildings in Wellington dating back to 1899. It is an impressive Victorian Gothic wood building that was recently updated.

A few blocks east of the parliament buildings is the Old St. Paul’s Church. It is the “Old” version because a replacement was built in 1966 as the official Anglican Church Diocese of Wellington. The building was purchased by the city for historical preservation. It is a lovely wooden structure with stained glass windows and high, arched ceilings. The original windows were white or clear. The stained glass was added over the lifetime of the church’s use under individual commissions.

After the church, we spent some time buzzing around the piers, getting nearly blown over by the wind. It was some crazy sideways wind. Apparently, it is common in Wellington. So much so that there on the pier is a statue of a fellow being supported by the wind as he hangs over the water’s edge.    

For me, all of the above for day 67 were filler. They were like expanding foam insulation, meant to take up an empty space. The afternoon, as previously noted, was dedicated to the Weta Workshop. These are the folks that built most of the props for the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit and other way, less important and interesting stuff. There’s some Black Panther and Thor stuff, there’s some King Kong and Mulan, blah, blah, blah. AND there are Lord of the Rings and Hobbit props.

They have life-size trolls in front of the building, swords, hammers, clubs, scale figures, and tons of other props from the series. All told, the Weta Workshop has won 5 Academy Awards for their work on the Lord of the Rings and King Kong. We were taken on a tour of the workshop and met a couple of artists who worked on props for Weta. It was super-cool. As I said, I’ve loved LOTR since I was a teen. Peter Jackson and Weta made it come to life for me. I’ve read the series along with the hobbit perhaps 10 times.

Day 68

We checked out of our hotel early on Saturday, January 4, to get started on our drive up toward Auckland.

- See you along the road to Auckland -