Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Wine and Lord of the Rings baby Yah!
For my birthday we stayed in the same place for two nights in a row, a luxury. It poured rain for my birthday, yummy, but we just hung out and read books inside. We had some fun roommates, one from Germany and one from England who we chatted with off and on, and after dinner we played Phase 10 with a Japanese girl we met. Later that evening Mike stuck some candles in two slices of cake he'd found and sung me happy birthday. Overall is was uneventful and lovely because of that!
Saturday the 5th we headed to Napier on the east coast. It is wine country and the city is apparently the 'Art Deco' capital of NZ. When we arrived it was practically shorts weather and we wandered around town and along the Pacific Ocean for the afternoon. The next day we woke to rain and cold but it cleared up in no time so we wandered down to the information center to see what there was to see in the area. We ended up signing ourselves up for a winery tour and it was fabulous. The tour included transportation, a very important factor, and tastings at 5 different wineries. Originally we thought about driving out to some on our own, but we quickly realized that it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. For one thing we'd only have made it to 1, maybe 2, wineries cuz boy you drink more than you expect. We ended up in a van full of 8 people all about our age. There were four couples and only one person had been tasting before, so at the first winery, and my favorite, the elderly gentleman helping us gave us some tips. He was a hoot and got the ball rolling rather quickly as we tried 8 wines in less than 45 minutes-and he wasn't skimping on tastes! We were practically gulping it down. Looking back it would have been nicer to savor things a bit but it was the first place and no one was very talkative. SO it worked to our advantage to get a quick buzz going. Most of the other wineries were more relaxed and we were able to mingle with the other people and much on crackers.
By the last winery, my lips were numb and both of us were very happy not to have to drive anywhere. We decided to meet up with two of the other couples for dinner an hour after being dropped off so we went to the hostel to freshen up and headed back out for some much needed food. We went to a funny little place where they served Tapas (appetizers) and pizzas. We chatted and laughed and got many pointers on where to go for the rest of our travels (the others were all Kiwis) and headed back happy and tired!
Our next leg of the trip was to head south to Wellington and poke around for a couple days before the ferry ride. We almost made it to Wellington and then decided to spend the night in the Hutt River Valley and see what was there to save ourselves that leg on the way back. We decided against a hostel and instead found a holiday park that was, of all places, in the Isengard Gardens! Wow, was that cool! We wandered around in the gardens where Gandalf and Sarumon walked in the first movie when Saruman was still supposedly a good guy. They built a gravel path through this clearing and it's the entrance to Isengard that Gandalf takes on his horse as he approached. Afterwards they completley removed the path and replanted the grass!
It's also where they filmed the cutting down of the Orc Trees from the first movie at Isengard. In a book we found it told about how they imported two huge trees roots and all to the site, dug holes and put iron poles in them and then reassembled the trees there on the site, only they added hinges. AMAZING stuff. Then a team spent two weeks wiring on fake leaves since the tree, having gone through significant trauma didn't have enough. Then when they filmed the scene, in the rain, they could cut the trees down over and over from different angles with the hinges just putting them back up. Fascinating.
I guess the crew was there in the Holiday Park we were in for 10 days during filming. The guy who owns it now wasn't around then but remembers them there and he gave us a poster of an article run in the Wellington paper. Fun stuff and we were so in the Lord of the Rings mode we got out our maps and found some more places...
None of the original sets are still around of course, but the area and trees and all were great fun to see. We found Rivendell, the elven city:
After taking photos of Rivendell we took a quick hike into the woods and we had to cross the river on a fun swing bridge. It wasn't terribly high and we had fun rocking it as we walked.
And the Great River Anduin:
This river actually comes into the movie in multiple places and each time was filmed on a different river in NZ, but this part of the river Anduin is shown in the first movie when the fellowship leaves Lothlorien and floats down the river to continue their journey. I'm dying to watch the first one again and see the places we've seen but it'll have to wait til we find somewhere with a VCR or DVD player, grr.
We drove past Minas Tirith and Helms Deep as well but they were filmed in a working quarry so we weren't able to go in there. We just waved as we drove by. We also drove past the Pelenor Fields (where the final battle below Minas Tirith took place) Don't I sound knowledgeable about the films? We were inspired after our touring around the spots and found a book store last night where we read up on the movie and the sets and such.
Today we take the ferry across the Cook Straight to the south island, and more adventures await us there, I'm sure...
Saturday the 5th we headed to Napier on the east coast. It is wine country and the city is apparently the 'Art Deco' capital of NZ. When we arrived it was practically shorts weather and we wandered around town and along the Pacific Ocean for the afternoon. The next day we woke to rain and cold but it cleared up in no time so we wandered down to the information center to see what there was to see in the area. We ended up signing ourselves up for a winery tour and it was fabulous. The tour included transportation, a very important factor, and tastings at 5 different wineries. Originally we thought about driving out to some on our own, but we quickly realized that it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. For one thing we'd only have made it to 1, maybe 2, wineries cuz boy you drink more than you expect. We ended up in a van full of 8 people all about our age. There were four couples and only one person had been tasting before, so at the first winery, and my favorite, the elderly gentleman helping us gave us some tips. He was a hoot and got the ball rolling rather quickly as we tried 8 wines in less than 45 minutes-and he wasn't skimping on tastes! We were practically gulping it down. Looking back it would have been nicer to savor things a bit but it was the first place and no one was very talkative. SO it worked to our advantage to get a quick buzz going. Most of the other wineries were more relaxed and we were able to mingle with the other people and much on crackers.
By the last winery, my lips were numb and both of us were very happy not to have to drive anywhere. We decided to meet up with two of the other couples for dinner an hour after being dropped off so we went to the hostel to freshen up and headed back out for some much needed food. We went to a funny little place where they served Tapas (appetizers) and pizzas. We chatted and laughed and got many pointers on where to go for the rest of our travels (the others were all Kiwis) and headed back happy and tired!
Our next leg of the trip was to head south to Wellington and poke around for a couple days before the ferry ride. We almost made it to Wellington and then decided to spend the night in the Hutt River Valley and see what was there to save ourselves that leg on the way back. We decided against a hostel and instead found a holiday park that was, of all places, in the Isengard Gardens! Wow, was that cool! We wandered around in the gardens where Gandalf and Sarumon walked in the first movie when Saruman was still supposedly a good guy. They built a gravel path through this clearing and it's the entrance to Isengard that Gandalf takes on his horse as he approached. Afterwards they completley removed the path and replanted the grass!
It's also where they filmed the cutting down of the Orc Trees from the first movie at Isengard. In a book we found it told about how they imported two huge trees roots and all to the site, dug holes and put iron poles in them and then reassembled the trees there on the site, only they added hinges. AMAZING stuff. Then a team spent two weeks wiring on fake leaves since the tree, having gone through significant trauma didn't have enough. Then when they filmed the scene, in the rain, they could cut the trees down over and over from different angles with the hinges just putting them back up. Fascinating.
I guess the crew was there in the Holiday Park we were in for 10 days during filming. The guy who owns it now wasn't around then but remembers them there and he gave us a poster of an article run in the Wellington paper. Fun stuff and we were so in the Lord of the Rings mode we got out our maps and found some more places...
None of the original sets are still around of course, but the area and trees and all were great fun to see. We found Rivendell, the elven city:
After taking photos of Rivendell we took a quick hike into the woods and we had to cross the river on a fun swing bridge. It wasn't terribly high and we had fun rocking it as we walked.
And the Great River Anduin:
This river actually comes into the movie in multiple places and each time was filmed on a different river in NZ, but this part of the river Anduin is shown in the first movie when the fellowship leaves Lothlorien and floats down the river to continue their journey. I'm dying to watch the first one again and see the places we've seen but it'll have to wait til we find somewhere with a VCR or DVD player, grr.
We drove past Minas Tirith and Helms Deep as well but they were filmed in a working quarry so we weren't able to go in there. We just waved as we drove by. We also drove past the Pelenor Fields (where the final battle below Minas Tirith took place) Don't I sound knowledgeable about the films? We were inspired after our touring around the spots and found a book store last night where we read up on the movie and the sets and such.
Today we take the ferry across the Cook Straight to the south island, and more adventures await us there, I'm sure...
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