One Does Simply Walk Into Mordor

BUT WE DID!!! 

Let me back track. We have just begun our 11 day long tour of the North Island. We (Hannah, Dejan, Pier and I) decided to rent a car so that we had the flexibility to get to all the spots we wanted to see. Our first day (Friday the 8th), we went on a Lord of the Rings tour around New Zealand. A tour guide took us to different scenes and then we went to the Weta Caves. Not only did the Weta Caves work on LOTRs, but it's also home to special effects for movies like Avatar, District 9, King Kong and many more. 

The first scene we went to was right after Frodo and Sam left the Shire. Being that they are Hobbits, they probably decided to stop for Second Breakfast or Elevenses. Like usual, Sam is doing the cooking and Frodo is contemplating life.

The second scene we went to was soon after Frodo and Sam ran into Merry and Pippin in Farmer Maggot's crops. They were all running away when a cliff came up and Sam accidentally pushed them all over. They came tumbling down the hill and landed in a big Hobbit pile. (I couldn't find a picture from the scene in the movie).

As Sam, Merry, and Pippin are picking mushrooms, Frodo feels evil approaching. 

The fourth scene, although it runs into the previous one, is when Frodo yells "Get off the road!". All the Hobbits run under a giant tree. Fun fact: The bugs that crawl over the Hobbits while hiding, were indeed real bugs! 

Unfortunately, there actually wasn't a tree there, so we had to improvise...

The last scene we went to was right as the Hobbits were running to Huckleberry Ferry to get away from the Ringwraiths.  

After the scenes tour, we headed to Weta Caves. The Weta Caves is responsible for all of the special effects in LOTR, including creating the miniatures of Rohan and Gondor and building armor for the Orcs. 

We saw this sign on the tour. Wellington is known for being a very windy city. 

Hannah found herself a new boyfriend at the Weta Cave.

Selfie with Gollum #besties 

An example of a goblin that Weta Caves created for LOTR

Hobbit feet! They were very fragile, so Peter Jackson would hire people to carry the hobbits to different places in the scenes so they wouldn't tear their feet. 

Big ol' troll from the Hobbit

On Friday night, we took a 4 hour drive north to a little town called Turangi, home of the Tongariro Crossing. This hike is a 19.4 km hike, and if you want to climb Mt. Doom, you can add an extra 3 hours. That's right people, MT. DOOOM!!! Peter Jackson (director of Lord of the Rings) decided that this place would make for the perfect Mordor. The hike started out pretty easy, along a flat, alpine ecosystem, with a lovely stream going through it. 

It was a pretty cloudy day, so we couldn't get a full view of the mountain we were about to climb 

This entire area is on a volcano that could erupt at anytime... very similar to Mt. Doom... as we climbed higher and higher, we could start to imagine what Frodo and Sam had to go through... 

The picture was taken right after we climbed "The Devil's Staircase"... I didn't know my quads could burn like that...

As we climbed higher and higher (hoping that the next hill would be the last), it got more foggy and windy. It was now mountain against Hobbits... I...I mean humans 

This is the Maori name of Mt. Doom. We ended up not climbing it because it was so windy. There is no track up there, so it would have been very dangerous. 

To the left of this picture was the hardest part of the whole hike. The wind was so terrible that people were pulling each other up and falling over onto their hands and knees! Some took refuge behind a big boulder while others pushed on, quoting The Lord of the Rings, "He's trying to bring down the mountain, Gandalf, we must turn back!" 

But the view at the top was worth it! This picture does not even come close to how beautiful the scenery was! 

Along the hike down, there were beautiful, bright ponds

One of the mountains we climbed over 

 The next few pictures are ones I took on our descend from the mountains. At this point we still probably had another 8 km left to hike, which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're going down hill the whole time, your toes start to scream!  

 I couldn't ask for better travel buddies! (in case you're wondering, the guy on the right is Pier. We met him in Wellington and ever since then, he hasn't been able to get rid of us).

I can't describe how beautiful this hike was! Every turn there was something different to look at. We went from walking through native New Zealand bush, to climbing over volcanic debris, and then through Alpine forests. It was probably one of the toughest hikes I've done, but well worth the experience!

Tomorrow morning (Sunday the 10th) we are headed a little ways north to Taupo. We will stay there one night and then head east to Gisborne the next day. Update soon to follow!

New Plymouth

We've been in Wellington for 3 weeks now, so we thought it was time to take a vacation from our vacation :)

Hannah and Dejan were busy with work, so I took it upon myself to plan the little trip. When my mom and Val came to visit, they didn't use all of their bus passes, so Hannah and I got to use those up for free!

I decided we would all head to New Plymouth, which is along side the west coast on the North Island. We would spend three days there and then head back to Wellington. The first day (Friday) we decided to hire bikes and bike along the coast. There was a really nice paved path that took us to beaches and through the country side. 

One of the beaches we stopped at

Lots of beautiful rocks and shells to find

Dejan and Hannah racing across the bridge

Just a couple of dweebs

These moo'ers get a beach as a backyard 

We were able to bike home, while watching the sunset

On Saturday, we went to Egmont National Park, home to Mt. Taranaki. Since it's heading into winter here, the mountain wasn't safe to climb, but there were still tons of trails along the bottom. The park was an hour drive away from New Plymouth, so we thought we would see what happens when we try to hitch hike with three people. We ended up getting there, 2 hours and 3 different drivers later, we always seem to meet the strangest of characters. We got dropped off by our second driver, just 15 km from the park...we were so close! We were standing on the side of the road, when an old, rusty pick-up truck pulled up. Inside were two men. Each missing a fair amount of teeth, with long hair in pny tails. In the passenger seat, sat a man with a cigarette in his mouth where a tooth should be. If you have ever seen Duck Dynasty, these two were the New Zealand version of those guys. The men were the definition of New Zealand bush people. Their accent was so thick, that it took us a minute to realize that they were offering us a ride. While physically they may have been scary, they had the kindest souls we've met here so far. They went out of their way to take us up to the park and even showed us around and gave us all sorts of information and stories (at least I think that's what they were telling us... i don't know if it was their lack of teeth or their accent, but something was making it hard to understand them) . 

We finally made it! One of the hikes we took was the Wilkies Pools. Tumbling water and swirling gravel has slowly carved the series of pools out of a 20,000 year out lava flow. It was a beautiful hike! We crossed lots of streams and saw many water falls, we also got a good look at Mt. Taranaki 

Mt. Taranki in it's full glory! 

Part of the hike was through "The Goblin Forest". Named because all the trees were covered and hanging in moss, beautiful yet eery at the same time! 

Hannah braving the stream

Dejan climbing a moss covered tree

On Sunday, we were heading back to Wellington, but not until the afternoon. We spent the morning walking along the coast, dreading the 5 hour bus ride back. 

The mightiest of drinking fountains! 

It was an awesome mini-vaca. Back to Wellington to plan our 11 day tour of the North Island before heading back home to good ol' Minnesota!