Exploring Middle Earth: The Obligatory Nod to LOTR post

New Zealand is well known for being the filming site of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies (in fact, it may be the only thing that some Americans know about New Zealand). Filming took place in various places across both islands of New Zealand, but the plurality of scenes were filmed around Wellington, since this is where Weta Studios (and Peter Jackson's home) are located. Side note: after being accepted to Victoria University of Wellington, I found out that I coincidentally know two people who have a friend/family member who worked on LOTR at Weta Studios in Wellington (shoutout to Gouge's dad and my mom's friend Brian haha). Remember that whole "six degrees of separation" theory? Anyways, here are some photos from a trip out of Wellington to explore some of the filming locations of Return of the King, as well as some other photos of stuff I've been up to lately. 

The view from my front porch at 7am (see, I do get up for my 8am class sometimes!)

Taken from my bedroom window on the craziest weather day thus far here. Wind up in the hills where I live was literally 36 mph, and apparently in some more open areas around Wellington there were gusts upwards of 50 mph. I wish I were kidding. 

A day with much nicer weather, taken from my friend's apartment (while we were booking flights to the south island for our spring break trip!!!)

Dinner with Ivan, a UCEAP tradition! Last week the 11 other UC students and I were treated to an amazing restaurant meal with our program coordinator and his wife. Since the whole meal was paid for, everyone kinda went all out and got drinks, appetizers, and desserts (well, supposedly "paid for", although the real story is probably that I paid for this already in program fees to UCEAP) 

Our LOTR set hunting itinerary! I couldn't help but laugh at Andrea's commentary at the top.

This is at Harcourt Park, aka LOTR's Gardens of Isengard. We randomly found an area with tiny streets, complete with tiny signs, a tiny roundabout, and this tiny crosswalk. Naturally, I made them pretend to be the Beatles.

Driving through the Aorangi Mountains. Yes, that is snow on the side of the road. This area was beautiful, and the fact that it's only about an hour away from sunny beaches is just crazy.

Putangirua Pinnacles, aka LOTR's Paths of the Dead. As cool as these rock formations look in this photo, nothing can compare to walking through them in person. This was definitely one of the coolest things I've seen in New Zealand so far.

Standing amongst the Pinnacles. 

Another photo at the Pinnacles.

The beautiful Cape Palliser.  It's hard to tell in this photo, but the waves here were SO rough crashing against the rocks, unlike any beach I've seen before. Part of the road we drove in through actually had water flowing over it. 

Aside from the frightening crashing waves, Cape Palliser is also home to a seal colony! The seals were so cute and actually let you get fairly close to them. 

Another photo of the frightening rough current at Cape Palliser. This beach puts Goat Rock to shame. 

The lighthouse at Cape Palliser. Due to being short on time, we didn't actually go up to it, but based on the stairs we would've had to climb up there (that almost vertical white line to the right of the lighthouse in the photo), I can't say that I'm too disappointed. My leg muscles certainly aren't. 

Driving back along the coast.

One of the prettiest sights I've seen in my life. Between the field of sheep, mountains in the distance, and amazing clouds, this photo gives a good idea of what being in New Zealand is all about. 

Christmas in July?

This weekend I went on the first overnight trip of the trimester with the university tramping club (tramping means hiking/backpacking in New Zealand). We drove about an hour north of Wellington to the Tararua Forest Park, and then walked about six hours each way to and from our campsite. Actually, walked is an understatement. A better description of what we did would be jumping over creeks, trudging through mud, climbing over fallen trees, and scaling the side of cliffs. The trail was not very well maintained, to say the least. Despite this however, it was actually a really cool trip and definitely a fun social experience. On the trip we celebrated "Mid-Winter Christmas"as there was a gift exchange and some people wore Santa hats and other festive costumes. Of course kiwis still celebrate Christmas in December, but this was a fun excuse to be festive during their winter months like we Northern-hemisphere folk do.

Setting off!

We lucked out with really awesome weather the first day. Sunny, but not too hot.

Looking up.

All the ferns in New Zealand make you feel like you're in some sort of prehistoric version of earth. 

Gotta love them suspension bridges. 

We accidentally took a really sketchy detour off the trail and ended up having to basically clamber down this steep as hill, basically holding on for our lives by tree roots. The fact that I was able to let go and take a photo at this point shows that this is not nearly the steepest part of the "trail" here.

Obligatory cloud photo.

Double dose of the sunset we watched after finishing the hike and waiting for the rest of the group to arrive back.

Welcome to the Windy City

After two weeks in Wellington, I'm starting to get used to daily life here and to the city itself. Wellington is basically 25% cafes, 25% bars, 25% steep hills, and 25% bad weather (up to 30mph winds, no exaggeration). So basically, it's 50% good, 50% bad. Just kidding, I actually really, really like it here. Oh, and there's that whole school thing too... I don't think I'll ever get used to having 8am class three days a week, or the fact that I'm in school during July to begin with, but we'll see. That being said, here are some photos of food, drinks, and clouds, which is basically what daily life in Wellington is anyways!

After an 11 hour overnight bus ride from Auckland to Wellington, I arrived to my flat at around 7am and was greeted with this sunrise view out of the front window of my bedroom. 

The view from the other window in my bedroom, also a great one!

A cool looking building during the city tour we took during orientation. 

Wellington Harbour (yes, it's spelled Harbour rather than Harbor here).

Another shot of Wellington Harbour.

Celebrating our first Friday night out in Wellington!

The view from Victoria University's library. And I thought Geisel had a nice view...

A panorama of Wellington taken from the top floor of the library.

Coffee is so expensive in Wellington! For one, almost no cafes even serve regular drip coffee, so usually the cheapest things on the menu are espresso shots or Americanos, which are still $3.50 for an 8oz cup. So, coming upon this place which was up some random stairs somewhere was really exciting.

Basically, the only way to get by here unless you want to eat PB&J and ramen for every meal (been there, done that) is to memorize when all of the cheap deals are for food and drink. For instance, one place on campus has buy one get one free pizzas on Friday afternoons, making this pizza only $3.50!

And on Wednesday nights, a lot of bars do buy one get one free drinks!

Also, on Sunday mornings there's a farmer's market out by the harbour. I bought all of this for only about $15!

Okay, so this latte wasn't a good deal, it was $4. The happiness I got from drinking it, priceless :) Coming from my job back in California where I could pretty much get free espresso drinks whenever I wanted, it's going to be hard to not spend all my money at cafes. 

The view from Hunter Lounge, the place I bought the latte in the above photo, and also the pizza which is a few photos up. I think it's gonna be my favorite place to spend time on campus. Good coffee, good music, good beer, and good views. What more could you ask for?

Finally, the few things I have on my walls. Anyone who has seen my room in Rohnert Park or in San Diego should know that I hate having bare walls, so having just these things hanging up feels really weird to me. Perhaps I'll accumulate more things over the next few months that I'm here (also, if anyone else who's travelling this summer wants to send me a postcard to add to my bulletin board, flick me an email or facebook message for my address!)

BONUS: Here's the route we took on our road trip around the North Island. Hopefully soon I can start adding places to the South Island side as well!

Waitomo

Waitomo was our last major stop before having to return our rental car. It is famous for its caves, most notably the ones with glow worms (a type of maggot with bioluminescence, like the firefly).

This is one of the only photos I took where you can see some glow worms. BUT, this isn't representative of how the cave actually looks. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos on the boat tour, where there were thousands and thousands of them covering the ceiling. 

Cave exploring. 

The sunset during our drive back up to Auckland. The clouds in New Zealand are UNREAL.

Lake Waikaremoana

We backpacked a "Great Walk"! This is one of New Zealand's nine "premier tracks that pass through diverse and spectacular scenery". As you can see from the photos, we REALLY lucked out on having great weather the entire backpacking trip despite it being the middle of winter here.

All the way up to the top we got glimpses of the lake. Photos don't even show half it's beauty.

Always gotta take a selfie on the lookout points.

View from the top. It was COLD AS up there.

A view of the lake from the bottom of the mountain. We went up and down the mountain in one day even though most people take two to do it.

One of the many suspension bridges along the walk. I had a lot of fun running and jumping on these, although I can't say that the others I was with appreciated it too much ;)

The lake was beautiful even when it was overcast.

One of the days, we took an hour long detour off the track to see this waterfall, which was actually a lot bigger than it looks in this photo.

Another suspension bridge.

And we finally made it! On the left you can see the water taxi which took us back to our car.

A shot of the lake from the water taxi.