Ford

Posted on July 27, 2016 by d4vid

I had never seen one of these road signs before.  I thought to myself, “Well surely this doesn’t mean I’ll need to actually…”
But it did afford me the opportunity to ford the ford in my, um, Toyota Highlander.  (Sorry.  Real missed opportunity there, I’m afraid.)

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Cinnamon

Posted on July 27, 2016 by d4vid

In Christchurch on the South Island, I stayed at a charming Bed & Breakfast adjacent to and owned by a historic pub called Pomeroy’s on Kilmore.

The place smelled of cinnamon apple.  Not some crappy cinnamon apple candle, genuine cinnamon apple.  It looked out on a little garden.
Across the street was the Avon River, wending it’s way through the center of town.Here’s the sun setting behind the Avon.

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Psycho

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

Yes, yes, I realize that how I arranged things in my motel room is just a few plastic sheets shy of a Dexter kill room.

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Tudor

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

From the east coast of the North Island at Napier, I hurried back to Wellington to catch a flight to the South Island.  I stopped for the night, midway at Palmerston North and stayed at this charming motel built to (vaguely) look like a Tudor “castle”.

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Thalassocentrism

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

This was my first glimpse of the South Pacific, looking out from the beach at Napier.

The Pacific was the first ocean I ever saw growing up.  And this is the same ocean, just seen from the side farthest away.

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Wilderness

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

Heading east from Lake Taupo across the Thermal Explorer Highway (who names these things?), I finally started to see the wilder, emptier aspect of the North Island.  I even found this random waterfall that was way cooler than Huka Falls.

I started seeing rolling hills devoid of people & sheep.  True wilderness.
I even happened to see not one but two rabbits running free.  Actually, they might have been hares.  I can’t tell the difference.  But I know they weren’t indigenous.
Abby actually pointed me to a fascinating New Yorker article about New Zealand’s attempts to root out invasive mammals.  “Bloody, bloody biophilia” indeed.

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Doom

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

From the redwoods, I traveled southwest to Lake Taupo.
This Māori artwork reminded me of some other things I learned from the Maiti tribe.  The tā moko facial markings were originally scars, not tattoos.  Grooves were carved with three different knives so that it would scar splayed open in order to resemble lines carved into wood.

In the distant clouds across the lake — past that spit of land — you can almost see Mount Ngauruhoe which served as Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings.As I was taking these pictures, a cool guy on a mountain bike rode by and yelled “Nerrrrd!”  I, of course, assumed he was talking to me.  But he wasn’t.  He was talking to a girl he obviously knew, sitting nearby, looking at her cell phone.  She looked up, laughed, and yelled back, “Oh, like you’re not doing the same thing!”  And that’s how I learned that Pokemon Go had been released in New Zealand.

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Serious

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

Near Lake Taupo are the Huka Falls.
Maybe — between Multnomah, Yellowstone, Kegon, and all of Yosemite — I’ve become hard to impress.I did learn the “huka” means “foam” in Māori.  Clever.

It’s difficult to see clearly in this picture, but — just at the waterline — the flow of the river has carved laterally into the rocks to either side, making the falls look a little like Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Why so serious?

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Endor

Posted on July 26, 2016 by d4vid

In 1901, twelve hectares of California redwoods were planted in Whakarewarewa southeast of Rotorua.  Six hectares survived to this day.  Having spent hour after adoring hour wandering the redwood and sequoia groves back in California, I couldn’t help but think of all of these as “baby” redwoods.

The forest also showed signs of the South Pacific hybridizing I had noticed everywhere else on the North Island.
But I was also acutely aware of how little fauna lived amongst the megafauna.  Where are the squirrels and mice that ought to be skittering around?

A section of the forest closest to the visitor’s center has lookouts and bridges built high above the forest floor.  It instantly reminded me of an Ewok village.

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Improbable

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid

Discovered a black swan in Lake Rotorua.  Didn’t see that coming.

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Sulphur

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid

In Rotorua, stayed at the boutique Regency of Rotorua motel a few blocks away from the sulphurous Lake Rotorua.

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Tongues

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid

In Rotorua, enjoyed a Māori hāngi which is a feast cooked in a buried pit (much like a Hawaiian luau.)

After arriving on the Mitai’s tribal land, we watched the village warriors paddle a waka down the river, carrying torches.  Then we gathered for some cultural presentations, starting with traditional songs and games (like this one involving tossing & catching sticks between each other.)
There was also a weapons demonstration.  I found it fascinating that the taiaha (spear) is anthropomorphic with the body being the shaft, the head being the spearhead, and the tip being a long, extended tongue.Sticking tongues out is also a huge part of the haka.
This was followed by the feast itself (non-traditional chicken & lamb) followed by a bush walk in the dark to see glowworms and the Mitai’s sacred spring, bubbling up endlessly at the bottom of a crystal-clear pool of water.

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Shire

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid

Yes.  That’s the green door.  Bag End.  Home of Bilbo Baggins.

Okay, okay, okay.  I admit I went full-nerd but I toured the set of Hobbiton for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Buses started from a visitors center which included a (somewhat underwhelming) store and a clever café.From the shuttle bus, we entered Hobbiton through the same narrow channel that Gandalf and Frodo rode through.Many of the hobbit holes themselves were fractional scale for forced perspective.Location scouts had found twelve locations to film the Shire.  This farm was the thirteenth location and when Peter Jackson saw it he decided he could shoot everything he needed in this one location.Frogs took up residence in this artificial pond.  Jackson liked the verisimilitude, but they proved so noisy that they had to be relocated.

Each hobbit hole was merely a façade, but some had enough room inside to shoot from the inside looking out.This crossroad sign made me so happy.As did this one.
To complete the scene for the tourists, the smell of woodburning fires wafted from each of the hobbit hole’s smokestacks.  Loved it.
This is the door to Samwise Gamgee’s home.  Jordyn, our tour guide, said, “Some of us consider Sam the hero of the story.”  A handful of us nodded knowingly.According to Jordyn, 40% of the visitors have never seen the movies or read the books.  I hope they enjoyed the wood smoke.

The weather was typically English, switching schizophrenically between rain and sunshine.
Every little detail was pitch perfect.
From Hobbiton, we crossed the bridge and moved on to the Green Dragon Tavern.
I had a cup of cider (no, they didn’t come in pints) and a beef & ale pie.

Here’s the green dragon carving over the bar. The set decorating was complete with advertisements…
Poetry…
And maps…
However, I couldn’t help but spot one recurring inaccuracy in the Green Dragon.  Books as set dressing?  I doubt any hobbits ever settled a pub argument by saying, “To the encyclopedia!” Outside the tavern, there was a glimpse of Bilbo’s 111th birthday tent.
Here’s a final look back at Bag End as the sun set behind it.And back at the Shire under overcast skies.All of this has inspired me to start a charity helping to dig hobbit holes for halflings in need.  I’m calling it “Hobbitat for Humanity”.  

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Starfield

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid


I visited the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. After wending our way through stalagtites and stalagmites — some ancient, some forming before our very eyes — we boarded a small boat and our guide used a series of overhanging ropes to pull us into the glowworm cave.

We gazed up in silent awe.

It looked like a galaxy of blueish stars. But, unlike the sky, the contours of the cave ceiling gave depth and sense of motion to the “stars”, more like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland.

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Toponyms

Posted on July 25, 2016 by d4vid

If someone came to California for the first time with no sense of history or language, they’d probably say something like, “Wow.  There sure are a lot of places with names that start with ‘Los’ or ‘San’ around here!”

The prefixes “Wai” and “Whaka” seem to be the Māori equivalent of “Los” and “San” because you see them in tons of place names.

“Wai” means “water” so it see it appears in lots of river and lake names.  “Whaka” is a particle which can mean “towards” so it gets slapped on a lot of other names.  (Note that the “wh” sound in Māori sounds more like an “f”.  So I suppose the title of the acclaimed Māori movie Whale Rider must sound more like “fail rider” if prounounced correctly.)

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