Legolas' Tree

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Been out of town the last two weeks, and the kids were chuffed, wielding "Sting" replicas alongside Legolas' Tree....

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That tree is close, and the kids look happy.

You must be south and up in the the mountains, nobody around me will be wearing that much clothing for months. The only reason I have a shirt on is because it's polite and it stops the sun burn.
 
Yeah, spent the last two weeks on a boat (biggish one, Radiance of the Sea).

When we were in Wellington, we paid a guide to take us through the local filming locations (and a bit of King Kong as well).

My respect for Peter Jackson has soared (well Meet the Feebles was pretty hard to top).
 
I like Wellington, a good town. Bit windy maybe.

Did you visit Te Papa down on the waterfront ? Great place.
 
If I'd have said to my wife that I wanted to move to Wellington, it would have been instant divorce...it would blow a sheepdog off it's chain the day that we were there.

I photographed Te Papa on the way past...didn't want to swim for the next port.
 
You should try a landing at the airport. They got hit by a storm yesterday, and after one aborted attempt, the skipper of a Jetstar got a round of applause from the passengers for getting them down.

I like Wellington, it's a small land locked city, the suburbs are further out. You can see the foundations at Te Papa, huge shock absorbers...reassuring after recent events.

Were you on that huge cruise ship...that one that can't even dock in Auckland ?
 
Silk, our boat could dock at Auckland...there was another liner there at the same time.

Those hill side suburbs at Wellington with their personal climbing chairs to get from garage to house were amazing...
 
There is some huge cruise ship doing the tour season this year, it has more people on it than live in this town, and can't even dock in Auckland, anchors and ferries passengers to the city. For some reason Aussies like Wellington, more are relocating there than anyplace else.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/76909367...s-to-Wellington

On a tangent, I'm currently reading a book by Anne Perry. Peter Jackson made a movie about her former life called Heavenly Creatures...Kate Winslet was cast in her part.

Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Akaroa? and Dunedin ?
 
Radiance of the Seas was about 2,500 passengers, but is being displaced by other bigger boats in the Royal Caribbean fleet...could have been one of the newer ones.

That boat is moving to depart in Wollongong, as the bigger vessels take over Sydney.

We did the Sounds (Milford, Doubtfull, and Dusky), Dunedin (Cadbury and Speights...would have done the latter twice), Akaroa (loved it, didn't port, but were transported by tender, climbed the hill to the French cemetary to upset the family in the humidity), Wellington, Picton (Correct order as we went out aways at dinner time and docked early morning...ferry would have been faster LOL), Tauranga (went to Rotorua on a bus, would move there in a heartbeat), Auckland, and Paihia (Tender again).
 
How cool that you visited the actual site...I am a big LOTR fan, have an autographed photo of Lawrence Makoare in his Witchking garb (he also played Lurtz and Gothmog in LOTR as well as Bolg in The Hobbit). Had a brief email chat with him and he seemed like a really nice fella! Did not care as much for The Hobbit, they were a little too much over the top for me.

The Hateful Eight was being filmed near Telluride when I took my daughter skiing there and many people told us they had run into Tarantino and his cast around town, but we never saw any of them. They had been a little frustrated by a lack of snow until we brought a two foot storm with us from New England...the West was very dry that season while the Northeast was getting pounded. I guess Tarantino thought that area looked more like Wyoming (the setting of the movie) than Wyoming itself...well, I'd actually guess the latter was lacking in the creature comforts that a trendy spot like Telluride offered.
Haven't seen the flick yet, kind of hard for me to buy the concept of a Tarantino Western...although the movie was well reviewed.
 
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Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
How cool that you visited the actual site...


We only got done half of what we wanted in Wellington...we wanted to do this as well.

But the guided road trip took a LOT of time, and was well worth it...

Kids on the River Anduril (actually HUTT river)

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Location of Isengard - can't see it clearly in the photo but there's a section of grass of slightly different nature for the path that Gandalf rode...can see it clearly in person.
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Gandalf and Saruman's walk...
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This area should have been littered with Orc bodies, but they were strangely absent.

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This is where they created Rivendell
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The two trees that show prominently were used as pillars in Frodo's room.
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They needed to essentially clear the area, so they took a photographic inventory of every plant that they had to disturb to clear the area, and put them all in a giant greenhouse while they filmed, then planted them back exactly where they found them (apparently they did the same in the area where the Rohan were filmed)...NZ Government gave them huge support, would never happen in Oz.

They built Rivendell, and never showed the actors who played Aragorn or Boromir...they blindfolded them, and then rolled as they say it for the first time...

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The hill that the hobbits ran up escaping the wraiths...Sam was CGI, as they nearly killed him, having had him put on 60lb to fulfill the role.
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Our first view of the ship...our cabin is the first row of balconies, just above the last lifeboat.

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And they pack them in...
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Bottom bed folds back to a couch, and the bunk folds up against the wall during the day...Cabin attendant fixes them up while you are at breakfast for the day, then folds them out while at dinner.

Squeezy, but first day of seeing land after 2 sea days was this...from my bedroom balcony...
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Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
I love the Lord of the Rings! In fact, I was just watching it last night. It would be fun to visit the area where they filmed!


It was filmed in various parts of NZ, the Shire is in my part of the country (The Waikato) and Hobbiton is a tourist destination. I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in the early '70's, my hard back LOR books are Ninth Impression, 1974, and replaced a well worn paperback. Reading them, my vision was what I saw in everyday life...New Zealand countryside, so I was very pleased for them to be filmed here. Some of the cast must've liked the place, Gimli used to live nearby, and could walk around our small town like a local. My son had to point him out, as he used to come into the computer shop where he worked.

Rotorua, AKA Rotovegas. You do notiice the elevation change...and the smell. What my family likes to do in Rotorua is the 3D maze, not exactly touristy. They have a CAT museum too, but it's not on the families too do list.
 
Yeah, my bro did Hobbiton, while we did the Whaka village.

I really love what your Govt (and the traditional owners) allowed them to do...

The stuff that we saw (including the jungle from King Kong), our guide described at where Jackson used to walk/camp, and it fitted his view of the Tolkein world...was great.
 
LOL,
we got back home to torrential (our version of it) rain, and 32C last few days...today supposed to be 32 AND rain.
 
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