The Middle of Middle Earth

This weekend I was able to spend time in the Middle of Middle Earth. I was in Wellington, New Zealand, which is the capital city but more importantly near is where many scenes from Lord of the Rings were shot and is where the world premier of The Hobbit took place. The premier happened only one day before we arrived (Darn It!) so the city was full of excitement and had been transformed into Middle Earth. Even the airport in Wellington had been transformed, with a huge model of Gollum coming out from the wall!

Gollum at the airport!

They even turned the baggage claim into Hobbiton!

The first thing you see upon arrival.

Our flight didn't get in until 9:00pm on Thursday so we didn't get to do very much. We checked into our backpackers accommodations, got settled in, and decided to walk around the town. Miranda and I walked up and down Courtney Place, which is the theater district of the city, and found a little Italian restaurant to have some pizza before we went to bed.

Friday morning we woke up and decided that it was time to explore the city on our own. The very first place that we stopped was Starbucks (of course!) and it had even been decorated in celebration of the Hobbit. The Starbucks also had special drinks named after characters in The Hobbit in celebration of the premier.

After Starbucks. we started wandering down the street and happened to find Cuba Quarter, which is the shopping district. I was basically in heaven. We spent most of our day in Cuba Quarter, wandering up and down the down streets and in and out of shops. Of course I did find myself using a little retail therapy to make up for our far from 4 star backpackers accommodation. I mean, you can't really blame me when I can buy clothes that no one else in the states will have.

We both decided that it was time to eat and found a cute little cafe that was right by our accommodations. Upon walking in, we realized that the place that we walked into was New Orleans themed. Now you might not think that is very cool but Miranda and I both went to New Orleans in January of 2012 as part of a class. It was really fun to "go back to our roots" and find something that reminded us of home and an experience that we had shared in the past. At the cafe, I had some delicious Mac and Cheese (Not Kraft but still quite yummy) and a New Zealand beer, which was so tasty. All in all, it was an absolutely perfect afternoon and the sun was shining throughout our entire adventure.

After some shopping, I was exhausted and so was Miranda so we decided that we would take a nap before going out for the evening. After we woke up, we decided that we would do a little bit more shopping before deciding that we would go to the movies before hitting the town for the night. Miranda and I went to see Twilight, which was surprisingly pretty good. When the movie was over, we walked up and down the streets and found a bar called The Grand to have a drink. It was gorgeous on the outside and was huge. There were 3 floors! We walked around a little more and then called it a night.

This is the Embassy Theater, where the premier took place. It was right across the street from where we were staying

Saturday was our big sight seeing day! We ended up going on a tour and hit all of the top spots for tourists to see. Our trip started off by going to Mount Victoria. Mount Victoria has some of the most spectacular views of the city and allowed us to see everything. It was gorgeous!

The craziest part about Mount Victoria was seeing where our plane had landed. Before going to Wellington, I had been told some horror stories about planes not being able to land because of the wind and of planes coming in sideways when they land. My plane, however, landed perfectly so I didn't really think twice about where we landed. But then I saw the small strip of land that our plane landed on and realized why they often bring new pilots to try and land in Wellington. It did not look easy at all!

You can see the small strip of land on the right hand side where we landed. It is in a valley between 2 mountains!

After Mount Victoria, we ended up at Weta Cave. Weta Cave is a museum of artifacts and sculptures that have been featured in movies that Weta Workshop has been apart of. Weta Workshop is most commonly known for their work done with the Lord of the Rings movies. The Cave has artifacts from Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Avatar, King Kong, and many other movies. It was a really cool place and was especially busy with all that has been happening with The Hobbit. We were able to see a behind the scenes movie that shows how everything works and it was really interesting. I even was able to buy a Hobbit World Premier shirt while I was there. It was really cool!

After Weta Cave, we got back on the bus and drove around the city. We saw Parliament (and the only thing I could think of was European Vacation "Kids, there's Big Ben and Parliament!") and the Bee Hive, which is the office buildings that are connected to Parliament. The next place that Miranda and I got off the bus was the cable car and the botanical garden. The cable car had some really beautiful views and it was fun to be able to ride up and down the mountain. Then, we went through the botanical gardens and into the rose garden. It had 106 beds of roses and every single bed was absolutely gorgeous!

Our last stop for the day was the Wellington Museum. It was all about the history of Wellington and how it came to be. It was a cool place but I think it would have been more interesting if I would have known a little bit of history going into the museum instead of going in blind. However, it was really pretty and I did learn a lot about Wellington.

After the big day, it was nap time again before heading out to super at a little cafe. We spent some more time wandering around the city before heading to bed one more night in the interesting backpackers accommodation.

Sunday morning came and it was time to go to the last museum in the city, Te Papa. It is an incredible place with 6 floors of exhibits that are all interactive. The first floor was my favorite. It was an underwater theme and had some really cool skeletons of whales and dolphins. There was an area in the museum that was dedicated to the Maori culture and I learned a ton about the history of New Zealand as a whole. It was cool to learn how the United States tied into the history of New Zealand (I had no idea about any of it!) and see the differences between the development of New Zealand and of the states.

Yet another dedication to The Hobbit in the lobby of Te Papa.

This is the skeleton of a whale. It was huge!

When the museum was done, we decided that it was time to head to the airport. The weather was not the greatest (really windy and rainy) so walking around the city some more did not sound all that exciting. We got to the airport really early and just relaxed there for awhile. Well, kind of relaxed. Flights were getting cancelled left and right due to poor weather and we were scared that we were going to be next! However, our flight was able to go and we got home in one piece.

It was a very full weekend with lots to do and see! I could very much see myself living in a city like Wellington at some point in the future but I do understand why many people opt to not live there; the weather is very unpredictable and it can get extremely windy!

This week in school, we have kind of a funny week. Today, my syndicate had their end of the year trip so we went to the zoo in Auckland and went to an indoor aquatic center that is called West Wave. It was really fun but an exhausting day. Tomorrow we are taking some of the students in the school to compete in an athletics competition with other schools who are in the area, so I have another busy day ahead of myself.

Spending some time at the zoo.

The tigers were out this time and they were stunning!

Only more 2 weeks in the land down under and I can't believe how quickly it has gone! I hope all of you back in the states are gearing up for Christmas and getting everything decorated (hint, hint mom!). Down here we have Christmas lights and I am learning all about Kiwi Christmas.

Have a great week everyone and I will see you all before you know it!

Keep calm and eat a kiwi (the fruit! not the person or the animal)
-Elizabeth