Right. Bucklebury Ferry. Follow Me!!!

Welliwood!! This is what the locals call Wellington, ever since Peter Jackson made multiple films studios around the city. Yes once The Lord of The Rings was finished and made millions of dollars Peter Jackson was able to build and purchase multiple studios in the area. He owns multiple houses and his primary estate cost $65 million. It is just north of Wellington and has multiple houses on the property with rail and train connecting them. This way guests can stay in their homes and when they are invited to the main house they just catch the train. There is also a 18 hole golf course on his property and every fake tree made for The Lord of The Rings is planted in his yard. After he purchased the property he didn’t want to plant trees and wait for them to grow to full size, so he took his movie props and planted them. He also took the interior Bag End set and put it on his property. No big deal right??!!!

Our time in Wellington was short and that is ok. It is a pretty busy city and the weather is mediocre. It is cloudy and windy with a little bit of rain. I got to go on a LOTR tour which was my main plan here. On the tour we went to the Mt. Victoria forest where they shot the scenes where the hobbits are leaving the shire, Bree, and Dunharrow Plateau (that’s in the final film). After the location areas we went to the Weta Cave. It is a mini museum and gift shop. It was so surreal to see all the props from LOTR, Tin Tin, District 9, The Halo shorts (short films done by Weta and yes Halo the video game), King Kong, and so many others. There were also miniatures there from all the movies and exclusive ones done by Weta for The Muppets (2011) movie (AKB). After the cave our driver took us into the studio filming area and let us get up close to where they are currently filming The Hobbit Part 2. I was so giddy looking at the set. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!! I was actually there!!!! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed inside the stage buildings because there were “top secret” things going on. But it was still amazing to see the set outside the studio with the green screen back drop.

That was the most exciting thing we did in my opinion. We also walked around the city and went to the Te Papa Museum. It is a free museum so we escaped the wind and looked around. They have a giant squid on display. I believe it is the biggest ever caught. The eyes were the size of soccer balls. I also took the girls out for lunch. They have never had fish and chips before so we went for fish and chips on the pier. It was delicious.

I have decided to travel with the girls a little longer. Everyone says the best way to see the south island is with a car, so they are letting me tag along. We have a good thing going. I mean it’s me and two girls from Europe sharing a room, I see no problems :) lol. 

Today (Wednesday) we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton. The straight was super rough. We weren’t allowed outside on the decks because the rain, wind, and waves were too crazy. I tried walking around to see what was on the ferry and it was challenge. You definitely needed sea legs for today. As we were approaching Picton the weather was starting to clear up. The drive from Picton to Motueka took us about 3 hours, only because we stopped to look at the scenery and buy some groceries. After we arrived at the hostel we walked down to the beach. I bought new $10 flip flops because my old Teva’s having been cutting my feet up. These new flip flops aren’t much better. So I spent today walking around the beach, through the ocean, and down the road bare foot. My feet are pretty torn up right now, but it will only make them stronger and more Hobbit like. My feet are cut up because at the beach it was low tide and we had to walk about 60 metres through shin deep mud and clay with sea shells everywhere. It wasn’t the most pleasant walk but the end result was totally worth it. The water was incredibly warm underneath the waves was smooth white sand.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.