We don’t start too early as we are pretty tired out from yesterday. Leave Queenstown for Glenorchy and stop at Twelve Mile Delta for location spotting - more hilly, dusty roads!

Again it’s hard to find specific locations but we try to match up mountain peaks with the pictures in the guidebook.

Try to imagine Oliphaunts thundering across the landscape ( Read more... )

Most of the group go on a 4WD tour this morning over some of the rugged country around Queenstown. Sounds like they had a great time! I just take it easy with Glîrien and Lilac; we do some shopping and wander around town. Want to stay fresh for all the driving we are doing today.

We leave for Te Anau early afternoon (1.00pm), but unfortunately ( Read more... )

Dash home before we leave for the airport … I’ve forgotten to pick up gumboots, though I had dropped off a whole lot of stuff to make my suitcase lighter. Will need them for stream-crossing at Edoras. PM Eru to keep him in the loop about meeting in Christchurch. Have to dash around getting cars filled up with petrol before we leave for the airport.

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Vanya, Glîrien and I decide to take a drive out to the Agrodome on the off chance that there is something to see early in the morning. Glîr is supposed to have some driving practice out to the Agrodome, but we are running short of time (after the helpful, but unhelpful, lady at the Polynesian Spa held up Vanya’s purchase time) …so I drove out.
There ( Read more... )

Frustating time trying to find film locations on the Turoa Skifield Road. We stop at the spot we think it is, but I’m not convinced. But we don’t have time to keep driving and looking for the right spot. This is the location that irks me the most, being unable to find it. Still, the drive through the bush was pretty.

Off to the other skifield on Mt ( Read more... )

We leave dear old Wellington and stop in Levin to collect a lunch that we can take out to Waitarere Forest.
Takes a while to find the right ‘unnamed side road’ as stipulated in the guide book. The one we thought it was, was a private road and after knocking on the door of the open house, we ring the farmer, whose number is luckily displayed on a ( Read more... )

Glîrien and I collect 2nd rental car at 9.30am and promptly get a $40.00 parking ticket when we park it in front of the guest house for 5 mins!! Really bad timing there! It is residents’ parking only, and we didn’t bother with a permit from the guest house as we were only going to be there a few minutes,

We drive out to Kaitoke Park for Rivendell, ( Read more... )

First ‘official’ day of the LEAF tour. Qua arrives at the guest house at 8.00am. We all then trundle off to the airport to meet Lilac, Moriel, Hemos and Obsidian at 9.30am. Get a little anxious, as they don’t appear to have been on that flight. Assume they missed the connection and wait until 10.45am for the next flight to arrive. Yay! Here they ( Read more... )

Leisurely morning to do with as we will.
I go up to Mt Victoria to check out whether it’s feasible to walk to the locations sights. Decide, no, it’s not … too hard! Then off to the Embassy to find out if RoTK tickets are ready for collection - unfortunately not yet. There are long queues and people getting very confused about when the theatre is ( Read more... )

Vanya wakes up this morning and asks what we are doing for dinner! She thinks it’s the previous evening … and that she’s only been asleep for a couple of hours. Oh dear! That’s jet-lag for you! LOL!
We recover from Premiere Day slowly, visit Te Papa and have an early dinner at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub. Very nice.

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