The Road Goes Ever On

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Weta Cave

We visited the Weta Cave in 2009, not long after it opened, part of a LOTR tour we did then in Wellington. Weta is best known as the special effects, artifacts, computer-generated dimension of LOTR, but it existed some time before LOTR and certainly has not rested on its considerable laurels since. The Cave has expanded a bit, updated its video (excellent!), and added a 45-minute tour, on which we decided to pass. In any case, the Weta Cave is obligatory for Ringwaifs, even on the second time around, if for nothing more than the gift shoppe.

In case you were wondering, this is a weta, personally captured and photographed
by yours truly, in Fox Glacier

Understated--hey, it's New Zealand--entrance to the Weta Cave

Protected by Tom, Bert, and William

Tom (or possibly Bert or William)

Have you ever wondered what troll genitals look like? Of course
you have; this is just the Weta perspective, but it does aid the
imagination...

Inside the shoppe; they also do Steam Punk

Bilbo's contract with the Dwarves

"Please do not touch the merchandise!"

The Dark Lord Himself, too large for any display case

Smeagol/Gollum and scaly friend

Gandalf telling Vicki "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is
given us..." and so we decided to skip the tour

Sir Ed visited Weta...really ties things together for me

Wellington, 2

We spent much of Monday touring by car, driving around the harbor, then around to the coast, stopping by the Weta Cave, a separate post.

Looking back to town

Another town that lines its boulevards with majestic Norfolk
Island Pines

Wellington is a hilly place--comparisons with San Francisco are inevitable and
fitting in many respects--

Wellingtonians have addressed the problem by building their
own funiculars and cable cars

According to the Cable Car Museum (which we visited on
Tuesday), there are more than 400 privately-owned and
-operated funiculars and cable cars in Wellington

Along with much beautiful Art Deco

Next stop was Wellington Airport, where Smeagol, the North Island's favorite
fisherman, welcome visitors

As do Gandalf and his feathered friend

Closer up

As do some trolls at one of the gift shoppes

Wellington, 1

We got into Windy Welly about noon on Sunday, debarked, and quickly made our way to the Harbour City Motor Inn, in Te Aro, 6-8 blocks from most everything in Welly's centre ville. We're here for a few days, almost a week, so we took our time moving into our studio room and then went for a long, exploratory walk, mostly along nearby Cuba St., Wellington's funky district.

Approaching the harbor

Downtown Wellington from the central harbor

Much of Cuba St. is pretty old (by NZ standards) but there
is also a bit of Art Deco

Much of the outdoor sculpture in Wellington--and there is
much of it--has to do either with water or with wind;
presently we wish rather more of it had to do with warmth
and sun

Ditto

Of course, with all the charm and interest of old buildings comes a warning

Sic transit, Gloria...once home of the Bank of New Zealand, now Home of the Whopper

Inventive, too

Fidel's, on Cuba St; actually, Cuba St. was named after a ship, not a country; Cuba
Libre! anyhow

One of the better seafood markets around...I had the fish and chips one night later in
the week

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

E Noho Ra, South Island

The Cook Strait ferry afforded still another look at the Marlborough Sound country and at some the South Island's wild coast. For those keeping score at home, we rode aboard Bluebridge's MV Straitsman, a relatively new ship that commenced service only in 2011. The swells were 6-8 feet in my expert nautical estimation, really a calm, mostly blue day, but the ship fairly skipped, bounced, and lurched its way to Wellington harbor. I did a lot of walking on the deck, keeping my eye on the horizon. Vicki is apparently impervious to such matters and spent the three hours snacking and reading at LOTR.

Leaving Picton

Isolated living out on the Sound

Salmon farm

End of the road

Quite a narrow chute the ferries sail through

Thus

New Zealand's two big islands form an 800-mile barrierbetween the Tasman Sea
and the Pacific, with the 20-mile wide Cook Strait the only outlet for currents,
lunar tides, meteorological tides, etc; that is, a lot of water pours through Cook
Strait; underwater cameras show the Strait's bottom is absolutely clean of debris

Lashing, smashing, bashing, crashing...

Thus

Finally, we are in the Strait, watching the parade of ferries against the backdrop
of the North Island

Monday, March 3, 2014

Rarangi/White Bay/Picton

Ready to move on, Vicki had changed our ferry reservations to March 2, and we drove from Kaikoura, via Rarangi, to Picton, for our last couple days on the South Island.

White Bay; or possibly some other bay

Monkey Cove; or ditto

Exploring a sea arch at yet another beach/cove whose name I've lost

Thus

And thus

Still in wine country, just a few hundred meters from the beach

We spent our last couple nights in a cabin at Alexander's Motorcamp in Picton,
washing, cleaning, blogging, exploring Picton's second-hand shops, etc.

Kaikoura

Earlier we thought we might end our 7 weeks on the South Island with another tramp, the Queen Charlotte track, a scenic ridge-walk in the Sounds. Another chance to drop a few pounds, see some sights, add more notches to our hiking sticks. Besides, we figured, on the northeast side of the island, the sand flies wouldn't be so onerous. As it turned out, we encountered sand flies all over the Sounds area and even on the east coast, and hiking on the North Island started looking more and more attractive. So we eschewed Queen Charlotte, drove across some dry California-like grassy hills, and then down the beautiful east coast--not as dramatic as the west, but with no less charm--as far as Kaikoura and environs. When we were in Christchurch in January, we eschewed Kaikoura. Too touristy-sounding, and we weren't interested in the whale-watching voyages there. As it is turned out, Kaikoura turned out to be quite nice, we thought, and watching other animal activities, seals and porpoises, turned out to be some of the more memorable activities. I'll have videos of these in due course.