Hi everyone.

After a gruelling 30 hour flight back to Europe via Tokyo, I am now back from New Zealand, and wow - what a country.

I could go on and on about what I did there, but I know that you want to hear about anything and everything Hobbit-related, since news is so scarce nowadays as they get into planning, scriptwriting, casting, building, filming and heaven knows what else.

Well, I managed to get on to two LOTR tours - one down in Queenstown where I got to see where they filmed the Argonath and the place where Sam and Frodo watched the ambush on the Haradrim and Mumakil in Ithilien. It was a great trip with a friendly and knowledgeable guide, and also handling numerous different swords from the films was a slightly humbling experience, especially since the replica of Glamdring I held was made from battle-ready carbon steel and was sharpened.

The second was up in the North Island, and that was certainly the most exciting one.

I can exclusively reveal to the members of PT that the set of Hobbiton has now been completely rebuilt to past its old glory, with ten new hobbit-holes built in addition to the ones we saw in LOTR. Walking up to the gate of Bag-End along the road that Gandalf once took his cart was an incredible experience, as was walking over the bridge to the Green Dragon.

It was a completely unique viewing of the place, as the tours company that does it will soon be shut down once filming begins, and once the films are over the set will be demolished, so this is the only time one can really walk through the home of the hobbits and truly believe that you are there.

Unfortunately, I cannot show you any pictures, as doing so would be a breach of confidentiality and would almost certainly result in me being sued out of house, home, and probably clothes as well, but telling you about it is fine, and I hope enough for those hungry for news.

Anyway, hope you lot enjoyed my little report, and a happy new year for PT!  

I am in awe. Your descriptions gave me butterflies in my stomach and a quiet reverential feeling all round. How wonderful and it truly must have been so very real as you walked toward bag end. What a once in a life time thrill. Yes those hefty plane rides can really sap one of one's strength, but you can relax now and catch up. Thank you for sharing.

Hey! I'm planning to visit New Zealand this summer. What would you suggest me? I want to see some of the places where the movie was filmed but also knowing Maori culture and some huge places (fiords, volcanos, etc.)

Anyway I have to save a good budget because the travel will be terribly expensive. If I cannot get enough money, the other magic place to visit will be Scotland in order to visit some celtic places and discover their traditions.

However New Zealand is so far, so unachievable... It must be like being in another planet!

How wondefull! NZ is truly one of the last natural beauties in the world. I love visiting and am always amazed. Did you get to Weta Workshorps Museum? Thats my next holiday.

Yes Elbereth Im in South Eastern Australia (Melbourne). About a 4 hour flight to NZ.  We call New Zealanders our cousins really as we were founded almost by the same English Navel Captain (Cook) roughly 200 years ago.

The strange thing about NewZealand and Australia is that Australia is possibly one of the oldest land masses on Earth and NewZealand one of the youngest.  Our climates, vegetation and wildlife are totally alien to each other, yet we are so close....

You mentioned Spain!!  I would love to visit Spain.  Beautiful people and climate from what I hear....

Spain is beautiful of course but the climate is changed nowadays. I'm from Galicia (North-west) and it uses to rain a lot in autumm and winter but this year it only rained for 2 days! The usual thing is about 3 or 4 months, not every single day but more often...

About Australia and NZ I think that they possess huge areas of wild nature; meanwhile here we have small zones of woods or old mountains. Furthermore, not only the vegetal life but also the animals are very different. I would love to see kangaroos, koalas, etc. Brego, I have a question for you as I see through your words that you are a nature lover. Are Australian people careful of nature talking in a general sense? Here in Spain and Portugal people are not conscious and do not appreciate such things. Every summer we suffer terrible fires because someone made it intentionally because of economical reasons or for fun :-( Of course not everyone thinks and behaves like that!

One of the main reasons for this travel to NZ is to see the enormous plains, green valleys... and feel the immensity of nature.

Well Elbereth, in answer to your question re Australian I would have to say that in a global scale we are very sensitive regarding whats left of our natural regions, we have loads of National Parks and Millions of hectares of untouched land. Its illigegal to harm any native species. But like most countries, I dont think we value these places and animals nearly enough.  As a young country (222 years) luckily enough we missed out on wholesale deforestation and try to protect all thats left.  One of our biggest problems are introduced species.  As with NZ most of our animals are not found anywhere else, so when an introduced species is put in the mix it gets ugly.  Foxes, Cats, Dogs, Cane Toads, Indian Myna Birds, Mice, Rats, Camels, Buffalo, sparrows etc etc have caused a lot of harm.  But of course, Arda's most destructive animal, Homo Erectus, is the most destructive!

Cain toads are a major ecological problems in Aussie, here it's an Australian animal funnily enough that causes one of the greatest problems, Possums....

not to mention Scotch thistles, ragwort, gorse, rats, ferrets,stoats.........

we do have wallabies here and there but they don't seem to have gotten out of control....cute little buggers, not that I've ever seen one.

What area of Oz you from?

It's great to see that apart from Tolkien work we also share the love for nature. In Galicia we have also the problem you told, which is the introduction of new species. Long ago some "intelligent" head brought Eucalyptus tree and now it's a plague. The typical trees are chestnut, pines, oaks, etc. Eucalyptus grows faster so it's easier to make money selling its wood and in less time. Regarding to animals, another big problem is Florida's turtle. People use them as toy when they are small and then, they realizes that an animal gets bigger and oh! what can we do? The easiest thing is to throw them to the nearest river and curse the biodiversity. In some countries this can be stopped by the aboriginal culture that it's still very attached to the earth but in Spain there are not aborigines!! I truly agree with Brego, the worst harm to Varda is MEN.

Well, at least there are people who cares... Let's talk about something more cheerful! I'm still surprised about the difference age between Australia and New Zealand. So near and so different. I don't know much about Australia, I have seen documentaries and I can say it looks huge with those infinite plains and water falls. Maybe New Zealand has impressed me due to the Lord of the rings film. The fellowship crossed from hills to mountains, across old forest, long plains, etc. It was a film which could be used to make promotion of tourism in New Zealand. Hahaha.

 

 

Im Jealous Elbereth.  Have a wonderful time and breathe in some of the cleanest air in the world!  Im sure you will have a wondeful time.  Report back to us if you can as Im sure we all would love to hear your travel tales.

Valiroimë
 

August is the end of winter with spring's influence starting to show! Nature will be in its Morning and waking up. It will be beautiful Elbereth.