Saturday morning Denise, Ellie and I got up at the unearthly time of 5am and left for Wellington (capital of New Zealand) at six. It was freezing cold in the car, and the weather was pretty nasty all the way to the tip of the North Island, so we were pretty happy to get to Denise's family.
The welcome was warm, the weather not so much, so I was glad to spend a couple of hours in the big Te Papa museum, which has (among other things) a very interesting Maori exhibition that made a really good impression on me. (By now I think I've gotten some idea at least about the problems and issues surrounding the Pakeha-Maori relations today…)
After that I met up with Denise and her two sisters, and we went up Mt. Victoria to have a look over the bay and towards the South Island. Then we went to look for the places where they shot parts of Lord of the Rings, walking through a forest that really looked just like Middle Earth… I'm not sure we found the exact right spot, because for one thing the Location Guide is kept deliberately (and annoyingly) vague, and for the other a lot of the pine trees were bare, changing the whole look of the forest. But it was fun to imagine, and we did find a spot that looked about right! (I wanted to share the picture with you, but am having problems uploading the pic – sorry!) I also bought some merchandise (stamps and a Merry and Pippin pen box), which made me a happy fangirl that day… LOL
On Sunday (an absolutely beautiful day) Denise dropped me off at the train station and I went to explore Wellington some more, walking along the seafront and through some of the major shopping streets and up a mountain with the Cable Car. It seems like a really lovely city and I didn't have enough time by far – so I'll just have to come back, won't I? 🙂
The drive back was much more fun, too, now that the sun was shining and I could admire the beauty of the landscape properly. I don't know, I really love it here, even if I only go on short trips – there's just something about this country… I'm seriously considering trying to do the job practice (also required for my major) here if I can find something acceptable.
Hope everyone is doing fine and not too busy! *hugs*