For LOTR fans, the Weta Studio – Mar 22

Blasdale Home Posted on by
Killing Azog

Killing Azog

The rain hammering on the roof of the van woke us during the night. It never stopped until late the next night. We were late rising, eventually eating breakfast and driving into Wellington for another Lord of the Rings scheduled stop. We drove to the Weta Workshop where they make models and sets for films. Now, they also have a CGI studio. They have worked on many films, including, of course, The LOTR & Hobbit Trilogies, plus the new Bladerunner etc etc and the re-launch of the old Thunderbirds show.

On the model side we saw the models of Tracey Island, various rockets and other scenery used in the Thunderbirds series. They build the sets and film these from many different direction, to form a library. Superimposed onto these shots are the CGI “actors”.  The studio has a sense of humour and so wherever they can, they include a lemon squeezer. This originates from the first series when a viewer wrote in to complain about the lemon squeezer (purporting to be a rocket motor), threatening he would never watch anymore episodes which contained one. Back then, the model makers decided to put a lemon squeezer in whenever they could. This tradition has been continued into modern days. To replicate the very first lemon squeezer, they ended up having to 3-D print one, having failed to find the real thing.

The next tour was the LOTR and Hobbit tour. Here they explained the making of the armour, chainmail and the various costumes which the actors wore. The swords were mainly plastic, but they still they made steel swords for close ups where reflections and weight mattered. They made a great deal of use of CNC machines to create the initial moulds used for helmets. Another interesting use of these machines was to create replicas of actors who were too busy to travel to New Zealand for costume fitting. The costumes would be fitted to these replicants, and so fitted the actor exactly.

Unfortunately, they do not allow photography of most of the workshop. These photos are from the area where they allow pictures to be taken. 

After our excellent tours, we searched for a pub on the outskirts of Wellington. This failed somewhat, even several miles from the centre, parking near a bar seemed at a premium. It also started to dawn on me, the P60 pointing along a road does not mean 60 parking places, but 60 minutes parking time. I am expecting to see a lot of parking fines ☹.

Giving up, we drove back to Lower Hutt for a bar there, a pint of beer (yes, a real imperial pint) and some loaded wedges. We did a wander along the street looking into charity shops (well, Rosemary did, think she bought something) and other such places. It was then back to the campsite to sit in the dining area in the dry and cook our supper in the kitchen while we charged are devices

The Havana for a Special Occasion – Mar 21

Blasdale Home Posted on by

The Havana

Not a sunny day, but at least it did not rain. We drove into Wellington, fearful of leaving the car without a charging run. Should not have been a problem as we made sure lights were not on and no items were being charged. The fridge, we determined, runs off its own battery.

Drive-in was fine, but parking was a bit of an issue. Need to be in before 10am to get the $13 parking for the day, later than that and you pay $4 an hour.

Rosemary noted the shelters by many of the pedestrian crossings. Was it to keep the rain or the sun off??

Started off at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa where they have a very good natural history display. At least R was impressed by the shell collection that had on display. I had to photograph them all. The bird displays were also useful for identification. Poor on the Odonata!

We then did the geology and earthquake room where you get to stand in a room which is shaken to simulate a quake.

R’s birthday, so off to have lunch. On the recommendation of my brother Peter, we went to the Havana near Cuba Street. Good choice, we ate in the restaurant and had a lovely selection of tapas. R particularly enthused by the pickled mushrooms and her dessert of liquorice flavoured pannacotta.

Back again to the museum, this time stopping off at a few shops on the way back. Lots of retro shops selling 70s stuff, masses of vinyl at significantly more than UK prices. At the Te Papa we looked at Maori art, modern, and the agreement when they accepted rule by the British. We also looked at the exhibition on the Maori artefacts, greenstone, carvings and some Maori buildings.

We of course left Wellington in the rush hour and spent a considerable time on the motorway. But little supper needed when we got back to camp. A rather unwisely chosen (before our tasting day) fizzy wine was downed with the last of the artisan cheese.

Off to Wellington when the Van Allowed Us – Mar 20

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Lazy day today, or so we hoped. Up late because no rush as the Irish bar did not open until 11 am and Rosemary wanted to retrieve her newly bought bird book. She had been in email contact and they had found it.

Everything then went wrong, the car key had vanished and after emptying the van we eventually found it almost where is should have been, but it had slipped down through a gap.

Then the van would not start, the battery was flat. Inexplicable, we had only been off power for a night. Surely the battery starting the engine is separate from the battery operating the fridge? The AA took ages to answer and they were going to charge us. The couple in the campervan next door came to our rescue and we swapped batteries and started the van. Put our battery back while the engine was running and we were good to go. Saved! But imagine (as R of course did) what would have happened if we had stayed two nights in the forest where there was nobody around and no mobile phone signal.

We drove into town, and parked. Rosemary walked to The Rose to retrieve her book, while I sat in the van with the engine running.  Book retrieved, we set off to see the cheese shop and model railway Middleton Model Railway & Cwmglyn Farmhouse, as recommended by friends in Kingswood.  This was a couple of hour drive, so batteries should be well charged by the time we get there.

Stopped at the Cheesery, bought the cheese and viewed the 1950s-set railway, complete with a model of Banbury, yes Banbury, station. Lots of buttons to press. R entranced by the minute ‘T’ gauge train and track they had on show. We ended up buying some aprons and a small model VW campervan to join our other one.

On the Cheese lady’s recommendation, we went to a nearby wildlife compound to see some white Kiwis. In the event we drank some horrible Cappuccinos and forgo the viewing of the Kiwis. A snap decision was also made; we were originally heading to Martinborough, but as we had done an extravagant all day wine tasting, we thought we would head straight on to Wellington instead.

Arrived at Wellington where we booked into the Top 10 for a couple of nights to get the washing done etc etc. We may move to the posh DOC site nearby for the last 3 days. Van holding up at present, but we are being extra careful of power use, now sitting in darkness in the evening and charging everything in the kitchen.  

 

Wine Tasting Tour – Mar 19

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Mission Estate

Today we went for a highly extravagant all-day wine tasting tour. We were due to be picked up at 9.15, but nobody came, so just before 9.30 I rang Odyssey to find out what was happening. We had booked after the office had closed and somehow they had missed our online booking. By 9.50 their Graham had arrived and picked us up. We were the only two on this trip, though we were to be joined after lunch by another eight who were doing the afternoon session.

Presently I am hazy about the six wineries we visited and brewery, it will be filled in before I publish after I receive confirmation of where we visited. In all we tasted some 36 different wines, so you can perhaps sympathize. Yes they did provide us with a list, it was the fourth winery which R and I have little recollection of.

The first place was Moana Park, a small boutique vineyard which produces wine with no animal products (finings are often being made from egg white or fish entrails). They also use the minimal amount of sulphur dioxide in their wines. It was a small place which produces only about 20,000 bottles a year. We loved the rosé and the white wine with the German sounding grape, Gewursztraminer. Turns out the grape has Italian origins. So much so that we bought a bottle of rosé, and Odyssey bought us a bottle of the white to compensate for the mess up on the start of the tour. Very kind.

The next stop was the Wine Museum, actually the Church Road vineyard in action, but with a museum documenting the founder’s wine making. Here we had another tasting of six wines, after a walk around the working winery, and a gaze at the museum. 

(I should say the tasting amount of wine is about a tablespoon in a big glass. You are encouraged to swirl and sniff. There was a spittoon at all establishments, but we did not make use of any of them.)

Our next stop was the Mission Estate which was founded in 1851 (they claim to be the oldest winery in NZ) by French Catholic missionaries & is still owned by the Catholic church. It is now is a restaurant and function room. Here we had an excellent meal, I had lamb with some feta and an olive paté.  Rosemary had chicken.  Included in the meal was a glass of wine (oh no!).  A Fantail bird chased amongst the vines on the pergola under which we dined, and a small cat stared pointedly at two fellow diners. After the meal we had a wine tasting. Quite out of character, we found ourselves buying a half bottle of a delicious dessert wine – be warned, Christmas guests.

Our tour operator arrived back, he had been ferrying the afternoon participants around. He drove us back to the first place to pick up the six Brummie friends and two girls from Melbourne.

Here is all gets hazy, and what is filled in is the result of diligent research

We visited TeAwa, and I can’t remember anything about this. (Rosemary claims she can, but she would say that, wouldn’t she?)

We then visited a sizeable vineyard, Sileni, that actually has its wine sold in the UK in Tesco and Waitrose. It was, I think, a Sauvignon Blanc. (I have a picture of the label.) A very reasonable wine.

(There was much wine technical talk of Gimblett Gravels (largish pebbles) versus a red soil, red metal, but my brain has failed to retain the information.)

Our final stop was at another very small vineyard, the Oak Estate, operated by a young German couple. It is their first year of selling at the cellar door. Here we stopped for a platter of cold meats, bread and dips, along with several wines to taste.

The Melbourne girls had elected to go to a brewery instead of the meal. So, after we had eaten, we picked them up, and some of us chaps had to inspect the brewery where I purchased a litre of very palatable, well-hopped IPA, which even R when sampled the next day.

Back at the campsite we went for an evening walk along the estuary shore looking for birds, disturbing a few white faced Herons.  Back at the campsite for our staple of cheese and Vegimite rolls.

 

Napier – Mar 18

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Napier

We left the campsite and headed to Napier. After the first 18K on gravel roads we hit the sealed roads and then the State Highway and made very good progress. I have great difficulty in keeping the van to 100kph on these roads and often found myself well-exceeding the limit with everyone else around. I think I am now over my initial problems with driving on the left. Logic tells me, cos we are on holiday and it is (sometimes) hot, I should be driving on the right. A right-hand drive car does not deter me, cos that’s what I’d be driving normally.

We stopped for a coffee and a stuffed sausage (how could anyone resist such a wonderfully-named delicacy?). It the Midway Café, where there were four tabby kittens. Rosemary fell in love with these.

Arrived at Napier and checked out a few campsites as we drove into town. The first one I had chosen was closed, washed out in the previous week’s floods. We found one which was decently near to town, but could be noisy as near an intersection.

Parked near the coast where there was a car boot type market in progress, didn’t buy anything despite the odd looking vegetables on sales. Then it was into town and a nice bookshop where Rosemary bought a book on birds of New Zealand. (Promptly lost a few hours later at the Irish bar.) We wandered around the town taking the odd pictures of the Art Deco buildings destroyed by the additional canopies and air conditioning units.

There seemed to be a large number of coffee shops and a distinct lack of bars. Eventually homed in on the Irish bar for lunch/supper and a few beers. Was nice sitting out on the street in the warm weather, (had started the day distinctly looking cloudy). I didn’t like the sign next to a clothing shop announcing autumn and the time to buy wet weather gear.

Back out of town to the campsite where we are parked next to the kids playground, hopefully none of the rugrats are around. R excited at the prospect of flush toilets & showers.

 

Thermal Wonderland and Taupo – Mar 17

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Campsite

We left our campsite, where they ask you to check out. Useful to do, cos we (ie Rosemary) could ask them to go through their lost property and retrieve the items we (ie I) had lost. My bar of soap in Rosemary’s soap dish (which she’s apparently had for more than 25 years, but once lent to me…..) was duly handed over.

We were heading South to Lake Taupo to eventually camp in a basic DOC campsite. These are free and said to have a toilet. We are very hopeful we don’t have to use our onboard loo; it looks too complicated to contemplate late at night.

Our first stop was the fuel station, time to get used to filling when half full, previously I have been running it down to empty. In some parts of NZ, some guidance suggests you should always fill up whenever you see a fuel station. This was a practice run.

We headed off to Waio-Tapu the Thermal Wonderland. First off was the Mud Pool with wonderfully eruptions happening. At the actual wonderland, there’s a walk around the various coloured pools and bubbling mud caldrons which takes around a couple of hours. In parts, the walkways were heaving with people of all nationalities. In between the selfie sticks (old hat), and now the steady cams for mobile phones, I was able to grab photographs of all the devil’s pools. It would be lovely to access the site when no one else was there, and to be able to jump over the barriers for some close ups.

Our next stop was Wairakei Geo Thermal power station. Impressive array of massive pipes gathering steam from the thermal sources and transporting this to the nearby power station. We drove up to the viewing hill to look down on the whole operation. Impressive that this was started in 1958.

Next was the Huka Falls and Rapids. Again the area was thronged with people. The fast-flowing narrow channel is impressive. What was less impressive was the power boat which takes punters close to the bottom of the falls. Less impressive because it didn’t actually get that close. We ate our lunch while it performed its antics below us.

We drove on to Taupo, glanced at a few shops. I let Rosemary out to take a closer look while I studied the location of our next campsite.  She came back shortly, empty handed.

Our destination for the night was the Clements Clearing campsite on the Clements Road in the Kaimanawa Forest Park. The road leads nowhere, as the Kiwis say it’s a “no Exit”. It’s a remote site, no mobile phone signal, no FM radio signal. There are various campsites in the area, this was the largest with, according to the DOC website, 30 spaces. There is a (very) long drop loo, in a v rickety wooden hut, a clearing and some heavy iron fireplaces around the place for you to build a fire. There was only one other group camping.  All were dressed in camouflage gear. The man eventually said hi and asked us what had brought us here. Turns out they were here for the weekend hunting Sika deer. His dog ran around at top pelt with delight at seeing humans. R thought it significant that the dog was called “Ammo”. The forest is an old natural one, but interspersed with private land which is planted with conifers. My intention was to stay here a couple of nights, but I think we will be off early tomorrow to Napier, R being fairly convinced that if we stay there for long, we shall come to a sticky end and no one will know where we are or what happened to us.

When we came to leave next morning, one final visit to the loo found the biggest flies I have ever seen in my life. I pity anyone who had to sit down on the loo with the flies flying up from the dark depth. (Poor R!) I later pondered over how a hole that deep could be dug.

Rotorua Skyline and Canopy Tours – Mar 16

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Canopy Tours

Cloudy start to the day, but no rain forecast, and a little bit of sun. Our first stop was the Skyline. We both bought Gondola tickets which gives you access to the site and restaurants at the top. I also bought five Luge tickets for the run back to the bottom of the chairlift. Unfortunately, the advanced run was close cos it was wet, but later we heard from another source that it had not been open all year. The leaves on that track backed this up.

My first run was on the beginners run, which I completed with no issues. My next two runs were on the intermediate which was faster and definitely more adrenaline raising. On that third run I even overtook someone who was no slouch.

I took a break and joined Rosemary for an iced coffee in the restaurant. Then I was back to complete my last two runs. The first was on the intermediate where I made a really good fast run down the track. The last run was on the beginners again, the intermediate was now closed for some strimming down the sides. But it was an enjoyable run as I had to weave in and out around slower riders. Nicely cut up one rider near the end.

Met Rosemary again for lunch, and then we went back down on the Gondola to do some supermarket shopping, where we discovered NZers use “trundles” not “trolleys”. We should now have three day’s food supplies.

Next up was Canopy Adventures which was a zip line adventure in the trees. It is run partly to raise money to look after the ancient forest by trapping and exterminating the possums, rats, stoats etc. They used a neat carbon dioxide powered gun, triggered when the possum or rat stuck its head in after some bait. A bolt went into its head. The animal would drop out, and the trap was ready to kill again. It could kill 24 rats, or 12 possums, before needing to be re-loaded. The project had increased the numbers of birds significantly.

Our group of 10 consisted of a party of Indians who were on their second day in New Zealand from India. The other two members were from Napier. It was fun, and I think Rosemary, who had said zip wires high in the trees and rope bridges were her nightmares, overcame those initial misgivings to enjoy the trip. No Kiwi birds live around here, but we saw several other bird species as well as several ferns, including the acclaimed Silver Fern. There was even an impossibly blue mushroom.

Tonight I used the campsite’s gas-fired BBQ. R used the laundry facilities.

 

Hobbiton and Te Waihou Walkway – Mar 15

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Hobbiton and Gandalf

First off, we both saw a kingfisher. Today is my highlight of the North Island – a visit to Hobbiton. It was about a 35-minute drive to the film set. First thing was to check in and transfer our bookings to tickets. We were scheduled for the 11.10 tour. The tours run every 10 or so minutes, some though are scheduled from other locations such as Rotorua. At 11.10 we boarded a bus with 30 other people for the short trip to the actual location on the farm. Our driver was a comical Kiwi woman who warned us not to touch the electric fences, but if we were going to do so, to please let everyone know so they could publish an amusing Youtube video.

Our guide then showed us around the set, which was made as a permanent construction and is maintained to look exactly like how it appeared in the three Hobbit films. The first set used for the Lord of The Rings trilogy, was not built as a permanent feature. The guide explained much about how the Hobbit holes were filmed, many of different sizes, so that when a Hobbit was filmed they stood next to a larger Hobbit door. When Gandalf was filmed he would be standing next to a small Hobbit door. The site is extensive, the vegetable gardens are maintained. The oddity was an oak tree on the top of Bag End. The one in the LoTR was a real one, transported to the spot. But the Hobbit one is artificial down to its plastic leaves but built to look like exactly like the LoTR one would have done 60 Years earlier, as per the timing of the Hobbit story. We posed for photographs outside Bag End.  Finally, we ended up in the Green Dragon Inn for a “freebie” ale.

I would definitely recommend the trip to anyone, especially photographers and film-makers. In our group was a chap who taught Special Effects for Films (in Adelaide). He was entranced by it all.

Back at the carpark we went to Tirau for lunch. I suggested that the town had many junk shops. This was duff information from a book I had been reading about motorhome travelling in NZ. Things must have changed in the last 10 years. We did home in on the Bugger Café where we had coffee and a Bugger Burger. Rosemary asked if they were a chain because we had seen another one. Yes it was a chain, a chain of two; we had seen the only other one which is in Coromondel by the entry bridge.

After lunch we headed to the Te Waihou Walkway. It was a recommended location in the Hobbit Locations book I bought recently. It was never used, but the location was suggested as a river that could have appeared in the film. I walked the whole length of the walk (8km). The river was fastish flowing and featured some lovely colours of green and blue. Let’s hope the pictures do the colours justice. R sat & spotted parakeets & kingfishers while I did the last half.

Our final 35 minutes journey of the day was to Rotorua. You could pick up Rotorua and plonk it in America and it would not look at all out of place. A lot of the towns in New Zealand look very Americanised, Rotorua even more so.

We aimed for the Top10 in the centre. When we arrived and saw the price of $60NZ for an unpowered site for the night we turned around. Nope not paying that even if we have a discount. Instead we headed out of Rotorua for the Blue Lake Top10, which was a far more reasonable price & a nicer location. We are booked into here for two nights on a large and quiet pitch. As we had missed out on food shopping we tried the campsite shop. Choice so limited that we gave it a miss. We did have some salad and cheese in stock.

Tomorrow beckons with some activity-based entertainment. Not sure if R is excited at the thought of it.

 

Hot Water Beach and McLaren Falls Park – Mar 14

Blasdale Home Posted on by

McLaren Falls Park, our view for the night

We packed up from an impressive campsite and left for Hot Water Beach. You need to arrive between two hours before and two hours after low tide. If you go later there is a chance It might be crowded or you might be able to take over someone else’s already dug pool.

This is one of the few times I have come across pay and display car parks at the coast in NZ. We parked on a dirt car park and walked into the village. On the way we hired a spade for $5NZ, with a $20NZ deposit. Further in, they were hiring at the same price but no deposit.

The beach is well provided for in terms of showers, loos and life guards. A short walk along the beach you can see people furiously digging their hollows in the sand to a depth where there is water. Some high up the beach, and others low down. We sampled a few abandoned pits to find cool or tepid water in them. We were beginning to think this was a con. So I set about digging my own pool a few meters up from the water line, but inline with some rocks in the sea. I was soon down to the water-level and…..it was hot; so hot I could barely put my foot in for a second. We abandoned this one, and moved forward to the water’s edge. Here I could mix the cold sea water with the water in the sand to get a reasonable temperature.  R was entertained by people asking if they could try our first pool and then shrieking with pain & surprise. It was rather like putting your feet in boiling water and having your ankles drop off. My first pool was judged the hottest on the beach. R thought the whole thing was rather like a male bird building an exquisite nest to attract mates.

I also swam on the beach. There was a lovely surf for body surfing on. Very refreshing.

We packed up and continued our journey. This was a long journey as I wanted to camp near to the next day’s feature, Hobbiton. We drove down to Tauranga, and tried to visit Mount Maunganui. This took us near to the port where cruise liners and container ships dropped. We also saw a huge area of cut tree trucks. This must be the destination of all the felled trees we kept seeing on the road.

Traffic was horrendous on the roads around here, one slipup had us having to retrace our steps in a 30 minute traffic jam.  Who builds a dual carriage-way, and then finds the junction of one of the routes out (the way we wanted to go) is subject to a level crossing with freight trains using it.  The longest slowest empty log train made it to the crossing as we reached it. Yes, we had prime view.

Our destination for the night was McLaren Falls Park. For $20 dollars you can camp in the park on three designated camp sites. There is a single loo on each site, so you don’t actually have to be self-contained. We parked at the edge looking out over the lake where there were some very noisy ducks, coots, black swans and geese.  After we set-up, a few other vans and tents arrived. It was not crowded, but probably the busiest site we had been on.

The ranger who came by to verify we had paid suggested visiting the glow worm area. This was a narrow, dank path along a river. Going up the path to the waterfall it was still too light to see the  glow works, but coming back they were out. We could see them on both sides of the river. They were an impressive display.

Back at the site it was dark, I tried searching for bats, but again failed. The stars were bright, the Milky Way was very prominent.

Whangapoua, Opito Bay and Flaxmill Cove – Mar 13

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Whangapoua beach

The rain ended before midnight, and the wind rose some wat as it swung to blow from the West. The morning was still cloudy, except that there were now blue patches of sky. Today we wanted to camp near the Hot Water Beach for low tide in the morning. We crossed the Coromondel peninsular on the sealed roads of State Highway 25, stopping at a viewing point at the highest point of the road. It looked nice and clear on the East side where we were going.

Our first stop was at Whangapoua where there was a gorgeous large beach. Rosemary searched for shells while I went for a walk to the far end and climbed across the rocks.

We then continued along the road retracing out tracks a little way and drove to Opito Bay. This meant some more gravel road driving which I enjoy. Opito Bay is the end of the road, has a huge bay and lots of holiday homes of reasonable size and quality. I went for a swim and enjoyed the warm water and did a little bit of body surfing. Lunch was eaten here. The black billed gulls, which are everywhere, were particularly docile here. They were sitting on the road in large groups, bringing me to a total stop.

We returned to the SH25 and headed to Whitianga to buy some food and to look at potential campsites. It is infuriating that New Zealanders do not want to show prices for their campsites, so you must start a booking process to see what the price is. The sites in the area were reaching $50 for the night, pretty exorbitant. Freedom camping seems to be frowned on here, with three spaces allocated, and already occupied in the early afternoon.

We did find a site eventually that was $40. It was on the other side of the estuary at Flaxmill Cove. It turned out to be a very nice place with large plots, a beautifully clean, modern kitchen & hotel-like bathrooms. It is also only 10 minutes drive from the Hot Water Beach which we aim to visit tomorrow.