Discover New Zealand, Home of Middle Earth
Friday, Day 5. We headed east from Wellington past the Dry Creek Quarry, which we missed yesterday and which provided the basic location for Helm's Deep, the "impregnable fortress" of Rohan which proved not so impregnable. We had been warned that we couldn't get in, so we didn't try. Stefanie found this mare watching us take pictures of the quarry entrance, so she decided to include her in the them.
NH2 from Upper Hutt to Featherston along Rimutaka Hill is a beautiful mountain road with a little restaurant at the top where we ate breakfast with a magnificent view of the mountains. The trip took a little longer than expected because there was road work going on, some of which we had run into yesterday. I was impressed with the workers' ability to find places to put their machinery and still make room for the traffic.
Next on our itinerary was Fernside, a magnificent mansion that is now a luxury hotel with a rich history and extensive cultural mythology. Fernside was the location for the departure of the Fellowship from Lothlorien. We were graciously shown around by Toni and Mike. Stefanie and I agreed that we wanted to live there when we became rich and famous.
The grounds around Fernside are absolutely breathtaking, and we were fortunate to have Mike, the gardener, to tell us about the history of the grounds and what went into taking care of them. It was kind of like being shown around the Shire by Sam Gamgee. While I was marveling at how well tended everything looked, he was talking about what needed trimming or replanting or suchlike.

Although this is not the tourist season, and there were no guests there, it struck me that this is the ideal time of year to see the changing of the colors of all the trees, which are probably mostly green in the summer.
I don't recall seeing the gardens in the film, but they reminded me of the gardens around Rivendell. I have a large photo of the Rivendell model which includes woods very much like these, with very similar colors of the trees. The artistic placement of everything is very elvish. This would be a good place to shoot scenes of the elves' habitations in "The Silmarillion." (Hint to Mr. Jackson and Ms. Walsh, if they are reading this.)
This is the place where Queen Galadriel waved goodby to the Fellowship as they left Lothlorien for their trip down the Anduin River. The large fiberglass tree roots by the bridge aren't there any more, and the ornate elvish carvings have been removed from the bridge, but we had no trouble identifying it. There were a couple of dogs with us, and they kept jumping in the water and swimming around. I am watching one of them here
Everything is beautiful and colorful here. The right balance has been struck between managing the grounds and letting nature add the finishing touches, which avoids an overly manicured look. Even the fungi are beautiful. They reminded me of the Australian jellyfish we sometimes see in the Mississippi Sound. I was surprised to find so much color in this season, which is like November in Iowa. 
Toni was kind enough to show us the interior of the home. Everything was spectacular, and I felt ill at ease not taking off my shoes inside. The inside of the home reminded me very much of being in my boyhood church, where we altar boys had to wear special shoes to keep the expensive carpeting clean. I wish I had the presence of mind to take pictures of the magnificent furniture, but I was kind of overwhelmed.

Stefanie said she just had to get a picture of herself in the bathtub. I considered remarking on the incongruity of seeing a picture of a young woman in a bathtub with her clothes on, but after a few moments for a sanity check I let it pass.
We were sorry to have to leave Fernside and travel back to the 21st century to continue on our trip. We went back along the Rimutaka Hill road to Wellington, where I stopped off at Three Foot Six Ltd., Peter Jackson's production company, to leave him and Fran Walsh a copy of "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, which I consider to be the best "first contact" science fiction epic every written. There is good science fiction and then there are science fiction motion pictures, which generally have poor story lines (i.e. Star Wars!) This is good science fiction. It would be interesting to see what the LOTR film company could do with it.
This was our second time in Wellington, and there was a lot to see but no time, as we had to get to the ferry terminal for the last trip to South Island. I had a bad moment when Stefanie mistook the red arrow (no right turn) lights along the motorway for stop lights, and yelled "Daddy, STOP!" while traffic was coming at me at 100 kph or more, but we got into town OK, and found ourselves on the same street to Mt. Victoria we were on yesterday. Stefanie wanted to take this picture of the little car, which she thought was really neat
We found that we had made up a little more time than we planned, so we took a short drive around Mapuia, the little peninsula that juts out in Port Nicholson Harbor. We passed Seatoun, which was the location for the Village of Bree, but since all the sets are now gone, we didn't see anything but the military base of Fort Dorset. The view of Wellington was pretty, though, and the houses on the hills reminded us of Bree Hill.
We had supper at the Chocolate Fish Restaurant, which has chairs and tables decorated in what looks like 4th grade refrigerator pictures. The restaurant doesn't have enough space inside to accommodate all the patrons, so they have waiters in orange vests running across the beach road to the tables alongside the waters of Scorching Bay. The waiters have the right of way over traffic, as indicated by the sign, which may be the only one of its kind anywhere.

Stefanie thought these rocks were really beautiful. I told her she was looking at bird droppings, but she thought it was pretty anyway and took a picture which proved her right!
We got to the ferry terminal just in time to load up and get on our way, and had no trouble changing our reservation from Sunday morning. The ferry is a big ocean-going ship with several levels, including a restaurant and lounge. We had a late dinner there and later Stefanie went to the bar and had a drink while I took a long-needed nap. She got a great picture of the sunset as we left Port Nicholson.
Finally we left Wellington and North Island behind as we sailed out into the windswept Cook Strait. We had been warned that it was cold, and it was! I wore my hat but the wind kept blowing it off.

Originally we had planned to take this trip in the morning, when we could see the numerous little islands in the Strait, as well as the picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound north of Picton. All we saw of it was little lights that passed us on both sides as we chugged through the darkness. Finally we got to Picton and the Blue Anchor Top 10 Holiday park. It was the end of a very long and interesting day!
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