This is not at all easy, for hobbits are very difficult to find. Hobbits are a little people without beards, smaller than the bearded dwarves. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quickly and quietly when large, stupid folk come along. They are inclined to be fat and dress in bright colors, chiefly green and yellow. They wear no shoes, because their huge feet grow natural leathery soles and thick, warm brown hair like that on their heads, which is curly. They have long, clever fingers and laugh deep, fruity laughs.

Hobbits do not like any machines more complicated than a forge bellows, water mill or hand loom, although they are skillful with tools. They are quick and sharp-eyed and do not hurry unnecessarily, but are nontheless nimble and deft in their movements. A love of learning, other than geneological lore, is far from general among them. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lives, hobbits are difficult to daunt or kill, and can survive rough handling by grief, foe or weather in a way that often astonishes those who look no further than their bellies and well-fed faces. They are keen-eyed and sure at the mark, and if a hobbit stoops for a stone, it is well for wild beasts and enemies to get quickly under cover.

Hobbits have been living and farming for hundreds of years in a place known as Middle Earth, quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the "big folk," as they call us. The wider world is, after all, full of strange creatures beyond count, and the world of hobbits must seem of little importance to others. Hobbits have never been among the great warriors, nor counted among the very wise.

In fact, it has been remarked by some that hobbits' only real passion is food, which is an unfair observation, as they have also developed a keen interest in the brewing of ales and the smoking of "pipeweed." But where their hearts really lie is in peace, quiet, and good, tilled earth, for all hobbits share a love of things that grow!

Yes, no doubt to others, their ways seem quaint, but now, as always, as has been often brought home to them, it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life. It is perhaps for this reason, that hobbits have withdrawn from the hustle and bustle of the modern world into their own little corner of it, in the Shire. It is said that one can reach Middle Earth only by going to New Zealand, the reputed "Home of Middle Earth." It is here that our story begins.

Fortunately, she was awarded her PhD and is now Doctor Pegah, so she doesn't have pay me back!

Fortunately, I was assigned seat 70B, which has only one adjacent seat, a real luxury in the 747, in which most passengers sit four abreast. My seat mate was John Abbot, an extremely pleasant Aussie photographer. We got some great photos of sunrise over the Pacific Ocean.

After successfully crossing the Misty Mountains, Thorin and Company find that their own wizard, Gandalf, has mysteriously disappeared. They must must seek aid from a powerful hermit, the wizard Radaghast, before taking on the dangers of dark, dangerous Mirkwood Forest. The party must complete the journey to the Lonely Mountain and the desolation of Smaug, and burglar Baggins must seek out the Secret Door that will give them access to Erebor and the all the wealth of Smaug the Magnificent.

Smaug, needless to say, has other plans. These include the destruction of Laketown, the inhabitants of which he suspects (correctly) of aiding the dwarves in their quest. After a fierce battle in which Smaug is destroyed, the Laketowners and the dwarves find themselves pitted against each other, along with orcs, the kingdom of the elves, a flock of huge intelligent eagles, and even a magic, shape-changing bear in the battle of the Five Armies! Unexpectedly, the dwarves' quest is fulfilled personally by Bilbo, "only a little fellow in a wide world after all."

The Fellowship is soon broken, but the quest to destroy the One Ring continues. Frodo and Sam must entrust their lives to the evil creature Gollum if they are to find their way to Mordor to destroy the Ring. And as Saruman's army approaches, the surviving members of the fellowship, along with unexpected allies from the earliest days of Middle Earth, prepare for battle. Between the Two Towers of power in Middle Earth, the War of the Ring has begun!

In the final battle for Middle Earth, Frodo and Sam, led treacherously by Gollum, continue their dangerous mission toward Mordor and its fires of Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Meanwhile their Ranger leader, Aragorn, struggles to fulfill his hereditary royal destiny as he leads his outnumbered followers against the growing power of Sauron. The fate of the One Ring will impact the return of the king and the history of Middle Earth forever!

New Zealand is long and narrow (over 1,600 kilometres (990 miles) along its north-north-east axis with a maximum width of 400 kilometres (250 miles)), with about 15,000 km (9,300 miles) of coastline and a total land area of 268,000 square kilometres (103,500 square miles) Because of its far-flung outlying islands and long coastline, the country has extensive marine resources. Its Exclusive Economic Zone is one of the largest in the world, covering more than 15 times its land area.

The South Island is the largest landmass of New Zealand, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps. There are 18 peaks over 3,000 metres (9,800 feet), the highest of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook at 3,754 metres (12,316 feet). Fiordland's steep mountains and deep fiords record the extensive ice age glaciation of this south-western corner of the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous but is marked by volcanism. The highly active Taupo Volcanic Zone has formed a large volcanic plateau, punctuated by the North Island's highest mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres (9,177 feet)). The plateau also hosts the country's largest lake, Lake Taupo, nestled in the caldera of one of the world's most active supervolcanoes.

The country owes its varied topography, and perhaps even its emergence above the waves, to the dynamic boundary it straddles between the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates. New Zealand is part of Zealandia, a microcontinent nearly half the size of Australia that gradually submerged after breaking away from the Gondwanan supercontinent. About 25 million years ago, a shift in plate tectonic movements began to contort and crumple the region. This is now most evident in the Southern Alps, formed by compression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault. Elsewhere the plate boundary involves the subduction of one plate under the other, producing the Puysegur Trench to the south, the Hikurangi Trench east of the North Island, and the Kermadec and Tonga Trenches further north.