After a most suffering night on the bus, we made it to Wellington at 7am...feeling like a zonked out zombie...the bus stopped us at the train station...so we brushed teeth and freshened up in the toilet...then we went for breakfast at the cafe...had an Italian beef pie and hot chocolate with marshmallow....ahhhh..a warm meal to a bloody cold day...it was probably 8-9 degrees Celsius and it's cold even in the train station...we waited for our tour pick-up...we were going for the LOTR 1/2 day tour which we booked with Rover Tour...our guide Randall came on time and Cam and i were the only tourists of the day...
So off we started our tour...Wellington reminded me of Sydney/ HK...there were lots of houses on the hill...and practically everywhere faces the sea....Randall drove us to Mt Victoria...at the lookout, it was drizzling a bit...and we saw a double rainbow...it felt like a good start to a good day...then we went to the forest reserve where the 1st few opening scenes of "Fellowship of the Ring" were filmed...one was called "Shortcut to Mushroom" where Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were running through a maze field and fell off a slope...followed by the "Get out of the Road" scene where Frodo sensed the Nazgul was approaching....and there was also a scene in the extended version where Frodo was sitting on a tree nook smoking his pipe while Sam was cooking bacon...Cam and i took turns to act out the scene for photo shoot...hehe...
Then we went round the Oriental Bay where there were lovely houses perched on hills...saw another dream house which was perched on a corner of the hill almost by itself...it was a mocha coloured double storey bungalow...beautiful exterior...and location...and i imagine the view from the house would be just amazing...unfortunately i didn't get a photo of it...
Randall drove us to the other side of the city where the Hutt River runs...scenes on River Anduin and River Rohan were shot on Hutt River...then we went to Kaitoke Regional Park where Rivendell was set up...the temperate forest really have the Rivendell feel...Randall made us put on a cloak and fake elf ears and hold a fake Legolas sword...then we posed for pics...posing for the pics was really funny...Cam found it really lame...but i had fun...we also walked the Swing bridge...and had morning tea there where we fed the mallard ducks with blueberry muffins...
After that, our tour was over...but Randall was very kind..he dropped us back at Downtown Backpackers to check-in...he said he was staying in one of the rooms there too...he helped to clean out the kitchen to reduce his rent...after that, he took us to Wellywood (NZ's version of Hollywood)... we saw the production warehouses where the likes of Peter Jackson film and produce their movies...we also visited the Weta Cave....saw a lots of collectibles for LOTR, the Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong etc...thought of buying the 'Ring' or Arwen's pendant...but they were so expensive...
Randall then took us back to our backpacker...we got a twin bunk with shared bathroom for NZD60 per night...the room was pretty old but at least it was clean...we were pretty tired but we still continued exploring Wellington...we walked along Queen's Wharf towards Te Papa Museum...totally dragged ourselves through the floors for about 2 hours...the exhibitions and displays were good...but i think we were too worn out to appreciated them...so we decided to have dinner...Randall told us Viggo Mortensen and the other LOTR cast stayed in Duxton Hotel and Viggo liked having lunch at the Green Parrot Cafe...we wanted to have dinner there but the food was a bit expensive...so we walked further down the road and found Pizzeria Napoli where we had Pizza Garibaldi for NZD18 and calamari fritti for NZD5...it was quite a good deal...the pizza was great...
Randall also told us we should catch a movie at the Embassy Theatre at Courtney Place which has the largest screen and hall in NZ (fills about 800 ppl)...initially we wanted to watch 'Inception' at 845pm but we were exhausted...but it was really a waste coz it's a must-do thing in Wellington..and Wednesday night was movie night so the tickets were NZD10 only...but i think we would have ended up sleeping in the cinema if we went...so we went back to our hostel and bathed...ate our kiwis at the dining room...then went out to see the night harbour view...the moon was full that night... so asked Cam to take a pic of me looking at the moon...
Since we were wearing slippers only and it was damn cold, we decided to get back into the warmth but then Cam realized she lost her camera cover...so we had to go out and hunt for it again...guess she must have dropped it when she squatted to take my moon pic...thank God we found it...then we came back to the room...talked a bit and slept really soundly...
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