There and Back Again

Devon and I left Taupo and headed south for Wellington. It was close to a five hour drive in which we passed a Military Museum and Mokai Gravity Cannon. In Mokai you can bungy, zipline, flying fox, or swing. Its also the river and canyon used to shoot the Gates of Argonath in the Fellowship of the Ring.(The river sequence with giant statue of the two kings) I added both of them to our list of to do's on our way back North in a few months.

We made it to Wellington where we stayed with Mike and Vivian Hill. We met their son Darren who is flat mates with Tysen and Mel in Auckland. He graciously extended the invite for us to stay with his parents if we ever go through Wellington. Our original host plan fell through so we took Darren up on his offer and very glad we did.

We spent a couple of short but awesome days staying with the Hill Family. They were very warm, welcoming, and friendly. Fun fact: They bought and converted the old Malaysian Embassy into their current home.

While in Wellington Devon and I did two things. We visited the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum. We spent a solid 3 hours meandering our way around the various attractions of the museum. We saw and learned a lot about the natural and human history of New Zealand.

The next day we made our way over to the Weta Cave! The Weta Workshop and Weta Digital is a NZ based company that was responsible for all of the costumes, armor, weapons, minitures, digital effects, etc for the Lord of the Rings films and the soon to come Hobbit movies. They dedicated a small section called the Weta Cave where people could come in and see the various pieces on display. It was pretty much a gift shop but a gift shop with stuff in it from awesome movies and hand made by the artists at Weta. I wished for a more in depth look into the stuff made for the LOTR and other movies but I will take what I can get. We still got to see a 30 min video of the History of the Weta Workshop and some really cool collectors items and memorabilia.

The next day, Wednesday, Devon and I drove onto the Interislander Ferry and took the 3 hour cruise to the South Island! It was a beautiful cruise once we reached the Marlborough Sounds of the South Island. From their we weaved our way inland to the port of Picton.

Picton is a small town but kept busy by the coming and going of the ferry 3 times a day. These are very big ferries by the way. Holding several hundred passengers and at least a hundred or so vehicles.

Once off the fairy we made our way into town for some lunch and to check our email. We stopped at a place of which I now forget the name of because it has been so long since we were there. I do remember I had a smoked salmon egg bagel sandwich. Delicious. Devon got Greek Chicken and Cous Cous, also delicious.

We headed to the library which has free Wifi and checked our email. Having no responses from any of the hosts we sent inquiries and then made our way towards the town of Nelson.

Food for Thought

Probably the coolest thing in the museum.

Lord of the Rings fans eat your heart out....

Lurtz! The mold for this suit was actually taken from the actors body! Thats a big boy!

How much for the Dark Lord Sauron?

Gun from District 9

Entering the Marlborough S

That would be nice.

The water was really this blue. No cheap tricks or fancy photoshop, just nature.

Tourists checking out our route

Devon and I said good bye to Craig and Cris Cunningham on Friday, February 10th and headed 10 minutes around the lake to a spot called Acacia Bay. We spent 10 days at a bed and breakfast called Tauhara Sunrise working for Becky and Rob McEwin. Becky is from Texas and Rob is from New Zealand. They met in Texas years ago when Rob was on his OE (Overseas Experience: something most kiwis do when they graduate from the University). They lived in Texas for most of their young adult life until their kids went off to college and decided to move back to New Zealand to open up a Bed and Breakfast. They found a piece of property with an amazing view of Lake Taupo and Mt. Tauhara in the background. The sun rises behind the mountain hence the name Tauhara Sunrise. We enjoyed many amazing mornings looking out across the lake to Tauhara.

Enjoying the sunrise from the comfort of the hottub!

We arrived at our new worksite to find a note by the front door. "Gone to town be back around 2:30 -Becky (phone #). It being around 12:30 Devon and I went to explore a local cafe that we had heard was pretty cool, L'Arte. A local artist has decorated the outside of the cafe with amazing ceramic sculptors. Eddie and I wandered the property taking in all the interesting and mind blowing creative work. Of course I enjoyed another delicious flat white inside the cute cafe.

The artist at work

We made our way back to the B&B to meet Becky and begin working right away. Some guest had stayed in the Queen suite the previous night so the sheets needed washing and changing and the bathroom and kitchen needed cleaning. It was easy and light work for our first night stay at Tahuara Sunrise. Eddie and I did other odd jobs around the property the rest of the week; lots of yard work and house cleaning. The lodge was putting on a concert featuring an Australian blues and folk guitarist the first Friday we were there. It was pot luck style so Eddie and I helped Rob make pizzas in his wood fire oven in the back yard. We made Chicken Cranberry and Bree, Lamb and Mint Yogurt, Mexican, and Thai that Eddie suggested. We used a peanut sauce recipe we got from Craig Cunningham. They turned out great. We also helped clean up the deck and set up the marque the musician would be playing under. We were in charge of checking people off the list and making sure they had paid. Everyone brought a delicious dish to share. We got to try lots of awesome food and enjoy a talented guitarist play his version of some well known songs. It was a great night. The rest of the week was dedicated to getting the house and yard ready for a wedding they were putting on the following weekend. Eddie did heaps of yard work while I did heaps of cooking. I made some awesome chocolates (Yes, I got the recipe) and a few other finger foods. On the day of the wedding we heated up all the food and displayed everything nicely for the champagne hour after the ceremony before everyone left to the reception. I wore a dress to the wedding that turned out to be the EXACT color of the bridesmaid's dresses. I don't know if that is a good thing or if I confused a lot of people but it was funny.

I took Devon out to dinner on Valentine's Day to a little restaurant just a short walk down the hill from us. I order the Lamb Shank while classically Devon could not decide between the Moroccan Chicken and the Dori. She asked the waitress for her opinion in which she did not have and was not much help at all. Eventually she decided on the Chicken. A few minutes later a couple sitting close to us had the same question for the waitress. The waitress then told them that Devon had the same dilemma. The man asked Devon what she went for and she told him, the chicken, so he got the chicken. This sparked a conversation that lasted the rest of dinner. Turns out Rob and Joy are from Canada traveling through New Zealand as a part of their retirement. We told them all about our adventures and our blog, so hopefully Rob and Joy are reading! They informed us their children were also doing lots of traveling. They very kindly bought Devon and I both a dessert in which we thoroughly enjoyed!

Our food looked so good we just started eating it without even thinking about a picture until it was all gone!

We worked a full 8 hours one day so we could have a day off to do a 3 hour hike from Whaikipo to Kinloch.

The Cicada: The distinct sound of New Zealand. They can so loud you can't even hear yourself think

We took one afternoon to hike up Tauhara. It was an awesome hike with an amazing view of Lake Taupo. We also got to watch the beginning of an amazing sunset and an approaching thunderstorm. We ran down the hill just in time to escape the down pour. We raced the storm back home and watched it come up the hill to Acacia bay. We enjoyed watching the thunder and lightning the rest of the night.