Jen Hillam: Picton to Wellington to Palmy

It was an early 5:45 wake up call to get ready to catch our ferry. We quickly packed our bags and grabbed some breakfast and headed to the ferry port, fortunately only 1 block away. It was kind of fun driving on to the ferry boat with a car. The morning was stomry and raining so we didn’t spend as much time out on the decks as we did on the way there. I only went out to get a few pictures of the south island as we left the Marlborough sounds. We made some friends on the boat, 3 guys here for the world cup. They were big rubgy players and we hung out a played cards with them for most of the 3 hour ferry ride. There wasn’t much to see or do in the middle of the Tasman sea on a Ferry...I like a cruise boat a little better. Finally we arrived in Wellington. Our next adventure was to find the isite in Wellington. Holy cow, that is the most confusing city to navigate in the world. We didn’t have a great maps so we mostly just ended up driving around in circle trying to find the isite to tell us where to park and how to get too our tour stop pick up. After we finally did that, we walked a lot the ever bustling Cuba street. There are tons of stores and shops and we grabbed some food and relaxed until our LOTR tour.

We met the tour van driver at the isite and picked up 3 more people. It was a large van equipped with a TV and sound system so he could show us movie clips of the places we were going. First we went to Victoria forest, just outside Wellington. There they shot the very first day of filming with the hobbits in the forests around the shire. Our tour guide would show us clips then we would do the same poses with props in the very same places! It was a lot of fun. We did a few scenes from when Frodo and Sam meet up with Mary and Pippin, and also when they are camping, and the cliff that was used in weather top and in the 3^rd movie when Aragon looks over the armies gathering before the big battle. For all the pictures I was Mary, Marian was Frodo, Josh was Pippin, and Alyssa was Sam. Alyssa, Josh, and Marian also made the silhouette for the black rider dead king guy where he is looking for the ring in the shire. I thought the pictures turned out really good. We then went to the studios where they did all the inside stuff and made the sets and are making the sets for the hobbits. They don’t really let you in at all but we went to the shop they have a lot of props and things on display from the movie. It is all done just outside Wellington in Miramar by this company called Weta. It was fun to see. I definitely appreciate all the work that went into filming the movie or any movie really.

Finally after 14 long days it was time to come home to Palmy. I was so ready too. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun but it can be a little exhausting travelling every single days. We all got a long great but being with the same 3 other people every minute of everyday requires some patience. But I would say we all did very well and worked together to make it a great trip. We shared a lot of fantastic experiences and I don’t think I’ll ever forget them. It was so unreal and a dream come true that I was really able to travel all around the south island of New Zealand. We did a lot of things in a short amount of time and at times it was a little overwhelming that a lot to take in, I tried to appreciate all of its beauty and all of our activities. There is still a bit of a daunting task ahead of me to go through the nearly one thousand pictures I took. But each picture holds a memory but I’ll do my best to cut it down. I really appreciate my travel mates, Josh, Marian, and Alyssa for helping make my dreams come true. Even though we were all from very different places we all got along great and loved this trip. After a few days of recuperating I think I’ll really miss on long drives together in the car every day and our late nights in the hostel. But for now it is back to school and time to get back settled again in Palmy.