Glad you made it,that was a long trip, sorry ya'll were sick.  That beach was so pretty but empty, is it cold there, it's winter now right? 

Hi Snail, yeah it was a bit of a blow spending the first week in bed. But we got over it. That is the main thing. Yep,pretty but empty, that is New Zealand for you. The beaches are pleasantly empty. Now it is winter, so you can have the whole beach to yourself if you want. We are getting  some snow, and it is frozen til 10am, but its not too tragic.

Here is a Panorama of a view just out of Christchurch, headed for Arthur's Pass.
and then the photo extended, and  Frogo in there ... can you see him? You are all welcome to use  any Panoramas I upload. Have a go at  being  graphically  creative!

Your getting some great panorama shots! I found Frogo!

After a quiet time doing construction during the winter, we are  touring the North Island of New Zealand. Getting to Wellington, we  visited the Weta workshop...shop, which was  a cool  place with lots of  miniatures and  stuff, like trolls outside

We went past  Mt Ruapehu in the centre of the Island, where Lord of the Rings and Hobbit  scenes were filmed, but during  summer obviously.Too much snow to see much there.

We managed to get close to 'Hobbiton'

 but  it was too expensive to take the tour (negative  publicity here) but we did find a little surprise... the donut in real stone across the  way from actual Hobbiton


We are strangely satisfied, even though we did not get onto the set.
now... heading further North for a couple weeks.

You found the donut!

Ha ha ha, yes it was quite funny. We were all grumpy that  it was such a rip off on the tour front. The info center in the town looked cool, but the set was only by tour. We managed to locate the farm where the set was, up in the hills and found a cafe named 'The Shire Rest' but it looked like a wool shed. Busloads of Asians were being driven onto the farm where the set was, but outside there was NOTHING to look at.  There were a couple sign posts to mark the spot and  NOTHING else. We sat down to eat our packed lunch, and I spied this stone sculpture on the lawn. It had been carved in real stone in 2006 I think, at a local sculpture contest. I took a couple pictures of it and LO AND BEHOLD I saw the donut on it. (Well actually, it was a ring with elfin like characters carved on it, but it was so fat it looked like a donut )It was so funny. NOTHING to see, and we FOUND IT! Our 'tour' of  'MIDDLE EARTH' has been typically twisted , just as my sense of humor is. We have seen  very little of the actual films , but  found lots of little twists and turns around it.

Safe journeys, m8.

Hah that is too good, a stone donut, is it too late to work it into the movie?

Thanks C16thFoxe. We hope to get to Cape Rianga tomorrow. How's your theatre going? Did you get your arch done? Yes Snail, the stone donut was quite a find.