New Zealand- the Trail of Mordor

So, when I asked my boys what they wanted to do in New Zealand, the first thing out of their mouths was "Mordor Trail"!  As I said before, I had not seen the movies.  Had no idea what the Mordor Trail was.  So I googled it.  This is what I found in a Gadling online article:

So what exactly is Mt. Doom?

Well, to begin, its real name is Mt. Ngauruhoe, it is 7,516 ft. high, and from the best I could tell there aren’t any quivering, flaming black eyes located anywhere near it. While Mt. Ngauruhoe doubled as Mt. Doom, the surrounding bits of Tongariro National Park provided the scenery for Mordor, the fiery and terrifying volcanic wasteland that serves as the home of evil.

As it happens, Tongariro is actually pretty cold, even during the summer months. Lacing up my hiking boots at 6am with about 100 other trekkers, the morning dew had frozen and blanketed the campervan beneath a thin layer of frost.

“Weird”, I thought. “There’s not supposed to be snow in Mordor.”Actually, back here in reality, Tongariro is home to Whakapapa ski field, one of only two areas on the whole North Island of New Zealand which receives enough snowfall to warrant ski lifts and groomed runs. Though Mordor is colder in reality than in the movies, the threat of volcanic eruption is still very real.

Did you see the words?  Volcanic wasteland??  My boys wanted to travel all the way to New Zealand and hike in a volcanic wasteland?  Yep, that's what they wanted to do.  So we did.  

There are not too many lodging choices in the Tangariro National Park.  We stayed at the Skotel Alpine Resort.  Not exactly the Shangri-La, but good location.

This was the view on the morning of the hike.  Or rather the non-view.

I had booked a hiking tour with the Adrift company.  Link below.

http://www.adriftnz.co.nz

Stewart was wonderful to work with.  I e-mailed him ahead of time.  The original alpine crossing of this region is a 7-8 hour hike!  We didn't want to hike that long, especially since Austin was not fully recovered from his broken ankle.  We booked a four-hour hike.  And on the morning of the hike, more modifications needed to be made.  Stewart didn't know how much we could see due to rain and clouds.  We ended up doing 12 km up and back in about 3 1/2 hours.

Stewart did not think my jacket nor Austin's jacket were waterproof enough.  He provided us with better rain jackets.  They have hiking boots and other hiking gear available.  That is really important when you are flying in and don't really know what weather to expect.

We were hiking on an active volcano.  Good the know the volcanic risk was only normal.

I believe there are eight 'Great Walks' in New Zealand.  This was supposed to be the best one.  In good weather.  

Stewart, on the left, was employed as a guide for the actors and crew during the filming of the Lord of the Rings movies.  Side note:  You can do this hike without a guide.  The trail is well marked.  But we were glad to have him.

The actual "Mt. Doom" was hard to make out behind the clouds.

I got a little teasing from Stewart over my umbrella, but I was glad to have it!  :)

The clouds and mist and volcanic rocks certainly made this place feel like Mt. Doom.

There is beauty even in volcanic wasteland.

There was a warning sign before the toughest part of the hike.

Volcanic rocks

We were happy to see a small break in the clouds!  If you do the full hike on a clear day, the views are  supposed to be amazing.  This day, they were just interesting.

They did all the filming for Gollum's waterfall scenes at this waterfall. ... then they found a better waterfall in another part of New Zealand and these scenes were cut.

Although we were not sure what the day would bring, we all really enjoyed the hike!  Austin persevered with his sore ankle.

Back to the hotel, where we loaded up to begin our four-hour drive to Wellington.  Luckily the rain had stopped and we had another beautiful drive in the NZ countryside.

Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.  

That evening, we cleaned up and went out in search of some dinner.  This was our entertainment for the evening.  Did you know that cricket has a World Cup every four years like soccer does?  I didn't either.  And this year, it was New Zealand vs Australia for the finals!!  Needless to say, there were very few people out on the streets.  I asked a woman what time the game started.  She said 4:30. I asked her about 9:00.  We went back to the hotel and watched it till about 11:00.  Not sure what time it ended, but New Zealand lost.  :/

The next morning we headed to the Wellington airport for our flight to Queenstown.  There are studios in Wellington where many of the indoor scenes for LOTR were shot.  I looked up from drinking my coffee and this is what I saw! 

Then we boarded our New Zealand airline flight.  The coolest safety video ever!!  I had recorded a minute of it, but I got the whole video on Youtube.  It is worth a look!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOw44VFNk8Y

Next blog post-- Queenstown!

New Zealand-- Hobbiton!

We just got back from an amazing spring break vacation-- autumn in New Zealand!  It exceeded all our expectations, and I will devote several blog posts to this trip.  First of all,  I wanted to show you a map.  Now I know y'all know where New Zealand is.  I just didn't realize how far it is from Malaysia!  It took 10-11 hours flight time from KL to Auckland.  Malaysia is above Indonesia in orange, and NZ is on the bottom right in purple.  But I am not complaining.  Our son, Jared, met us in Auckland.  He flew 28+ hours from New York City!

I have several friends who went to NZ over Christmas break.  They all stayed two weeks.  We only had a week for spring break.  We had to make lots of hard choices!

We only had a couple of hours to spend in Auckland.  So what better way than the Sky Tower to see most of Auckland at once?  At 1076 feet, the Sky Tower is the tallest manmade structure in the southern hemisphere.

The sign assured us that this glass floor was actually stronger than the concrete part.  I must say, it sure didn't feel that way!

NZ is the land of extreme adventures.  More on that in a later post.  But for now, this is what some people do for fun off the Sky Tower!

We left Auckland, for a two-hour drive to Hobbiton, the setting for the Shire in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.  There was lots of beautiful scenery on the way.

Be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time online.  You don't want to be disappointed.  This tour got 5 stars on Trip Advisor.  A 'do not miss' if you are in NZ!

Hobbiton is actually part of a working sheep farm.

At this point, I have a blog post contributor-- my son Austin!  His comments will be in brackets.  He will add his thoughts and his superior memory along with his love for all things LOTR.

[Peter Jackson, the director, had black faced sheep brought in because the white ones looked too modern!]

[This is the point where I started nerding out. ]

I have a confession to make.  Until about a week before this trip, I had not seen any of movies.  I left those movies to father/son evenings.  The picture above was taken from my computer screen as I watched the movie on the plane.

This is the same spot during the tour!!

There are 39 unique Hobbit holes in the village.  They are built in two different sizes, depending on how big the actor needed to look. 

The flowers and vegetable garden are kept by some of the same gardeners who worked on the farm during filming.  One of my favorite things about the whole place is something you can't see in the pictures-- butterflies!  They were everywhere.  The feeling was enchanting.

The hills surrounding the village.

The open area in front of the tree, and the area in the picture below, is where Bilbo Baggins' birthday party was held.  After watching the first LOTR movie on the plane, I was able to recognize a lot of these spots.  :)

Funny thing about perspective.  I promise, I am taller than Savannah!  [Austin is really that big though. :)]

This garden was so charming.

Pipes are not provided or available at the tour.  Jared brought his pipe all the way from the US, to the envy of some of the other visitors.  This was in front of Bilbo and Frodo's home.

This is the only manmade tree in the whole village.  The director was not happy with the color of the leaves, so he had someone in a cherry picker go up and paint each silk leaf by hand. [This was all done for a camera shot that showed the hobbit hole from a few hundred meters away.]  Peter Jackson was veeerrrrry particular.  [In the book, Hobbiton was filled with plum trees. That was not so in the real life village. Peter Jackson had his minions pluck every single leaf and fruit off the native fruit trees and wire on plum leaves and plums.]

The tour ended with a drink from the Green Dragon Inn.  You could choose from two different ales, a hard cider, or a non-alcoholic ginger beer.

After the tour, we drove another (beautiful) two hours to the Tangariro National Park, home of the 'Mordor Trail'.  [This was Austin's favorite vacation. He and Jared definitely enjoyed seeing the books come to life.]

Savannah's Sixteenth Birthday Party!

There are no famous buildings in this blog post.  No palaces, temples, mountains, or movie sets.  (But  mountains and movie sets are coming soon!)  This blog post shows that family life goes on, no matter where your family is.  

I think I posted the above picture from our Christmas trip back to Texas.  That is Savannah turning 16, soon after Christmas.  We celebrated with family, but Savannah wanted a real birthday party.  With friends.  So we just had one, a little late.  But better late than never!

Where does one buy party supplies in KL?  The best place I have found is Spotlight!  If Jo-ann Fabric and Bed, Bath, and Beyond formed a joint venture, you would get Spotlight.  This location is in the Ampang Point shopping center.  

Here I am, waiting for balloons.  This store carries all sorts of party supplies, piñatas, costumes, fabrics, home decor stuff, bedding, kitchen items, tons of crafting supplies, etc.  My kind of place!

I needed a birthday cake for the party.  Normally I would have ordered a cake from Costco or a nice grocery store bakery. There are nice bakeries here, but I didn't want anything too fancy.  Since I couldn't find what I wanted, I decided to make my chocolate peanut-butter cupcakes.  I have made these cupcakes many times.  The chocolate cupcake is your basic Hershey's recipe:

https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY'S-PERFECTLY-CHOCOLATE-Chocolate-Cake

The real secret, however, is Barefoot Contessa's peanut-butter icing:

http://www.food.com/recipe/barefoot-contessas-chocolate-cupcakes-and-peanut-butter-icing-211987

When you click on the link, ignore the chocolate cupcake recipe.  Hershey's is much better!

Savannah said one is never too old for a goody bag!  I got the plain white bags at Spotlight (they come in several colors).  She stamped the chandelier, cut and pasted labels, and glued a rhinestone on the bag.  The goodies came from Chinatown.  About what you would put in an 8-year-old's goody bag!  :)

The real challenge was where to have the party!  I live in a nice apartment, but not big enough for 20 teens.  We needed to provide entertainment and food in one location.  No one wants to take their child to two different places in KL traffic.  The solution?  A scavenger hunt at The Curve Mall, with food at Bubba Gump.  That's right, Bubba Gump right here in KL!  We had the whole upper level to ourselves.  I just want to say, the manager and staff here were wonderful and very accommodating.  

Forrest Gump was playing in the corner.

This is Leah, Austin's girlfriend.  They don't offer a buffet at Bubba Gump.  I just ordered multiple servings of several dishes and they put them on platters and trays.  It worked out very well.

Completed goody bags!

Austin and Savannah

The kids were divided into five groups of four.  This was the list they were given.  They had a time limit and the team with the most points won.  By the way, this was all done with Instagram.  Each team created an account, took pictures of themselves as required, and posted the pictures.

Here I am, 'decorating' the cupcakes.

The white cupcakes are Italian Cream Cake with cream cheese icing.  I would have included the recipe I used but there is no easy link.  It is hand-written on an index card and I have used that recipe for almost 30 years.  Yikes!  That makes me feel old.

Hard to tell, but that silver star was a candle.

It took Austin and Leah quite a while to tally up the team scores.

The winning team!  The party turned out well.

We ended the weekend by taking our princess to see Cinderella.  Great movie!  Interesting to see movies with Bahasa (the Malaysian language) and Mandarin subtitles.