There and Back Again - A Hobbit Lovers Tale, Part 9

Today we board the third of our transportation vehicles. In the North Island, we rode Smaug, a beast of a bus. Smaug was modern, offered phone charging, and had a toilet, although I’m not sure if anyone used it. Upon arrival on the South Island, we boarded Shadowfax, built for safety and security over the twisting mountain roads. Shadowfax didn’t have much in the way of amenities, no charging at the seat, and the toilet was marked ‘out of order.’ This was fine, though, as the roads were certainly rougher than in the North. Our third bus was Grond. If you know the LOTR, you know that Grond was the battering ram they used at the Great Gate of Minas Tirith, and Grond was chosen for our off-road adventure today. We had our lunches, some water and our walking sticks, and made ready for the trip.

The final competition had been called off by Julie, an excellent call. The Dunedan’s, the team Bob and I were on, had asked our questions yesterday, and the other team had only correctly answered 18/36. The Fellowship became quite annoyed that the questions were so hard, and when we switched over, nerves started to fray. It had reached the point where people were asking for the birthdates down to the time of day for certain characters, and how many times did Frodo fall down in the Two Towers, because someone found that information posted on a wiki site. I doubt Tolkien had provided that information. So, good call, Julie.

That left us free to look at the scenery. I honestly don’t know how anyone gets anything done in NZ. Not only is it heartbreakingly beautiful, but it changes frequently because of cloud cover and light. We actually saw a bright rainbow on the rock face of one of the bare mountains, and cameras clicked until it faded. Our goals today include numerous scenes of the LOTR, and were far off the beaten path. We were to visit the Orc funeral pyre, the calling up of Shadowfax, Fangorn Forest, Nen Hithoel where Sam and Frodo broke the Fellowship by paddling away to complete their task, the tree that Frodo hid behind to escape the Uruk-hai, and the log that concealed Merry and Pippin before they were carried away by Orcs. That evening would be the breaking of our Fellowship at a final dinner. By now we had gotten to know each other fairly well, and I’m happy to say we traveled with a good group. Everyone got along well, shared and supported each other as we traveled. Along the way, we found out that Viggo had a favorite NZ wine he bought by the case, and that the Māori actually own all the Jade (greenstone) in NZ. Similar to what we learned when we went to Wales, the Māori native language had fallen out of favor for a while, but is now taught in schools and is actually the national language of NZ.

The driver of Grond, Euwin, gave us a good history of NZ. The Māori arrived, probably from other Polynesian islands, around the 1200’s, and the known history starts there. Both Islands at that time were populated by birds and sea mammals. Since there were no natural predators (and still aren’t many) some birds had lost their fear and their need for flight and were pretty friendly creatures. Once the Māori arrived, they found birds an excellent source of nutrition, and many types became extinct. They had fish to eat as well, but I guess they loved their birds for dinner. We did see birds wandering or flying in and out of stores and restaurants, and no one blinked an eye. As we passed Lake Wakatipu, we learned that the lake, while it has no connection with the ocean, is tidal and raises and lowers throughout the day. The Māori legend for this is that a tribal princess was kidnapped by a competing tribe. Her father was so distressed he offered land and gold to the warrior who could free her. One warrior, who loved the princess, tried to do so and both he and the princess were killed in the attempt. It is said that the king lies at the bottom of the lake, alive and grieving his daughter, and the raising and lowering of the water is actually his chest rising and falling.

Once we got to the field and the woods where our adventures would begin, we realized it was quite cold. We were glad we packed lots of layers and sweatshirts. This is spring in NZ and there were days we saw three seasons, meaning that at least it didn’t snow. Undaunted, our Fellowship faithfully reenacted numerous scenes, badly and with great hilarity. Julie had brought her costumes and masks, and everyone had a turn at their favorite character or script. Bob got to play Shadowfax and was a hoot, and he took his turn at Frodo, Pippin and Merry hiding under logs. He also gave a good showing of the final moments of Boromir’s life. Some members were so entrenched in reality that they got into the river and I’m sure they regretted it on the long ride home. Made for great pics and movies though. The Orc funeral pyre was terrific as the dead orcs couldn’t stop shivering.

On the way home, we stopped at the Manuka honey farm. Manuka honey is used today in wound healing, and I’ve used it myself on burns. But you can eat it too. Bob and I purchased some therapeutic grade honey for a once-a-day dosing to keep us healthy for more travel!

That evening we had a buffet dinner with our Fellowship and began our goodbyes. The following day we would still be in Queenstown, but we were all going our own way on different adventures. Bob and I had chosen the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise on the Fiordland Navigator. We had been polling the New Zealanders to ask which Sound, Doubtful or Milford would be best. Without exception, we were told that Doubtful was the choice. So tomorrow we will take a bus, a boat, another bus and finally the ship through the Sound. I was glad we chose this one, as the Milford Sound cruise, being further from our hotel, was a 5 hour each way bus ride, and I was getting over buses pretty quickly.

It was hard to say goodbye to our Fellowship. We had become bonded by our shared love of all things Tolkien, had watched our actors turn into children reenacting scenes with glee, and had met people from all over the world. Julie had created a Facebook group for us to post all our photos and videos and encouraged us all to stay in touch through the site. There is not an insignificant number of people who go on these adventures more than once just because they are so much fun. I greatly enjoyed the tour, and found myself in love with Queenstown, so I’ll never say never to the idea of coming back.