because the view from the cabin window had few redeeming features, well none actually ...
I'm sure there's a reason for it but this cruise has an odd itinerary. We arrived in Picton (top of the south Island). Then on day 2 we cruised right past Wellington, which is just across Cook straight from Picton (bottom of the north Island), and up the east coast of the North Island to see Napier - nice but as I mentioned a poor man's Bondi, for a whole day. THEN we go back down to Wellington - which is huge and has a lot to offer, for 4 hours before rushing off to Dunedin - which is so far away it takes 17 hours to get to.
odd right? it's not just me thinking this, is it? anyway we spent our limited time in Wellington with a private tour guide (Tim) on a Lord of the Rings tour. It was nice to have a local show us around and I'm really grateful it was just me and Mike with the guide in a very comfy car but LOTR tour it was not.
we drove around the town and the coast, only mention of LOTR was 'so have you seen the movies?' before Tim dropped me off at the Weta Cave Workshop, where the trolls are not to be climbed on and I got the last ticket to do the workshop tour.
Mike & Tim took in a bit more scenery while I took the tour and I would like to point out that whilst it is true that this is the creative space responsible for making a lot of the props etc for LOTR, they are also responsible for much movie magic not just LOTR. The tour was very interesting, the guide good at her job and lively. We got a lot of behind the scene info and saw a lot of props, some of which we could touch, had a great demo from a talented sculptor relating to all the movies they have worked on, for example they made the scar for Hester in Mortal Engines. I haven't seen it yet but I've read the book and the scar is integral to her character THAT was interesting.
When Tim retrieved me from Weta Cave I expected to see a bit of the landscape where the filming was done but, nope we went up to the Mt Victoria lookout
And then back to the boat. So to sum up, interesting but not what we paid for.
This was waiting for me on the boat to though so not all disappointment today.
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