Tom and I infront of the Opera House and the Sydney bridge

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this is a picture of Tyler and I from the tree walk, which was one of my favorite things we did in New Zealand.

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Our tour for Wellington seemed to be a little less exciting as the other groups, but it was still very informative and I learned a lot about the city and the history of it. Throughout the city, there is many different pieces of art and sculptures. One of the favorite ones we saw was the Skyblue, by Bill Culbert. It was a neon lights attached to 5 metal poles. Standing at ground level is seems as though it is just neon lights attached to poles. But, if you look at it from above the lights apparently form in the shape of the New Zealand leaf. I thought that was very cool and an interesting sculpture that I wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for our tour guide. Another example was the metal woman statue that had words all over her clothes. This was a sculpture in honor of one of Wellingtons best writers and the words honored her short stories and poems. Our tour didn’t go into much depth about film, but I did learn a great story about Patty the dog. This dog was ran away and was found down by the docks of Wellington. The sailors and locals took her in as their own and everyone loved her. She would even take boat rides with these men and even went to the South Island. Unfortunately, during one cold and long winter, she passed away. The entire town took a day to honor her and have a funeral for her where all the taxis and police men drove down the street which was lined with the locals, and her casket in the back of a taxi. This was a cool story to hear since I love dogs and have 3 of my own. Wellington itself was a very cool city to explore. A group of us went down to the water and jumped off a wooden diving board type thing into the ocean, which was quite cold. We also jumped off the designed jumping site which we were shown on our tour. When the guide was showing us a little kid did a back flip and almost hit his head on the wood, so I was a little skeptical about it at first, but in the end jumped a few times. Right after we got out of the water we saw a group of dolphins swimming around right by where we were jumping. It was great to see some wild life. We also kayaked down by the water which was a great experience this

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During our semester our class, Douglas was mentioned multiple times when talking about our time in New Zealand and seemed everyone who has previously been on his bus loved him. From the first time I met him he lived up to expectations and was a very upbeat and knowledgeable man. He seemed to have tremendous pride for his country and loved tell us all he knew about the difference cities and places we visited. One thing I learned from Douglas was about the all blacks, the local rugby team. He spoke about how obsessed the country is with this team and supports them like crazy. One thing I found funny is when he was talking about how during the world cup that the local McDonalds actually tried to make their burgers all black in an attempt to support the team. This backfired when the burgers just came out burnt and it didn’t sit well with customers. As he was telling us this story we passed a huge carrort statue on the side of the road. He told us they painted it completely black to support the team. After Tom and I heard this, we downloaded a 6 episode documentary on the All Blacks. It was a great watch and walked us through the journey of the All Black’s team and how the did during the world cup. It was awesome to watch and made me even go out and buy a jersey in Wellington. Another thing I learned from Douglas was that Tip Top was the best ice cream on the island. Unfortunately we didn’t pass any shops while walking around, but it was a good tip and will definitely keep it in mind for next time I am in New Zealand. Another thing I learned from Douglas, and many other New Zealander’s was that they are very proud of being from New Zealand, and don’t like Australians much. Douglas made a few joking comments about how its too bad we are going to Australia instead of staying in New Zealand. Last night I went out to dinner with 2 of my grandparents friends who live in New Zealand and when I told them we were going to Australia they said the same thing, “too bad for you”. I found this funny and quickly picked up on the local rivalry.  Douglas was a great man and bus driver and I understand why you guys use him every time on this trip. Hopefully our Australian bus driver is just as nice and informative.

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Filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy in New Zealand affected the geography. Tourism, and the lives of the people in New Zealand. The geography was affected in many ways certainly. First, they had to take out many plants and trees in certain filming locations in order to get the perfect shot. Unfortunately, that is not great for the environment and Peter Jackson knew this. He took pictures of every plant and tree he took out and replaced each and every single plant just as they found it. Since the soil is so great in New Zealand, the plants had a 98% successful grow back rate. That is great for the environment and Peter Jackson did a great job at restoring the land to the way he found it. Of course, the production of this historic film affected tourism in New Zealand as well. According to the general manager of Western long haul markets for Tourism New Zealand, Gregg Anderson, “We’ve seen a 50% increase in arrivals to New Zealand since Lord of the Rings.” The first film in the trilogy, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in 2001. Since this was released, I am sure that rate has gone up even more. About 1% of visitors said that Lord of the Rings was the reason they came. It’s only one 1%, but that’s worth NZD$33 million a year. Six percent cited Lord of the Rings as one of  the major reasons they came. The Lord of the Rings has helped New Zealand thrive. Even though they have amazing views and sights, the production of this films put them on the map globally. This also affects the lives of local New Zealand people who live there year round. Having all these tourists coming into their home and crowing up the areas they have come to known and love puts a toll on them. They have to wait hours to see things that they live right by because these tourist come and fill the lines. When at the Hobbiton tour, I noticed there were groups in-front of us we had to wait for and groups right behind us waiting for us to go to the next hobbit hole. It took a long time to get through the tour and if I lived in New Zealand and couldn’t get into a tour of my own country because of tourist I would be a bit frustrated

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The walk through Hobbiton was a great day. I was looking forward to just seeing this historic site, but to learn so much more about it from our tour guide was an added bonus. The information about the location scouts was quite interesting. The first story that comes to mind is when Peter Jackson and his scouters were flying around in a helicopter to find a location. When they came across the land that would soon be Hobbiton, Peter Jackson noticed the party tree. Once he saw that, he knew that is where they would build Hobbiton. The land around this tree was great as well and made for a perfect location. Once Peter decided on the location, they had to speak to the owners of the land. This is where the next example of scouting comes from. When they found the house of the owner of the farms, they were very lucky that he answered. The story we were told was he was watching the All Blacks play in a rugby match that afternoon.  Fortunately for Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings future, it was halftime of the match. Only because of this did the owner of this land come to the door and speak with them. They then had a conversation and he allowed them to look around his land. The rest is history and Peter Jackson got his Hobbiton, and the owners of the land gets 50% of the profits that this tourist attraction brings in. This story really stuck with me and it is crazy how lucky we all our that is was halftime of that match. The last thing that was cool about the tour was the party tree. Peter Jackson used fake leaves for this tree. After they ordered hundred of thousand of leaves to be produced and shipped to them, Peter Jackson was not happy with the color. He had already had poor people sew these thousands of leaves onto this tree, where he then noticed the color was off. They needed new leaves, and needed them quick. Instead of spending money to have more leaves made, they sent the leaves to local kindergarten schools and had the children paint the leaves… for free! In the end, the tree was fixed and the kids got credit for their painting skills in the credits of the movie. Overall, the Hobbiton tour was a great experience and one of my favorite tours this trip so far.

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