Just like that, four months have passed since the day I left home (October 15). It’s been a whole mix of emotions thinking about those four months. It equally feels like it’s been a lifetime and yet such a short blur. It’s been wild walking back and thinking about how much has happened and yet how there is still so much to see and do. And the reality is that there always will be.
This week I finished up my time on the North Island of New Zealand (mostly spent back with Amy, Becca, Ted, and Travis) and got a taste of the South. As expected, I immediately fell in love with the South from the moment I landed in Queenstown. As cool as the North was, it just can’t compete in my eyes. But we’ll put a pause on most of the South and save it for the next two newsletters, giving the North its last chance to shine this week. Here’s week 17.
LOCATIONS
- Rotorua, New Zealand (Feb 5 – Feb 8)
- Auckland, New Zealand (Feb 9 – Feb 10)
- Fiordland National Park, New Zealand (Feb 10 – Feb 13)
ACTIVITIES
Rotorua Redwoods Mountain Biking
Rotorua might not have mountains, but it does have a gigantic forest park filled with Redwood trees and endless miles of trails for walking and mountain biking. The recently expanded gang and I rented mountain bikes one afternoon and set out along a loop around the rim of the park. “Mountain biking” can mean a wide range of riding terrain, and this loop turned out to be a good mix with some fun downhill sections, which were a bit of a surprise to all of us (some more excited about said surprise than others). My bike handling skills could sure use some work, but it was once again fun to be back on a bike in any capacity and push the legs a bit on some of the uphill sections trying to chase Travis down.
We were all having fun until Amy decided she was done. So done she thought it would be a better idea to take a spill than to keep riding the rest of the loop. Although some bandaging up was needed, thankfully no bones were broken and no brains were concussed. We slowly worked our way back to our starting point via the more direct road route (that was thankfully mostly downhill), and that pretty much wrapped up out mountain bike time. By the time we got back to the start, the rest of us realized how tired we were as well, and we were grateful for Amy’s sacrifice to take us back a little sooner. If you had any concerns at all about her wounds, they all did a 16 mile hike a few days later, so it’s safe to say she’s healing up just fine.
We revisited the redwoods that night after dark to go on a nighttime canopy walk through the trees via suspension bridges. Not many good pictures came given that it was very dark outside, but it was a cool way to get a different perspective on the forest and see the nighttime light displays. If I had to pick one, I’d do it during the day as the night experience is more for the lights than the trees, and the trees are for sure the coolest part.
Hobbiton Tour
Trivia question – do you know how much screen time the Hobbiton movie set had in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies? I’ll put the answer at the end of the section if you want to guess.
Here are some of my other favorite fun facts I learned during my Hobbiton tour.
- The set was torn down after LotR filming, and then rebuilt permanently for the Hobbit movies with the intent of opening it up for tours.
- When the set was built for the Hobbit, months were spent rebuilding it. It ended up being used for a total of 12 filming days.
- There are apple and pear trees in Hobbiton. However, Tolkien was very specific in his books that the trees in Hobbiton were plum trees. So Peter Jackson made his crew strip all the fruit from the trees and manually attach artificial plums to accurately match the details of the books.
- Hobbiton was used only for external shots of hobbit holes. All internal shots were filmed in the studio in Wellington.
- There were two different sizes of hobbit holes used for filming to create the illusion of the size difference between hobbits and Gandalf – a full size set, and a 60% size set. Hobbits used the full size sets, and Gandalf only ever passed by the 60% size set.
- The scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf bumps his head on the rafter of Bilbo’s house was completely unscripted and improvised by Ian McKellen.
I’m sure you either really enjoyed reading these, or most of it sounded like a whole lot of mumbo jumbo. If you’re in the former camp, Hobbiton is definitely worth a visit. If you’re in the latter, maybe not, although there were plenty of people on my tour that hadn’t seen the films and still enjoyed themselves plenty.
It was another great chance to nerd out on books/movies that I thoroughly enjoy. It’s made me wish I re-watched the movies before I got down here, as having scenes actively run through my mind while walking through would have made the whole experience even cooler. If nothing else, my Lord of the Rings tours have given me a much greater appreciation for the level of care that Peter Jackson and his team put into making these movies what they are.
And to end – here’s your trivia answer: Hobbiton was on screen for a total of 7 minutes in each trilogy. All those long months building, and rebuilding, all for a whopping 14 minutes across over 18 hours of film. Crazy.
Gertrude Saddle Hike / Milford Sound
(this week’s cover photo)
Sometimes you get recommendations that aren’t very good. Other times, they don’t work out and you never get to experience them. In the best cases, they’re phenomenal and you’re stoked someone told you about it. Gertrude Saddle was one of those. Two different people that I stumbled into conversation with on the North Island said it was one of their favorite day hikes in New Zealand. It just so happened that I had one free day in Fiordland National Park with no plan, and just like that, I had a plan.
The evening I drove into the Fiordlands, fog was once again looming and covering many of the mountains. I started my drive to Gertrude Saddle the next morning, and slowly over my hour driving I saw blue skies peeking through. All of a sudden, mountains started revealing themselves all around me. By the time I arrived at the trailhead, it was a full on bluebird day.
It was a relatively short hike, but in this case short did not mean easy. After a mile of flat, the trail climbed about 2000 feet in just under two miles to get up to the saddle. As my eyes caught the view of the mountain lined Milford Sound, many audible exclamations of awe and wonder came out of my mouth. Mountain ranges and ocean all in one picture. Snowy peaks and sunshine. Although distinctly different, it reminded me a bit of somewhere else I know and love…and as I ogled over the views that day, I was reminded how lucky I feel to call that place home.
REFLECTIONS
Words of Wisdom from Chris and Kathy
“Pretty cool, huh?” I said to the couple sitting outside their campervan as I walked back up from the lake near our campsite. That’s all it took to get a conversation going. Five minutes later, I was being offered wine and leftovers from dinner, which was a big upgrade from my meal plans for the night.
We ended up sitting and chatting for nearly two hours. Chris and Kathy live in Ontario, but have spent every winter on some adventure since they recently retired during covid. We talked about travel, politics, our differences in faith, relationships and marriage, what’s important in our lives, and more. It was a far more intense conversation that I bargained for when I walked by, and I loved it.
There’s two reasons I share this story.
The first is this. A few weeks ago, I shared some takeaways from David Brooks’ book How to Know a Person. One of those was that most of the time, people are much more keen to have conversations about heavy hitting topics than you might think. My conversation with Chris and Kathy instantly reminded me of this and it’s an encouragement that Brooks’ statement isn’t just wishful thinking.
The second has to do with a question I asked near the end of our conversation (ironically enough, it was similar to one of the questions I listed out a few weeks ago as well), and I wanted to share the (paraphrased) responses I got from both Chris and Kathy. That question was this –
What do you know now that you didn’t when you were 30?
These were their responses.
Kathy
It doesn’t matter what you have. I wish I spent more money on experiences rather than things. I see many young people get locked down by making investments that are too big, and that limits the experiences that they get to have. At our age, we’re more limited by what we are and aren’t able to do physically. We can’t have the same kind of experiences that you can right now. And I wish I would have taken more time to create those experiences when I was younger.
Chris
Just be yourself. Stop trying to pretend to be someone you’re not to impress other people or whatever. No good ever comes from that. Anything that’s not really you is just going to leave a messy wake of regret behind. It’s fine if people don’t like you, that’s still far better than being someone other than yourself.
So there you go, words of wisdom from a few strangers I spent two hours of my life with. I’m curious to know your answer to the same question. If the year 30 doesn’t apply to you yet (or feels too close to the recent past), pick a different age. 5 or 10 years ago should do. Let me know what your own words of wisdom are and what you’ve learned it this past season of life.
NEXT UP
After one more overnighter in the Fiordlands, I headed north to Mt. Cook National Park where, you guessed it, I’ve spent the last few days hiking. The weather has been absolutely absurd and I’m trying to soak up every minute of it before my luck runs out (which looks like it may in about 2 days). I’m headed over to Franz Josef today to meet back up with Amy, Becca and Ted as we work our way back towards Queenstown.
If you’re wondering what comes after New Zealand, that answer is a bit under construction. What I do know for certain is that in exactly ten days I’m flying back to Seattle! It will be a very temporary pit stop after finishing this corner of the world. It’s mostly an opportunity to reset on some gear and take a trip for a few weeks with my dad and brother before bouncing to another corner of the world. But I am very excited to be home for a brief while.
After that is where plans become a bit TBD, but the most likely scenario is that I’ll head towards Central or South America and spend a few months poking around several new countries down there! I’m always open to recommendations, so with no hard plans yet, now would be a good time to send them my way.
As always, if you know anyone that you think would be interested in anything I’m writing about, I’d ask that you consider sharing this with them.
Thanks for being here. Talk to you next week.
– Trevor