Vacation pics – started at least!

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I began posting vacation pics – my, how time can fly!  Of course I’ve been somewhat busy, with trying to finalize my first original fiction for publication, normal work & family stuff, a college class and oh yeah, an election.  Not that I want to talk about THAT, after all this is a fun site, NOT a political site.  But yes, it’s time to get back to work on this blog, and upload some more of my vacation pics.  I’ve set up a new page for those, and we’ve started with the Wellington pics.  While there I went on the full-day LoTR tour, which was mostly film sites for the original trilogy.  We started at the stone quarry where both Helms Deep and Gondor sets were built.  Sadly, there’s not much left:

I guess not everything can be Hobbiton.  Next we went to a park where Gandalf rode up to Isengard – again, not much left, but you could see where Gandalf walked along with Saurman.  And I got to pretend to be Gandalf for a few minutes:

Next was the park that subbed for Rivendell.  There are a few sign-posts, and the lovely arch where the Fellowship walked under as they were leaving:

I also got to pretend to be Legolas (or maybe Tauriel?):

We also went to the spot where Aragorn washed ashore, complete with some miniature ponies!

They actually looked too small for Hobbits – but they were adorable!  The next place we went to is called “Hobbiton Woods.”  Many scenes were shot here, like the scene where Frodo & Sam see the Wood Elves leaving, the scene where the Hobbits roll downhill, and the “Get off the road!” and hiding from the Black Rider scenes.  Here’s me pretending to be Frodo:

Naturally my hubby is reluctantly playing Sam.  There was also a spot that doubled as Weathertop and the scene where Aragorn and Theoden were surveying their numbers:

Finally we returned to Wellington for a tour of Weta Workshop.  Here’s a nice shot of Wellington:

Lovely city, wish I’d seen more of it!  So, we didn’t actually get to tour the studio, which was unfortunate, but I guess they don’t really do tours there.  Right now I imagine Peter Jackson & company are finishing up “Skull Island,” which will be out around my birthday next March – woo hoo!  Kind of a sequel to King Kong, I think.  Anyway, we did drive by it – and we saw the Trolls and Gollum:

We saw more cool stuff in the Weta Workshop; unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures in there.  And that means I didn’t get a picture of that really cool, lifesized statue of Thorin Oakenshield – OMG, I would have bribed someone for a pic!  Oh well, such is life.  Although I had a good time, it wasn’t quite as nice as Hobbiton.  When they explain the cinematic trickery involved in some of those classic scenes, it does kind of take away the magic – just a little.  I still enjoy the movies, though – they do a pretty good job of bringing in that Middle-earth magic, and I’m sure I’ll be watching some kind of M-e marathon over Thanksgiving.  And maybe I’ll get some more posts done as well.  I’m still planning to put together a slideshow of the Hobbiton pics, AND finishing that stupid Hobbit fanvideo I started, but that is a post for another day.