New Zealand New Year 2011

So, we started the year 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. 

 We spent a few days there wandering around the city, as well as taking a Lord of the Rings movie tour.  That was actually quite a fun experience.  They took us to several different locations around the city where they had filmed parts of the trilogy and showed us the scenes in the movies and then where we were and how they did it.  Michael especially liked the part where they showed the Alfred Hitchcock effect of zooming in the camera lens while backing the camera up, as they did in a scene in these woods in the first movie.

We also got to sit in the same tree as Frodo and Sam did in one of the scenes.

Then we reenacted the rider on the horse in the same spot where it was filmed...however it was filmed at night so it looks a little different.  I was the horse's head.

 It was a nice day, and they even took us to a few beautiful lookout spots.

We left Wellington and headed for Waitomo to see the Gloworm caves.  One of my favorite parts of this trip was bring able to stop anywhere along the road and look at the lovely scenic spots and take photos.  We saw these signs and decided to pull over and check them out.  We were so glad we did—the scenery was just gorgeous!

 So, we went to the Gloworm Caves in Waitomo.  It's kind of hard to get good photos of gloworms because it is pitch dark in the caves besides the worms (and the occasional headlamp to point things out).  It was such a magnificent sight, though!  So beautiful to experience. Here are a few photos:

Inside another cave where there were lots of stalactites and stalagmites.

This is what a restaurant brought me when I ordered an iced mocha.  Oh My Goodness YUM!!

We left Waitomo and headed to meet up with our friend Nicole!  I will post a separate entry about our visit with our friend whom we met our first year in Korea.