Journey to Middle Earth

Journey to Middle Earth

KOBUS FABER·MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2016

As a novice world traveler, I chronicle my experience to New Zealand.

Desperate to show me that the world doesn’t end outside the borders of South Africa, my partner, Stephen Van Dyk and I started our journey very early on Christmas morning. Our Mozziecabs taxi right on time, we set out with our minimum allotted baggage. Due to over excitement or over planning, Stephen forgot our plane tickets on the dining room table, which we had to turn back for. Being that it was my first time over seas, I was very scared of all the horror stories that I’ve heard about overseas travel. Lucky for us, my trip was painless. After a few stopovers and transfers we finally get to our destination. New Zealand.

An Emirates air hostess getting ready for her flight.

Auckland

A walk though a Moari Totem is your portal into Auckland.

After 45 hours of eating airplane food and breathing airport air, it was wonderful to be greeted by a bright sunny day in Auckland. A friendly and handsome young Maori man introduces us to their fantastic public transport system.

The First sights I saw as I got off the plane.

Because of or very limited budget we had to resort to stay in hostels and backpackers. We got very lucky to get accommodation at The Haka Lodge. Situated on Karanghape Road or better known as “K-Road”, this place is such a beautiful and comfortable place to be. To our surprise, or luck rather, K Road happened to be the “cool” place to be. The area caters to the artistically inclined, free thinkers and *ahem* sexually adventurous people out there. You can expect to see a quaint and crafty little second hand book store and coffee shop can right next to a S&M Bondage Palace completely fitted with a cruise area. You know, in case you want to burn off that delicious Cheese and Marmite Scroll that you’ve just had.

Over all Auckland is a very liberating place to be. People are open, friendly and aren’t afraid to participate in some PDA. Loving couples can be seen laying in each others’ arms, holding hands whilst walking and even kissing.

Karanghape Road or "K Road" to the locals is the arty, freethinkers' place to be.

After the jet lag got the better of us and we had a quick nap, the night came calling. Auckland is just as alive at night as in the day. I was surprised at how safe it was. We were walking in the middle of the night in the middle of the CBD and we never felt that anything was lurking in the shadows. The city has a very different feel at night than in the day. A myriad of different people can be seen walking the streets, there are sophisticated people coming from some kind of fancy show mixed with young people going to some trendy drinking hole.

Being one for most of my life, Auckland is a pedestrian’s dream. People love to walk and take their bikes every where, and the roads and public transport systems are well cared for that too with buses going by every 15 minutes with place for your bicycle.

Like seasoned tourists, we tried to experience all the local products and cuisines. New zealnad are very proud of the fact that they try to produce everything inside their continent. Whenever something is imported, have it be a certain product or ingredient that was used, they make sure to note of it on their packaging. Our favourite by far was their L&P drink.

Auckland at night is a festival of lights and live.

The next day we bought a day pass and traveled the entire city by using their fantastic train system. One gig of free Wi-Fi per day are bestowed upon every person per day. You can access it in trains, ferries, buses even when using one of their on the street public rest rooms. It was so amazing to have that, as they integrate their entire system seamlessly with your smartphone, so you will never miss a bus or train.

The Auckland Transport public transport system are a joy to use.

New Zealand is a art and design wonderland. You can see that they try really hard to give each different area it’s own unique feel. Rather than seeing big billboards everywhere you get to see some of the most amazing wall art, sculptures and murals. And where they use advertising it is well presented inside decorative frames in clearly designated places. You really feel that they appreciate art and beautiful things rather than what the next best gadget has to offer.

Some Newmarket imagery.

We took the ferry to Devonport. Devonport is a picturesque suburb across Shoal Bay. Devonport is known for it’s vistas and walking trails. It feels like a 1960’s Hollywood set or the inspiration for Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

Wellington

The spectacle that welcomes you in the Wellington Airport.

We quickly jumped on a plane to Wellington had to offer. As well as being the windy city, Wellington is of coarse the home of WETA Studios, the studios behind the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Hobbit movies and many others.

The town is a menagerie of everything Weta and film. You are even greeted by a massive sculpture commissioned by Peter Jackson himself to thank and inspire who ever visits the lovely city.

The massive Peter Jackson commissioned sculpture welcoming you to Wellington.

Wellington was by far my favourite of the two New Zealand cities we’ve visited. The absolute beautiful art and design on display everywhere makes it a tranquil and inspiring place to be. It also has a more small town feel, even though it is a big city. An abundance of theaters, cinemas, coffee shops and street vendors gives it a playful vibe.

Some Wellington pleasantness.

We had to stop off at the Weta Cave, the face of the tourist area for the workshop. The cave is located in Miramar, a small quiet suburb. If you didn’t know that this is where the mega blockbuster studio is located, you would never have geussed. The suburb is quaint, laid back and adorable, and except for the beautiful Roxy Theatre there is no flashiness at all.

The Fabulous Roxy Theatre.

We were extremely lucky to take the Weta Workshop tour as it was quite apparent that these tours sell out quickly. We were treated to some fantastic behind the scenes areas, as well as actual props from their movies and detailed explanations of how they achieve their own original style for creating special effects. Unfortunately, there were no photography allowed behind the doors of the workshop, but I highly recommend doing it as it will inspire you tremendously.

Some stunning craftsmanship on display at the Weta Cave.

The next day we were lucky again as Te Papa Museum had two fantastic exhibitions going. The first was the Dreamworks Animation Studios exhibit and the other was Gallipolli: The scale of our war. Gallipolli was a war exhibit as you have never seen before. Created in association with Peter Jackson and Weta Studios, this exhibit featured gigantic realistic sculptures of people in the war as well as beautiful art, sound design and war relics.

Gallipolli: The scale of our war makes it's point quite literally.

The Dreamworks exhibition where next. In this exhibition Dreamworks takes you on a journey through how an modern day animation movie is made. Beautiful sculptures, planning, designs and world creation where all on display. In this once in a lifetime opportunity you can see the actual marquettes, models and storyboards that was used to make all their classic films, like The Prince of Egypt, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar.

Some of the many items on display at the Dreamworks exhibit.

We continued to explore the lovely city of Wellington. The city showed us it’s beautiful harbours, public art works and diverse races of people that live there.

Wellington in it's glory.

Back to Auckland

We returned to Auckland on New Year’s eve for the rest of our stay. Upon arrival we realised that we booked ourselves into the hostel from hell. I swear that it must have been the inspiration for the Hostel movies. It felt like the lady from the Grudge was going to come through the roof. Luckily it was New Years celebrations and we were so tired that we were able to fall asleep. We promptly went out to find ourselves a new place to stay.

Happy 2016 everyone!

We continued to explore Auckland from our new residence at Queen Street Backpackers. Ferries and buses became our friends. We tried to go as far as their public transport system could take us.

Some sights we've experienced in and around Auckland.

We then met up with one of Stephen’s old friends currently living there. They stay on a farm on the outskirts of the city in a lovely house with a charming backdrop of green hills, cows and of course, sheep. Here their two cute daughters grow up in an setting that looks like it’s been ripped out of the pages of Winnie the pooh. We slept in a tent under the stars.

Green hills and cows, the countryside looks like the side of a milk bottle.

The last day we were basically locals. We just hang around and visited the unique shops, hangouts, art galleries and museums all throughout the city. We went to the top of Sky Tower and caught a bird’s eye view of the entire city, a perfect send off to what was a fantastic first time abroad.

Our last day was spent trying to tire our eyes of all that there was to see.

The trip back was a bit rocky, with some airplane delays, re-routes and extreme tiredness getting the better of us. After 45 hours, we finally set our feet back on home turf. And I don’t know if it was the fact that our suitcases have been forced open and looted like a treasure chest in a pirate movie, the fact that a O.R Thambo employee begged money from us in the first 5 minutes after arriving, the barrage of racial fueled headlines on newspapers or that we were awakened at 2’o clock in the morning (barely 10 hours back) by a break in at an adjacent block of flats; the reality of being back in South Africa quickly dawned on us.

Anyway I highly recommend going to New Zealand. It really is a place that has magical vistas, turquoise blue oceans, fantastic food and people who are truly embracing their chill-axed lifestyles.

Here’s starting to safe for the next one.