Hobbiton, Matamata, North Island, New Zealand

The weather, cold, wet, and windy, dampened some of our plans for hiking on the North Island, but the day we scheduled to visit the Hobbiton set near Matamata turned out to be sunny, with occasional strong gusts of wind. We arrived at the Shires Café and after a few minutes wait, boarded a bus to take us and about twenty others onto the Alexander’s ranch which Peter Jackson had picked out to build the Hobbiton set for his movies: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Hobbit movies.

To get all the equipment out to the area of the farm picked (a place with a lake, a large party tree, hills that resembled JRR Tolkien’s descriptions, and no evidence of modern society) a serviceable road had to be built. The New Zealand army was recruited for this task and once done, the set construction began.

The sets for the first movie were built mainly from plywood and Styrofoam and wouldn’t stand the test of time and so were mostly torn down after the filming was completed. For the Hobbit movies the construction was made to be more permanent. Bricks, wood beams, stone, and cement were used to build the Hobbiton that stands today. Great care was taken with all the details. Real pegs were used when nails painted to look like pegs would have sufficed. Real arcing branches, hewn into the visible beams for the tops of the Hobbit holes were used to increase the authenticity of the fronts of the holes. Each door was designed to be able to be opened so Hobbits could be seen going in and out or looking out from the doorways. Most of the Hobbit holes have very little interior space. There are 44 doorways and 48 chimneys but no fireplaces inside the mounds. Each day of shooting involved lighting and placing smoke pots inside the chimneys so each would be smoking for the camera.

A special item that Peter Jackson needed was an evergreen oak tree. There were none available in New Zealand of the size that he needed (all were deciduous) and he couldn’t get one from overseas, so he built one. The oak on top of Bag End Hill is fake. Each leaf on the tree was put on by university students on holiday. During the spring winds a lot of the leaves have been blown off, leaving the tree half bare. For any additional filming that may need to be done, new leaves will have to be made and put back on. Consequently, the leaves that are laying around Hobbiton that have come from the “oak” are available to take as souvenirs. Danny, our guide, said that each leaf probably cost the studio about ten dollars. (I don’t know if this is true or not.)

We had a great time walking around the Hobbit town, peering into windows, looking through doorways, squeezing into a Hobbit hole, and listening to which scenes were shot where, and how they arranged Gandalf’s arrival and the streets his wagon traversed. They were not connected, but shot at different locations around the set, but nevertheless, looked continuous in The Fellowship of the Ring. Both Cindy and I agreed, this was the best part of our trip to New Zealand and leaves us with a very positive impression of the time we spent here.

Coffee, Food and Drink in Australia

The first thing you might notice about food and drink here in Australia is the price. A 20 ounce bottle of Coke in the US is about $1.40 now plus tax. Here they are usually $3.50 to $4.00, tax included, for a bottle about the same size. (They measure in milli-litres here not ounces.) I love to get my sodas on tap at the fountains located in convenience stores. I haven’t found a store here that has one. Ice seems to be a rare commodity. McDonald’s has it, Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) has it but you don’t usually get a glass with ice in it when you go to a restaurant no matter the type of drink you buy.

When we buy breakfast out, like we did the other day in Bundaberg, I had pancakes and coffee and Cindy had chicken on a stick (don’t ask). Our cost was around $16.00 and that was about the cheapest breakfast we’ve had, except maybe for one at McDonalds. The normal price is over $25.00. We ate at our hotel restaurant last night, I had fried fish with a small salad, Cindy had chicken stir-fry. We had chilled water to drink (no charge) and our cost was $34.00. Again, one of the less expensive meals we’ve had for supper.

When you order water with your meal they serve it in a chilled wine bottle. It’s kind of cool, and it’s good tasting and refreshing. (But I still like my ice!)

The selection of soft drinks here is rather limited as well. So far, the only place I’ve found Dr. Pepper was in Bundaberg. ($2.75 a can.) Usually they only have Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Coke Zero, though some places, and grocery stores do have Pepsi. Their local soft drink is usually Ginger Beer. I haven’t tried one of those yet so I can’t comment on what it tastes like. (Tried one a couple of days ago and it's very much like ginger ale, though a little more tart.) They also usually carry various bottled ice teas and juices for around $4.00 a bottle. Don’t even ask for sweet tea like we’re used to in the South, they don’t have it.

We have enjoyed the food here, though it’s somewhat different. Lamb is more prevelant than in the US, and their steak, chicken, and pork are all very delicious. They have a variety of different kinds of salads and quite a variety of ingredients in the salad, but their dressings leave a lot to be desired by someone who is hooked on Ranch Dressing. As far as I’ve found, it doesn’t exist here. I’ve gotten blank stares when I’ve asked for it. What they do have is balsamic and French. They come in packets the same size as those containing ketchup. Not nearly enough for my liking. Their French is not the same as our French either. It’s basically a little oil and vinegar with a few flakes of parsley. Despite this, I like their salads because they have always been so fresh, but I don’t plan to change the dressing I use once I get home.

Cindy’s favorite food for breakfast is bacon. Australian bacon is more like thin strips of ham that are fried until they’re fairly crispy. It’s delicious. One thing that is the same here as at home are eggs. I guess there’s not too much you can do to change scrambled eggs, although they do try to say there's a difference in what they call their: free range eggs. Very similar as far as I'm concerned.

My last section here is about coffee. When traveling in the US, motels most always have brewed coffee in the rooms. Here they also provide coffee but it’s instant in little packets. Each room is equipped with a hot pot to heat water. (It only takes a couple of minutes to get it boiling.) The instant is Nescafe and it’s very bland and not too appealing. We’ve taken to using the tea bags they also provide in our rooms instead of coffee.

With the coffee fanaticism that seems to run amuck in Australia it surprises us what they provide in hotels. Coffee shops and cafes are everywhere: across the street from each other, in every block, and even side-by-side. Even every McDonald’s also has an extra sign on their pole that says: McCafe. They use Arabica coffee beans. Convenience stores don’t brew coffee and let you fix it the way you want it. They don’t even have hot coffee. To get a cup of hot coffee you have to go to a coffee shop and let them fix it the way you want it. Problem is, they can’t fix it the way we do in the US. They generally offer selections such as: flat white, black, half-black, expresso, etc. I’ve gotten quite used to drinking the flat white, and I order that when we go out for breakfast. However, when I ordered that in a shop in Bundaberg a couple of days ago, they didn’t know what I was talking about. I ended up ordering an expresso with milk, but it was so strong I could only finish half of it. Cindy has quit ordering coffee because she can’t get it the way she likes it. I wouldn’t say I’m suffering while drinking Australian coffee, but I do miss brewing a pot in the kitchen and using as much vanilla creamer as I want.

Next: Port Macquarie and the Koalas

Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11

From Bundaberg to the Great Barrier Reef

We stayed in the Best Western Motor Inn on Bourbong Street which was owned by Tom and Glenda Dunphy. They were very friendly and accommodating hosts and they helped us with whatever needs we had.

We spent three nights and two days in Bundy. (What the locals call the city.) We were unable to get a connection out to the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday, October 2 so we booked a flight to Lady Elliott Island for Wednesday.  This put us a day behind in our plans and we consequently lost our chance to visit the Australia Zoo. (Steve Irwin’s place near Beerwah) We’re not certain we could have gotten reservations to visit, at any rate, because this week is still spring holiday for school kids. (We just found out yesterday that one of the weeks we’ll be in New Zealand is a school holiday there! I don't know how we ended up hitting the holidays and the Australian Football League championship in Melbourne and the Rugby Championship when we were in Sydney, too!)

Tuesday we worked on laundry and other domestic things and took some time to walk around the downtown area of Bundaberg. Small shops abound mixed with churches, banks, Target, and a band-shell in the center of the street. (Much like Ballarat, although Bundy is 1500 miles north.) Many of the sidewalks and pedestrian crossings were paved with red brick which gave the downtown a quaint, retro look and appeal.

The weather in Bundy was much warmer than in Ballarat ,(being farther north) lows in the 60’s and highs in the 80’s, although it was rather windy during our stay. We experienced a little rain, mostly at night, but it wasn’t enough to put a damper on our activities.

Our host, Tom, arranged a trip for us on Wednesday, Oct. 3, to Lady Elliott Island when we thought we may have to trek further north to find an open time to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. Once again, because of the school holidays, most of the bookings were full. We met the plane at the Bundaberg airport at 8:30 in the morning and boarded the fourteen seat plane. The seats were the most comfortable we’d had up to now but the space between the rows was only about a foot. Very tight quarters in that size plane.

The flight was smooth and uneventful, the people we met on the plane were very friendly, mostly from Australia, but one couple was from the North Island of New Zealand. They recommended we take a  cruise on Doubtful Sound on the South Island but we haven’t taken the time to book it yet. (We will probably end up cruising Milford Sound instead because the connections to the cruise lines are easier from Queenstown where we'll be staying.) The landing was a little bumpy because we landed on a flattened coral runway. (First time I ever landed anywhere except on concrete or asphalt.) The runway reaches from once end of the island to the other and measures 600 meters.

Once we landed, we had a little orientation, got our lunch passes, and then I got my snorkeling gear and had a brief refresher lesson. (It’s been at least 40 years since I last went snorkeling.) At 10:45 we boarded a small, glass-bottom boat and headed out to the reef. (Which was easy since it surrounds the island.) After a short distance, they dropped the gate and the water seats and we donned our gear and dove in.

The experience was amazing! There were several deep chasms in the area we swam, but in some places the coral grew close enough to the surface that I could touch it. The coral at the south of the Reef is not as colorful as further north, being mostly different shades of brown, but it’s just as alive and harbors hundreds of different species of sea creatures. The main types of corals here are: branching, fan, plate, and brain. The fish I recognized were: parrot fish, trigger fish, reef fish, clown fish, grouper, and some of the fish that spend most of their time cleaning the manta rays that are common on this reef. These fish were iridescent blue and seemed to glow when rays of the sun shone on them. They were absolutely stunning! I didn’t get to see any manta rays (they’ve documented over 600 different individuals) but I did get to swim close to a green reef turtle for a minute. It’s not as large as a loggerhead but still measured about two feet long.

After the snorkeling, we  ate a tasty buffet lunch (seafood and lamb) and took some time exploring the island on our own before joining a tour which gave us some information about how the island was formed and some of the bird life that nests there at different times of the year. Normally, there are about 50,000 birds but during nesting season that can swell to 500,000! We couldn’t imagine the amount of noise that would cause. The birds that were there now were loud enough. Actually, our guide informed us that the bird poo, mixed with the eroded coral is what formed the island and is still responsible for helping it to expand in size.

Our adventure ended too soon, it seemed, and as we approached the plane to board for our return trip home, the pilot informed us he needed a new copilot. I volunteered, hesitantly, and climbed over the pilot’s seat to occupy the copilot’s seat. Believe me, I studied the controls intently, just in case the pilot keeled over and I had to assume control. (Thank God nothing like that happened because the pilot didn’t share any information with me.) The most exciting thing that happened on the way home, that I could see from the copilot’s seat, was that the fuel ran out of the left tank and we had to switch to the right. (I could have handled that myself, since I had located the switches in the ceiling between our seats earlier.) We landed safely, bade good-bye to our new friends and arrived back at our rooms after a brief taxi ride.

Next: Coffee, drinks, and food. 

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  Mark 11:25

Train trip from Sydney to Brisbane/Bundaberg

 This was a night trip of over twelve hours and was probably the most difficult one we'd made. For some reason our seats were double booked, although we booked them first, but we offered to change seats to make it easier. The woman who sat behind us had a baby who screamed until about midnight and the train car creaked and groaned like a ship’s mast in a tempest. We though certain as we pulled out of the station that they would stop the train and change cars, but they kept going. It made it all the way to Brisbane (most people here pronounce it: briz' - bun) where we changed trains after a four hour stopover. Not much else to tell about this part of the trip since it was dark outside.

(Beerwah is the stop to take to see Steve Irwin’s, Australian Zoo.)

Between Brisbane and Bundaberg rise the Glass House Mountains. Some are short peaks while others are upthrusts of rock that stand a few hundred feet above the land around them. They start near the coast around Landsborough (some miles north of Brisbane) and march inland for a number of miles. They were named by Captain Cook on his voyage to Australia.

There are a lot of man-made watering holes for cattle and sheep. Just about anywhere there is a hill, ravine, or gully they can dam up one end or dig out a hole and bank the downward side, a pond is created. Not only does it serve for watering stock, but the native animals can make use of the water supply, as well.

Gimpie, a city south of Bundaberg, used to be a fairly large gold mining area but now boasts of only one working mine. Most gold production now is near Ballarat or near the northwestern area of Australia.

Rain followed us up the coast. As we approached Gimpie North, the rain is falling steadily, which makes the locals on the train happy since they've had ten years of drought the last twelve years.

This same area also has fertile land that supports a number of cash crops: pineapples, macadamia nuts, apricots, sugar cane, and grapes. There are also plenty of beef cattle raised in this area, while rum is the major product of Bundaberg. A man in the seat next to us said we had to visit the distillery to get some free samples, but we never made it there. (Maybe next time.)

The land also has many forests of the normal variety of trees native to Australia that grow on the hills and valleys that predominate the land just inland from the coast. There is an invasive species called Bracken Fern that covers a good portion of the ground beneath the forests along the coast. We saw a few kookaburras and were told that kangaroos also were sometimes seen in this area.

Travel by train is second nature in Australia. All the major cities have underground trains and there are five or six lines that run across the country from city to city. In the east and southeast, the trains run daily, or up to several times daily, but in the west and central portions of the nation, they may run only once a week.

We saw two kangaroos hopping across a field after being scared up by the train about an hour and a half south of Bundy. (What a lot of the locals call Bundaberg.) There is a range of mountains or hills that stand between the train route north and the coast that is part of the Great Dividing Range.

South of Maryville (75 miles or so south of Bundaberg.) the soil is poor and there are huge, hard ant mounds. They occur around the country where similar conditions prevail. On some trees there are large black spheres bound around the trunks or branches. These are termites that will eventually kill the tree by eating it away from the inside.

Next Chapter: Bundaberg and the Great Barrier Reef

"But he who is greatest among  you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  Matthew 23:11-12

Melbourne, Victoria Australia

(I know I said that I was going to write this before the Ballarat blog, but we visited Melbourne more after returning from Ballarat than before. So here it is now.)

Melbourne is laid out in a grid pattern with the blocks a longer distance east to west than north to south. We stayed in a Rydges Hotel which they advertised as a bed-and-breakfast even though we had a room on the 19^th floor. The buffet breakfast was delicious, though: eggs, Aussie bacon, fresh baked bread and muffins, smoked turkey slices, and fresh fruit and of course, coffee. The central business district holds a wide variety of businesses, from local coffee shops (Australia has more of these than any other place I’ve ever seen.) clothing outlets, shoe stores, book shops, and 7-11 stores, to giant skyscrapers like the ANZ bank building. (ANZ = Australia New Zealand)

Arriving after dark on Wednesday evening made it difficult for us to locate the tram service that ran closest to our hotel and paying with one dollar coins (at $4.00 per ticket) on the vehicle was more stressful than it would have been during the day. Unfortunately, the information booth didn’t guide us to the free tram service which circles the central district in both directions. It stopped as close to our hotel as the regular tram. We left the following morning for Ballarat so the remainder of this blog took place three days later.)

The Melbourne Museum is located at the northeast corner of the central business district (CBD everywhere in Australia) and houses a virtual herd of dinosaur skeletons in the middle section of the ground floor. T-Rex, Apatasaurous, raptors, duck bill dinosaurs and others from eggs to juvenile to adults were assembled here. We also viewed exhibits containing insects, a living forest environment, the largest stuffed animal exhibit, with specimens from all over the world, I’ve ever seen, an exhibit about the human mind and one about the history of the Melbourne area.

We were on our way from the museum to visit a model Tudor village when the wind began gusting cold drafts and it started raining, so we caught the tram to get out of the weather. I don’t know if the village was life size or one created on a tabletop for display and now, we may never find out. (We actually met a woman on our trip to Lady Elliot Island (four days later) from Melbourne who told us it was a tabletop model and we made the right choice to get out of the rain.)

We rode the tram around to the other side of the CBD before we got off and spent a few minutes shopping at the Queen Victoria Marked on, of all places, Queen Street! It was rather like an enormous flea market all under one roof where we found all kinds of bargains on souvenirs to take back to the states. We finished our shopping back in the Southern Cross Train Station mall with a supper of pizza. We caught the evening XPT Train to Sydney and spent a nearly sleepless night, arriving in Sydney about 8:00 the next morning. (Our train to Bundaberg, Queensland didn't leave until 4:30 PM)

Next: From Sydney to Bundaberg.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.   Colossians 1:27