Lord of the Rings sites

It was almost inevitable--I went on a Lord of the Rings tour yesterday! A guide named Craig drove a big van full of diehards and newbies to see some of the trilogy's filming locations around Wellington. And yes (this is New Zealand, isn't it?), there was a break for afternoon tea.

The first location we visited was a trail on Mount Victoria, which bumps right up against the city center and might be one of the most popular local trails for a run or a walk. This spot was used for one of the earliest scenes of the trilogy, when the hobbits first venture out from the Shire. They flee a corn field and end up stumbling down a hill.  Look! The trees are the same!

At the bottom of the hill, the hobbits hear the shriek of the Ringwraiths for the first time. The Ringwraiths are villianous ghost kings, so the hobbits need to hide from them. If you look at my picture of the setting, you can see the U-shaped tree from the background of the scene. But the tree that they hid under in the movie was just a prop! Like most of the props built for the movie, it was made out of foam, and it was made huge so that four normal-sized men could sit under it and appear to be hobbit-sized.

Next we visited the road to Isengard. Gandalf first visits Isengard to consult with his then-buddy Saruman, who lives there in a tall, craggy tower. This scene was actually filmed at a frisbee golf course in suburban Wellington, and you can see that it looks pretty innocuous today. Peter Jackson was told to return all his sets to their pre-filming state after shooting was finished, so the little road that they built was torn up and taken away, and the grass was reseeded. As for that excellent medieval-looking archway, it's actually a tiny model filmed so that it looks life-size.

Here we are: Gandalf, and Saruman, and me, all hanging out on the same frisbee golf course.

A couple of battle scenes were filmed at a quarry. The sets for this scene (from the third movie, at Minas Tirith) were actually built out of foam into the quarry. 

Rivendell is where the elves live. It is by far the most beautiful place in Middle Earth. On real Earth, Rivendell is a regional park called Kaitoke, and it doesn't have soft lighting or waterfalls splashing over canyons. Those were all special effects.

When the movie was being filmed, full-size sets were built in the woods here. It is a very lovely picnic spot nowadays.

The regional park is ideal for camping and hiking. Our tour group had fun walking one of the swing bridges across the river.

The water there is crystal clear, and since it's Easter weekend, there were families all around taking advantage of the great swimming holes.

I enjoyed all the movie trivia, but I'm also thankful for the opportunity to see another beautiful corner of the globe!

Kiwi encounter

Having been told that I would never see a kiwi in the wild, I went to the Wellington Zoo yesterday to ensure that I would encounter these handsome creatures. Kiwis are nocturnal, so they are kept in a special "twilight" enclosure, which is completely dark except some eerie red lights. I managed to see the kiwis foraging for insects and bouncing around in the enclosure like wallabies, although it was apparent that they were sensitive to the noise of crying babies. Then I watched a zookeeper feeding Tahi, a kiwi who had lost one leg in a varmint trap at the edge of a farm. My camera performed even worse in the twilight than my eyes did:

But here's what a kiwi actually looks like:

This has to be one of the cutest animals ever! Kiwi feathers don't interlock like most bird feathers do, so they're actually kind of furry! Adorably, they have whiskers like cats so they can feel around at night. Also, their nostrils are all the way at the end of their beak, which is highly unusual for a bird. The zookeeper said that bird beak length is usually measured from the nostrils to the tip of the beak, so technically kiwis have the shortest beaks in the world. And they have incredibly tiny, basically vestigial, wings that we can't really see when we look at them.

After I saw the kiwis, I went to as many animal talks as I could. I ended up seeing the zookeepers feed and check up on the kakas (local parrots, which are mostly dark brown), the Sumatran tigers, the sun bears, and the Australian pelican. The sun bears were really fun:

I also got to see the vets doing surgery on a bird's feet. The Wellington Zoo has a great bird breeding and rehab program, which makes sense because NZ was once an island where birds were the only wildlife. 

For today's cuisine I have chosen some candy:

When I was at a cafe earlier this week, I saw that they had a gelato flavor called "hokey pokey". I had no idea what that could be, so when I saw a bag of hokey pokey at the convenience store, I had to get it. I think it's supposed to be a NZ thing, but it is almost identical to a confection from Western New York: sponge candy. This candy is basically a super-light, airy toffee (almost like a crunchy cotton candy), covered in chocolate. It tastes a little bit buttery and melts in your mouth. While it shares some similarities with malt balls, it is a thousand times more appealing than malt balls. Yet another thumbs up to the Kiwis.

First-Time Tramper

Today I adventured beyond the city center of Wellington for the first time. In New Zealand, the word "tramping" refers to hiking, and Kiwis seem to really enjoy tramping around! So I had to try it for myself. My guide for the day was Mike, a fellow American and the English horn player for the NZSO. We took just about every scenic route possible. Or maybe every route here is scenic?

The Wellington area is surrounded by rocky bays. The beaches have large, smooth stones instead of sand, and the water is very calm, even with the tides going in and out.

Amongst the rocks are hundreds of little tide pools. The ones that we explored housed all sorts of great marine flora, plus anemones and starfish.

We embarked on a proper walk at Makara. The beach there had an attractive assortment of driftwood and rock formations.

It was a pretty strenuous and steep hike up the mountain, but the views were almost otherworldly. The side of the mountain was so steep that it felt a little bit like being on the edge of a cliff. But the air was fresh and cool, and we could see all the way across the strait to the South Island.

To get to the top of the mountain we had to walk through a sheep farm. There were even some stair steps that had been built into the perimeter of the pasture for hikers to continue on their path. How strange is it that sheep can easily navigate the harsh terrain of mountain sides, but they don't know how to walk up and down the stairs to escape their life on the farm?

Reaching the top of the mountain was rewarding in itself, but we were also able to explore some WWII gun encampments up there. Even though NZ was never actually invaded during the war, the military kept soldiers on the lookout. The massive guns were mounted to the concrete supports in the middle of each encampment.

I have a lovely little sunburn now. I'm going to get some sunscreen from the drugstore ASAP--apparently the ozone layer over NZ is really messed up, and the sun burns extra bright here. What a landscape, though.

Bassooning in Welly

The last few days have been a little bit tedious compared to my first days here in Wellington. After our concert on Friday night (which was great fun and sounded pretty good, too!), I spent the weekend studying and practicing. I had an audition playing solos with the orchestra yesterday afternoon, so I wanted to make sure that I was properly prepared. 

Since my apartment is situated between the elevators and the laundry room on my floor, I've been pretty fearless practicing in the building. That said, I prefer to use a practice room when I can, so I've also been going to the orchestra offices for a session each day. In the hallway, which features office spaces divided by frosted glass with music notes on it, they have photos from notable performances in past seasons of the NZSO. It seems that in 1969 the orchestra performed some comedy pieces, including the one shown below. 

I read all the captions in case there was a great gag I could do with the Breaking Winds, but...I didn't find anything that would quite suit our group.

I am very lucky to be learning this repertoire with the NZSO--it's a special opportunity to play any music with a great orchestra, but the pieces that we're playing this month are some of the "greatest hits". The problem with that, though, is that while everyone knows the pieces well, I'm still too young and inexperienced to be familiar with the parts. So this is how I've been studying: I load the part on my Kindle, then I load videos of great orchestras playing the repertoire on Youtube and play along.  That way I can learn aurally when my entrances happen, and I can learn visually what a conductor's cues might look like. I can also practice matching style and intonation with various orchestras' wind sections--as long as they aren't German or Austrian! German orchestras play at a considerably sharper pitch level than American (and Kiwi) orchestras do, and the bassoon is a notoriously sharp instrument. The last thing in the world that I need is to get that sharp pitch orientation in my ear.

My dad asked me for more cuisine updates, and I intend to deliver. One kind of food that you can get on every block in central Wellington that I had never eaten before is Malaysian food. It has a delicious combination of East Asian and South Asian influences. So there are stir fries, noodles, and rice, but there are also lots of spices and curries. Last night I ordered a Malaysian dish on a whim for "takeaway" (to go). It ended up being an assortment of curries served over rice with garnishes of cucumber, spicy chili peanuts, and deep fried anchovies. I loved it. Way to go, Malaysia!

Out and about

I love going for walks here. It's just nice to spend time in the sun and to feel comfortable without wearing a coat. Yesterday I walked to the NZ parliament building (which looks like--and is called--the beehive), then I walked back along the water. I pretended I was visiting the waterfront restaurants with my family and friends, and I took this picture:

I've mentioned that the orchestra's publicity is awesome. Here's a vintage example. I have no idea who this contrabassoonist is (he must be long gone by now), but he was in my practice room making this inviting pose, so I had to take a picture. While the current contrabassoonist is a real character, and I'm happy to have met him, I sort of wish that I could play with this guy, too.

The concert is tonight. Three pieces by Ravel: La Valse, Piano Concerto in G, and Bolero, plus Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. We've rehearsed quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to performing and making it the real deal.

Settling In

The sun has come back out! There is just something so charming about a guy giving a weather report for an entire country all at once, the country being approximately the size and shape of his arm. The forecast says 66 degrees with varying levels of sunniness--every day for the next ten days. A dream come true, since it's apparently still snowing in Chicago.

There are ads for the upcoming concert posted all around the city. This city is extremely pedestrian friendly. In fact, portions of the street where I'm staying are closed to motor traffic. NZSO has a great marketing team--seriously, probably among the best in the world. Everyone who I talk to about it agrees.

Our first rehearsals were yesterday. This orchestra has double rehearsals--morning and afternoon, with a tea/coffee break in the middle of each rehearsal. The people here continue to strike me as highly laid-back and friendly. The orchestra members treat the job like a job, certainly, but they aren't really bothered by much. They seem to have good rapport, too, compared to American orchestras I've observed--maybe it's all the tea breaks. Rehearsal was tough this time around, but it will get better from here. After constantly focusing at peak concentration for five hours of rehearsal, all I could do was take a nap...then go to bed soon after.

The repertoire this week is great. This concert is considered a "special" because it's actually happening before the regular season subscription concerts. All the pieces are loud, brassy, and exciting. So rehearsals are fun, with people yelling "hey!" and rising from their seats at big cadences--doing the kinds of things that would get student orchestras in big trouble for being unprofessional. The loud repertoire also requires liberal use of my earplugs, since on the stage here the bassoons sit right in front of the trumpets. I wish I didn't have to use them so much so that I could get a better idea of what to listen for in the music, but I also don't want to go deaf.

What would a blog post be without a review of local cuisine? I went to the grocery store to stock up my apartment's fridge, and when I saw that there was, indeed, peanut butter in NZ, I had to get it. I had always been told that there is no peanut butter abroad, so this is a real triumph. The funny thing about peanut butter in NZ is that it is a gourmet item. There is even a website you can go to if you want to learn about the health benefits of peanut butter. And as you can see, this brand (there were only three brands available) won a NZ Food Award. Because it is so gourmet.

I am dying to get outside and take a big long walk, so that has to be it for now. I am already starting to have little homesick moments (I dreamed that I was at Northwestern last night), but for now there's still simply too much left to explore.

First Day in Wellington

Hey, those flights weren't so bad! The flight to LA seemed to stretch on forever: I was stuck in a middle seat for four and a half hours with only my Kindle for company. The flight to Auckland, though, was great! I spent seven of the twelve hours sleeping. For the other five, I had access to dozens of movies, shows, and video games, plus an endless rotation of meals, snacks, candy, and tea. The plane was so tall that I could stand up easily at my seat, and it didn't even have the classic nauseating airplane smell. I felt comfortable and was wide awake when we landed in NZ at 6:30am (although this is probably because my body wanted it to be mid-afternoon). My domestic flight to Wellington was just as pleasant, with a minimally invasive security check and a laid-back boarding procedure, in which people trickled into the plane on their own time about 20 minutes before the flight. I feel like these people don't stress about anything.

The studio where Lord of the Rings was filmed is in Wellington, so there are references to Middle Earth everywhere. This enormous Gollum is hanging in the Wellington airport, which is actually pretty small. The whole city is only slightly larger than Rochester, even though from my experience so far it seems to be just as busy as some neighborhoods in Chicago. Right now at 8 am, the traffic is nonstop outside my window. The phenomenon of people driving on the left side of the street has been confusing for me, from the time that I almost got into the cab driver's seat to the time that I felt like a reckless pedestrian for checking the wrong lanes before crossing the street.

My hotel didn't have an early check-in, so I spent the afternoon walking around the Central Business District of Wellington. This building is the concert hall where the NZSO concerts in Wellington will be performed. It's not the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but it's right on the waterfront.

Wellington is like San Francisco in many respects, including the wind and the rain. It's been drizzly ever since I arrived. This is a photo of the beautiful bay, which you can walk all around as a pedestrian and which is lined mostly with government and cultural buildings. The national museum is free, so I explored several of its exhibits yesterday. It shares many similarities with the Canadian national museum, which I visited last summer. The history of these two countries is strikingly different from America's, what with their relatively peaceful transitions in and out of British influence and their less violent, more conscientious acknowledgment of indigenous peoples. It makes the national museum kind of boring compared to America's, in a way--way less pomp over the founding documents, many more displays of fish hooks and adzes. The exhibits were presented in NZ's two official languages, English and Maori (the language of the Maori people, who themselves had immigrated here around the 16th century from other Pacific islands like Tonga and Fiji).

For lunch I went to a cafe at a food court and had mince pie. As I understand it, mince pie is just low-grade meat, chopped up with a light gravy and put into a pie crust. New Zealanders love pies. There are pies available everywhere, including fusion dishes at ethnic restaurants like "kebab pie" and "curry pie". This pie in particular had mashed potatoes instead of a top crust, and it came with a squeeze bottle of ketchup to squirt all over the potatoes, so I obliged. It tasted pretty good, if a little bit plain. I think this dish must be like the hot dog of New Zealand.

Good thing McDonald's is running its "Tastes of America" promotion in case I get homesick. The New York burger has mustard, onion, and pickles (um, hello? That is Chicago style!). The California sandwich has sweet chili sauce and summer mayo.  I don't know what summer mayo is, either. Ah yes, and the Texas burger, which looks especially unhealthy, has a "smoky Texas sauce" on it.  I'm pretty confident that smoky Texas sauce is barbeque sauce. So why call it Texas sauce? Is it because barbeque is the word for grill here, and the word would make people think of the taste of char? I don't know. I'm so mystified that I might actually have to order McDonald's!

Today I am moving into an apartment hotel, where I will be able to stay for two weeks. I also get to visit the offices of the orchestra--and maybe I'll find a practice room! I hope to purchase a hair dryer, too, although it's so humid here that my hair will probably be vaguely curly and messy no matter what I do.